Target Audience: The target audience for this lesson would ideally be a high school history class that covers European development through the Renaissance. Because of its diverse nature, if could easily slip into the context of an art, religion, and gender studies course, but by streamlining it into a purely historic lesson, we can save time and delve deeper into the topic of Renaissance marriage! This lesson would serve as a great introduction to Renaissance humanism, culture, and surprisingly, a little historic law as well.
Content: This succinct lesson will cover gender roles of the European Renaissance, particularly in Italy and Florence. I will discuss some key details about love, courtship, relationships, and marriage in the 14th-16th century. We will cover gender roles of renaissance singles, marriage expectations for those that had been wed, and a specific marriage-related court case which will give us a look into the micro-history of this gilded era.
Process: The lesson instruction will proceed as follows: The students will begin by going to the chat and writing a fact, or may something they have heard, about stereotypical renaissance relationships. Then I will read off and comment some of the things that are shared. This will serve as a great segue into a 10-15 min lecture period. Then the students will be split into two breakout groups which will represent a specific historic character discussed within the presentation. Each team will be given a link to a Google Form that will instruct them on their respective objectives. In this semi-skit, their job will be do defend their client to the best of their abilities, using the evidences and information covered in the lesson. Then we will regroup, hold the skit, and decide the verdict!
Resources: The students will not be responsible for completing any out of class readings. Upon arrival, we will begin a powerpoint, and in breakout groups, they will be given a link to a Google Form which will describe to them their group activity.
Delivery Consideration: With the use of Zoom’s break-out-room feature, and Google Forms, this lesson could easily be delivered via visual platform.