Final Task

THE IMPACT OF THE REFORMATION ON EUROPE

Introduction:

After having spent the previous 4 weeks analyzing the main topics concerning the Reformation in Early Modern European History (Protestantism, Catholic Counter-Reformation, Religious Wars) the class will work on the Impact of the Reformation on Europe.

Task preparation - Group-work

The class is divided into 5 groups (4 students per group)

Each group focus on a specific aspect of the issue:

Group 1: Political

Group 2: Religious

Group 3: Artistic

Group 4: Economic

Group 5: Social

Each group is provided with a series of sources (Textbook, maps, artworks, primary and secondary written sources) and is given a main question to answer.

Group 1: How did the Reformation influence the politics in Europe (France, Holland, England, Holy Roman Empire)?

Group 2: How did the Catholic Church change after the Reformation (Council of Trent)?

Group 3: Which were the main differences between the art of the Reformation and the art of the Counter-Reformation?

Group 4: How did Protestantism contribute to the development of Capitalism?

Group 5: Which social classes were more affected by the Reformation?

Each group must analyze the sources and prepare a short oral report on the issue and present it to the rest of the class, that can ask questions and take notes. The sources are then made available to the whole class.

Task

As a final task students, working individually, using the sources provided and their knowledge must produce a slide presentation (20 slides maximum) on the Impact of the Reformation in Europe.

The presentation must take into account all aspects of  issue (political, religious, artistic, economic and social) and is the result of a personal choice of the student, in fact it doesn’t have to contain all the information presented by the group-work but a selection of it. Each student must choose to highlight the elements that are more relevant to his/her interpretation of the issue. Images, charts, visual aids can be used to convey the message effectively.

Here is an example of how the work can be done.

Evaluation will be based on: knowledge of the historical content; understanding of change and continuity, cause and consequence, similarity and difference in history; the ability to understand, interpret, evaluate and use a range of historical sources, creativity and language accuracy.