Unit Map Ancient Egypt, 6 th Grade Mon Tues Wed Student Activities Comparing the hieroglyphic to written English and ASL by using Venn diagram. Translate and define the vocabulary of the types of writing contained in the pyramids. Play a game to show some facts or achievements of Ramses the Great. Writing systems Hieroglyphics language One-Week Unit Organizer Ancient Egypt Masterpieces of Ancient Egypt Thurs Fri Make a Mummy in the classroom. Create a museum in the classroom. Writing on the Pyramids Ramses the Great Mummy of Ramses the Great UNIT ASSESSMENT: Students will display through a method of their choosing knowledge of the following: Hieroglyphics language, and Pyramids secrets, the major accomplishments of Ramses the Great, the way to keep the mummy in good condition, and create a museum. OVERALL OBJECTIVES FOR THE UNIT: Students will be able to demonstrate their knowledge of,, comparing hieroglyphic to written English and ASL, understanding of the types of writing contained in the pyramids, how the pyramids stored information, know information about the life of Ramses the Great, and his major accomplishments, collaborate together to make a mummy, and create a museum. GRADE LEVEL STANDARDS FOR THE UNIT: 6.2. 9 Trace the evolution of language and its written forms. 6.2.5: Discuss the main features of Egyptian art. Word Analysis, Fluency, and Systematic Vocabulary Development. 6.2.7: Understand the significance of Ramses the Great. Speaking Applications 2.4 Deliver persuasive presentations. 1
I designed this unit plan for the 6th grade, I will focus on the Ancient Egypt writing system and how the scripts on the Pyramids and tombs' wall express a lot of information, facts, secrets, and events. Also, students will learn some facts and accomplishments of Ramses the Great, some secrets about his body and some other mummies, and end to create a museum in the classroom. I designed this unit for history class and in the same time I will include writing, and presentation skills in this unit as basic part of it. This unit will be for a deaf classroom, which means the sign language is the only language in the classroom. Therefore, this unit includes some vocabulary to meet the lack of the vocabulary of deaf students. This unit focuses on the writing system of Ancient Egypt and from this point I chose my daily topics by linking each topic to the one that we discussed before, and all the lessons come under the Ancient Egypt. I didn't mention to Ancient Egypt in general, I just picked up some topic that related to writing and what do scripts mean. 2
Unit Plan on Ancient Egypt 1- Writing systems Objective for this lesson: Students will demonstrate, through a method of their choosing, their understanding of a hieroglyphic language and compare it to written English and ASL. Grade level standards for Monday: 6.2. 9 Trace the evolution of language and its written forms. OPENING Attention: I will hide a treasure in the classroom and I will give the students a map to help them to find the treasure. This map will be similar to the world map and include information written in hieroglyphics language; in order to find this treasure, they should follow the pictures on the map. This map will lead them to Egypt, marked by Pyramids, where they will find the treasure. REPRESENTATION: the playing cards have both a picture of the group and the name of the group written on the card. EXPRESSION: students may work alone or with partner to find the treasure by using hieroglyphic language. ENGAGEMENT: playing a game. They are doing a treasure hunt. They are decoding pictures. 3
Goal: Today we re going to learn about writing system used during the Ancient Egypt period, and how they used the writing system in that time, and compare it to written English and ASL. Model I Do It: BODY I will pass out some specific pictures from the writing forms of Ancient Egypt that I took on my own visits there. I will compare each script into written English and ASL; each script carried different meaning, by comparing this script to ASL first then to written English, the students will be more likely to get the meaning of these scripts. I will use Venn diagram to show the similarities and differences between hieroglyphic language, ASL, and English. I will show the students some characteristics that share among ASL, hieroglyphic, and written English by using Venn diagram on the board. Representation: students will repeat signs after I show them how to do them. Students will repeat the English phrases in ASL after I translate the hieroglyphics. Students can choose to do a Venn diagram at their seats while I do the main one at the board. The students can choose to receive an already completed Venn diagram while I fill out the big one at the board. Students can volunteer to write in the Venn diagram at the board. ENGAGMENT: Use authentic papyrus scrolls that contain hieroglyphics as visual aides Prompt We Do It: I will pass out four small boxes to each student or pair of students. One box is labeled English, one is labeled ASL, one hieroglyphics, and one says "All." The students will then receive strips of paper with facts pertaining to the languages written on them. (e.g. "primarily relies on hand signals," "A system of pictures," "has a way communicate the names of people," etc) The students and I will work to put the strips in the proper box. I will pass out some books that include pictures of this kind of writing and give the students time to look at these books and pictures. Then we will work together to compare some of these scripts to ASL and written English. 4
Before I transition to the you do it section, I will ask a few questions to get the students' higher order thinking systems working. 1- Why did they use pictures rather than an alphabet? 2- What are the advantages of using hieroglyphics vs. English? Disadvantages? REPRESENTATION: Pictures support concept. EXPRESSION the students can work in pairs, share groups or work alone. ENGAGEMENT: I will continue to provide some pictures throughout the activity to support this concept. Check You Do It: go to hieroglyphics website. Pick name or phrase to translate. Go to ASL website, translate again. Copy all three to your paper. Answer: in your opinion, what is the biggest difference between to the three languages? And in your opinion, what do all three have in common? Students may choose to answer the following as an extension activity: read an article about public and royalty hieroglyphics differences: there were 2 different writing styles in Ancient Egypt one for the public and the another one only for rulers. Why do you think this is? What did the article say were the biggest differences between the two versions? EXPRESSION: students can choose something easy like the name "Tim" or a complicated phrase or and for those who don't like to write, they can compare between 2 different writing styles in Ancient Egypt. ENGAGEMENT: students get to translate some variety of phrases, easy to hard of their choice. CLOSE Review: I will make following true/false statements: which will be about the similarities, differences and some hieroglyphics language characteristics by using Venn diagram. 5
REPRESENTATION: I will read the questions and have them on the overhead projector. EXPRESSION : students can answer T/F with words, signs, prewritten cards or write their answers on a dry erase board. Preview: Tomorrow we will learn about the writing on the Pyramids' wall, and what secrets these scripts have. Independent Work: I can choose one of "you do it". Also, each student will express the relationship between ASL, English, and hieroglyphics language. Each student will write drew some hieroglyphics language that he/she learned from the lesson today, and write the meaning of this hieroglyphic by using written English. ENGAGEMENT: by working in a group, students will write hieroglyphics on the class's wall since it will be covered by fabric that carries hieroglyphics language. EXPRESSION: Options: poster, dictate, write. Assessment: I will monitor the students as they place their strips in the boxes during "we do it." I will collect and grade the "you do it" worksheet. I will grade the posters created during independent work or grade the students as they verbally describe hieroglyphics and use ASL. 6
2- Writing on the Pyramids Objective for this lesson: Students will translate and define the vocabulary of the types of writing contained in the pyramids, and demonstrate an understanding of how the pyramids stored information. Grade level standards for Tuesday: 6.2.5: Discuss the main features of Egyptian art. Word Analysis, Fluency, and Systematic Vocabulary Development. OPENING Attention: Review: Goal: I will cover the class's wall to be like the Pyramids from inside with different scripts and pictures similar to those found inside the Pyramids. I will use these scripts to tell the student a story from a book about how the Egyptian wrote their language on the wall and why they did it. I will surprise the students with some secrets of these scripts. ENGAGEMENT: Students will look for some new vocabulary and they should find the meaning on the class's wall (since I covered the class by some hieroglyphics language, also there are some English words with the meaning, and students should find them and write them. Students may work individually or with peer or small group to find the vocabulary. In the last class, we discussed the writing system in the Ancient Egypt era and compare it to written English and ASL, as well as how they used their writing system to express their believes, ideas, and to document some events that happened during their life. REPRESENTATION: Show pictures of these scripts, Pyramids' walls and words and symbols. Today we re going to learn some meaning behind the writing on the Pyramids' wall. Why did Egyptians use the Pyramids to keep their information? We will explore some secrets that some scripts include since the Pyramids have a lot of stored information. 7
Model I Do It: BODY I will pass out some papers about the Pyramids that show these scripts from inside it and include some new vocabulary. And I will show the students a short video from inside the Pyramids and focus on the scripts and what these scripts mean, I will also explain secrets, such as how the scripts mention names of the rulers, important events, and reveal various location in Egypt used to hide treasures, and some others ideas which seem to be unbelievable now but in the that time was part from their religion such as how the rulers don't die, and they will back again to the life. Also, Show samples from these scripts, and how these scripts help modern day scientists to determine how the age of the people in the scripts as well as information about the timeline marking the development of their writing. Prompt We Do It: REPRESENTATION: I will use pictures and motion graphics that illustrate vocabulary words. ENGAGEMENT: Video, pictures. We will watch the video again. Then I will ask these questions: why did the Egyptian write on the walls of the Pyramids? Can you read it? why did they use script instead of alphabet that we use, I will pass one scribe and we read the translation together. (Using the smartboard to share a reference- you are all looking at the same thing at the same time), and for those who want more challenge, I will bring sand, water and some cubic to the class and together will build our own Pyramid. REPRESENTATION: Students may volunteer answer. EXPRESSION: Students can write answers on the paper or on the board, or they may answer verbally. ENGAGEMENT: build a Pyramid. 8
Check You Do It: Students can work in pairs, share groups or work alone to practice the skills or explore the concept the class has been discussing, and I will provide options students may pick from: play a game by using the Pyramid that we have just built or create a poster for some new vocabulary that they learned or they may want build their own pyramids. They can use the computer to find the meaning of new vocabulary, or may use a video game to build a pyramid and let the students spend some fun time. EXPRESSION: Students can work to create a poster, build a pyramid. ENGAGEMENT: play a game. CLOSE Review: pass work sheet with students have to whether the items written on the walls are things that would be found on the pyramid. The students will select from two options for each question. A. This is something that would be found on a pyramid or B. This would not be found on a pyramid. REPRESENTATION: Students can listen as I read the questions aloud or they can read the questions on their own and work at their own pace. EXPRESSION: students could work as a group or with one peer by helping her/his partner guess what that word is, They will give clues until the other partner guesses correctly to explain the meaning for new vocabulary. Preview: Tomorrow we will learn about the writing style that only was meant only for the rulers, such as Ramses the Great and how some scripts inside the Pyramids mention to him, and then students will make a presentation about him. 9
Independent Work: I can choose one of "you do it". Also, students can build their own Pyramids and bring it to the class or create a poster. EXPRESSION: Students may speak responses or write. ENGAGEMENT: by working in group, students will find the definition of the new vocabulary that were posted on the class s wall. Assessment: I will review the students ability to find the right definition for new vocabulary. Also, I will collect and grade and grade the posters created during independent work. 10
3-Ramses the Great. Objective for this lesson: Students will convey, through a method of their choosing, 4 important facts about the life of Ramses the Great and present it to the class. Grade level standards for Wednesday: 6.2.7: Understand the significance of Ramses the Great. Speaking Applications 2.4 Deliver persuasive presentations. OPENING Attention: I will come to the class wearing the same costume of Ramses the Great. I will call myself that day as Ramses the Great to make sure that the students remember this name. I will act like a king, and since I covered the class's wall by some scripts and since some scripts talk about Ramses the Great, I will ask students to show me the scripts that talk about me. Also, I will bring some costumes for the students to wear them while we are looking for the scripts on the wall. We will collect the information about the Ramses the Great and I will ask the students to put the facts in order of importance according to their opinion. Students will be asked to support their reasons for choosing the order they did. EXPRESSION: students will have put the most important information of Ramses the Great in the right order; the students may write or speak their answers. ENGAGEMENT: Students share opinions, wearing costumes. Review: In the last class, we discussed the scripts found on the Pyramids' walls, many of these scripts mentioned Ramses the Great. Students could access their folders from earlier lessons and pick out the scripts that pertain to Ramses. They would then draw at least two of these hieroglyphic scripts about Ramses the Great. EXPRESSION: students may work in groups 11
Goal: Today we re going to learn about Ramses the Great since we found many pieces of information about him inside the Pyramids. We are going to make a history trip to visit Ramses the Great so we will be able to understand more about him as famous king of the Egyptians. We will learn about his major accomplishments from that period. BODY Model I Do It: I will pass out Ramses specific scripts that talk about him and the most important events in his time for the students to keep in their folder. To help focus on the unique qualities of Ramses dress, I will bring in different costumes from different civilizations and have the students identify similarities and differences between the various clothes (e.g. Romanian costumes, Greece costumes, Indian costumes). I will then ask them what Ramses outfit says about him. They may write or speak their answers. Then I will use the board where I will have written some facts and accomplishments of this king. I will read these facts and then have the students chorally repeat them back. Also, each wall has scripts list one of his accomplishments. (e.g. one wall has some scripts that explain how he stopped the war in that time and was called the peace king, another wall has another scripts show the art in his era and how he was interested in art such buildings and some masterworks). Then I will show the students some museum flyers that show the students the most important facts of Ramses the Great that have been found in different museums around the world, such as the Egyptian National Museum and the Louvre Museum. I will discuss these facts and achievements about Ramses the Great to make sense how they build the presentation by writing cards in logical sequence. REPRESENTATION: museum flyers support concept, different costumes. EXPRESSION: students may use cards or notes to write the key elements of the presentation and they may use my cards or create their own cards. ENGAGEMENT: students will move from one wall to the next while we discuss the information written on each. 12
Prompt We Do It: I will pass out some books and papers that contain much of the same information that I mentioned during "I do it." After reading the materials, we will answer questions. REPRESENTATION: Questions will be written under the Elmo and read aloud by me or a volunteer. EXPRESSION: Students may volunteer answers or choose to listen to others respond. Check You Do It: The students will discuss four facts or achievements by developing a presentation on Ramses the Great. The students may present these in any of the following formats as an individual or with a partner: EXPRESSION: Power point Poster Play (with costumes) Speech Poem Diorama ENGAGEMENT: Students may use notes CLOSE Review: Students will participate in a round robin quiz game. If they get the question right they will face off against the next student. If they get three right in a row, they become Ramses the great and ask the questions. ENAGAGEMENT: Students may use notes. Preview: Tomorrow we will learn about the Mummies and since we saw Ramses' body today, it will be important to know how the Egyptians could keep his body, and others, safely preserved for all these years. 13
Independent Work: They can choose another one of the "you do it" activities. Also, the students may choose to make a presentation plan by writing cards that include the most important information or complete a crossword puzzle that covers the accomplishments of Ramses the Great. EXPRESSION: Options. Assessment: I will assess the "you do it" and the independent work choice; also I will assess the students while they are playing the round robin. 14
4- Mummies Objective for this lesson: students will collaborate together to make a mummy by using the materials that were used to keep the mummies in good condition. Grade level standards for Thursday: 6.2. 5 Discuss the main features of Egyptian art. OPENING Attention: Review: Goal: I will bring a sample of mummy and some materials that we will use to make a mummy in the class and I will tell the students that today we will make a mummy that similar to the sample that I have. In the last class, we discussed Ramses the Great and we saw his body in that pictures in the museum; therefore, we will know more about these mummies and how they could keep them until today in good condition by using some materials. Today we re going to learn how the Egyptians kept these mummies in the tombs for thousands of years in good condition, and since we saw Ramses' body yesterday, then we will know more about these mummies today by using the material that used in that time. Model I Do It: BODY I will show the student some materials that the Egyptians used to keep these bodies in good condition by covering and putting masks; they stuffed the bodies with various materials and did other interesting things. For example, the eyeballs were often pushed into eye socket and covered with linen pads, the mouth was packed with wax and the tongue was sometimes covered with a tongue plate, often made from gold and many other interesting facts. I will bring an expert from the museum and he will give us more details and I will sign for the students while the expert working on the mummy to show 15
us the right way that the Egyptians used. Also, I will provide a video for those who like to watch video, and provide the steps to make a mummy by using internet on this link: http://www.mummytombs.com/main.mummymaking.htm ENGAGEMENT: make a mummy in the class, and use different materials. Prompt We Do It: we will work together as small group or with partner to make a mummy by using the materials that I used in the last part (I do it). The same information that we watched on TV or we heard them from the expert, I will let each student helps me and be my assistant to make this mummy. Also, I will pass out some papers that contain the directions on the mummy making process. REPRESENTATION: Written on the smartborad, Ask questions verbally. EXPRESSION: Partner work. ENGAGEMENT: make a mummy in the class together. Check You Do It: Students will make one more mini-mummy without the help of me or the museum expert. EXPRESSION: individual work or group work CLOSE Review: I will start to describe the mummy making process. I will stop. A student will continue where I left off. Another student will continue where he or she left off. Eventually the class will work together to describe the entire mummy making process. I will then ask true false questions about the mummy making process. The students may use True/false cards or verbal responses to answer the questions. 16
Preview: Tomorrow we will visit a museum to see all the things that we learned from this week and we will create our own museum. Independent Work: Students will participate in fish bowl activity; they will discuss the steps of how we can make a mummy and how to keep the mummies in good condition. EXPRESSION: students who don't want to participate, they can write on the board or draw the steps in their book notes, or if they want make another mummy. Assessment: I will assess the students when they make a mummy to see how they make the mummy and how they use the material. Also, I will assess the fish bowl activity. 17
5- Masterpiece of Ancient Egypt Objective for this lesson: Students will visit the Egyptian section at the city museum, pass out flyers for their class museum, and then create a classroom museum for other students and people to visit. Grade level standards for Friday: 6.2. 5: Discuss the main features of Egyptian art. OPENING Attention: Today we have activity outside classroom; we will make some flyers and posters in the classroom before we go the museum to visit the Ancient Egypt section. Since students have background about the Ancient Egypt and they have own posters and some notes in their folders; it will help to make the flyers to pass out to other classes and people at the real museum. ENGAGEMENT: make poster, and some flyers. Review: In the last classes we discussed about the Ancient Egypt. Therefore, it's very important to the student to match their background knowledge that they learned with the information that they will see in the museum. EXPRESSION: Students may draw or print pictures. Goal: Model I Do It: Today we re going to learn and review some information that we learned during this week by going to the museum today. Any museum in the world must have a section of Ancient Egypt, so it's important to see the mummies, Ramses the Great and some hieroglyphs to link what they learned and what will they see to create a museum in the classroom. 18 BODY I will explain some information in the museum in the Ancient Egypt section, also I will move from masterpiece to another and give them short explanation, and stress on some masterworks that in this section. Also, I will match some scripts in the museum with
what we discussed in the class during this week and showing them some mummies and bodies of Ancient Egypt. I will provide a guide that explains some secrets that we didn't talk about it in the class. After that, we will visit the media room in the museum to watch a documentary about the Ancient Egypt with provide subtitle and also provide interpreter to make it easier for the students to understand. REPRESENTATION: provide a guide, interpreter. ENGAGEMENT: watch 3DO video in the museum theater. Prompt We Do It: We will go the meeting room in the museum and discuss what just we saw, and look to some documents closely and collect some documents that we need to create our museum. Since we have some students from the regular class in this activity, the deaf students in my class and I will present some information together to the hearing students to give the deaf students the advantage to express their knowledge to other students. Also we give the museum a poster as gift that we made it in the class today, and we will pass out some flyers that include some information to the visitors of the museum that the students made in the class during this week. REPRESENTATION: collect some documents, pass out some flyers to the visitors. ENGAGEMENT: work as group to collect documents, take pictures for some masterpieces. Check You Do It: When we finish our trip, we will back to the class. Students will divide to 4 groups; each group will create something for our museum. The first group will create some scripts and translate the hieroglyphics to ASL and English, the second group will print the pictures that they took at the museum for pyramids, and important masterpieces, the third group will write some facts of Ramses the Great, and the last group will make some mummies. The students may choose which group he/she wants to join or they can move from one group to other. I may wonder about something that we don't discussed exactly, but we mentioned to them quickly to let the students use the critical thinking and use different sources that in the classroom. EXPRESSION: create our museum. ENGAGEMENT: They may work as partners to create the museum, in small groups. 19
CLOSE Review: the students will express what they saw in the museum by creating the museum, I will ask some questions that lead the students compare the real museum with our museum. EXPRESSION: I will ask for true/false, Students may use pre-written true/false cards, verbal responses, or write it class wall. ENGAGEMENT: students could work as group or with one peer to answer the questions. Preview: Next week a group of students from different classes will come and visit our class and each student will talk about something. Also, show them our museum. Independent Work: Pick another option from the "you do it" section. For those who want another advanced option, they may will be a guide for the students tour next week at our museum. Assessment: I will assess each student during his/her participate of creating the museum, if they could express their ideas and thoughts and is the student is able to identify what they saw at the museum that will be assessed as successful. 20