Journey to Ancient Greece Lesson Plan 2 Questioning Athena Learning Objective Time required Learning Rationale Materials (provided) Materials (Teacher supplied) Background Students will work together as a class to develop criteria to evaluate the depth of prepared questions and the questions they produce, focusing on a statuette of Athena. This lesson is intended as an introduction to indentifying and writing powerful questions before they begin their own research projects in Lesson 3. Three to four hours Students will learn to identify effective questions Students will practice writing powerful research questions Students will further develop their primary-source research skills Students will practice working with graphic organizers, including a mind map and a Venn diagram one research object (reproduction of an ancient Greek statue) Athena statuette - MUSE2009.8 Info Sheet: Athena Parthenos D Aulaire s Book of Greek Myths Ancient Greece Eye Witness book Three worksheets: Athena Mind Map, Questions Criteria and Self- Assessment Checklist (to be duplicated, if desired) copies of the worksheets, if desired copies of the Athena Parthenos Info Sheet, if desired This lesson is adapted from the LearnAlberta.ca lesson: Modelling the Tools: Asking Powerful Questions, available online at: http://www.learnalberta.ca/content/ssmt/html/askingpowerfulquestions_mt.html Before the lesson, prepare the students with background knowledge by asking each student to research and collect five pieces of information about Athena and her role in Athenian society. Students could research in their library, on the Internet, watch a documentary and/or acquire information through material you present in class. Supportive materials included in the Discovery Kit are: D Aulaire Book of Greek Myths (pg. 34), the Ancient Greece (pg. 16-17), and, to be used later in the lesson, an Info Sheet about the Athena Parthenos statue. www.museums.ualberta.ca
Suggested Procedures 1. Show students the Athena Mind Map worksheet or have them use a page in their own notebooks. Tell the students to get together in groups and share the pieces of information they have learned about Athena by filling in the mind map. 2. Elicit pieces of information from each group that are of particular interest to the students and/or information that relates to the role of Athena in ancient Athenian society (e.g. collective identity). 3. Carefully remove the Athena statuette (MUSE2009.8) from the Discovery Kit and explain to the students that it is a miniature replica of a large statue called Athena Parthenos that once stood at the entrance to the Parthenon temple in Athens. Explain to the students that the class will be using this artifact as a primary source to learn more about Athenian society and identity. It may be valuable to share the Info Sheet about Athena Parthenos at this point, to help the students contextualize the statuette. 4. Invite the students to look closely at the statuette and ask them for really good research questions that could be used to study it. Elicit questions onto the board in two lists: if the questions are powerful, put them in the left column. If they are not powerful, put them in the right column. Add the chart headings after the student contributions are finished. Then add prepared powerful questions in the left column (see the sample questions in the T-chart below). sample powerful questions What role did Athena play in Athenian collective identity? How was the location of Athena Parthenos important in ancient Athens? What can the sculpture s material teach us about ancient Athens? What is the significance of the symbols in the statue? sample non-powerful questions Who is she? Where was the sculpture from? What is it made from? Why is there a snake next to Athena?* *note: The above questions are not exhaustive. They are merely a guide. 5. As a class, brainstorm lists of characteristics, or criteria, for identifying powerful and non-powerful questions. The students should complete the Venn diagram on the Question Criteria worksheet or in their own notebooks. www.museums.ualberta.ca
6. Focusing on the powerful question criteria only, have the students get into groups and chose four criteria from the list that they think are the most helpful in identifying a powerful question. 7. Elicit each group s criteria onto the board and refine the list as a class to four criteria (e.g. by grouping like terms under a broader term). Encourage students to include criteria around questions being on topic, focused, and unique (e.g. relevant to what we are studying, gives us information about ancient Athens, teaches us something new). 8. Share with the students the following powerful question criteria developed by another class: give you lots of information are specific to the topic are open-ended; i.e. can t be answered by yes or no may be unexpected are usually not easy to answer 9. Ask students to write research questions about the Athena Parthenos statuette, using their Athena Mind Map to help generate ideas. Encourage the students to keep the criteria they have developed in mind. 10. Show students the Self-Assessment Checklist (note: This can be filled out with the powerful question criteria list generated by the students or the prepared Learn Alberta version). As a class, work through the checklist with a question on the board. Emphasize the importance of evidence (explaining why a question does or does not meet criteria) and add student contributions to the chart. Not all questions that match the criteria are powerful and some powerful questions might not fit all of the criteria. 11. Provide students with the Self-Assessment Checklist and have them work through the research questions they have written. 12. Elicit examples of powerful questions written by the students to check for understanding. Continuing the Journey Have students work in partners to put the questions on the board through the Self--Assessment Checklist to distill a final list of powerful research questions for the Athena Parthenos artifact. Have students select their most effective the powerful research question and explain how that question fits the criteria for a powerful question. www.museums.ualberta.ca
Journey to Ancient Greece - Athena Work with your group and make a mind map of pieces of information you have learned about Athena. Athena Lesson 2 - Athena Mind Map Worksheet
Journey to Ancient Greece - Athena powerful questions non-powerful questions Lesson 2 - Question Criteria Worksheet
Journey to Ancient Greece - Athena Lesson 2 - Student Self-Assessment Checklist: How powerful are my questions? This is one of my research questions: Is the question: Yes, because... No, but here s how I can make it better: On topic? Will it give me information I need? Open-ended? Will it give me more than a one-word answer? Engaging? Will it give me interesting information? Respectful? Will it be appropriate to ask the question? This is my powerful research question: *Note: Self-Assessment Checklist is adapted from Learn Alberta Modelling the Tools: Asking Powerful Questions www.learnalberta.ca
Journey to Ancient Greece - Athena Lesson 2 - Student Self-Assessment Checklist: How powerful are my questions? This is one of my research questions: Powerful Question Criteria Is the question: Yes, because... No, but here s how I can make it better: This is my powerful research question: *Note: Self-Assessment Checklist chart is adapted from Learn Alberta Modelling the Tools: Asking Powerful Questions www.learnalberta.ca
Info Sheet Athena Parthenos Statuette (MUSE 2009.8) Athena is the ancient Greek goddess of wisdom, war, and handicrafts. According to Greek myth, she was chosen by the Athenian people to be their patron goddess after a contest with the god Poseidon. She offered the Athenians the gift of an olive tree, while Poseidon offered a salt water spring. The Athenian people thought Athena s gift was better and chose her to be their patron goddess. Olive trees and olive oil played an important role in ancient Greek religion, society, and economy. The symbol of Athena can be found on ancient Greek coins, pottery, and buildings. Images of Athena often show her as a female warrior. She is also represented by an owl, her special bird. This statuette is a small reproduction of a famous sculpture called Athena Parthenos. The original sculpture was created by one of the most famous sculptors of the ancient world, a Greek artist named Pheidias. He built Athena Parthenos from about 447 to 438 BCE. The statue was made from marble and covered in gold. It stood 42 feet high at the entrance to the Parthenon temple in ancient Athens. The Athenians built the Parthenon to shelter and worship Athena as she watched over the citizens of Athens. Athena Parthenos overlooked Athens for around one thousand years until the statue was transported to Constantinople in about 465 CE. American School of Classical Studies at Athens: Agora Excavations. Above: A reproduction sculpture of Athena Parthenos. It was created by archaeologists, artists, and curators at the Royal Ontario Museum in the 1970s. Why do archaeologists create reproductions? American School of Classical Studies at Athens: Agora Excavations. American School of Classical Studies at Athens: Agora Excavations. Above and above right: Two photographs of the Parthenon temple in Athens. These images were taken by archaeologists in the 1950s. In the picture on the left you can see the modern city of Athens in the background. Which photograph is a better source of information for our research?