Lesson Plan

Do You "Remember the Time"?

Erin Estrup and Erika Reyes

Think Model #6 Concept Jigsaw Puzzle

Topic: Ancient Egypt

Old Method: Most teachers already have lesson plans in place for covering ancient Egypt, usually a prepared lecture where students hear about some famous pharaohs and look at pictures of Egyptian art. Ancient Egypt is fascinating to many children, with mummies, pyramids, hieroglyphs, and interesting wall art, but it is difficult to link to the modern world or current events and as such, often becomes a boring unit educators rush through to get to the ancient Greeks and the invention of Democracy.

Overview: This unit is designed to be taught collaboratively by the classroom teacher and the teacher librarian. It is also intended to be taught using the resources in the "Rooms" housed in this site that are curated by both educators. Combining levels of expertise with pedagogy, content knowledge, teaching strategies, inquiry, curation, databases, Boolean operators, research, and educational technology enhances learning experiences that have been designed in the co-development of the unit by both educators.

Using “memory” as a theme to explore ancient Egypt will allow educators to tie the ancient past with current debates about statues and statue removal, discussing the difference between the erasure of history and removal of a daily reminder of a painful past to a more appropriate setting – like a museum, where they become historical artifacts to be studied in historical context. Discussions of erasure in history can be used in other units and a year end project into 'forgotten or erased history' would be a recommended goal. Additional bonus to this unit is building self-esteem with the Big Think obelisk assignment.

Learning Objectives & Assessment

Content Knowledge

(What learners need to know and be able to do as individuals and as collaborative groups -may come from national, state, or local mandates, student input...)

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.7 - Integration of knowledge and ideas - Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media formats including visually and quantitatively as well as in words.

• ISTE Standard 3a Knowledge Constructor - Students plan and employ effective research strategies to locate information and other resources for their intellectual or creative pursuits.

• ISTE Standard 3d Knowledge Constructor - Students build knowledge by actively exploring real-world issues and problems, developing ideas and theories and pursuing answers and solutions.

Process Objectives

(What just in time skills and technology will be folded into this objective to give a boost to what individuals and collaborative student groups know and are able to do - may come from national, state, or local mandates, student input?)

• Utilize online catalogs and search engines to discover diverse media formats such as written text, video, and interactive sites such as museums and archives to source relevant data.

• Use a shared document to gather information about their sources in a graphic organizer.

• Develop deep understanding rather than surface knowledge

• Cooperative learning

• Students will use Boolean Operators to refine search results in databases

• Students will utilize search strategies and fact-check images

Resource Videos:

https://www.commonsense.org/education/videos/google-search-tricks-for-research

https://www.commonsense.org/education/videos/how-to-use-google-reverse-image-search-to-fact-check-images

Assessment

What formative and summative measures will be used by the partners to gauge the objectives above?

(May come from national, state, or local mandates, student input?)

• Build expertise about topic

• Use a rich variety of sources

• Students will refer to the three or more sources from their research on their graphic organizer

• Students will integrate photographs, videos, or other media in their research journey/product to support understanding of the topic

• Collect adequate, relevant and accurate data

• Students will note their search strategy(ies) in the graphic organizer they use to gather information from their sources

• Construct new ideas creatively and collaboratively

Other Objectives to Watch

(These objectives will not receive the main focus of attention but may come to our attention during the learning experience. If any of them appear as problems, we may have to regroup during the learning experience to back tract a bit before proceeding; or, we might move more quickly if we observe that the learners are performing better than we expected. We may have to personalize learning a bit more depending on the progress of either learners or groups of learners. This could apply to either hard or soft skill progress, language difficulties, cultural factors, or school environmental disruptions, student input?)

• Develop group norms/skills including interdependence and accountability

• Stimulate each learner into making a contribution/group roles & responsibilities

• Encourage divergent thinking

• Connections to personal/cultural practices

Graphical Chart/Flow Chart

Learning Activities

Phase 1: Introduction/Background -

This phase can be implemented as a whole class activity with both the teacher and teacher librarian taking on parts of the lesson delivery and or by parallel teaching smaller groups to ensure student understanding and participation.

Memory and being remembered was important to ancient Egyptians. Throughout the history of Ancient Egypt, monuments were erected to celebrate individuals, usually Pharaohs. For more regular folks, a simple tomb and mummification was still an option. Today we remember people through tombstones, monuments, and history books.

• Activity - Have class brainstorm on other ways we remember important people and people we love.

Phase 2a: Engaging Question -

Both the classroom teacher and teacher librarian monitor group collaborations and add any necessary accommodations and scaffolds to support group success based on student needs. Both teachers also divide and share responsibility in commenting on student Google Docs to provide guidance or ask probing questions for their research.

Sort class into groups. Each group will focus on a specific individual and object as well as a broader topic relating to that person or object devoted to their memory (listed below). The students should ask the following questions: Did this object/monument do its job? Was the person remembered? How has that memory changed since this person lived?

1. King Khufu (aka Cheops) and the Great Pyramid - Students reference the history of pyramid building and the current consensus of Egyptologists on how they may have been constructed.

2. Hatshepsut and the mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri - Students look at Thutmose III and possible attempts at Hatshepsut-erasure including burying the great obelisks at the Temple of Karnak.

3. King Tutankhamun and his Tomb - Students look at the Valley of the Kings and think about how one could be remembered if everything is hidden – Did memory need to be seen by the public or is recording one's deeds enough?

4. Ramses II (aka Ramses the Great) and Abu Simbal - Students read Ozymandias by Shelley and think about the construction of monuments to preserve memory.

5. Cleopatra and the Vatican Museum statue of Cleopatra VII - Students think about all the ways Cleopatra’s memory has been preserved in art and text, and how we think about her has changed over time.

Activity - Students will research to uncover information and use shared Google Docs to take notes and collect information about their sources.

Culminating Experience

Phase 2b: Presentation of a second question requiring combined experience to solve -

The teacher and teacher librarian model/review group norms and monitor/support small group collaboration. Teachers collaboratively share the responsibility to create screencasts modeling research strategies and the application of technology tools for their "History Channel Special" as scaffolds. Students can access and use these at any time and as many times as needed.

Jigsaw class into new groups. Each new group should have at least one student from each of the Phase 2a groups. These new groups need to discuss the following questions:

• Who controls memory? Can you control what others remember about you?

• Do monuments help people remember someone?

• Is memory static or does it change?

• Which of the topics was most effective at preserving memory? Use examples from what you studied to explain your answer. Listen to each other answer the questions.

Activity: Have each group pretend they are Egyptologists who just stumbled upon a previously unknown pharaoh and his/her monument. Have them design a monument to this "new" pharaoh using the best bits of the monuments they have all studied. Have the groups share this new discovery with the class using multimedia technology.

The class creates a "History Channel Special" about Ancient Egypt and the Preservation of Memory by collecting all group collaborations together. This can be shared/swapped with another class to view or published in a Digital Class Newsletter that is shared with families and/or administrators. Both teachers can support groups in person or via Zoom.

Students may create National Geographic interviews, travel advertisements, or something of their choice that fits the context (requires a pitch to both teachers and approval).

Summative Assessment

Is new knowledge evidenced in their contributions and presentation/product?

Did the students ...

• participate in forming research questions?

• locate data and check for relevance and reliability?

• participate in the creation of a new monument using effective/learned techniques?

• participate in the presentation?

Both teachers share the assessment responsibilities for the class.

The Big Think: Active Discussion

Additional Strategies:

• Higher Order Thinking

• New problem or challenge

• Re-create

Phase 3: Reconfigure class one more time/have kids resume their seats. Ask the class the questions from Phase 2b and have them answer - write different thoughts on chart paper.

The teachers can structure this activity by first setting up sharing with only one partner (think-pair-share) and then having that pair join another pair adding more voices and ideas to the discussion. Teachers can then facilitate a whole-group discussion. One teacher elicits ideas from the class, while the other writes on chart paper or on a Google Doc by sharing their screen on Zoom.

Now change the topic to current events and the current push to remove statues of “heroes” of the confederacy. Ask questions such as:

• What does it mean to erect a statue?

• Why does that hurt some people sometimes?

• Should we take these statues down? If we do, what should be done with these statues?

• Should these statues be destroyed? What about moving them to a museum where they can be put into a historical context?

• Does removal of the statues mean we won’t remember the Civil War or other events/people?

Homework/Independent Application Activity: Have the students each make a paper obelisk (a roll of painters paper cut to four feet lengths – Trimaco 12’ x 180 ft craft masking paper costs less than $4 at Lowe’s - or any other readily available items they can find at home and reuse for a new purpose) that list 10 things that they would like to be remembered for. Examples: I love my cat. I am good at sports. Have them talk to friends and family if they get stumped. Hang the obelisks in the classroom/in the library/or have them hang them at home so that they have something to remember the good things about themselves when things get difficult.

Defense

This lesson plan involves active participation from students; more than is required from a traditional history lecture. Students are introduced to the concept of "historical research" and are tasked with becoming "experts" on a particular Pharaoh and monument(s).

During the second phase of the exercise, when the students are reorganized, each student now becomes the "resident expert" and must present their research to their peers. Combining their expertise, the students then explore new questions that cannot be answered without group participation. Several of the activities include imagination and innovation, combined with technology. The Big Think at the end of the unit is designed to link history to the present in a relevant way.

This lesson can be adapted to be implemented in the traditional classroom setting, a hybrid model with a combination of in-class and online structure, as well as completely online. This Google Site serves as the hub for all documents, tools, and resources for this unit making the adaptation to a hybrid and online/distance learning experience feasible.

Traditional In-Person Learning - Teachers can carry out the learning experiences in the classroom or library/learning commons setting. The library/learning commons setting facilitates access to books and/or other resources to supplement the research aspect. It also serves to provide more accessibility to technology, depending on the school set up and whether or not classrooms have access to Chromebooks, IPads, and other technology tools. Lesson phases/learning activities can also be organized based on mutual agreement of the teachers as parallel teaching, station teaching, team teaching, alternate teaching, or one teach one assist to support learners in their learning.

Hybrid Model - Teachers can organize learning experiences using a Flipped Classroom Model where students complete the self-directed discovery learning during online/distance learning days and focus on group collaboration, knowledge construction, and creation type activities while learning in-person. The library/library commons space can be reserved for in-person learning time. Students can also work collaboratively online using their shared documents and both teachers can provide real-time feedback using the comment feature on Google Suite documents. A class discussion board using a Learning Management System (LMS) or Padlet, can also serve to build on each other's learning, clarify any misconceptions, and/or to provide guidance/examples.

Online/Distance Learning - Teachers can follow the suggested applications for implementation in the hybrid model when teaching completely online. Aside from the methods already mentioned, both teachers can engage learners using breakout rooms in Zoom meetings for partner/group collaboration. Research can also include accessing online databases, ebooks (including those that can be accessed from public libraries), and the Explore Tool within Google Docs and Slides. Phone calls can also be another option for middle school students to communicate about their work.