Teacher: Lesley Barklay

Term 1, 2009

Year 8 History : Societies and Civilisations of the Past - Group A Rome

Unit Outline / Unit duration
Students will learn about the society and culture of the Roman Civilization. They will learn about the origins, daily life of citizens, government of the society. They will also discover the legacies left behind by the civilisation. / 10 weeks (15 lessons)
Big ideas/key concepts / Why does this learning matter?
The key concepts I want students to learn are that:
·  The Roman Empire left behind several legacies.
·  The Roman Empire was influential culture for many years.
·  The Roman Empire had contact with other cultures. / The learning matters because:
·  It will give the students the History skills they will require to undertake further Historical study.
·  The Roman Civilization left us with a lot of important legacies and it is important for the students to have an understanding of how our culture has been influenced by Ancient cultures.
Place in scope & sequence/Building the field / Target outcomes
4.1 describes and explains the nature of history, the main features of past societies and periods and their legacy
4.5 identifies the meaning, purpose and context of historical sources
4.8 locates, selects and organises relevant information from a number of sources, including ICT, to conduct basic historical research
4.10 selects and uses appropriate oral, written and other forms, including ICT, to communicate effectively about the past

Teacher: Lesley Barklay

Term 1, 2009

Outcomes: / Learning Experiences / Evidence of Learning / Resources / Quality Teaching / Reg/ date
4.1 / Lesson 1: Introduction to Ancient Rome
Teacher Talk: Explain that this term, students will be learning about the Empire that used to burn people to death, feed prisoners to wild animals and invented crucifixion, the way that Jesus Christ was killed. Teacher asks class if anyone knows which Empire did those things. Explain that it was the Ancient Roman Empire.
Mind-map (think-pair-share): Students have 5 minutes to construct a mind-map in their books detailing all they know about Ancient Rome under the following headings:
* Government/ rules * Social Classes * Rights and Freedoms
* Significant people * Significant events * Education
* Weapons *Clothing * Food
Students share with a partner and add to their lists (3 minutes), then they share with class, and students copy class responses into their workbooks.
Map work: As class, locate Italy on a world map. Class discussion about its location in relation to other modern countries, such as Spain, France and the African continent so that the students understand the region that the Roman Empire began in.
Students then label a map of Italy with Rome, Etruria, Mediterranean sea, Sicily, the Tiber River, Adriatic Sea, Corsica, Sardinia, Magna Graecia and Latium, using the map on p68 of History Zone 1 as a reference.
Student choice of activity: Either Worksheet on the myth of the founding of Rome (Romulus and Remus) and questions OR As a class read through pp.68-69 Historyzone 1 and discuss the founding of Rome. / Think- Pair-Share
Finished map
Either: Completed sheet, OR discussion / Large world map (displayed on SMARTBOARD)
History Zone1
Worksheets / Engagement
Students’ self-regulation
Background knowledge
Knowledge integration / 11/2/09
Students learn about:
- the origins of the Ancient Rome / Students to learn to:
- identify the origins of Ancient Rome
4.8, 4.10 / Lesson 2: The Founding of Rome
Teacher Talk: Explain that there were two legends about the beginning of the Roman Empire. Teacher to explain the legend of Romulus and Remus, and then the more factual (?) tale of how the city was founded.
The Founding of Rome
Rome began as a small village built by a tribe called the Latins. In less than 500 years, the Romans had created an Empire that stretched as far as England and encompassed much of Europe and Northern Africa. The Roman Empire had as much power and influence in its time as the USA has today.
By 700 BC, there were already two advanced civilisations in Italy.
·  The Greeks in Southern Italy and Sicily
·  The Etruscans in the north of Italy.
The Etruscans had come to Italy by sea and live north of the Tiber river. They were a clever people. They were advanced in architecture, and had created an alphabet, which has influenced our alphabet.
They invaded the village of Rome and made it into a large and important city. By 550 BC the Etruscans were the most powerful people in Italy. The people of Rome and the Latin tribes around Rome combined to fight against the Etruscans. In 509 BC, the Romans won the battle for freedom. The also were able to conquer some Etruscan land and began to expand their rule.
Creating: Students to work in pairs to create their own legend for the founding of Moree. / Legends / Chalk/ whiteboard markers / Narrative
Engagement
Higher order thinking
Social support / 16/2/09
Students learn about:
- the origins of the Ancient Rome / Students to learn to:
- identify the origins of Ancient Rome
4.8, 4.10 / Lesson 3-6: An Overview of Events in Ancient Rome
Teacher to create a timeline of important Roman dates using Notebook software. For each date, teacher links a number of websites leading to useful information students can use to find out about the events, which occurred on that date.
Students are to work in pair to create a PowerPoint about the events which occurred on their assigned date for peer and teacher assessment (based on the criteria and instructions set out in Timeline Ancient Rome).
As they present their information to the class, students must record the title of the presentation, who was giving the presentation, 2 pieces of information they learnt, and give a mark out of 5 for the information contained, and a mark out of 5 for the presentation (speech, and appearance of the PP) / Student’s PowerPoint presentations / Computer Room
NoteBook Presentation with instructions / Higher Order Thinking
Deep Knowledge
Meta-language
Explicit Quality Criteria
Engagement
Student Self Direction
Social Support / 17/2/09, 25/2/09, 2/3/09,
3/3/09
Students learn about:
- the origins of the Ancient Rome
- civics and citizenship in Ancient Rome / Students to learn to:
- identify the origins of Ancient Rome
- describe the way in which people in Ancient Rome were governed.
4.1, 4.8, 4.10 / Lesson 7: Cities and Housing in Ancient Rome
Teacher to present the PowerPoint Roman Towns and Houses to the class, giving information about how people in Ancient Rome used to live.
Individual work: Students read through the notes and draw and label an aerial view of Roman city as per instructions on PP.
Jigsaw: Students are to join expert groups and find out about a different type of housing (rulers, rich people, poor people, slaves) using the links provided on the teacher created PP. They are to return to their home groups and share the information with their group. Students must then use this information to create a table comparing the residents of rich/rulers and poor/slaves and write where they’d prefer to live and why. / Students’ aerial view of a Roman city.
Students’ tables comparing how rich and poor people live / Computer Room
Power Point Presentation with instructions / Higher Order Thinking
Deep Knowledge
Meta-language
Explicit Quality Criteria
Engagement
Student Self Direction
Social Support / 3/3/09,
11/3/09
Students learn about:
- daily life of men and women in Ancient Rome
- rights and freedoms / Students learn to:
describe how both men and women lived in Ancient Rome
4.1 / Lesson 8: The Roman Pantheon of Gods
Students are to select a god or goddess from the list provided on the board (Apollo, Bacchus, Ceres, Diana, Cupid, Jupiter, Fortuna, Janus, Juno, Mars, Minerva, Neptune, Pluto, Proserpina, Uranus, and Venus). They need to then read through the information provided, and create a character profile for that god in their workbooks.
They need to include the following information:
·  Name of the god
·  What the god was in charge of
·  A picture of the god/ goddess
·  A description of their appearance (if available)
·  The god’s relationship to other gods/ goddesses in the pantheon (family etc.)
·  At least one interesting story about the god/ goddess and their interactions with humans
Once they have done this, they need to create a poster about their god/goddess, and present it the class. Students may work independently or in pairs, but pairs must complete two profiles and two posters. / Students’ posters and presentations to class. / Information about various Roman Gods and Goddesses (printouts and text book)
Coloured paper and coloured pencils/ textas / Explicit Quality Criteria
Engagement
Student self direction
Social Support
Narrative / 16/3/09
Students learn about:
- daily life of men and women in Ancient Rome / Students learn to:
describe how both men and women lived in Ancient Rome
4.1, 4.5 / Lesson 9: In Class Task (School) and Roman Family and Food
In class task:
Part A - Students are to read through the source on school in Ancient Rome and answer the five questions about it.
Part B - Students are to use the information in the source and their own knowledge to write a diary entry or letter to a friend talking about schooling in Ancient Rome.
Read through information on Retroactive p. 102 ‘The Roman Family’ and answer CYU questions 2a and 2b (page 105)
Read p. 104 ‘Food and Eating’ and summarise the differences/ similarities between what Romans ate and we eat in 4-6 sentences. / In class task
Diary entries/ Letters
Answers to questions
Summaries - eating / Retroactive 1 / Explicit Quality Criteria / 17/3/09
Students learn about:
- daily life of men and women in Ancient Rome / Students learn to:
describe how both men and women lived in Ancient Rome
4.1, 4.8 / (Lessons 10, 11, 12): Government and Social Class in Ancient Rome
Teacher to complete a RTL cycle on the passage Rome’s Government
Preparing for Reading
Detailed Reading
Note Taking
Joint Rewrite
Individual Rewrite / SMARTBOARD
Highlighters
Paper / Class set of RTL passage / Deep knowledge
Social support
Background knowledge / 5/3/09
19/3/09
2/4/09
Students learn about:
- civics and citizenship in Ancient Rome / Students learn to:
describe the way in which the people of Ancient Rome were governed
4.1, 4.5, 4.8, 4.10 / Lesson 13, 14: Gladiators
Students to use the computers to complete questions on ‘Your Wouldn’t Want to be a gladiator (sheet: Gladiators). After the whole class is finished this, teacher to screen excerpts from the DVD , and students are to answer the questions either discussion/ or in their workbooks.
Students to read through excerpt from ‘A Voice in the Wind’ and complete Venn diagram and drawing of the Coliseum. / Students answer to questions/ discussion
Venn diagram
Drawing of the Coliseum / Computer Room, DVD Gladiator Class set of ‘A voice in the Wind’ Excerpt / Narrative
Engagement / 25/3/09
8/4/09
Students learn about:
- rights and freedoms / Students learn to:
- describe the rights and freedoms of different groups in Ancient Rome.
4.1, 4.8 and 4.10 / Lesson 15, 16: Assessment Task – Roman Time Capsules
Students are to work independently to complete their time capsule of Roman items. They may present this in anyway they choose. / Student Time Capsules / Computer Room, Text books, Books on Ancient Rome / Explicit Quality Criteria
Student Self direction / 30/3/09
31/3/09
Evaluation of Unit
Teacher Evaluation / Comments/Variations
How did the unit ‘rate’ in these areas? / / /
Time allocated for topic / Ö
Student understanding of content / Ö
Opportunities for student reflection on learning / Ö
Suitability of resources / Ö
Variety of teaching strategies / Ö
Integration of Quality Teaching strategies / Ö
Integration of ICTs / Ö
Literacy strategies used / Ö
Numeracy strategies used / Ö
/ I adapted this program a good deal, because there were quite a lot of board notes. Unfortunately, due to the time we spent at the beginning of the unit, doing the overview I was only able to cover Julius Caesar etc. superficially. This problem could have been solved if I had let students research him as part of the overview at the beginning. Despite the loss of time (with the assessment task, and missed lessons for other reasons), I don’t regret doing things the way that I did, students were highly engaged with the activities, they enjoyed using the computers, and they enjoyed the frequent opportunities afforded them to work in pairs and small groups.
I think that the most successful lesson was probably the one on the Roman gods and goddesses – students were amused and disgusted by their antics.
The students were required to give a number of presentations to the class as a result of my changes to the program, and, as such, there was an emphasis on peers teaching peers, which I think was valuable. I think that if I did this again, I could make a few changes to the PP and the Timeline activity, which would make it even more thorough and (hopefully) engaging.