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| Home | Intro | Tasks | Discussion Log | Resource | Evaluation | Conclusion | For Teachers |
For the Teachers!
Teacher,
This lesson is designed to be a Problem Based Unit where the children are encouraged in inquiry and discovery. Your role is "coach." Try to let the children work through each task with guided questions from you. Good questions to ask for problem based lessons are below. I am not giving daily lesson plans because I believe each classroom is unique and the "tasks" alone will guide you in your daily choices. Be aware of your classroom climate and set time limits/deadlines reasonable for your classroom setting. Also on this page is the project template or framework from which this unit is developed. To better understand this teaching technique, you might want to read:
Torp, L & S. Sage. (2002) Problems as Possibilities: Problems-Based Learning for K-16. ASCD: Alexandria, VA.
Good Question Techniques:
Questions to Ask Chart!!: http://www-ed.fnal.gov/trc/tutorial/taxonomy.html
The following table has been adapted from:
Paul, Richard, Critical Thinking: How to Prepare Students for a Rapidly Changing World, 1993.
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Questions that Probe Reasons and Evidence |
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Questions of Clarification |
Questions that Probe Assumptions |
Questions that Probe Reasons and Evidence |
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What do you mean by ____? What is your main point? How does _____ relate to _____? Could you put that another way? Is your basic point _____ or _____? What do you think is the main issue here? Let me see if I understand you; do you mean _____ or _____? How does this relate to our problem/discussion/issue? What do you, Mike, mean by this remark? What do you take Mike to mean by his remark? Jane, can you summarize in your own words what Richard said? . . . Richard, is this what you meant? Could you give me an example? Would this be an example, . . .? Could you explain this further? Would you say more about that? Why do you say that? |
What are you assuming? What is Jenny assuming? What could we assume instead? You seem to be assuming _____. Do I understand you correctly? All of your reasoning depends on the idea that _____. Why have you based your reasoning on _____ instead of _____? You seem to be assuming _____. How do you justify taking that for granted? Is that always the case? Why do you think the assumption holds here? Why would someone make that assumption? |
What would be an example? How do you know? Why do you think that is true? Do you have any evidence for that? What difference does that make? What are your reasons for saying that? What other information do you need? Could you explain your reasons to us? Are these reasons adequate? Why do you say that? What led you to that belief? How does that apply to this case? What would change your mind? But, is that good evidence for that belief? Is there a reason to doubt that evidence? Who is in a position to know that is true? What would you say to someone who said that ____? Can someone else give evidence to support that view? By what reasoning did you come to that conclusion? How could we find out if that is true? |
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Questions about Viewpoints or Perspectives |
Questions that Probe Implications and Consequences |
Questions about the Question |
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The term "imply" will require clarification when
used with younger students. What are you implying by that? When you say _____, are you implying _____? But, if that happened, what else would happen as a result? Why? What effect would that have? Would that necessarily happen or only possibly/probably happen? What is an alternative? If _____ and _____ are the case, then what might also be true? If we say that ____ is ethical, how about _____? |
How can we find out? What does this question assume? Would _____ ask this question differently? How could someone settle this question? Can we break this question down at all? Is this question clear? Do we understand it? Is this question easy or hard to answer? Why? Does this question ask us to evaluate something? What? Do we all agree that this is the question? To answer this question, what other questions must we answer first? I'm not sure I understand how you are interpreting this question. Is this the same as _____? How would _____ state the issue? Why is this issue important? Is this the most important question, or is there an underlying question that is really the issue? |
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Project Template
Ancient Egyptian Civilization
Identify Desired Results:
What overarching understandings are desired?
The desire is for the students to be able to describe the development of the Ancient Egyptian civilization, and explain how these developments affect us today.
What are the overarching “essential” questions?
How are we products of our past and how might we affect the future?
What will students understand as a result of this
unit?
The students will be able to understand, design, and defend a web-based proposal of how our current living habits, communication development, and technological & medical advancements are influenced by the Ancient Egyptian Civilization and will speculate how our Western Civilization might hypothetically influence the future.
What “essential” and “unit” questions will focus this unit?
Essential questions:
· How and why do people come up with systems to function in societies?
· How and why do humans communicate?
· Are we products of our pasts?
· How will we affect the future?
· What are some driving forces behind new inventions and advancements?
· Are we products of our pasts?
· How will we affect the future?
Unit questions:
Determine Acceptable Evidence
What evidence will show that students understand: _the development of the Ancient Egyptian civilization and how these developments affect us today.
Performance Tasks, Projects
1. Museum Curators Biding to Acquire a Job of Designing a Virtual Museum: After grouping the students into focus groups, they will become experts in various aspects of Ancient Egypt (daily lives, communication, science/medicine discoveries, and keeping track of time). They will come up with a design of how they would display these artifacts to portray the Ancient Egyptian Civilization and how they have influenced our civilization. Come together as a whole class to create the final virtual museum proposal for the exhibit.
2. Daily Lives: After researching the Ancient Egyptian Daily Lives via nonfiction picture books, National Geographic articles, textbook information, and several internet sites, the students will write a report, including graphics, in Word on common Ancient Egyptian activities and practices and how those affect or influence the way we do things now. Put it in a format that will help you with your final project - virtual museum exhibit proposal.
3. Hieroglyphics: (1)Research Egyptian communication. The students must log discoveries on the online discussion board. (2) To empathize with the Egyptian writing process, the students will write a message using hieroglyphics online. The instructions and graphics to use are on the website below. (3) Then the students need to explain the process of how we write today; i.e. left to right, phonic sounds, etc. Compare and contrast the Egyptian writing process with Modern Western civilization. http://www.neferchichi.com/hieroglyphs.html Using graphic, write up your discoveries in Word and their relation to our Western civilization of today. Save these for their end project.
4. Cut it Open! : Research Egyptian science and medical discoveries. http://www.touregypt.net/science.htm , http://www.elismorrowsch.com/classroomnews/lp6scien.htm , http://www.arabworldbooks.com/articles8.htm , http://showcase.netins.net/web/ankh/sekhmetnew.html , http://www.crystalinks.com/egyptscience.html , http://www.schoolshistory.org.uk/ancientegyptianmedicine.htm , http://puffin.creighton.edu/museums/greiner/ Log in online journal all of your discoveries. What influence have these discoveries and practices had on our current civilization? Using the Word, write up a report using graphics for your virtual museum explaining these connections.
5. Egyptian Math and Calendar: Using the Egyptian number chart, http://www.dia.org/education/egypt-teachers/mathsci/tanke/numchart.htm , the Mayan numbering system, http://www.psinvention.com/zoetic/base20.htm , and the Sumerian culture numbering system, http://www.psinvention.com/zoetic/base60.htm , compare and contrast. Research the Egyptian calendar: http://www.touregypt.net/magazine/mag03012001/magf1.htm and http://hometown.aol.com/timeemits/webpage/aoa/aegyptc.htm Compare and contrast with our current calendar and the age of Enoch calendar Gen.5:23. Propose why and how we use the numbering system and calendar of today (online journal). What are the similarities and what are the differences. How has the Egyptian calendar and numbering system influenced us today? Using Word and graphics, write up the discoveries you found and the connections they make to today's practices. Keep your end project, the virtual museum exhibit proposal, in mind when compiling this data.
6. Time Capsule: The students will design a list of current items linked to Ancient Egyptian daily lives and how they are linked. Then they will speculate about future civilizations and what they will have and link from us. Compile a short list online of what we should put in our time capsule for future civilizations to understand our daily lives and explain why you chose these items. Choose no more than 10.
Quizzes, Texts, Academic Prompts
Quiz: The 8 basic elements of a civilization: language, religion, etc.
Quiz on key developments of Ancient Egypt.
Other Evidence
1. Log (online journals): The students keep a log online, as they investigate, of the various developments in Ancient Egypt that remind them of something current. Jot down similarities and differences. They also must log in their journals their findings when in their expert groups (for example, medical discoveries-knew the heart was vital but they did not consider the brain.)
2. Pyramid Poem: The students will develop a pyramid shaped poem using words progressively to show the link to current times. (creative – affective side) The poem must show the links from Ancient Egypt to current Western civilization. Bonus individual project in the end.
3. Background Information: Before beginning the tasks above, the students will become familiar with the Egyptian time line in History, the Geographic region on a map, and the climate of the area. This is to establish some background knowledge and get some big picture understanding of Egypt and its place in the world. Log findings on class discussion board.
Student Self-Assessment
1. Self assess their cooperative learning online rubric
2. Self assess their hieroglyphic message and online journal accounts.
3. Self assess their museum proposal and their part in it. (Teacher will assess as well)
4. Self assess their growth or change in perspectives.
Plan Learning Experiences and Instruction
Given the targeted understanding, other unit goals, and the assessment evidence identified, what knowledge and skill are needed?
Students will need to know…..
Key elements that make up a civilization
The physical and regional qualities of Egypt in comparison to other areas, i.e. climate, the timeline of history and geography of Egypt
What archeologists do and understand the concept of speculation and perspective
Students will need to be able to ….
Navigate through websites
Read reports of Egypt on internet sites and determine credibility if not used from our Resource page.
Cut and Paste graphics into word
Email and log online
What teaching and learning experiences will equip students to demonstrate the targeted understandings?
Explanation: The students will describe and defend their proposal for a virtual Ancient Egyptian exhibit by explaining the various problem/solution issues the Egyptians were faced with and how their solutions affected us today.
Interpretation: After reading several non fiction children’s books, newspaper articles, the textbook, magazine articles, and internet sites, the students will analyze the different human speculations and interpret how the Egyptians might have met their basic needs, communicated, and developed new ways to do things and how that affects us today.
Application: To see if they can apply what they learned, I will give them a problem/solution situation (constructing a proposal for a virtual museum exhibit) and let them work in teams to design a proposal online showing what they learn of the ancient Egyptian culture and how that influences us today.
Perspective: The students will explore the different points of view of archeologists and their speculations on the Ancient Egyptian culture. What makes one more credible than another? What do they use as evidence to back up their speculations?
Empathy: The class could be divided into 4 teams and each team given an Egyptian problem of meeting basic needs (irrigation), communicating (hieroglyphics), science/medical issues (centrality of the heart and surgery) or keeping track of time (calendar/math-base ten). They will have to work together to first try to devise solutions on their own (report these in the online journals) and then explore how the Egyptians solved these problems (record in online journals). Working together to find solutions to a difficult problem will help them build empathy to how difficult it could have been for this civilization. Let them brainstorm problems in our current civilization and speculate on possible solutions. How could this affect future generations or civilizations? (reflect in online journal)
Self-knowledge: Using the rubric and journal reflections, self evaluate their growth in understanding the Egyptians, archeologists and their own point of view. What were your beliefs before this unit? What are they now? How has this understanding rid you of some biases?
W H E R E Sequence
Topic: Early Civilizations – The Egyptians
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WHERE Sequence |
Application for My Topic Area |
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Where are we headed? |
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Hooks |
· (Web-based hook) Professor Zahi Hawass, world famous archeologist, uncovered some new Egyptian artifacts. Working for the Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University, the Mayor of Atlanta wants you and your team to draw up a proposal for a special exhibition in order to be the host city museum for these never before seen Ancient Egyptian treasures. Hawass insists the exhibit must reflect The Ancient Egyptian Civilization effects on Western culture. · OR---Begin unit with a “quote.” -- “Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it. “- George Santayana. What does this mean???
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Explore and Equip |
http://emuseum.mnsu.edu/prehistory/egypt/index.shtml http://www.civilization.ca/civil/egypt/egcivile.html http://www2.sptimes.com/Egypt/EgyptCredit.4.html The Egyptian News by Scott Steedman Hatshepsut, His Majesty, Herself by Catherine M. Andronik, Joseph Daniel Fiedler (illustrator)
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Refine and Think |
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Exhibit and evaluate |
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Evaluation Rubrics
Topic: Early Civilizations-The Egyptians Understanding: students understand the development of the Ancient Egyptian
Civilization and how these developments effect us today.
Activity: Museum Curators Biding for the Job: After working in focus groups gathering information and understanding roles of Egyptians, the students will each present a design/plan of an exhibit displaying The Ancient Egyptian Civilization and how that exhibit will exemplify the Egyptian effect on the Western Civilization of today.
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Explanation |
Interpretation |
Application |
Perspective |
Empathy |
Self-knowledge |
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Sophisticated: The student gave a superbly, coherent, justified account of how and why he designed the exhibit on Ancient Egypt to show with graphics and text rich detail on their developments ; especially thorough explanation was fully supported, deep and broad; clearly stated and insightful links to the effects of today. |
Profound: The student’s analysis of facts into the development of the Egyptian civilization was rich and insightful; interpretation provided support from more than 7 sources to reinforce their claims; made distinctions of differences in speculations; astute links to today. |
Masterful: The student’s demonstrated proficient and effective clarity in portraying the Ancient Egyptian developments and illustrated specific linkage to today in their proposal; deliberate flexibility shown in problem solving within several difficult contexts. |
Insightful: The student’s proposal encompasses several view points within The Egyptian culture and of speculations made by archaeologists; Several perspectives were explored at length and critical views of issues were included with insightful linkage. |
Mature: The student was able to see and feel what it was like to speculate clearly of our past. They were willing to place themselves in various roles to broadly consider others; sensitive to differences in Egyptian thoughts and archaeologists dilemma of speculation. |
Wise: The student was very aware of their understanding; knew to ask for clarification; understanding of those around; willing to recognize any prejudices in prior knowledge. |
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In-depth: The student provided a well developed account of the developments in Ancient Egypt; made good connections to our current times and supported his arguments with independent thinking. |
Revealing: Interpretations and analysis on Egyptian information was significant in scope and insightfully provided subtle differences in speculation; consulted several sources and richly pulled together various perspectives into a coherent whole and linked to today. |
Skilled: The student was adept in demonstrating their knowledge of the Egyptian culture and its effects on today in a variety of demanding contexts within their proposal. |
Thorough: The student revealed a critical view of the roles in Ancient Egypt while considering other perspectives and their plausibility; perspectives were considered in views of affects on today.
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Sensitive: The student was able to see and feel what others thought in Egypt and in archaeologist speculation; were open to differences and unusual factors. |
Circumspect: The student was aware when he did not understand and when others needed clarification as well; knew his strengths of Egyptian knowledge and gaps present. |
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Developed: The student gave an account with some in-depth and individualized ideas. The design demonstrated common Egyptian developments but clarification of the link to today was insufficient. |
Perceptive: The student gave a helpful interpretation of speculations made from many sources. Provided interesting facts but little meaningful interpretation to effects on today. |
Able: The student was able to produce a proposal for an exhibit in key areas of Egyptian culture; adaptive to different contexts; some useful linkage shown to today; |
Considered: Sufficient consideration was given to the various roles in Ancient Egypt; acknowledgements of plausibility of other points of view of archaeologists were considered. |
Aware: The student was aware that others see and feel differently; somewhat felt what it was like to be in various roles in Egypt and an archaeologist making speculations; Had trouble identifying with the unusual. |
Thoughtful: The student was generally aware of what was understood individually and as a group; conscious of how his prior knowledge and beliefs shaped his views of the Egyptian culture. |
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Intuitive: The student presented a partial account with good ideas for his Museum design; connections were not made with the current times and independent thinking was not evident. |
Interpreted: Made a plausible analysis of Egyptian information from some sources. Linkage to today was vague but attempted. |
Apprentice: The student produced a proposal with limited product; prompting was necessary; proposal reflected only simple context with little bridge to today. |
Aware: The student was aware of other points of view in the Egyptian culture and of archaeologist, but did not let it affect their perspective; were not sensitive to assumptions. |
Developing: The student felt a little bit of what it was like to be an Egyptian or archaeologist but, for the most part, still saw things from own view. |
Unreflective: The student was generally unaware of lack of understanding; unaware of the influence of one’s prejudices towards the Egyptian culture. |
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Naïve: The student gave a general design plan on an Egyptian exhibit with little detail or link to today. Facts were very basic and ideas were not cohesive. |
Literal: The student made simple readings of facts on Ancient Egypt; Little or no interpretation on speculation or on affects of today. Only general connections, i.e. they had writing, we have writing. |
Novice: Only produced a proposal with coaching; applied scripted knowledge alone; no linkage to today evident. |
Uncritical: The student was unaware of other points of view; did not explore various roles and ignored various perspectives of other archaeologists. |
Egocentric: The student was not able to relate or feel like an Egyptian or archaeologist; ignored or felt threatened by anything different or unusual. |
Innocent: The student was completely unaware of their own understanding and the role of their prejudgments on the Egyptian culture. |
Cooperative Learning Project Rubric A: Process
Name: ______________________________
Date: _______________
Class: ________________________________________
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Exceptional |
Admirable |
Acceptable |
Amateur |
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Group Participation |
All students enthusiastically participate |
At least 3/4 of students actively participate |
At least half the students confer or present ideas |
Only one or two persons actively participate |
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Shared Responsibility |
Responsibility for task is shared evenly |
Responsibility is shared by most group members |
Responsibility is shared by 1/2 the group members |
Exclusive reliance on one person |
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Quality of Interaction |
Excellent listening and leadership skills exhibited; students reflect awareness of others' views and opinions in their discussions |
Students show adeptness in interacting; lively discussion centers on the task |
Some ability to interact; attentive listening; some evidence of discussion or alternatives |
Little interaction; very brief conversations; some students were disinterested or distracted |
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Roles Within Group |
Each student assigned a clearly defined role; group members perform roles effectively |
Each student assigned a role but roles not clearly defined or consistently adhered to |
Students assigned roles but roles were not consistently adhered to |
No effort made to assign roles to group members |
Cooperative Learning Project
Evaluation Form A: Process
Name: ______________________________
Date: _______________
Class: ________________________________________
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Exceptional |
Admirable |
Acceptable |
Amateur |
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Group Participation |
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Shared Responsibility |
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Quality of Interaction |
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Roles Within Group |
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COMMENTS:
Cooperative Learning Project Rubric B: Outcome or Product
Name: ______________________________
Date: _______________
Class: ________________________________________
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Exceptional |
Admirable |
Acceptable |
Amateur |
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Organization |
Extremely well organized; logical format that was easy to follow; flowed smoothly from one idea to another and cleverly conveyed; the organization enhanced the effectiveness of the project |
Presented in a thoughtful manner; there were signs of organization and most transitions were easy to follow, but at times ideas were unclear |
Somewhat organized; ideas were not presented coherently and transitions were not always smooth, which at times distracted the audience |
Choppy and confusing; format was difficult to follow; transitions of ideas were abrupt and seriously distracted the audience |
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Content Accuracy |
Completely accurate; all facts were precise and explicit |
Mostly accurate; a few inconsistencies or errors in information |
Somewhat accurate; more than a few inconsistencies or errors in information |
Completely inaccurate; the facts in this project were misleading to the audience |
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Research |
Went above and beyond to research information; solicited material in addition to what was provided; brought in personal ideas and information to enhance project; and utilized more than eight types of resources to make project effective |
Did a very good job of researching; utilized materials provided to their full potential; solicited more than six types of research to enhance project; at times took the initiative to find information outside of school |
Used the material provided in an acceptable manner, but did not consult any additional resources |
Did not utilize resources effectively; did little or no fact gathering on the topic |
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Creativity |
Was extremely clever and presented with originality; a unique approach that truly enhanced the project |
Was clever at times; thoughtfully and uniquely presented |
Added a few original touches to enhance the project but did not incorporate it throughout |
Little creative energy used during this project; was bland, predictable, and lacked "zip" |
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Presentation Mechanics |
Was engaging, provocative, and captured the interest of the audience and maintained this throughout the entire presentation; great variety of visual aids and multimedia; visual aids were colorful and clear |
Was well done and interesting to the audience; was presented in a unique manner and was very well organized; some use of visual aids |
Was at times interesting and was presented clearly and precisely; was clever at times and was organized in a logical manner; limited variety of visual aids and visual aids were not colorful or clear |
Was not organized effectively; was not easy to follow and did not keep the audience interested; no use of visual aids |
Cooperative Learning Project Evaluation Form B: Product
Name: ______________________________
Date: _______________
Class: ________________________________________
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Exceptional |
Admirable |
Acceptable |
Amateur |
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Organization |
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Content Accuracy |
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Research |
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Creativity |
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Presentation Mechanics |
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COMMENTS: