The Ancient World
By Megan Foster & Carolyn DiSalvatore
The purpose of this unit plan is to introduce students to the civilizations of Mesopotamia. This will include the geography and how it effects human settlement and development;civilization and how artifacts can lead to conclusions about history of a civilization; and empires and how and why different accomplishments lead to the rise and fall of empires. Students will be introduced to the content through a variety of primary source analysis, both visual and written documents. Students will be asked to think critically about the information they are presented with. At the conclusion of the unit, student groups will create ABC books about Mesopotamia.
It is assumed heading into this unit that students will be knowledgeable about emerging societies of people in the ancient world, as well as the themes of geography. This unit is designed to provide students with the framework for understanding the most essential aspects of Mesopotamia.
Stage 1 Desired Results
ESTABLISHED GOALS
History Frameworks:G
7.6 Identify the characteristics of civilizations. (H,G,E)
- The presence of geographic boundaries and political institutions
- An economy that produces food surpluses
- A concentration of a population in distinct areas or cities
- The existence of social classes
- Developed systems of religion, learning, art, and architecture
- A system of record keeping
- Identify polytheism as the religious belief of the people in Mesopotamian civilizations. (H)
7.9 Describe how irrigation, metalsmithing, slavery, the domestication of animals, and inventions such as the wheel, the sail, and the plow contributed to the growth of Mesopotamian civilizations. (H,E)
7.10 Describe important Mesopotamian achievements. (H,C,E)
- Its system of writing (and its importance in the record keeping and tax collection)
- Monumental architecture (the ziggurat)
- Art (large relief sculptures, mosaics, and cylinder seals)
ELA & Literacy Frameworks:
W. 1. Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.
SL. 1. Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners on grade 7 topics, texts and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.
R. 1. Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources. / Transfer Goals
Students will be able to independently use their learning to…
Understand how recurring patterns in history can inform judgments about current events and other issues.
Understand how physical and human geography can inform responsible interactions with environment.
Critically appraise historical and contemporary claims/decisions.
T
Meaning
UNDERSTANDINGSU
Students will understand that…
U1…people must solve geographic challenges in their environment to live there successfully.
U2…a society is considered a civilization when a complex set of characteristics exist in the community.
U3…strong political and military forces will allow for the rise of empires, however, problems within often lead to the fall of these empires. / ESSENTIAL QUESTIONSQ
E1. Would city-states/civilizations have developed in Mesopotamia without agriculture and new agricultural techniques (irrigation, levees, dams, reservoirs)?
E2. Why are these characteristics necessary for a society to be considered a civilization? Must all the characteristics be present in a society for it to be called a civilization? Can one be missing?
E3. Which achievement was the most important to the rise and success of empires? What is the most important cause for the failure of empires?
E4. Why has Mesopotamia changed from the cradle of civilization to a war torn country? How has farming, government, culture, writing, technology effected the civilization?
Acquisition
Students will know…K
K1. Key Terms: Mesopotamia, Tigris River, Euphrates River, Sumer, irrigation, levee, silt, city-state, complex, maintain, culture, civilization, social structure, technology, status, chariot, scribe, ziggurat, lyre , Standard of Ur, polytheism, arch, cuneiform, pictograph, empire, Akkadian Empire, Babylonian Empire, Assyrian Empire, Neo-Babylonian Empire, capital, tribute, stele, Hammurabi’s Code of Laws, economy, siege, strategy, aqueduct, bas-relief, invader, unify
K2. Mesopotamia was located between the Tigris and EuphratesRiver. Mesopotamians faced and solved a variety of geographic challenges as they developed into city-states.
K3. Sumer had the seven characteristics of a civilization present: stable food supply, social structure, government, religion, culture, technology, and writing.
K4. Mesopotamia had a variety of political, military and cultural achievements during the height of these empires: Akkadian Empire, Babylonian Empire, Assyrian Empire, and Neo-Babylonian Empire. / Students will be skilled at…S
Map Skill: interpret maps to explain relationships between landforms, water features, climatic characteristics, and historical events.
Critical Thinking: analyzing geographic problems ancient Mesopotamians and evaluating potential solutions.
Primary Source Analysis: examine artifacts to discover the history of a civilization; write hypotheses and support opinions with detailed evidence.
Note Taking Skills: determine main idea and supporting details in describing the history of an empire.
Compare and Contrast: identify the similarities and differences between each empires success and failures.
Vocabulary: use content based vocabulary in order to communicate understanding of key concepts.
Stage 2 – Evidence
Evaluative Criteria / Assessment Evidence
- Historically Accurate
- Well Crafted
- Revealing and informative
- Good Detail
- Mechanically sound
Small groups of students will create Mesopotamia ABC Booklets.
Please see attached for directions and rubric.
- Historically Accurate
- Well Crafted
- Revealing and informative
- Good Detail
- Mechanically sound
- Create a map of a Sumerian city-state
- Analyze the Standard of Ur in an “I See it Means”
- Analysis and ranking of empires in “Empire Report Card”
- Chapter Tests
Stage 3 – Learning Plan
Summary of Key Learning Events and Instruction
Lesson 1: Introduction and Preview to Mesopotamia- In this lesson, students will preview the geography of Mesopotamia and the major themes of the unit.
- Map: History Alive! Geography Challenge: Interactive Notebook pg 4-7
- Vocabulary Preview: Mesopotamia Wordle
- Critical Thinking: Analysis of four geography based problems in Mesopotamia and student created solutions (History Alive Chapter 4 lesson)
- Map Skill: Create a map of a Sumerian city-state that labels and details the “solutions” to geographic problems.
- Vocabulary: Frayer Model- civilization, city-state
- Primary Source Analysis: Analysis of Sumerian artifacts to determine whether Sumerian city-states had the characteristics of a civilization.
- Visual Analysis: I See, It Means- Standard of Ur
- Vocabulary: Frayer Model- empire
- Content/ Response Notes: identify the accomplishments(details) of the Akkadian Empire, Babylonian Empire, Assyrian Empire and Neo-Babylonian Empire, accompanied by a summary of the empire (main idea).
- Primary Source Analysis: Hammurabi’s Code
- Compare & Contrast: Rank the accomplishments of each empire using an Empire Report Card.
- Critical Thinking: Discussion of empires and what causes empires to rise and fall, also introduce the effects.
Mesopotamia Unit CEPA – ABC Mesopotamian Booklet
Objective – Working as part of a group, students will create an A B C Booklet using facts about Mesopotamia. Each booklet will contain 26 facts (one per letter, per page) about various topics like geography, religion, technology, empires and achievements. Each group will consist of an Artistic Director, a Historian and Publisher.
- Artistic Director – Responsible for creating the visuals
- Historian – Responsible for the content (facts)
- Publisher – Presentation
– Remember that you are all in this together you can and should be helping each other out.
-This should be written for a younger audience. Make sure its easy to understand.
- Certain letters may present a problem (q or x). Be creative and use complex language.
Requirements -
ARTISTISTIC DIRECTOR (visuals)
___Choice of relevant symbols, illustrations.
___carefully/skillfully drawn, shows thought and effort.
___colorful
___used space effectively
___Participation
HISTORIAN (Content)
___one fact for each letter.
___accurate information
___adequate explanation (2 sentences)
___topic variety
___Participation
PUBLISHER (Ready for Print)
___attractive Cover Page/Names/Title
___pages are bound together/in correct order
___all pages neat/presentable
___Essential Question answered (on cover)
___Participation
Rubric -
3: Ready for the museum / 2: Ready for the Refrigerator / 1: Ready for the Recycling BinPresentation /
- Neat
- Colorful
- Somewhat neat
- Some use of color
- Messy or sloppy
- No color
Information /
- Accurate
- Clear
- All important details included
- Attempts to be accurate
- Somewhat clear
- Some important details included
- Inaccurate information
- Not clear
- Missing important details
Requirements /
- All requirements included
- Most requirements included
- Many requirements missing
Participation /
- Active member of the group
- Always helped others, listened to group and used class time
- Somewhat active member of the group
- Sometimes helped others, tried to listen to other members, usually used class time
- Inactive member of the group
- Prevented other group members from completing their work, did not use time appropriately