Materials

• News article on a current event in which the author calls for reform
• Text and guided reading questions
• PowerPoint presentation of “The Reformation: An Overview of the Causes, Leaders, Events, and Results”
• Student notes on the Reformation (Attachment A)
• Teacher notes on the Reformation, with answers (Attachment B)
• Internet Access (or printed copies of primary sources/excerpts from the Web)

Instructional Activities

NOTE: The following Web resources may be helpful in this session:

• “Edict of Nantes”. <http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0834814.html>.
• “Huguenots.” <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07527b.htm>.
• “Reformation Europe.” <http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook02.html>.
• “The Reformation.” <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12700b.htm#I>.
• “Wars of Religion.” <http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0841497.html>.

1. As a warm up activity, display the term “reform” on the board or overhead. Instruct students to define reform. Brainstorm modern examples of issues students feel are in need of reform. Read a current news article about an issue that some suggest needs reform (e.g., tax laws). Select any topic that will guide student understanding of the discontent felt by citizens when something is unfair.
   Continue with the discussion by asking students questions such as the following: What causes demand for reform? How are citizens affected when they perceive unfairness?
   
   
2. Introduce a reading on the causes and effects of the Reformation. Include an explanation of the reformers. Use the text to identify conditions leading to the Reformation.
   
   Prepare questions to guide the students through the reading. To help them understand the causes of the reformation, consider using multiple chapters or excerpts from the text, text ancillary materials, and other available resources.
   In class discussion, emphasize that issues and forces for change included Church corruption and increased education resulting from humanist scholarship and the use of the vernacular in writings. As literacy improved, so did people’s desire to question nature and authority.
   
   
3. Show the PowerPoint presentation of “The Reformation: An Overview of the Causes, Leaders, Events, and Results,” or make copies of slides to use as transparencies. Instruct students to fill in the notes worksheet (Attachment A). Instruct them to illustrate the notes with symbols or pictures that give meaning to the notes (e.g., they might draw a dollar sign next to the term usury to remember interest on a loan).
   
   
4. Complete the section on the causes of the Reformation at this point. Have students place the unfinished notes in a notebook. They will continue to complete the notes as they participate in the following sessions. (This process will help to review.)