The great hall is a huge, magnificently decorated hall in a country house or castle. It was the focal point of the building structure and was the center of activity for the entire household. All meals and festivities were celebrated there.
Project
to have students create in their classroom a replica of a great hall—reproducing the necessary decorative elements. Students will do the hall as a guild would; they will imitate the guild, and plan, decide, respond, select, execute.
1.
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Discuss guilds—explain system of operation—need—varieties, all the foregoing.
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2.
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Show slides or pictures of various great hall and discuss the decorative elements with students. An excellent source for pictures is
Life in the English Country House
, Mark Girouard (see attached bibliography)
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3.
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List with the students on the blackboard the decorative elements in a great hall. Your list could be as follows: richly carved long tables, bright decorative hanging banners, heavily carved arcades, decorated dais (raised platform on which the Lordof the castles table was placed), canopy over dais, highly carved fireplace and wall chimneys, wall hangings, frescos and murals, tracery in windows, great screen, musicians gallery above great screen.
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4.
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Make a list on the blackboard of the major guilds which would have been involved in the project. Examples weavers, masons, painters, carpenters/woodworkers, sculptors. Have students join the one which they find most appealing.
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5.
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After the guilds and their members have been established, it might be wise for you as teacher to assign the various jobs.
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6.
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In guild tradition appoint a mastercraftsman (or a few mastercraftsmen) to each guild. It will be his responsibility to assist or aid his fellow workers and maintain quality standards. In order that each student may have a chance in each role (mastercraftsman, apprentice), switch titles half way through the project.
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7.
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Have each group establish an emblem and motto for their group.
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Using readily available materials, proceed to have students design and execute art work which would have been found in a great hall and which will transform their classroom into one. By adding paper cutout designs such as brackets and trim work to ordinary classroom tables, the tables are transformed into banquet tables. In like fashion cutouts could be taped to windows to simulate tracery. Painters could paint murals and frescos while weavers could make cut felt wall hangings and banners. All the elements of the great hall could be handled in this manner. Encourage students to develop and create their own ideas.
As one can readily see, there is a wealth of ideas and projects which can be developed around this task.
The length of time involved in the execution of this unit will depend to a great extent upon the materials selected. For example, if one plans to do this unit with crayons and cut paper, the project will be completed in a relatively short amount of time. If, on the other hand, murals are painted and banners or wall hangings are done in a fibre medium, the unit can then take an entire semester to complete. This unit lends itself well to either situation. The time factor and degree of involvement is dictated solely by the teacher and the availability of materials.
When this task is completed and the classroom resembles a great hall it might be nice to plan a banquet or festival in celebration of the completion of the project.