History · Year 8

Active learning ideas

Elizabethan Propaganda and Image

Active learning helps students decode Elizabeth’s propaganda by making the symbols, language, and political strategies visible and tangible. When students analyze portraits, rewrite speeches, and create posters, they move beyond passive reading to see how image and power intersect in real historical moments.

• National Curriculum Attainment Targets
• KS3: History - Social and Cultural History
• KS3: History - Elizabethan England

• 35–50 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 4 activities

Activity 01

• Gallery Walk
• 45 min · Small Groups

Gallery Walk: Portrait Symbols

Display printed portraits around the room. In small groups, students spend 5 minutes per portrait noting symbols, inferring messages, and linking to Elizabeth's power. Groups share one key insight in a whole-class debrief.

Analyze the key symbols used in Elizabethan portraits to convey power.

Facilitation Tip

During the Gallery Walk, place portraits in chronological order so students observe how Elizabeth’s image evolved over time and across reigns.

What to look for

Provide students with a printed image of an Elizabethan portrait of Elizabeth I. Ask them to identify two symbols within the portrait and explain what each symbol was intended to communicate about the Queen's power or status.

• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Create
• Relationship Skills
• Social Awareness

Activity 02

• Gallery Walk
• 35 min · Pairs

Tilbury Speech Rewrite

Provide Tilbury speech excerpts. Pairs modernize language while preserving propaganda elements, then perform for the class. Discuss how adaptations reveal original persuasive techniques.

Explain how Elizabeth's speeches, like Tilbury, served as propaganda.

Facilitation Tip

For the Tilbury Speech Rewrite, provide a short word bank of rhetorical devices like anaphora and metaphor to guide students’ persuasive choices.

What to look for

Present students with a short excerpt from Elizabeth I's Tilbury speech. Ask them to highlight one phrase or sentence they believe was particularly persuasive and write one sentence explaining why it would have resonated with her audience.

• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Create
• Relationship Skills
• Social Awareness

Activity 03

• Gallery Walk
• 50 min · Individual

Propaganda Poster Creation

Individuals design posters promoting Elizabeth as Virgin Queen using historical symbols. Include annotations explaining choices. Peer gallery critique evaluates effectiveness.

Evaluate the effectiveness of Elizabeth's image as 'The Virgin Queen'.

Facilitation Tip

In Propaganda Poster Creation, require students to write a 1-sentence artist’s statement explaining how their design reflects Elizabeth’s priorities.

What to look for

Pose the question: 'Was Elizabeth I's image as the 'Virgin Queen' more of a political strategy or a personal choice?' Facilitate a class discussion, encouraging students to support their arguments with evidence from the lesson about her portraits, speeches, and the political context of her reign.

• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Create
• Relationship Skills
• Social Awareness

Activity 04

• Gallery Walk
• 40 min · Whole Class

Image Debate: Virgin Queen Success

Divide class into teams to argue for or against the Virgin Queen image's success. Use evidence from portraits and speeches. Vote and reflect on propaganda's role.

Analyze the key symbols used in Elizabethan portraits to convey power.

Facilitation Tip

During the Image Debate, assign roles to ensure dissenting voices are heard and evidence-based arguments are required.

What to look for

Provide students with a printed image of an Elizabethan portrait of Elizabeth I. Ask them to identify two symbols within the portrait and explain what each symbol was intended to communicate about the Queen's power or status.

• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Create
• Relationship Skills
• Social Awareness

A few notes on teaching this unit

Teachers should frame Elizabeth’s image as a political tool, not personal vanity. Use guided questions to push analysis, such as asking students why certain symbols appear together or which audience each portrait targeted. Avoid letting the beauty of the art distract from its purpose. Research shows that when students create propaganda themselves, they better understand how persuasion works in historical and modern contexts.

Students will recognize propaganda as a deliberate tool of leadership, not just aesthetics or speech. They will connect symbols to political messages and use historical evidence to argue how Elizabeth shaped her public image to maintain control.

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Watch Out for These Misconceptions

• During Gallery Walk: Portrait Symbols, students may assume the portraits show Elizabeth’s real appearance.

  During Gallery Walk: Portrait Symbols, hand students a checklist of common Elizabethan portrait exaggerations (elongated neck, pale skin, pearl count) to complete as they examine each image, prompting them to notice idealization.

• During Propaganda Poster Creation, students may think the Virgin Queen image reflected Elizabeth’s personal preference.

  During Propaganda Poster Creation, have students include a caption on their poster explaining how the Virgin Queen image served political goals, using the role-play scenario they experienced in the Virgin Queen Success debate.

• During Tilbury Speech Rewrite, students may believe the speech was an off-the-cuff moment.

  During Tilbury Speech Rewrite, ask students to highlight and label at least one rhetorical device in their rewritten speech, then justify why Elizabeth’s team would have scripted such language for maximum impact.

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Methods used in this brief

• Gallery Walk