Analysis: Feudalism Faces Activity
Context
Looking back to the fall, an early example of a lesson where I asked students to experiment with taking on the perspective of an historical figure was in December in my 9th grade World History class. We were nearing the end of a unit on Feudalism, and I wanted my students to be able to distinguish between the perspectives of “nobles,” “knights,” and “peasants,” all of whom had a very different experience of the decline of feudalism in Europe. I borrowed a lesson idea from Teacher’s Curriculum Institute’s (TCI) History Alive! World Connections curriculum, that asked students to sketch faces and thought bubbles for each of the three perspectives, then choose one from which to write a first-person narrative about the effect of the bubonic plague on daily life. Instructions from my Lesson Plan for the second part of the assignment follow:
The basis of this lesson and the preceding two days was the idea that three factors led to the decline of feudalism and the rise of “democratic thought” in Medeival Europe: 1) political events; 2) the bubonic plague; 3) the Hundred Years’ War. Earlier that week, students had used a handout to organize their notes—they answered questions using the textbook, then use their answers to complete a graphic organizer on the same sheet. A seated gallery tour asked students to observe and analyze three images of paintings that showed images of “King John at Runnymede,” “An Outbreak of the Plague,” and the Battle of Crécy, each corresponding with one of the three threads indicated by the graphic organizer. The lesson was pretty book-heavy, but tied together students’ learning from the previous week’s lessons on European feudalism, in which I emphasized the concepts of “hierarchy” and “loyalty,” with the greater context of how/why feudalism didn’t persist. (See Artifact 6: Feudalism Hierarchies).
- Choose one of the characters to write about in more detail
- Write 1 page in the first person (using “I”) from the perspective of this person
- Describe the events (the Bubonic Plague) from the perspective of this person (Include thoughts, feelings, and observations)
- Explain how the event affected that person’s life
- Make a prediction about how the decline of feudalism will affect that person’s role in medeival society
- Check that your writing is free of misspellings and grammatical errors
The basis of this lesson and the preceding two days was the idea that three factors led to the decline of feudalism and the rise of “democratic thought” in Medeival Europe: 1) political events; 2) the bubonic plague; 3) the Hundred Years’ War. Earlier that week, students had used a handout to organize their notes—they answered questions using the textbook, then use their answers to complete a graphic organizer on the same sheet. A seated gallery tour asked students to observe and analyze three images of paintings that showed images of “King John at Runnymede,” “An Outbreak of the Plague,” and the Battle of Crécy, each corresponding with one of the three threads indicated by the graphic organizer. The lesson was pretty book-heavy, but tied together students’ learning from the previous week’s lessons on European feudalism, in which I emphasized the concepts of “hierarchy” and “loyalty,” with the greater context of how/why feudalism didn’t persist. (See Artifact 6: Feudalism Hierarchies).
AnalysisStudents’ work on this exercise demonstrates some basic strengths and weaknesses in my approach to teaching about “perspective” in history. I see evidence that most students were able and willing to use the first person to refer to a perspective other than their own, and most students were able to borrow facts and ideas from our previous classes to construct creative renderings of the perspective they chose. To support to my generalizations about students’ work, I created a basic coding scheme for this artifact that allows me to see the consistency of a set of criteria among the examples.
I coded both parts of the activity: the face sketches and thought bubbles, as well as the first-person narratives. My methodology for creating the coding scheme was first to read through all of the examples for first impressions; second was to re-read each example while making a list of details that stuck out to me, such as “Did this person maintain the first person throughout the entire assignment?”; “Did this person include facts we studied in class?”; “Did this person grant themselves some creative agency in weaving their narrative?” and “Did this person fulfill the assignment?” (listed above in “Context” section.) Next, I created a table of criteria that I thought I wanted to collect, and made a first pass through the samples. After one coding attempt, I revised my evaluative measure from a simple “0” and “1” for “incomplete” and “complete,” to a more specific “0,” “1,” and “2” for “none,” “some,” and “all.” In my final collection of data, shown below, many patterns stand out that I would not have noticed if I had only analyzed the examples individually. I must note that my attention in this analysis extends beyond the assessment criteria that I outlined in the assignment for students—my coding reflects both an interest in whether students understood and completed the assignment and a curiosity about what I can learn about students’ ability to reason in a first-person other than themselves. The latter is a focus that emerged from the data. KEY: None: 0; Some: 1; All: 2 The data shows me that students were able and willing to put themselves in the first person to explore historical perspectives on the decline of feudalism, but that the depth of their understanding of the topic was limited to the individual’s perspective, and did not explore systemic causes. In the data on the “Faces and Thought Bubbles,” almost all students work demonstrated a 2 for the criteria, but the data on the “Narratives” shows a decrease in application (if not understanding) as the criteria get more detailed. All students used the first person, all but one identified the perspective from which they were writing, and all but one constructed a first-person narrative that was true to the perspective they had identified. All students used facts from class that described the physical impact of the bubonic plague on individuals (“purplish black spots” shows up numerous times), and some students included additional details about medieval towns. However, only half the samples show evidence of an understanding of hierarchy in medieval society, although that had been a signficiant part of the previous week’s lessons. My inclusion of this criteria could be unfair, because I did not include the word “hierarchy” in the assignment for the written narrative, but its periodic absence struck me during my analysis. The most striking data is all but two students’ failure to “Make a prediction about how the decline of feudalism will affect that person’s role in medeival society,” which was an explicit part of the instructions for the assignment. Should I have exchanged “the decline of feudalism” for “the Bubonic Plague,” in this prompt? Did students have enough information from class to answer this question? All students focused on the physical impact of the plague, and the fear that it caused socially. But did they really understand why the plague contributed to the decline in Feudalism? Did their use of the first person limit their ability to think about systemic change?
My analysis raises more questions than it answers. Most significantly, this: How does examining history through the first person limit or not limit students’ ability to make sense of systemic forces? |
Connection to Inquiry
Examining this and other lesson in which I have asked students to use the first person to make sense of history reveals possible limitations to this pedagogical approach. Is it possible for students to use first person reasoning to explore systemic forces, or does a student’s reorientation to another perspective create “blinders,” which perhaps limit the student’s ability to see larger forces in play? The realization that the Feudalism Faces activity succeeded in its use of the first person but failed in its focus on the topic, “the decline of feudalism,” encourages me to push my inquiry question in the dimension of “Curriculum and Pedagogy.” Without the findings in this analysis, I could be leading students down a path of navel-gazing perspective-making, where they can identify and apply various perspectives in history but only on the scale of the individual. I must make sure that my students can also investigate history on the scale of groups, societies, nations, and other populations.
Albiet somewhat limited to the individual, the Feudalism Faces exercise does show students navigating a perspective that is not their own. I included a criterum in the data to evaluate whether students truly abandoned their own perspective when writing as a “noble,” “knight,” or “peasant.” Only 2 of 6 students showed no evidence of their own, presentist perspective in their rendition of the other’s (past) perspective. Evidence from other artifacts, such as the 6 word memoirs, demonstrates that it is possible for students to escape the presentism of their own perspectives, but perhaps more successfully in the context of a lesson that has a stronger hook. In my 9th grade World History class, in particular, it is a challenge to conduct non-written activities that employ first person reasoning, such as dramatic enactments or deliberative discussions, due to classroom management issues. But ideally, exercises such as Feudalism Faces would lead to greater student confidence when preparing for a role play. My goal is for students to be able to identify their own perspective, in the present, as well as identify facets of a past person’s perspective, living under a certain set of circumstances. As I continue to pursue the question, “What happens to students' concepts of "perspective" in history when they use first-person reasoning in historical analysis?" I will challenge myself to make sure that the assignments I design require students to explore perspectives on systemic issues as well as the individual. As I continue to teach, I continue to learn my own intentions. |