Reading Enrichment Unit:

Medieval Times
This reading enrichment unit was designed for middle grades students.

SS6RC1, SS7RC1, SS8RC1-

Students will enhance reading in all curriculum areas by:

a. Reading in All Curriculum Areas

• Read a minimum of 25 grade-level appropriate books per year from a variety of subject disciplines and participate
in discussions related to curricular learning in all areas. • Read both informational and fictional texts in a variety of
genres and modes of discourse. • Read technical texts related to various subject areas.
b. Discussing books
• Discuss messages and themes from books in all subject areas. • Respond to a variety of texts in multiple modes of
discourse. • Relate messages and themes from one subject area to messages and themes in another area. • Evaluate
the merit of texts in every subject discipline. • Examine author’s purpose in writing. • Recognize the features of
disciplinary texts.
c. Building vocabulary knowledge
• Demonstrate an understanding of contextual vocabulary in various subjects. • Use content vocabulary in writing
and speaking. • Explore understanding of new words found in subject area texts.
d. Establishing context
• Explore life experiences related to subject area content. • Discuss in both writing and speaking how certain words
are subject area related. • Determine strategies for finding content and contextual meaning for unknown words.

Day 1
Teacher will share background on medieval times. Students will be given a handout of medieval vocabulary
words. Students will use the pathfinder supplied by teacher to explore the websites on the Middle Ages. ”The
Whipping Boy” by Sid Fleischman will be given to students as a reading assignment.

Day 2
Teacher and students will discuss the book “The Whipping Boy” and explore the characters. Students will
create a character scrapbook by going to the site http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/scrapbook/ in which
they will analyze each character, creating a page for each.

Day 3
Chapter 11 will be explored through reader’s theater. Students will script the chapter by giving each character a
narrator and a speaker. Thus, the speaker will say what is written in quotations, and the narrator will say
everything else related to the character. Students will use the remaining time to practice. Students without parts
will create props such as banners, coat of arms, shields, and swords.

Day 4
Finished production will be videotaped. Videotape will be shared with the school through closed-circuit
television.
MEDIEVAL VOCABULARY:

Feudalism and Knighthood

Chivalry-- knighthood, knights collectively, or the characteristics expected of a knight: valor, nobility, fairness, courtesy, respect for women, and
protection of the weak.
Fealty-- solemn oath between a vassal and his liege, pledging service in return for protection.
Fief-- lands held as a result of fealty. The obligation of service and lands granted in return sometimes passed from father to son.
Joust-- mock warfare; generally begun on horseback, combat could continue on foot and might only end when one participant surrendered or was
killed... An *extremely* rough sport.
Liege-- overlord, to whom a vassal swore loyalty and support, who (in return) pledged to honor and protect his vassal or “liegeman”.
Mail--armor composed chiefly of small, inter-locking metal rings.
Plate-- armor composed of several, over-lapping or connected sections of metal, shaped to the contours of the wearer’s body.
Scutage-- money a vassal might substitute for the actual service pledged his liege, i.e. the amount it would cost to hire someone else to do the job.
Tilting-- form of jousting, in which opponents tried to knock one another from the saddle using long lances. The match ended when a fighter fell, but
if the lances were sharp, tilting could be as dangerous as regular jousting!
Vassal-- one who pledged service (usually military) to a feudal lord in return for land, support, or political favors.

Social Standing and Education

Apprentice-- a beginner or novice who agrees to work for a master in his trade or craft in return for instruction and support.
Fostering-- sending children to live with friends, relatives, or political allies to learn necessary social skills, rather like boarding school.
Page-- a young person in the process of learning social etiquette by waiting on his/her elders.
Seneschal-- a noble’s chief administrator, or business manager.
Serf-- a farm laborer, one step up from a slave. Serfs could not come and go as they pleased, but they could not be sold away from their homes and
families.
Squire-- an apprentice knight, often an elder page in training to become a knight.
Villein-- a villager, freeman, or city dweller.

Clothing
Barbe (Barbette)-- woman’s veil, in time a simple strip of fabric that framed the face, covering the ears.
Chausses-- the forerunner of trousers. They consisted of two pant legs, which weren’t necessarily joined.
Chemise-- loose undergarment worn by men & women as underwear, nightgown & (on rare occasion) swimsuit.
Favor-- item that a lady presented a lord to show her esteem and support. Lords wore them to indicate that they fought for a particular lady’s honour.
Gambison-- quilted jacket first worn as armor, later worn as padding under other armor.
Girdle-- generic term for belt, some were very wide and tight, others were long, & metal or jewel encrusted.
Surcote-- an overtunic, often richly decorated with furs and/or heraldic designs. Styles varied over the course of the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

Arts and Sciences

Calligraphy-- ornamental handwriting.
Cupping-- blood letting, either by leeching or bleeding, thought to be a cure for many ills.
Heraldry-- science of creating, recording, and reading Coats of Arms which identified members of the nobility.
Humors-- four body fluids which were believed to govern an individual’s health and personality: blood,
phlegm, black bile and yellow bile.
Illumination-- illustration and colorful ornamentation appearing on manuscript pages.
Maquillage-- makeup, based on medieval ideals of beauty, could be poisonous, e.g: some ladies used white lead to make their skin look pale.
Hearth and Home

Dungeon/Donjon-- fortified central building of a castle.

Garderobe—a ‘closet’ where wastechutes were located because the smell discouraged moths.
Mead-- alcoholic drink made with fermented honey.
Oubliette-- pit or cell under a donjon, where prisoners might be thrown and forgotten.
Trencher-- horizontal slice of bread used as a plate. If you weren’t too hungry, your uneaten trencher would be collected and given as alms to the
poor.

Taken from http://www.thescorre.org