About this unit

Expectations

Resources

This unit centres on the person of Alexander the Great.

While the landmark events of his life are an essential component of the unit, the main focus is the study of two deliberately contrasting historical interpretations of Alexander, that of a film maker and an historian. The unit creates opportunities to analyse two examples of these types of interpretation in some depth, also exploring reasons for their differences.

This unit was originally taught in a normal day of school time, but could also be taught across a sequence of lessons. There is scope to adjust some of the teaching activities to take account of time constraints in different schools.

At the end of this unit:

Most pupils will have: shown some knowledge of the events of Alexander the Great’s life, deploying and justifying various definitions of the terms “great” and “greatness” in the context of his achievements; shown understanding that different evidence and evidential information can be used to create historical interpretations of Alexander; written about Alexander from an assumed, single viewpoint; analysed contrasting interpretations of Alexander taking into account their purpose and audience; selected, organised and deployed information to produce a structured account, explaining some reasons for the differences between two contrasting interpretations of Alexander.

Some pupils will not have made so much progress and will have: shown some knowledge of the events of Alexander the Greats’ life, deploying some definitions of the terms “great” and “greatness” by reference to his life; shown that evidence and evidential information can be used to support an historical interpretation of Alexander; written about Alexander in general terms; identified differences between contrasting interpretations of Alexander; produced some writing which suggest reasons for these differences in simple terms.

Some pupils will have progressed further and will have: shown knowledge of the events of Alexander the Greats’ life, deploying and justifying with flair various definitions of the terms “great” and “greatness” by reference to the achievements and failures of his life; shown understanding that different evidence and evidential information (and sometimes the same details) can be used to create historical interpretations of Alexander; written about Alexander with flair from an assumed, single view point; thoroughly analysed contrasting interpretations of Alexander by specific reference to the purpose and audience of each in turn; selected organised and deployed information to produce a fluent, structured account explaining reasons for the differences between two contrasting interpretations of Alexander.

Resources include:

• Various cards for use in sorting exercises and to develop vocabulary images of Alexander the Great.
   
• Templates for writing a newspaper report and a DVD cover.
   
• Layers of inference diagrams.
   
• Costume and props for dressing up e.g. cardboard shield, sword etc.
  digital camera.
   
• The theatrical trailer from Oliver Stones’ film “Alexander” (2004)

It is helpful if pupils:

• have studied the ancient Greeks before completing this unit

• are familiar with the idea that interpretations of historical figures can vary depending on their purpose and audience e.g. views of Henry Vlll.