Witches: Beliefs About Witchcraft in 16^th Century England

Jessica Wickstrom

Grades 5/6

The students will demonstrate their learning through the game and the art activity requiring them to give examples of what was discussed in the lecture.

Success will be tracked through the quality of characteristics described in the game and their art activity. The goal is for them to be able to successfully identify several items from the lecture.

What do I need to do prior to beginning my lesson?

-Gather witch costume supplies, dress up before lesson

-Gather paper for art activity

-Ensure powerpoint presentation is working

-Clear off chalkboard/whiteboard

-Gather dry erase markers/chalk

-Review outline, make sure you know how you will demonstrate the main points verbally

-Think of how you would respond to potential questions regarding murder/executions/religion. Preparation is key in this aspect.

How will I attract the attention of the students and make this learning worthwhile?

The class will begin with the teacher dressed up as a stereotypical witch. The beginning of the PowerPoint has a slide asking, “What makes me seem like a witch?” I encourage the teacher to show this slide and write the students’ responses onto the chalkboard/whiteboard. The teacher can then move onto the second slide and explain how many people once believed that witches were real, evil beings that harmed the people around them; but the beliefs about witches differed from place to place. The teacher can then move onto the following slides focusing in on England in the 16^th century.

How will I present the information they need to learn?

The information will be presented through a PowerPoint along with the teacher’s verbal explanations. The children will be encouraged to take notes during the presentation as they will need to retain the information for later activities. Note-taking will be a critical skill for their education moving on into the upper grades and high-school. During the presentation, the teacher will explain how the accusations against witches are now believed to be untrue, many of the accusations were made out of spite for someone or for personal gain. The goal of the lesson is to show people how lies can get out of control and how entire countries of people can be led to believe lies.  

How will the students demonstrate their learning?

Game: Split the children up into small groups. Choose one person in each group to be the witch (could draw straws or something along those lines). Everyone in the group must come up with a reason, based off of today’s lesson, for why this person is a witch. The witch in the group will come up with a reason to blame another person in the class for being a witch (which person to blame is assigned by the teacher). The children will be required to present in front of the class, being in small groups will alleviate some stress that they may have around presenting, but this is good practice for their public speaking skills. The final group’s witch will make an accusation against the teacher. This will demonstrate the characteristics they learned in class and how easily historical accusations led to more and more people being sent to trial. The teacher will explain how many people accused of being a witch were often forced to make accusations against someone else in their community, just like in the game.

Art Activity: The children will be asked to draw a picture demonstrating at least five characteristics of witches in 16^th century England. The teacher must emphasize that the characteristics must be based off of today’s lecture, and not based off of their previous knowledge about witches. The remaining time will be spent on this activity and the children may complete it as homework if extra time is needed.

How will I end the activity?

The art activity will be the final aspect of the lecture for the day. When it reaches the maximum time allotted for the lesson, the teacher can ask the students to clean up their artwork to move onto the next lesson. Students should be allowed extra time, either for homework or during another class, to finish their artwork if needed. 

How will I summarize the learning and affirm that the students understood?

Once the students have handed in their artwork, I encourage the teacher to display the artwork in the classroom and have each student describe the aspects of 16^th century English witchcraft shown in their drawing. The teacher can conclude the lesson by saying, “It is essential to learn about the past so we can avoid making the same mistakes. Historical beliefs about witches proves that even though most people may believe in something, that doesn’t make it true. It is important to have analytical minds and make our own decisions about what we believe.”