Teacher Commentary
The terms peasant and serf are often used interchangeably in texts, but we wanted students to understand that there is a difference. We also chose to provide two texts in order to encourage students to connect information between texts and to make use of a diagram often seen (but often not read) in the feudalism section of textbooks. Giving students a focused task while analyzing a diagram teaches students to use text features, a skill that can translate to their independent reading.