Teaching Teenagers about the Magna Carta
I teach a World History class to high school freshmen with learning disabilities. This week, we discussed the Magna Carta. Although this document is arguably one of the most important in history, teenagers don’t seem to be naturally excited about it. In order to overcome this lack of interest, I try to find interesting ways to start the conversation. Before I explain my methods, here’s a quick overview of the Magna Carta.
The Magna Carta was a document signed by King John of England. King John was incredibly unpopular during his reign which lasted from 1199 to 1216 AD. Not only did he fight and lose two wars against the French, John raised taxes on the rich to pay for these wars (oddly enough this didn’t go over very big with the nobles).
Perhaps even more damning was the fact that for a five year period, many of the citizens thought they too would be damned… TO HELL! Due to a quarrel with the Catholic Pope, church services were banned in England from 1208 to 1213. Without the inability to fulfill their Catholic duty of attended church, many people thought they would be doomed to Hell after their deaths.
Losing wars, raising taxes and damming your citizens to Hell, don’t normally have very positive results for a ruler.
In this case the consequence for King John’s actions was that in 1215 AD, he was forced to sign the Magna Carta.
By signing the document, the king had agreed to have his powers limited. This was a very radical idea at this time. This change meant that now even Kings had to follow the law. Although this really only directly affected the wealthy citizens in England, it was at least a step in the direction of limiting a government’s power.
Specifically, The Magna Carta said:
1. The King could not imprison nobles without trial
2. These trials must be in public
3. There needed to be fair taxation for the nobles
4. Freemen were allowed to travel wherever they like
5. The King could not interfere in Church matters
6. The King could not seize crops without paying for them
I find this all quite fascinating…. But I’m not a 15 year old who is addicted to snapchat. In order to catch my students’ attention and start the discussion of this important document, I use two sources.
If Only I could get Morgan Freeman to read to my students. It’s impossible to ignore him.
First I read them “Bad King John”, a poem written in 1940 by Eleanor Farjeon. How can a poem excite these kids? First of all, it’s a short and quick poem. Second, it’s novel. We don’t read poems every day in history class. Anything unique automatically has a better shot of gaining the students’ attention. Finally, I read it with a ton of passion and even shout in it a few times. They laugh at me… but only if they are paying attention enough to understand when it’s funny.
Next, I show them this clip from the British television show “Horrible Histories”. This show is simply amazing! I use quite a few clips from this show throughout the year.
I have created materials that accompany both of these sources (please see below). For the poem I use standard comprehension questions. For the video I use something I call an “anticipation guide”. This guide consists of a series of true/false questions I have the students attempt to answer *before* they watch the video. Then, as they watch, the students confirm or correct their answers. I find that this keeps them engaged and causes them to focus on the most important parts of the video.
After completing these two activities, the real learning (and fun… for me) begins. This is when we engage in a discussion of how this step toward limiting government affects the world today. I am always amazed by the connections my students make.
Bad King John Anticipation Guide
Was King John well liked?
What didn’t John care about?
What did the Barons bring to Runnymede?
What was the Charter supposed to correct?
What did the Barons want John to do?
How did John feel about signing The Magna Carta?
What did the Barons do?
King John Horrible Histories Video T/F
Please mark “T” if the statement is true.
Please mark “F” if the statement is false. Then change the statement to be true.
- These events took place in 1190 AD.
- John was very unpopular when he was a prince.
- John became king because his father was killed in the Battle of Hasting.
- King John assassinated Duke Arthur because he claimed to be the rightful heir to the throne.
- King John appointed the Archbishop that the Pope told him to.
- The Welsch rebelled and supported the Pope.
- King John lowered taxes.
- The Barons threatened King John and made him sign The Bill of Rights.
- The Magna Carta gave the King More power.
- Prince Louis of France invaded England.
- King John bravely stayed to fight Prince Louis.
i realy liked it, so educational and interesting
I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for reading!
UV and RS for you! This is a great overview of it and how you tackle it in today's limited / attention deficit economy. So to speak.
I think politicians need your Magna Carta lessons and overviews!!
Oh and you may want to fix this one minor sp. issue here ----
Please mark “T” if the statement is ture.
Keep up the good work!!!!
Great catch! Thanks!
As a foundational document, the magna carta is important. But the magna carta was really more about dividing power and authority between the papacy, the nobility and the king. The meaning we assign it today is more about how those concepts of legally circumscribed authority were applied in the 17th and 18th centuries than what it meant at the time.
To me, if youre talking about the English underpinnings of the Bill of RIghts, the Petition of Rights, Charles II, the English Civil War, and the rise of Cromwell is the far more interesting narrative. Partially because its more historically relevant, but mainly because its way sexier. Wars (3 of them!) dictators, the Lord Protector, genocide. The Star Chamber. I mean seriously The Lord Protector came and saved them all from the Star Chamber--where else in world history (let alone english history) do you get anything that cool.
Great advice! I am actually pretty close to your ideas (as close as you can be in a world history class taught in the U.S.). I actually hit on the English Bill of Rights and Petition of Right a little later in the year. I also briefly cover the English Civil War. I often wish that I could teach this class over the span of two years... I have to "yada yada yada" over so much cool stuff.
I think we need a Magna Carta for today's government as well. They are progressively getting more powerful.
I don't know if this is correct or not but in several countries, surveillance on the public is becoming legal now?
Anyways, the very word 'government' is encouraging fear among the people in all parts of the country. A magna carta would be really welcome!
The US has the Constitution, which basically accomplishes the same thing in detail. Well, it ostensibly does, but has been ignored in part by most US regimes over the past century. It's still a pretty cool document though. :)
Governments getting progressively more powerful seems to be the cycle. The key I'd like to see is a way to break the cycle. That might be wishful thinking, but I can dream...
What we need is a digital - such as a blockchain based - Magna Carta and a form of "government" (organized rule of moral law) based on volountary cooperatives in a decentralized network.
This setup, when combined with a greater focus on productivity and contracts rather than stale conservation through use of the classic iron fist, would enable a better and stateless society without creating any form of power vacuum for opressive powers to creep back in.
(See "Cooperative Agorism" and organized "CoAgs", which could be considered the Capitalist/"left-right" neutral alternative to Syndicalism/traditional socialist Anarchism)
You are right... but I think many leaders need to be reminded of what we already have in place (and many citizens as well). Thanks for telling me about the typo!
I would do a roleplay exercise in-class. Make one student (or yourself) the king. Allow that person to sit wherever, talk at any time, use peoples pencils/paper, order people about, throw tantrums, make everyone stand/sit on command. Do it for 10 minutes.
Then hold a revolt. Have the students write up a class Magna Carta limiting the powers of the king.
Then they will know the power of the people...
It's interesting that you mention this. I do a little acting when I get to the causes of revolution. Thanks for the suggestion! I might give this a whirl next year.
Let me know how it turns out if you do. I would recommend you be the 'king' at first. A real tyrant! Take their supplies, make them move seats, stand-up/sit-down at various times, make them stand in a corner for no given reason as punishment, have them huddle near a desk while you enjoy your classroom land. Could be fun to see what they put in their Magna Carta when the revolt begins.
I used to teach special needs kids also, and this is an awesome approach.
Well done!
Thanks! I really do have great kids.
I have a joke that will make it easy to remember when Magna Carta was signed.
"Joe and Betty from Boise, Idaho are visiting Runnymede where Magna Carta was signed. Betty says to Joe "Magna Carta signing - 1215". "Shucks", says Joe looking at his watch "Just missed it. It is now 1225".
Each time I drove past the old yew tree in Runnymede on my way to work in Windsor I would remember 1215.
I was showing my girlfriend around the West Country of England. We were on our way to Kingston, Herefordshire to visit where her family comes from and popped into Worcester. I love wandering around churches, so we went into Worcester Cathedral. I was surprised to find the grave of King John in the crypt there. I never knew.
As a student of English Constitutional History (I studied English law as part of my South African law degree), Magana Carta is a big part of what I was learning about then.
Runnymede, the joke and Worcester Cathedral was how my pieces came together for my remembering all about King John.
That's awesome! I love using memory tricks to helps kids remember things. Thanks for the tip! that's cool how you stumbled on the grave.
Love history, especially my own country's England - we have so much and its so interesting, especially Medeival history.
The orginal charter only lasted a matter of months as the Pope annuled it - it was resurected 4 times by 2 different Kings and finally came into Statute in 1297 under Edward 1- this time in history is fasinating as a lot of the laws and statutes pass them have evolved in to Common Law and still stand today.
Something that I found very similar is the complaints that lead to the Magna Carta were not dissimilar from those that prompted the American Revolution.!
Horrible Histories are great - my girls loved them and the books, learnt so much from them - your class should love these , lots of info but in a fun way .
great post
Worst. King. Ever.
(movie fans will recognize him as bad guy from braveheart, but he also tossed my ancestors out of england)
... if I had two years, I'd show a slightly edited version of that movie (my kids are only 15). I know it has been put through the Hollywood spin machine, but it is an awesome example of revolution. Plus it has a line similar to Spartacus "I know you can fight... He has courage; so does a dog"
so right there- but boy what an interesting time in History -
Thank you for the added info! I love hearing the perspective of the people from the areas we study in my world history. I'm in the U.S. so even though it's "world history" the class clearly has a U.S. bias.
thankyou - I don't know American history so well, very little to be honest. We tend to teach English ( obvs) and European this side of the pond - American history is touched on a little. I ought to go read up a bit more to be more informed. Love all history really- hope your class appreciated your efforts:)
Good stuff. I do enjoy reading your teaching materials and how you approach it.
Thanks! I have some great kids. I rely a lot on "edutainment" in order to help them to become more critical thinkers. I'll do anything to trick them into using their brains to think fro themesleves.
Thanks for the history refresher, sir!
My pleasure!