Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mr. Cooper and welcome to our first lesson on the inquiry, how dark was the dark ages.

So I will be your teacher for the next six lessons.

So what you need to have ready for the start lesson is a pen, a piece of paper and a ruler, so off you go.

So what I'd like you to do first of all, and this is something I will ask you to do at the start of all of your lessons is to write the date, up to whatever day it is you're doing and lesson and the title, and to underline both, because it's very important that we keep our notes and our books tidy.

So if you could pause the video, just want you do that and then restart when you're ready, that would be fantastic.

So, first slide, I'm going to talk you through.

On the screen, we have a map of something called the Roman Empire, the Roman Empire was a huge, huge Empire that stretched all the way from Spain and Britain right down to Egypt.

It started it's life, or it began in the town or the city of Rome, hence it being called the Roman Empire.

The city of Rome gradually became more and more powerful spreading its power all over the area that is currently shaded red, including Britain.

It was the Northern most part of the Roman Empire called Britannia.

And for 700 years, Britain was part of the Roman Empire.

So we'll be talking about what life was like during this period.

And then what happened when the Romans left, and why they left.

Before we do this, I just want to give you an idea of the period of time that we're talking about.

So we have the present day 2020 is the year we're currently in on the far right, And then we're going to be talking about Roman Britain, the pink line there, a long time ago.

So we're talking over over 1,500 years ago.

And we're then going to be talking about the start of the part, the period in purple Anglo-Saxon Britain, and then continuing the rest of our lessons right up to 1066, the Battle of Hastings.

So this is the period that we're talking about now, and we'll be answering this question is big inquiry question.

How dark were the Dark ages? Dark, because there's a lot We don't know about what happened, and so as historians, which is what we're learning how to be, we have to work out how to build a picture of the past with what has survived.

And just zooming in here, We see Roman Britain starting from the middle or so, the first century, all the way until the about 410AD.

And there's a gap between the pink and the purple lines, because there's a period of time when we just don't know exactly what happened.

And this is why we can talk about the Dark ages as dark, because not much has survived.

We rely on the work of a group of people called archaeologists.

And you'll be reading about this shortly, to help us understand what happened.

Now, one thing that has survived from the time that Britain was part the Roman Empire, is this.

It is what looks like quite a dirty swimming pool, probably wasn't this colour 2000 years ago or so, when it was built.

It was a bath, a public bath, and believe it or not, you can find it today in the town of bath, yes, bath is called bath because of the bath.

So what you would have found there would have been lots of Romans, Roman citizens, important Romans, going there to hang out, to have a chat, set in this to just relax.

And this is one thing that you would have found all over the Roman Empire in Egypt, in Rome itself, North Africa, Spain.

Bath were big parts of Roman life, Roman civilization.

This is a word that will be coming across as well.

Now I'd like you to see if you just pause here, I'd like you to see if you can spot where the Roman bobs are, in this town.

This is a reconstruction of a town, it's not a particular town.

It's just generally what Roman towns often looked like.

So see if you can pause the video, and restart the video when you've done so.

There it is.

So the Roman bars were right in the centre of these towns.

And you'll notice also that the towns have very well organised, straight roads, buildings made out of stone with roofs.

You might even see an amp, something called an amphitheatre in the top left of the screen.

This is where gladiators would have fought.

You would have found these towns all over Rome in Britain, all over the Roman Empire.

And when the Romans left, these towns were abandoned.

Nobody lived in them anymore, they were left to fall apart.

And this is what we'll be learning about later in the lesson.

Another thing was a big part of Roman life, where these things, so you see I've zoomed into a little house in the top right hand corner there.

And this particular, this, this is called a villa.

Now a villa is basically like a country palace, where wealthy Roman would have lived.

This is a reconstruction of a villa that was found at Chatsworth, and it was archaeologists, who dug up the ruins and found the remains and found the remains of what was a very big Roman Villa.

And at this Villa, this was found, a mosaic.

Now mosaics are beautiful pictures made out of small stones, often are animals or gods and goddesses and beautiful patterns.

This would have probably been in the living room of the Villa.

Now to make this, you would have had to have been very rich, and you would have had to be able to do it without being worried about being attacked.

Roman Britain had become wealthy, and also quite peaceful.

So there have been lots of fighting before the Romans arrived.

The Romans arrived, of course there was fighting then, but then for several hundred years there was peace in Britain.

And this kind of thing has been dug up all over Britain by archaeologists.

So what I'd like you to do now is to pause here, and fill in the gaps, using the words in the box below.

You'll see the word Archaeologists that I've said a few times already, careful with the spelling, A E O this is very important.

So have a go now.

Can fill in these gaps and restart the video when you're done.

And here we go.

These are the correct words in the correct places.

So Britain was part of the Roman Empire for around 400 years.

Archaeologists spelled A E O, have found many Roman ruins and coins, which tell us the many parts of Britain were civilised.

There were towns and villas all over Southern Britain.

Many people ate well and lived in houses, made of stone.

So that is the correct paragraph that I hope that you should have for some dinosaur books, your notes, when you've done that you will move on to the next part of the lesson.

So now we're going to talk about this hill, Cadbury Hill, nothing to do with the chocolate.

Cadbury Hill was used as a hillfort, before the Romans arrive, so thinking about the timeline.

The Romans arrived in the first century, and before that, lots of people lived in Britain, there were people living in Britain when the Romans arrived, but they were fighting each other a lot.

So it was a violent place, it wasn't very peaceful.

And therefore places like Cadbury Hill where, people lived on top of them, because it was a good place to be.

You could see your enemies coming from far away and you could protect yourself much more easily.

When Britain was part of the Roman Empire, it wasn't used.

Now, this is because there was peace, in Britain during the Roman era, when it was part of the Roman Empire.

So people didn't need to live on top of these, these hills, what happened? Well, when the Romans left, people moved back in, and we know this, because archaeologists have spent a lot of time digging up the top of this hill and they found evidence.

They found the remains of human activity from before the Romans arrived, and after the Romans arrived.

Now, what does this tell us, well, why is this the case? And this is the question that I will now be coming to.

Why was it the people moved back onto this hill? Well, the answer is linked to this map, this map tells us a lot.

And we're going to talk a little bit about this map now to help you understand what all these different colours are, what these areas are.

So, this was the situation, end of Roman Britain, Roman Britain was being attacked on all sides by barbarians.

Barbarians were people who lived beyond the boundaries of the Empire, who wanted to live in the Empire, because it was a nice place to be.

Roman armies, they had been fighting back.

So for hundreds of years, there've been Roman armies all around Britain, all around the empire, in fact, protecting the borders to stop these barbarians coming in, in Britain, however, this started to be very difficult.

And the reason for this was that the emperor in Rome was facing similar attacks elsewhere.

So think of that map that I showed you with the Roman Empire attacks on all sides, and therefore, the emperor had to make a decision about which parts of the Empire he wanted to defend.

Unfortunately, for Britain, Britain was not a priority for the Roman emperor.

And that is why when the emperor ordered his armies to leave, suddenly, the barbarian groups who had been attacking for a long time were able to cause a lot more damage and a lot more destruction than they were had beforehand.

So we see very quickly, all of these towns and these beautiful villas that had been lived in for many, many years, suddenly were left, they were abandoned, and people suddenly, they decided that they needed to be able to protect themselves.

So they moved to the top of Hills, they moved out of these towns, and these towns and villas were left to fall apart.

And again, archaeologists have shown that this was happening all over in Britain at this time.

So what I'd like you to do now, based on what I've just told you.

See if you can work out the answer to these questions.

So pause here, answer these three questions.

What do you think the white and yellow spots are? What do you think the arrows represent and why are they different colours? So pause it, restart when you're ready.

And here we go.

So the answers to this these questions are, the spots represent Roman towns and villas, archaeologists have dug up and wherever you see a spot there's been evidence of Roman towns and villas, you'll notice that they're focus in the South and the East of the country.

So this was the area where the Romans settled.

The arrows show the direction groups, groups of barbarians were travelling in.

So you can see that they were coming from islands, from what we now call Scotland, and then from across the sea and the East.

And the colours represent different groups of barbarians.

So we have the Irish, we have the Pictish, we have the Saxons and we have the Scotty, which is what the name as Scotland eventually comes from.

Now, what we're going to do now, is if you'll be doing this in all of your lessons, very simple.

You're going to pause the video in a moment.

You're going to go to the next part of the lesson by clicking next in the bottom right hand corner of your screen.

You're going to read through the slides.

And then you're going to answer these five questions at the end of the slides in full sentences, very important to be written in full sentences.

When you've done that, you're then going to come back to this video and I will go through the answers with you together.

Say, pause the video, read the slides and answer the questions and then resume once you're finished.

So first question, now the answers on the screen might not be what you have put, do not worry, that is absolutely fine.

This is just a guide to give you an idea of what I would like to see.

So first question, why did a group of important people in Britain sends a letter to the emperor? Acceptable answer.

They wanted help.

Good answer.

In 410AD, Britain was being attacked by barbarians.

The people who sent the letter to the emperor were asking for military support.

So the good answer is, good because it's getting in more information and it's in full sentences.

Two, what is the name of a person who digs up the ground looking for the remains of human activity? Acceptable answer, an archaeologists spelled A E O, correct spelling there.

The good answer is, a full sentence reusing the words of the question, the name of person who digs up the ground, looking for the remains of human activity is an audiologist Three, hat has been found in the ground that tells us about life in Roman Britain? Acceptable answer, coins and ruins.

Good answer.

Archaeologists found ruins of buildings like temple and bars, mosaics, and coins that tell us a lot about what life was like in Roman Britain.

So again, more information in the good answer and a full sentence in the good answer.

Four, where do people live after the Romans abandoned Britain? Acceptable answer, the countryside.

Good answer.

After the Rome was abandoned Britain, people stopped living in towns and moved to small villages sometimes on the top of hills.

So again, the good answer is a full sentence, reusing the words of the question and giving me a little bit more information about the acceptable answer.

And last one, how do we know that some people live well in Roman Britain? Acceptable answer, they ate good food.

The good answer, archaeologists have found evidence of the kind of lifestyle that many people in Roman Britain led.

They found products that were imported or brought from abroad, and buildings that had underfloor heating.

So again, the good answer, full sentences, a little bit information, and very importantly, we're talking about the work that archaeologists.

So historians tend to focus on things that are written down.

Archaeologists tend to look at the remains of human activity that's been left in the ground.

So the two different, the two different approaches to reconstructing the past.

So the last part of the lesson, please write this question down.

How did life change for people after the Roman Empire abandoned Britain? So write this down into your books or your sheets.

And then when you've done that restart, and then we will work out how to write this question together, this answer together.

So first thing I'd like to do, two columns on your sheets.

One saying Before the Roman Empire abandoned Britain, the other saying After the Roman Empire abandoned Britain.

And what I'd like you to do is write down, three things about life before and life after, I've done the first, the first one.

So people lived in towns before the Roman Empire and in Britain, and then this, after the Roman Empire abandoned Britain, people started living in villages.

So fill in, see if you can work out two for each column.

Don't worry if you find it tricky, that's absolutely fine.

Restart the video when you've got a few ideas down.

And here we go, make sure you have all of these in your columns.

If you've got the correct ones already, fantastic.

If not, add them to your list because these bits of information, that's bit, these bits of knowledge we're going to use in our writing in a short while.

So the question, how did life change for people after the Roman Empire abandoned Britain? Three parts to answering this, I have done the same kind of thing with my A-level students.

So do not worry if you find this difficult, it is all about practising and getting better and better as we practise.

So this is probably, maybe one of the first times you've done this.

Absolutely fine.

So, I'm going to tell you exactly how you make this a perfect answer, perfect paragraph.

First part, a clear first sentence that answers the question.

I have suggested this, as the first sentence, you can write something else if you have a different way of putting it.

But what this first sentence is going to do, is make it very clear that, I know the answer to the question.

After the Roman Empire abandoned Britain, life became harder, more dangerous, more violent.

So I've put different options there, so you could pick one or you could pick all three.

So having done that first sentence, you then need to give some examples to prove that what you've said in your first sentence is correct.

So in our columns, we have loads of different examples of how life changed, how life became harder.

So one example of it becoming harder, more dangerous, more violent was, another example, of life becoming harder, more dangerous, more violent it was.

So we have these different ways, different examples that we can then put into a paragraph.

And then the last sentence, very simple, simply bring it all together.

So overall Britain became what? Now in your books on your sheets, you're going to have one paragraph of solid text, it's not going to be broken up the way it is on the screen.

This is just to help you work out the different parts of writing this paragraph.

So now have a go, don't spend more than five or 10 minutes on this, max, and this is all about practising , bringing together all the information that you've learned in this lesson.

So pause now, and then restart when you're done.

And that brings us to the last slide.

So, normally I love saying this, work that's been produced by my students, obviously that's not possible because of the current situation.

Therefore, if you'd like to, you can ask your parent or your carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

This is optional, don't worry if you don't want to, I would just love to see the kind of work that you're producing.

And that brings us to the end of our lesson.

So I hope you found that an interesting lesson, and just as always, there is a short quiz for you to complete, just to make sure that the bits of knowledge that we've learned in this lesson is stuck in your head, which is the goal, of course.

And I hope you have a lovely day wherever you are.

And I will see you for the next lesson.