English week 41

First, a little handout derived from englishbanana.com to practice some common verbs in the simple past tense - From Bed to Work in 27 Easy Steps.

There's a lot of past tense this week because we're going to focus on women who changed history. We start on a religious note...

St Bridget of Sweden

Let the music to help you drift far back in time to the early 1300s. This was when a baby girl called Birgitta was born into a rich family, probably living near Uppsala, Sweden.

It's difficult to imagine how different life was back then. Sickness and death were never far away - even if you were rich. Rather than take comfort in riches and wealth, Bridget chose a very different path, asserting her right to preach the gospel and challenge injustice. She created religious communities where women could devote themselves to prayer, learning and provide hospitality for victims of poverty and injustice.

This old picture of Saint Bridget reveals some important aspects of her life - her pilgrim's hat, her writing, her inspiration, her noble birth, her greatest love and her religious habit (clothing).

She was declared a saint on 7th October 1391 - look at a Swedish calendar and you'll see the name, "Birgitta" on that day.

Here you can download our St Bridget story and worksheet.

Hypatia

Bridget of Sweden is the exception to the rule that history is made by, written by men and all about men. So having looked at Saint Bridget, we'll explore the lives and legacies of other important women in history. This time it's over to you to do some digging and present your findings in class!

If you need a bit of inspiration, browse the all encompassing Fordham University's Women's History Sourcebook, explore the different themes highlighted by Smithsonian - Women's History and Heritage Month, or use About.com A-Z Biographies of Women as a starting point for further research.