7th Grade · Week 1 of 36 · History
Medieval Europe: manor, lord, serf, and the Church as an institution
1. Hook
- Read (or listen to) what you’re learning. Don’t jump to the quiz.
- Walk the worked example. Then use the interactive lab on this page.
- Guided set → independent set → mastery check → teach-back.
- If you write a paper, stay on campus: Citation Helper, Source Library, Paper Studio.
This is self-paced homeschool on Life Academy. Everything you need is on this page.
A peasant in 1100 owed his lord days of labor, owed the Church a tenth of his harvest, and couldn't leave the village without permission. How did this system work?
Then: lab → guided → quiz → teach it back. The lab is the lesson, not a decoration.
2. Teach
Explain manorialism, feudal relationships, and the Church as an institution in medieval Europe (C3 D2.His.1.6-8, D2.Eco.1.6-8, D2.Civ.6.6-8).
Standards alignment: C3 Framework D2.His (6-8) · D3 Evaluating Sources (domain-level; works with any state’s standards)
Medieval three-field rotation left one field in three resting each season instead of one in two, letting farmers plant about two-thirds of their land each year.
- Feudalism (a modern term historians debate) describes exchanges of land (fiefs) for military service among kings, lords, and knights. Manorialism describes the economic system of the manor: a lord's estate worked by peasants.
- Serfs were legally bound to the land; they owed labor on the lord's fields (often several days a week), fees, and a share of produce, in exchange for protection and use of land.
- The Church was the largest landowner and most powerful institution: it collected the tithe (one-tenth), ran monasteries that preserved books, kept records, ran schools and hospitals, and had its own courts (canon law).
Sources: manor court rolls, charters, and the Domesday Book (1086), William the Conqueror's survey of English land and resources.
Historians caution that arrangements varied greatly by region and century; "feudal pyramid" diagrams oversimplify.
- Person: serf.
- Obligations: labor, fees, tithe.
- Rights: land use, protection, manor court.
- Limit: couldn't leave without permission.
Draw a manor map (lord's demesne, peasant strips, church, mill, commons) and a chart of obligations among king, lord, knight, serf, and clergy.
Treating the "feudal pyramid" as a fixed system everywhere in Europe.
Land, labor, and obligation systems still shape economies today.
No classroom teacher today — this page is the lesson. Follow the how-to, then the lab, then the quiz. Follow Lesson Studio, then the lab, then the quiz.
Quick check · from this week’s lesson
Tap the answer that fits. Every item comes from this week’s lesson.
Play & explore
Hands-on practice for this lesson. Your progress saves automatically.
Your work — type it here
Name who, when, and where. Then one cause.
3. Guided practice
Try these with me — type the missing word, then check.
Reveal the thinking
Land for service; labor for protection; Church as institution.
4. Independent practice
Work the set. Check when finished — this is practice (mastery quiz is next).
5. Mastery check
Scored quiz — results save to your gradebook.
Primary sources — then a citation
Read the document. Place it in time and on a map. Name the source next to the fact. Today: Medieval Europe: manor, lord, serf, and the Church as an institution.
Classroom · Gradebook · Transcripts
Stay on this page. The studio, the lab, pictures, and Your work are the lesson.
6. Reflection / teach-back
Teach-back: Explain Medieval Europe: manor, lord, serf, and the Church as an institution in your own words. Give one example and name the usual mistake.