This web resource has been designed to support the teaching of the KS3 History unit 'Britain 1066-1500'.

The activity is designed to encourage pupils to challenge a stereotype about the Middle Ages - that women did not do anything interesting. It focuses on pupils using a range of evidence - textual and visual - to support or deny their views.

Pupils read and discuss eight statements about aspects of the lives of women in the Middle Ages and decide whether they think they are true or false, marking the appropriate column in the on-screen table. They should then print the table for reference.

They then examine 14 sources which contain evidence about women's lives. Each source has accompanying background information and a note on its provenance. There is one audio source which is a reading of a text in modern English. Pupils evaluate the sources in the light of the statements they have already read.

Pupils then review the evidence and decide afresh whether the original statements are true or false; they justify their decisions with comments to show which sources they found useful in reaching their conclusion.

There is a downloadable writing frame for this second stage of the activity.