Title: Knights King & Castles
Content provider’s information
Content provider
Cleveland Museum of Art
Contact info
DIANE CIZEK
dcizek@clevelandart.org
tel: 216-707-2468
fax: 216-707-6679
http://www.clevelandart.org/learn/distance%20learning/elementary.aspx
Language of Presentation
English only
Target Audience
Grades 2-5
Duration/ Length of VC
1h
session
Cost
135$
Provider Broadcast over
IP
Pre conference kit offered
Yes
Curriculum info
Subject Areas
Language
Broad Areas of Learning
Cross Curricular
Subject Specific Competency
Languages
Social Sciences
English
Citizenship and community life
Uses information
Uses creativity
Cooperates with other
Communicates appropriately
Talk: uses language/talks to
communicate and learn
Production: represents his/her
literacy in different media
Readings: reads and listens to
written, spoken, and media
texts
Description of the Program: (from the website)
Knights in shining armor, legendary queens, towering castles, and fantastic beasts populate the pages of
fairy tales and capture our imagination. But where does the fantasy merge with fact? In this program,
students are introduced to noble life in the Middle Ages through arms, armor, and courtly and religious
objects in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. They observe, comment on what they see,
question, and draw conclusions about the role of castles, knights, and kings in medieval society.
PROGRAM FORMAT
 General definition on the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
 Introduce art and artifacts owned by aristocrats, such as an illuminated manuscript, a table fountain, and
a tapestry.
 Discuss knights, types of armor, and weapons for sport and battle.
 Answer remaining questions and review vocabulary.
OBJECTIVES
 Students will understand the role of a knight in the social structure of Medieval and Renaissance Europe.
 Students will understand the distinction between the historical role of a knight and the mythical role.
 Students will understand that a noble’s arms, armor and castle served more than a military function.
 Students will understand how art objects can define individuals or social groups.
Activities:
Prior to the conference:
The teacher used the documents sent by the content provider as well as her own material. They
looked at medieval art and used a simple writing template to do a written response to media. They
researched castles, dragons, and medieval life through books and the Internet and read related
fiction books. They drew their own shield and weapon and used a simple writing template to
describe them. They had discussion about medieval life represented in video games and movies. For
enrichment, students collected vocabulary, settings, characters and actions and illustrated them on
large cards to create a game in which students can draw cards from a caldron and put them together
into a story for role playing.
The simple writing templates were successful as they helped the students with difficulties to produce
descriptive writing, while the more advanced students were building vocabulary. Even more
descriptive writing opportunities should be done before the VC.
During the conference:
The students had to orally respond to art and artefacts. Strange artefacts were the most successful.
The teacher would recommend spending less time in each item.
Post-conference:
There was no post conference material offered by the content provider. Students used what they
had learnt in the creation of a medieval setting for their characters through writing and drawing.
The students evaluated the conference through oral discussion. They enjoyed the conference and
learned from it.
Appreciation and Comments:
The conference fit the curriculum by developing the students’ questioning and inference skills and
gave them a visual reference for some of their readings. It also provided ideas for writing. The
teacher commented that the activities were suitable for a much higher grade level and too much
time was spent on looking at small details on paintings and artefacts. She would suggest seeing more
paintings of castles, battles or knights and spending less time on paintings and tapestries. Instead,
spending more time in the hall of armour discussing knights, armour and weapons would be more
fun for the students, as seeing the weapons was the highlight.
The conference was requested to tie in with a unit on castles that the group is working on. As part of
their class work, the students are building model castles which will be displayed in the school and
creating a medieval character and setting for story writing.
As a follow-up to this unit, the class at LES held a VC with another class in Grenville Elementary who
was working on a similar project. The students were able to present their models and view other
students work!
CLC info
Email
Name of CLC
Principal
Coordinator
Teacher(s) hosting event
Number of Participants
Grade
Date and Time of Event
tiforeman@swlaurier.qc.ca
CLC Lachute
Josée Côté
Tim Foreman
Anna Foreman
26
February 22, 2011 11:00