A Multi-Thematic Lesson Plan

For the Sixth Grade

by Hugh M. Lewis

I offer herein a set of coordinate lesson plans designed for curriculum and conceptual integration across the board, focused surpassing California sixth grade social studies standards. The intention herein is to provide the skeletal structure without the flesh or content that would be necessary to put this structure on the ground in the classroom. The skeletal structure permits flexibility and modularization of the lessons, and allows a variety of content to be introduced at various levels and in various ways. It is felt furthermore that the focus on content in thematic lesson design tends to obfuscate the structural adaptability of such designs, and detracts from the pedagogical and knowledge-centered facets that such lessons potentially offer to both students and their teachers.

The lesson as it developed should incorporate and coordinate the activities of the entire sixth grade level, and utilizes a series of team projects initiated early in the month, carried through to culmination in a set of school-wide activities at the end of the month. Students will be engaged in a variety of hands on activities in which they participate as members of study teams. It is expected at sixth grade that students should be capable of assuming a modicum of initiative and self-direction in the development and completion of their project assignments. It is important that the students learn and master basic techniques of research and investigation that underlie and inform the social sciences in general.

I have adopted an alternative framework for development of what I have termed a multi-thematic lesson planning unit. In the course of the year, in relation to social sciences curriculum, I would develop approximately eight such units that would be coordinated and ordered in a manner that would sufficiently meet the standards and that would be intended to be implemented one unit per month. There would be approximately 18 alternative lessons per unit so that the teacher could choose or alternate between lessons. The aim of this "multi-thematic" unit is to teach sixth grade social studies within an integrated framework that combines lessons and practice activities in the language arts, the visual arts, the performing arts, music the sciences, in mathematics, health, character education and Physical education. Sixth graders are capable both of effective independent research and scholarship that permits generalization of ideas across domains of knowledge, and to apply their knowledge independently in alternative frameworks. They are furthermore at the stage that they can work cooperatively in team-work settings to achieve goals that are larger than what an individual may achieve. Furthermore, sixth graders have reached a level that they are capable themselves of becoming experts in certain limited areas of knowledge, and can teach this knowledge and skills effectively to other students.

The theoretical perspective in which this framework is a metasystems approach and views the multi-faceted problems of learning and social education as a complex but underdetermined system, a preeminently human system. As this theoretical perspective has been developed it concerns the problem of symbolic integration of experience affecting acquisition and learning, as well as formal pedagogical instruction. Learning and teaching are both a collaborative and constructive social process, and in a normal classroom context these processes are always group oriented. Curriculum integration as this becomes articulated and differentiated in a normal classroom and greater school-wide context entails and requires conceptual integration of information, relational understanding and multi-task skills on both the part of the teacher and the students. The problem of integration, or more specifically symbolic integration, involves a wider range of issues and entailments than suggested by mere curriculum integration. It is a general problem associated with human cognitive development and socialization, and involves greater differentiation and healthy articulation of the individual ego and super-ego and the effective sublimation of libidinal drives and motivations within socially constructive frameworks and healthy behavioral settings.

It is the goal of these lesson plans to stimulate greater student involvement and active participation in both the learning and teaching process by fostering and developing active communication and production-work skills, while at the same time promoting greater student pedagogy and respect for knowledge through the development of research reports and projects. The design of these individual lessons are intended to be taught as a threaded set of modular units or activities that build one upon the other and that borrow from other areas of curriculum instruction. From beginning to end, the entire multi-thematic unit can be thought of as a single multi-period lesson plan, with a continuation of activities that build upon themselves and increase student skills through performance and participation.

I have adopted what I term a "four-by-two" step lesson plan, which is a modification of the Madeline Hunter 7-step lesson plan. The reason for doing so was simplification into four general steps the correspond roughly with the four step modeling framework: 1. "watch me (do it)"; 2. "help me"; 3. "I'll help you"; 4. "You do it." It was felt that this basic design of the modeling process is more flexible, more broadly applicable to a greater range of possible lesson areas, methods and styles, and much more mnemonically available for ad hoc implementation and encounter-improvisation of lessons. At the same time, each step is broken into "one-two" sub-steps that are a combination and articulation of the six principles of learning with the standard seven step lesson plan.

My concern is with the development of professional teaching standards and ethos at all levels of curriculum, from first grade to the college level. My main critique of educational training is that in emphasizing "standards" teaching, we are not encouraging students to think outside of the academic box or beyond the constructions that make up their educational culture. Thus they are seen as being more controlled by their educational resources than controlling of these resources, especially as they articulate within the conventional classroom context. It is important in this regard to integrate a subject-centered approach with a student-centered context. Teachers need to be trained in a critical and hermeneutic manner, as both scholars and leaders of their community. As role models in life and in modeling of knowledge and competencies, teachers need to develop a pedagogical command and enthusiasm for all subject/content and skill areas, as this enthusiasm and capability will directly translate to interest and motivation of the student in those and related areas, and transfer across other areas of the students life. I see no reason that a similar multi-thematic framework cannot be developed in all the principle subject areas of 1-12 education (i.e., the language arts, the sciences, mathematics, the arts, physical education and health.), and even into college level work and preparation.

I see the articulation of this alternative framework as the foundation for the restructuring of elementary and secondary education in keeping with basic processes of socialization and enculturation, and in the reconceptualization, restructuring and redesign of the typical classroom and school in a manner that may become more efficient, productive and constructive for student involvement and development. Briefly, remodeling the classroom begins from the ground up, and centers on the concept of the student desk as a focal area of activity and involvement of the student. It involves the possibility of teachers exchanging and sharing classrooms, and the construction of common activity/resource areas that involve the activities of the students. There are tradeoffs in exchanging classrooms and moving between contexts and settings in the course of the day that must be systematically accounted for.

This framework is rooted within a positive discipline background that aims to build individual student ego, a sense of resilience and resistance to negative or counter-productive sources of information/influence. Students are given fairly wide latitude for choice and initiative, and would be encouraged to assume leadership roles and provided numerous opportunities for achievement and recognition among a community of learners and teachers.

Critical to the articulation of this alternative framework would be: 1. Improved integration of designated "special need" students through partial and modular inclusion; 2. Improved recognition and rehabilitation of "problem" students, "inbetween" students, marginal students and "poor performers" who otherwise are fit within a regular or "normalized" classroom context; 3. Improved inclusion and involvement of parents in the educational process through participatory programs and group parent-teacher meetings; 4. Modularization and extension of the "classroom" setting as more than a geographical place enclosed by four walls; 5. Redefinition and development of the professional roles and identity of teachers as learners, leaders and living exemplars; 6. Enhanced technological integration of the entire school system upon multiple levels.

Ultimately, the goal of such an alternative system would be the partial individualization of curriculum instruction, enhancing and building upon individual ego and super-ego development, but always within a greater social-group context of social involvement and shared development. Learning proceeds at multiple levels and always involves multiple modalities, intelligence and agencies--but this always also occurs in a shared framework.

A team project approach has been the center of this thematic design, and this approach should not be considered the same as a cooperative work-group design. Students will be constrained to meet project deadlines and will have to work together to meet these series of deadlines. Emphasis on communication, participation and decision making will be placed upon the student's shoulders. At the sixth grade, I do not think enough of this kind of instruction is permitted in the standardized course of a normal school day.

Hugh M. Lewis, Ph.D.

It is my intention to organize and present the complex but modularly adaptable design for teaching an integrated, multi-thematic unit that accomplishes objectives of learning for the California sixth grade social studies curriculum in the study of ancient Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Hindu and Chinese civilizations within a comparative and holistic anthropological framework in a manner that systematically relates differences and similarities between these civilizations and with contemporary American civilization, especially as the latter is experienced in terms of the lives of the individual students. Furthermore, I wish to introduce as an effective strategy and set of techniques for teaching social studies at different levels the symbolic framing design that has been developed through comparative research in Malaysia, the US and in China, relating to human cognition, acquisition and knowledge systems, as the basis for multi-thematic elaboration of information and content in a manner that relates directly and indirectly to the personal lives and experiences of the individual student learner. It is my intention to demonstrate that a higher level of systematic knowledge integration can be achieved by a coordination of approaches within an active learning context than is normally achieved by normal curricula. This integration can be defined both in terms of interdisciplinary relationships of knowledge between different levels and subject areas, as for instance between different historical periods, different geographical places, or different areas of active interest or involvement, as well as in terms of the psycho-social and behavioral-attitudinal integration of the individual sixth grade student.

I believe this approach can be extended to systematic development of integrated curricula in the language arts, math and sciences, as well as in the other arts, and can be modified to fulfill the requirements of meeting state standards at multiple ages and grades. Successful integration entails a form of enhanced differentiation of teaching style and content as well as increased articulation of knowledge within the classroom context in relation to the expanding life-worlds of the student. Successful implementation of these methods would require that teachers be exposed systematically to content area and skill practices in a plethora of related knowledge areas, and thereby to acquire a degree of expertise in this manner and style of integrated instruction.

I propose this method as a modular (cut and paste, plug and play) and modeling (constructionist) or heuristic approach that should be flexible enough to be adapted to a wide variety of school situations and class-room needs and constraints. Successful integration should in principle reduce the workload associated with the amount and quality of instruction, compared to alternative methods teaching similar amounts and kinds of content, and should permit greater facility, flexibility and efficiency in the instruction of such content. Furthermore, a successfully integrated multi-thematic curriculum should ultimately have the consequence of increasing rates and volume of effective transmission of knowledge to students and in the developmental acceleration of these students in terms of their life experiences and cognitive growth.

I would propose that such a multi-thematic plan for social studies curriculum integration can be complementary to any text-book style arrangement and presentation of such knowledge, and can provide the framework for successful teaching both within and beyond the classroom context. Finally, I would recommend that such a project in curriculum integration is one that would normally be designed to proceed over the length of a total school year as a natural cycle of social education, and thus is seen to be organized at that level of curriculum management.

The rationale of a multi-thematic approach to teaching an introductory lesson plan on ancient world civilizations to sixth grade (California) standards is: 1. The demonstration of historical and social scientific knowledge in geographical, historical, cultural context and in terms of the existential contexts of the relevance of such knowledge in the student's own life-world; 2. The concrete demonstration of systematic similarities and differences between civilizations and cultures within a systematic comparative framework; 3. The active participatory demonstration of how this comparative framework (the pedagogical context) can be used as a basis of curriculum and conceptual integration of knowledge, skills and abilities in the students own life (the classroom context).

Curriculum and conceptual integration will proceed through the integration of math, the sciences, geography, language arts, visual arts, performing arts and character education with social studies and history content and themata relevant to six different old-world civilizations. This multi-thematic lesson plan is designed to be implemented in the second month of instruction, lasting about one month, following the first month of instruction that deals with the following topic areas:

1. The scientific method in the social sciences and history.

2. The archaeological framework of human prehistory.

3. The paleolithic and the rise of the neolithic.

4. World geography.

Before beginning this lesson plan, it is expected that the students should have been taught about time-lines, dating techniques and different dating systems. It would be succeeded by more in-depth thematic lessons which covers one civilization per month, according to the following outline:

1 (Sept.): Scientific method and Human Prehistory/Archaeology. World Geography

2 (Oct.): Human Civilization and Pristine World Civilizations

3 (Nov.): Mesopotamian Civilization

4 (Dec.): Egyptian Civilization

5 (Jan.): Hindu Civilization

6 (Feb.): Chinese Civilization

7 (Mar.): Ancient Greece

8 (April): Ancient Rome

9 (May to June): Other Civilizations in Culture Historical & Geographical Context

In this second month lesson plan, students will be organized into "civilization study teams" and they will undertake several on-going and interrelated projects relating to art, language, mathematics, and other principle subject areas in relation to the particular civilization they are studying. These projects will carry over several weeks time and will culminate in a set of presentations and a general game simulation that requires of students a synthesis and application of the knowledge they gained during the month.

The objectives of this work throughout the year is to teach student basic research and reporting skills utilizing encyclopedias, atlases, other texts, e-resources and the library and to adopt a "current events" and project-development approach, as well as basic skills in writing, language, communication, visual arts and design. In this particular month (month 2) the object is for the students to learn to work in collaborative work groups on common projects to be presented before the entire class.

The principle goal of this approach and its framework is to meet and surpass the current sixth grade social studies/history standards of California in a manner that will prove realistic and efficient in the context of the typical sixth grade classroom of this state, by means of implementation of a systematic framework for the comparative study of world civilizations. This multi-thematic lesson plan is intended to integrate periods of arts, health, language arts, and science instruction into an interrelated web of activities and relationships. The intention of this second month activity unit is to provide a preliminary context and minimal level of expertise that will serve all the students further in their continuing study of world civilizations during subsequent months, resulting in greater coverage and retention of information by the end of the year.

More to the point, this goal is achieved through meeting the specific objectives described below.

Teach to sixth grade students the following frameworks of knowledge:

a. The geography of the world in terms of the historical geography of ancient civilizations of the world, basic geographical features of the world map, including rivers, mountains and significant bodies of water.

b. The significant achievements and historical events that mark ancient world history up to the rise of Christianity and the fall of the Roman Empire.

c. Chronology and time-lines and various methods of dating the past (i.e. Century & Millennium, periods & eras, BC/AD, BP, etc.).

d. The basic methods of history and the social sciences.

e. The structural patterns of early state-systems (i.e., economic, political, social, religious) and their relationship and difference from modern state-systems.

f. Systematically relate aspects of students own life-worlds with how these articulate in a larger world and state-system.

g. A basic sense of respect and appreciation for the cultural differences of people through time and the use of exceptional historical personages as possible role models for emulation and character development.

h. Basic character, ego and social development through participation in structured and constructed social activities and projects that are thematically organized.

i. Basic methods of research and reporting in history and the social sciences, and how these relate to other areas of scientific knowledge and study.

g. Basic communication, organization, language arts and visual arts skills that are involved in the successful completion of various on-going projects.

1. Team Formation & Organization Project

2. Costumes, Logos, Mascot & Flag

3. Scrap Book

4. Maps

5. Timelines

6. Art-Architectural Projects

7. Olympic Trials Project

8. Writing-Paper Making Project

9. Math-Number System Project

10. Current Events Project

11. Group Presentations Project

12. Final Civilization Game Project

13. Food & Games Project

14. Opera Project (optional)

15. Literature Project (optional)

16. Religion Masks Project (optional)

Of the tentative World Civilizations Project

It is expected in the month of this thematic unit, which should fall mostly in October, that at least half of the day will be spent on one lesson or another of this multi-thematic unit. Ideally, in the sixth grade, all classes of the grade would conduct this thematic unit simultaneously. The schedule below is a tentative schedule based upon the lessons plans herein:

The schedule of projects and periods relating to these thematic units are given below:

A monthly schedule incorporating the entire unit, tentatively speaking:

The first day is a crucial day for opening up and organizing the class in a manner that will allow the members of the class to conduct all subsequent activities relating to this multi-thematic unit. Students will work during designated times of the day in their thematic work groups, focused on the development of thematic centers distributed in the class. Each center will be partitioned from the other centers using makeshift cardboard partitions that can be folded away, and at the end of each day the work centers can be covered with sheets or drop-clothes. Students will be assigned to civilization study teams, and each study team will adopt for representational purposes the symbolic identity of the civilization that they are assigned to.

Step 1 Objective & Anticipatory Set:

The objective of the first day's lesson is to reorganize the classroom into civilization study teams, to get each study team organized into its respective roles, to provide the study teams with a syllabus and schedule of their projects and presentation, and to provide them with a framework of information and materials for the completion of their respective projects. If this is a grade-wide thematic unit, then civilization teams from each of the class may be allowed to communicate and collaborate on their projects.

Announce to the class that today is the day that we will study different civilization, and try to understand the processes of human civilization in a general way. A large map of the world will be placed on a central bulletin board, and a map reading game will be given to the students in which they are asked to identify the different continents and oceans using flash cards that pin to the map. Then give to the students the names of different civilizations that will be studied, and have them identify the locations of these.

Assign the study groups for each civilization, and then allow the class to reorganize themselves into groups, each group will become a particular civilization and will try over the next month to recreate or represent in some way that civilization during designated parts of the day. Six activity centers, one for each civilization, will be designated in various parts of the room, and a work-table and supply center provided with extra materials and information pertaining to various civilizations. Students will be allowed to put up the card-board partitions separating the classroom and to rearrange their desks in each of the six areas.

Step 2 Outline Modeling Input & Check for Understanding:

What will be presented to the class are the frameworks for the six major civilizations that will be studied in this thematic unit: Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Hindu, Chinese, Greek and Roman. Bulletin boards and time-lines with associated pictures and paraphernalia will be set up in peripheral activity centers relating to each of these civilizations.

Initial guided practice will consist of an opening discussion with the students to try to answer the following question sets:

1. What is civilization?

Provide concrete examples of a civilization.

2. What is a culture?

Provide examples of different cultures.

3. How is civilization related to a culture?

Show how some cultures become great civilizations.

4. What were the six first major civilizations of the old world that we are going to study?

Show the students the locations of the first six civilizations.

5. When did these civilizations rise and how long did they last.

Show the students time-lines for their civilizations and discuss these time-lines.

Check for understanding will be given when the students are allowed time to explain what they are supposed to be doing, and allowed to actually do it. While students are rearranging themselves into their respective teams, the tags on the map board will be taken down. Five minutes later the class will be refocused to the bulletin board and asked to once again find the locations of their respective civilizations.

Students will be given special daily journals to write notes in regarding what they learn about their civilization. They will be provided with a host of study materials, books, and magazines relating to their respective civilizations.

Initial practice is to have the students rearrange themselves into civilization study teams. In these teams they are to group themselves around their respective centers, and to decide for themselves what art project they wish to undertake, what will be their civilization mascot and logo. They will study the distinctive clothing styles of people of their period and place. They will study habits of dress and hygiene of people of their time, and their health. They will be provided with pictorial information relating to these subjects. They will be provided construction and art materials to make their team mascot and logo. They will be given an initial project involving the construction of a team scap-book out of brown postal paper, put together according style with two canvas-board covers. An example of such a book will be provided for them.

They will decide on a costume to make that is representative of their civilization, and on a subsequent period attempt to design and subsequently fashion a makeshift costume for this purpose. They will subsequently add to their team scrapbooks information that they gather about the people of their civilizations.

Step 4: Summary & Follow-Up Practice:

Each team, on the initial day, must be able to answer to the class as a whole the following six questions:

1. What is the location on the world map of the civilization that they are assigned to?

2. What is the general time period during which their civilization existed?

3. What other important civilizations existed contemporaneously with this civilization.

4. What is the team's civilization mascot and logo?

5. What is the main art/architectural project that the group will undertake?

6. Who are the members of each study team and what are their designated roles?

Students homework will be to use text-books, library resources, encyclopedias or other reference information to collect information relating to the civilization that they are to study.

A special field trip to the local public library, during which students may be allowed to get library cards, ought to be arranged either prior to or early on in this thematic unit, to allow the kids to gain access to a wider body of information and to assist them in learning about scholarly research skills.

The objective of this lesson is to integrate history and social studies with basic world geography, allowing students to understand different kinds of maps that may exist, such as historical maps, political maps, topographical maps, geophysical maps, etc., and to learn the components of maps and how to read scale of maps. Much of this should already be accomplished in the first month. In this lesson, they will continue with geographical studies by collaborating on making historical maps of their chosen civilizations.

Step 1 Objective & Anticipatory Set: Students will work collaboratively or individually to make historical and cultural maps relating to the periods and places relevant to their selected civilizations. These maps will be made on brown butcher paper, postal paper, brown or tan poster paper or alternatively on brown muslin cloth, and will include a legend with characters, symbols and references to geophysical features and historical locations important to the civilization. An art projector or overhead projector can be used to assist the students in outlining the map, and appropriate poster-tempera paints provided to finish the job.

Step 2 Outline Modeling, Input & Check for Understanding: Provide to the students examples of historical atlases, maps relating to the places and possibly eras they are trying study. Show them different kinds of maps and the components of a map (i.e., title, legend, compass rose). Ask them what the components of different maps are and to identify various regions in the world.

Step 3 Guided & Initial Practice: Work with each project group and elicit from them the designs that they have in mind, offering suggestions and guidance to improving or facilitating the implementation of their map designs. Provide each group with the assistance and time to go up to and employ the overhead projector or an alternative art-projector for making a large outline of their maps. Help the students with the actual drawing and filling in of the different maps.

Step 4: Summary & Follow-Up Practice: Students will on a subsequent period present their map reports, explaining to the rest of the class the symbols and important events represented upon the map, the time period that the maps pertain to. Follow-up practice will consist of subsequent mapping exercises using a variety of maps brought in for this purpose, obtained through National Geographic or alternative through Rand McNally. The students will continue to work on the maps at least one more period.

Ancient Art is one of the hallmarks of human civilization and provides the chief source of artifacts for different periods of civilization. Civilizations are defined by their style patterns, especially through the medium of the visual and plastic arts and architecture.

The purpose of this set of activities is primarily to get students working either collaboratively as groups, in pairs, or individually, on a set of art projects in which they find exemplary models relating to the periods that they have chosen, and replicate the object of art within the framework that they are provided. It is important to supply a range of materials and instruments that would permit modeling in clay, construction of architectural models, painting, drawing and paper. It is recommended that foam board, a small potters wheel, and basic construction materials be made available, that the students can supplement by their own means. The students are to research their chosen art project and to provide summary information about the project, the reasons they chose that particular object, and its significance historically and culturally in relation to the civilization that they are studying. This art project will be continued on successive periods during which art lessons are supposed to be taught, for the duration of the thematic unit. Students in particular will be asked to think about the symbolic aspects of their project, what constitutes a symbol, provide comparative examples of similar kinds of symbols from American civilization, and discuss the possible functions of such symbols.

Step 1 Objective & Anticipatory Set: The objective of this lesson is to initiate a set of on-going art/modeling projects in which students will either collaboratively or individually research, design, and construct a model or replica of an ancient object of art or a model of an architectural structure using materials available. The object is to integrate the teaching of social studies with active involvement in creative and constructive projects in art and design. Models will be provided for the kids to look at, and materials, pictures and other reference books provided to give the kids a context from which to choose their own projects. Suggestions for art projects will be given:

Build a replica, paint a picture or otherwise represent any of the following:

The Ancient pyramids of Egypt

Parthenon

The Roman Collisseum

A Mosaic Tile of an ancient Roman scene

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

A Ziggurat

An Ancient Greek Statue

A Greek pottery vessel or amphora.

Step 2 Outline Modeling, Inputs & Check for Understanding:

Provide visuals, Internet access to web-sites with visual information, and actual models set up from different civilizations. Have several models available for the students. Provide them with platforms upon which to build dioramas or alternatively to set up their art displays.

Each team will work collaboratively upon their art project and will have to be shown, for each team, the steps they need to take for completion of their respective projects. Guided practice must therefore be customized according to the needs of the individual teams.

Initial practice will be for the students of each team to make an initial model and outline of their project, with a description of is parts, how they are going to complete it, a list of materials they will need for the project, and

Step 4: Summary & Follow-Up Practice:

Summary will consist of group presentations of their projects on the last day of the thematic project.

Follow-up practice will include subsequent art-periods during which the students reconvene into their civilization study teams in order to work on their art projects. During each session, students should decide on the additional materials and work that they will need to perform in order to complete the project in a timely manner.

The object of this lesson is for students to learn how to construct time-lines of past sequences using dates of events and periods that they can find through research, and to compare and coordinate multiple timelines. Materials used in this case will be brown postal paper on a roll, cut in half-lengthwise. Students will be provided with a long tape measure, by which they can divide their rolls of paper into an even number of units that will be clearly marked.

Step 1 Objective & Anticipatory Set:

To teach the students to understand the sequence of events in history, the use of chronological ordering of time, and the use of different forms of dating techniques. To show how histories of civilizations can be measured according to different kinds of time lines, based upon different kinds of criteria (art and architectural styles, symbols & religion, important leaders, inventions and discoveries, periods of change and stasis, great events, political events, battles and wars, etc. Students will complete multiple parallel time lines for their civilizations based upon different criteria, and they will then compare and collate their time lines between different civilizations.

Step 2 Outline Modeling Input & Check for Understanding:

Students will be given examples of different time-lines for their civilizations. Students will be asked to locate important dates and periods on different time lines, and to calculate the years between dates. They will be asked to compare time-lines. Discussion of the concept of "provenience" and facts in social science and history will be given, with the notion of determining time and place.

Materials will be provided for each team to build their time lines, and the time-lines will be defined by the following sets of criteria:

Important events and dates

Important people

Important achievements

Important periods

Students will be asked to collect and classify dated information into the following sets, and will be asked to define parallel time lines on their projects for each of the sets:

Broad Periods, phases and transitions

Political events (Wars, Leaders, Migrations, Invasions)

Biographical Dates and Facts

Scientific Events, Artifacts and Architectural Styles

Students will be asked to make up tables according to the different categories provided above, and they will be asked to collect facts relating to their civilization and to classify the facts into different categories. Sets of fact cards for each civilization will be given, and the date for each fact will be written on the back. Students can be asked to come pin cards to the main map/time-line and to identify its proper provenience in time and place.

The students will be given chronological lists of important dates relating to their civilizations as work-study sheets. They will be asked to categorize these lists according major headings in a table they are given.

Each group will be given an eight foot roll of postal paper, and they will be asked to divide the role into four parallel sections by using a yard-stick. They will then be asked to pick out the earliest and latest dates for each of their civilizations, and to demarcate the time line at the top and bottom according to the time frame of their civilization. Students will then be told to use the fact cards they are given, and will be provided extra blank fact cards, to construct a preliminary time-line. They will be asked to gather new facts that they can put to their time-lines through their reading and research.

Step 4: Summary & Follow-Up Practice:

Students will present, along with all their other projects and reports, their time-lines to the rest of the class on the pen-ultimate day of the thematic unit. They will follow up their work on the time-lines in subsequent periods by collating information they subsequently gather about their civilization, important dates and periods, and putting these on their time-line charts.

The Ancient Languages & Writing projects will seek to involve curriculum integration between the language arts and social studies curriculum, as well as possibly involving curriculum in the sciences and in art. Students will be taught a brief history of the development of writing systems, and show how syllabaries differ from alphabets. They will be provided with examples of pictographs and hieroglyphic systems, and they will be asked to learn and practice writing, on brown paper using brushes or quills and ink, a select number of symbols or pictographs in the ancient language. Students will also be shown the various forms of writing technologies that were used, including clay tablets, papyrus, silk, hand-made paper, and animal hide. An extension of this activity would be auxiliary lessons in which students are taught to grow papyrus from seeds, and to actually pound the stalks on flat stones into paper scrolls. Students will be taught how to hand make paper. Students will also be given clay tablets and allowed to write cuneiform characters using a make-shift stylus.

This lesson is proper divided into two parts. The first part addresses basic writing & printing technologies, such as papyrus, clay tablets, silk, and hand-made paper and block printing techniques. The second part addresses different different writing systems (pictographs, rebus, syllabaries, alphabets) and the history of these systems.

Step 1 Objective & Anticipatory Set:

The objective of this lesson is to teach students a knowledge and history of writing and its basic importance to the development of human civilization. They will learn through their study teams different writing systems of different civilizations, and the writing/printing technologies that these different civilizations employed.

In the anticipatory set, students will be given their names written on different kinds of materials (papyrus, handmaid paper, clay, linoblock, silk) in different scripts from different civilizations, and they will be asked to guess whose name is whom.

Step 2 Outline Modeling Input & Check for Understanding:

Part I

Different writing technologies will be discussed, and each group will be provided the materials for working with and making writing instruments with basic materials. Hopefully, anticipatory to this, some papyrus seeds will already have been planted in the classroom and will be full grown. Silk worms with mulberry leaves can be cultivated as a side-project. Students can be taught how to make paper by hand, using a deckle and paper pulp that can be bought or made by shredding old paper. Students can also make clay writing tablets and use a stylus to inscribe in these tablets. Silk and animal hide (probably rabbit skins) can be obtained as well. Students will prepare for each of their teams a set of writing materials. They will be provided with examples of respective systems.

Part II

In part two, students will be provided study sheets with the different writing systems. Class and group discussions of these systems, and what they represent, will be given. Students will research their own system.

Write out all the symbols of the syllabary or system on a poster paper and make a bulletin board to be presented with this.

Students should be taught how to write each of their names in the script of their language using a quill pen and ink.

Step 4: Summary & Follow-up Practice:

The second part of this writing project will be for students to research and describe in an extended two page letter "a day in the life of a person" in the ancient civilization, in a letter using ink and a quill pin. Students are supposed to make up a fictitious life, in which they put themselves as a member of their civilization. This letter will be mailed between different civilization teams. Subsequent follow up can be to set up pen-pals between different teams, between different classes, such that students in the end will be asked to guess which member of the team was their pen-pal. In order to do this, a mailing system between teams must be established, with each team making up its own mailing address based on the geographical information they have compiled. Students should make up addresses and sign boards for their locations.

The number and counting systems project is complementary to the writing and language project, and should follow as soon as possible afterwards. In this project, the students are to learn the number systems and how to write these for their different civilizations. They are to systematically compare this to modern mathematical counting systems. Using the writing materials they've already developed, they are to make up a poster describing the number system of their civilization. They are to then make up a set of math problems using their counting system.

Step 1 Objective & Anticipatory Set:

Students are to gain extended number sense and broadened practice in basic arithmetic operations by working in number systems of their respective civilizations.

Opening discussion will involve the students in thinking about where numbers came from, what purpose they serve in counting, and how different systems of counting have been developed by different groups of people.

Step 2 Outline Modeling Input & Check for Understanding:

Basic data sheets with the number systems will be provided, as well as the set of rules that govern these number systems. Calligraphic sheets will be provided to allow the students to practice their number systems. Overheads of the different systems can be shown on the screen.

Students will complete the handouts, and will answer a basic set of questions regarding different number systems. They will be given then a set of problems in each number system, both on paper and orally, and asked to finish these.

Students will break into their respective study teams and will be provided with informational handouts relating to the number system of their respective civilization. They will be asked to make up a poster/bulletin board describing the basis of this system.

Students will practice first how to count to ten in their own number systems, or the modern equivalent language. They will then learn how to count to one hundred in their languages. They can be allowed to listen to language tapes with the counting in different languages.

Step 4: Summary & Follow-Up Practice:

Students in groups will be asked to count out loud their numbers to ten. Volunteers from each group will be asked to count beyond ten, and to describe all the numbers as high as they can go.

Follow up will include allowing the students to create sets of word problems, situated in their own civilizations framework, using these counting and number systems. They will be asked to write out these word problems in an authentic form. They can mail the word problems between different civilizations, and allow the other teams to try to solve their problems.

Step 1: Objective & Anticipatory Set:

To teach students the basic structural relations and cultural aspects of traditional state societies, including political, economic, social foundations of these systems. To elucidate the values and norms that were characteristic for each civilization, and to differentiate between the functional roles and specializations of different people in the society as the basis of social stratification. Students will have learned the importance of domestication and farming practices in the Neolithic, and how important this was, as well as a system of standards and taxation and a government bureaucracy, to support the state. Students will learn that craft specialization of artisans as well as trade specialization became important. Different civilizations also had different kinds of money they used. Provide examples of different kinds of money.

Opening discussion with the class as a whole should state that not all people from different places in the world are the same, and ask the students to consider this challenge of why people are not all the same. As them to brain storm all the ways that people in the world are different. Ask them to consider the problem of culture and the question of style-patterning of the different civilizations that they studied.

Step 2: Outline Modeling Input & Check for Understanding:

Have students discuss the importance of laws and customs in organizing a society. Have students take notes in this discussion. Discuss how different people perform different kinds of jobs in society. Discuss the different kinds of occupations performed by people of both modern and ancient societies, and how people depend on one another to maintain their established system. Discuss the idea of political structure and the difference between a king and a democracy. Discuss the origins of different political systems.

Students are to break into their study teams, collaborate to describe the rules and laws they think would be important for their civilization, and then to determine the set of occupational categories or roles, and to assign to each person one role or category.

Each individual then is to make up for the group a brief description of that role's responsibilities and duties and the function it played in the overall system. They should try to identify the different kinds of knowledge and tools that they would need in order to do their job. A list of possible roles can be given to each group to work with, along with descriptions of the responsibilities for each role.

Step 4: Summary & Follow-up Practice:

Summary will be for all the teams of each class to reconvene as a group, and for one member of each team to introduce all the other members of their team and to describe their roles and functions in society.

Each student will have a project of writing a two page story about their identity as members of their society, the job they do and the tools they use and about their life.

Students between study teams and between classes can write letters explaining their system and the structure that they created, and they can compare their own structures with that of the other teams.

The basis of this lesson is a character lesson based upon the virtues and values of each civilization being studied. The aim is to get students to think more deeply about what makes a person in history great, and if these things are truly good or not.

Step 1 Objective & Anticipatory Set:

To study the scientific achievements, discoveries, famous people and events that highlight each civilization, and to study a few of the renowned personages of history that were part of each period. The aim is to get students thinking about values that are important relating to history, about how alternative histories may be written, and about what qualities or factors makes for greatness in history.

Beginning with the class as a whole, simply ask the question who do you think was the greatest human being in history. Have each student who volunteers information provide their reason. Try to provide appropriate counter-examples for the individuals that the students mention from different periods of time. Try to have the students look at the same people they mention from alternative points of view.

Then ask the students what they think "greatness" really means and what are the factors that make a few people great.

Step 2 Outline Modeling Input & Check for Understanding:

Provide students with examples and information sheets relevant to each of their civilizations. Discuss the important achievements of each of the civilization, in the chronological order that these achievements happened. Have the students answer afterward questions by naming the civilization that each important achievement, event or person as a part of.

Discussion for the class a whole should be focused on what makes some things great or important in history and not other things. It should consider how most people in history are anonymous and led unknown lives. They should find comparable examples today of people they think will go down in history a thousand years from now. The aim of this discussion is to get students to think about and decide upon specific kinds of criteria for making selective judgments about events, people and achievements in ancient society. It is intended to help students to formulate and objectify their reasons and criteria for making such selections.

Students will be provided with information sheets and are to get together in their study teams and make up a three column list of particular events, achievements and personages that they consider to be important to their civilization, based upon their previous research and time-line construction, and each student is to pick a particular event, person and achievement from their respective lists, and to individually write a two page report about that achievement, event and person, stating the reasons for their selection.

Step 4: Summary & Follow-Up Practice:

Students, based on their own individual research, are to write a description of the most important person, the most important achievement, and the most important event, characteristic of each civilization. They are to provide their reasons and rationale for their decision. In a subsequent period, students are to get together to share their reports to the other members of their study teams and to then elect together the single set person, achievement and event that the group as a whole feels is most important and characteristic of their civilization.

Students are to discuss the qualities of the people that they select, to elect as a group one individual from their civilization whom they believe is worthy of the title of the "Greatest person" of this civilization, and to offer a set of explanations about why they have made this choice.

Each student is then to imagine that they were the individual they had selected, and to write a one page narrative describing their feelings, their actions, their reasons and their plans for their society.

A day before the final set of optional lessons will be set aside during which three sets of coordinate activities will be conducted. In the morning, the students will be given their assignments and roles for playing the Civilization Game, and will be given the basic rules and told how to play the game. They will be allowed to rehearse in class a round of the game in order to iron out any kinks before the real game is played. In the late morning period, the students will get together with members of the civilization study teams from the other classes, and they will collaborate on the kinds of activities and games they will present at the vanity fair. In the afternoon, students will get together in their classes on the playing field, and they will practice tryouts as team members the different activities that will be preparatory to playing and winning in the final Olympics.

Morning Activities: Game Simulation preparation. The object of the game simulation preparation is to provide students with rehearsals and preparation for successfully participating in the civilization activity on the final day of the thematic lesson unit. Students from all the different civilization study teams across the grade will convene together, and they will be explained together the basic way the game is played and the basic rules and object of the game, and roles for each team and each individual will be assigned, their duties explained.

Late Morning Activities: Students in their respective civilization teams will get together and decide what their activities, presentations and contributions will be for the final fair, which they will host for the rest of the school, and if permitted in the evening, for the parents as well. They will be given lists of possible activities to choose from, and will design their booths and their props as well as their individual costumes. This time will be essential for planning and preparation for the forthcoming set of activities, and will allow the students to integrate the projects they have already been working on. It is important at this stage to provide the students with a set of ground-rules and models upon which they can base their plans.

Afternoon Activities: Students will be taught during previous PE lessons and during this time the basic events for the Olympic games. Students will, according to their teams, practice and try out in each of the five areas of the Olympics. Students will essentially rehearse their events, both as individuals and as groups, and people will chose what events they will be involved in, signing up on sign-up sheets. The events that can be optionally used include the following:

A 50 yard dash

A one mile cross country marathon run

Frisbee throwing contest

Javelin Throwing

Jumping Contest

A Quarter Mile Relay Race

The aim will be to practice for the climax afternoon when student teams will compete, as teams, for first, second and third prizes. It is expected that this competition will be intramural between the teams of the different sixth grade classes. Students of each team will make a flag for their team that they will use.

The object of this lesson is to study the ancient religions that developed in each civilization, and to study the functional and symbolic role that religion has played in human civilization. Students will be given concrete examples of religious beliefs characteristic of each religion that they study.

Step 1 Objective & Anticipatory Set:

The objective is to teach students the basis of traditional state religions, and pan-theistic versus monotheistic beliefs. Students will learn how religion has changed and progressed in time, and how many religions were founded upon mythologies, rituals and belief systems that were important to the symbolic integrity and style patterning of the civilization.

The lesson will open for the class as a whole describing how each ancient civilization was characterized by a different religious system, and even though all these systems were different, they performed very similar functions in their respective societies. Get students to think about what a symbol means, and the power of symbolism to influence people's thoughts and behavior.

Step 2: Outline Modeling, Input & Check for Understanding:

Discuss briefly the different religions of each of the six civilizations, and demonstrate how all of these religions were pantheistic. Ask the students how this compares to religions of today that are essentially monotheistic.

Provide students with information booklets about the religions for their respective study teams, including worksheets, and break the class into their study teams.

Have the students to use the information booklets and other sources to create a bulletin board about their religion. Have them decide on the important religious beliefs and values that characterized their respective religions.

Step 4: Summary & Follow-Up Practice:

Have members of each team design a set of masks that depict the important gods of the religion that they are studying. Provide them materials (construction paper, paints, yarn, etc.,) with which to make their masks.

Activity 10 should be considered an optional activity and only implemented if there is enough time during the entire session of this thematic unit. All ancient civilizations had some form of operatic or dramatic presentation. Some of these forms are well known, as with Greek and Roman, or Hindu and Chinese opera, but other forms are less well known, as in the case of Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations. In this case, only one or two of a set of different plays can be read and enacted by the whole class, and the performance can be practiced and rehearsed for a final performance on the last or penultimate day.

Step 1 Objective & Anticipatory Set:

The objective of this lesson is to show students early versions of performing arts from ancient civilizations, and how these are similar and different from the forms that we are familiar with today, as for instance the movies and television shows.

Step 2 Outline Modeling, Input & Check for Understanding:

The use and history of drama and theater will be presented to the students, and they will get a lecture on how different cultures had different theater and stage designs.

Students will be provided with a script of a known drama from Greek or Roman or alternatively Chinese or Hindu operas. They will read the script as a group, being assigned roles as characters. If time permits, they will practice this on a makeshift stage in the classroom.

Step 4: Summary & Follow-Up Practice:

It would be good to provide students with the opportunity to create a class acting troupe, and to have this troupe rehearse and practice their drama on the school stage, learning the different directions for actors on stage and proper protocol and etiquette on stage.

This can be carried to the level of designing props and costumes for a final performance, that can be given during the fair day or that evening to the parents.

Like a few other lessons of this time frame, this lesson should be considered optional, only included if time and desire permit. The object is to teach students a sense of music appreciation and of listening to different kinds of music with an ear to being able to understand the context and beauty of such music.

Step 1 Objective & Anticipatory Set:

Open the class with playing tape recordings of music borrowed or reproduced from ancient civilizations, such as Chinese opera music, Hindu music, Greek music, or Egyptian music.

Ask them if they think it sounds strange to them, and have them sit in silence, close their eyes, and try to imagine what they are hearing in a visual manner. Ask them afterward to brainstorm together what they think they are hearing in the music.

Step 2 Outline Modeling Input & Check for Understanding:

Discuss with students the basis of music and the different kinds of instruments and rhythms of ancient music. Have students compare this to contemporary forms of music, such as rock, opera and jazz.

Have students practice and sing an ancient song, providing them with song sheets to read from.

Provide students with a set of crude musical instruments (recorders, scrapers, drums, bells, whistles) and try to have them orchestrate music in a harmonious manner.

Provide students with examples of ancient dance, via the video or alternatively by bringing in a guest who can demonstrate the dance to the students. Have the students try to dance or to get in their groups to make up a dance that they believe might be characteristic of their civilizations style, such as the Egyptian civilization based upon hieroglyphic characters.

Step 4: Summary & Follow-Up Practice:

Allow students to form their own music ensembles or dance troupes that can practice and perform for the final day.

This is another optional lesson plan, and should be considered only if time permits between all the other lessons. All civilizations are characterized by great literature and poetry. Students will read together examples of ancient poetry and will organize themselves into their study groups to read and possibly recite passages from ancient literature. This lesson should be considered an extension of previous language arts lessons, and involves primarily reading and oral communication skills.

Step 1 Objective & Anticipatory Set:

To introduce students to outstanding examples of ancient and foreign traditional literature, and to have the students read and discuss various passages and verse from selected readings of ancient literature.

Open with a reading from the Odyssey by Homer. Pose dressed as a blind bard, recanting passages of the story from memory.

Step 2 Outline Modeling Input & Check for Understanding:

Read to the students an ancient Chinese poem, and discuss with them the metaphor and symbolism of this poem.

Break the students into their study teams, and provide for each team a booklet of selected literature readings from their civilizations. Have the students select readings and possibly research other examples of literature from their civilizations, and have them practice group reading and reciting these stories.

Step 4: Summary & Follow-Up Practice:

Have students individually prepare book reports of what they read, or alternatively, have them present their reading to the class, reciting their reading of a poem as a group.

Day fourteen will provide part of the day for groups to rehearse and plan their upcoming activities, and to practice their skills as groups and as individuals. This rehearsal and planning day will allow students and groups to catch up and to complete any unfinished business before the final day, and it will provide them time to do extra work on their projects and putting together their final presentations as teams. The morning will be spent working on their team projects and exhibits. The late morning will be spent with their civilization groups to arrange and rehearse preparations for their fair day, and the final afternoon period will allow them to practice as teams their sporting events.

Getting together for planning and rehearsal will allow the civilization teams to collaborate on the publication of multi-page newspapers. This activity should go on in the early morning period, and should enable the different members of the teams to collaborate and to write current event type articles for publication and to circulate on the final two days. It will include articles of current events in reference to team and member activities, as well as feature articles about events from the past. This paper will be produced and worked on in subsequent periods, and relate to language arts and social studies curriculum. The basis of this project, which can be prepared for earlier in conjunction with language arts lessons, is to get the students thinking about past events in terms of current events of their own day. There are useful examples of this, and preparatory to this project, students in the first month should be taught in a guided manner the parts and functions of a newspaper, and how to read a newspaper story.

Students must decide on a name for their newspapers. They must make a banner headline, and prepare pictures or drawings for their paper. It is possible that they can dress in their costumes earlier to pose for pictures to publish in their papers. This lesson would be usefully conducted within a technology framework, allowing students to access and use publishing/printing resources upon computers for the organization and completion of their newspaper projects.

In the late morning period, students from respective civilization teams should be allowed to get together to consolidate their previous plans and preparations regarding their jobs and presentations at the final fair day. This will provide students with the extra time to iron-out an wrinkles or kinks in their plans.

Hold an assembly in late afternoon during which all the students in their respective civilizations will meet and a rehearsal of the game simulation will be conducted.

Another optional lesson, it is intended to get students to think about science from the standpoint of superstitious beliefs and ancient systems of magic, and to understand the importance of the development of scientific method to test beliefs and hypothesis concerning nature. To demonstrate how nature has formed the basis for scientific observations, and how methods have long existed to try to manipulate and control nature.

The objective is to teach students the role that science played in ancient civilizations, particularly the observations of nature, of plants and animals, of the human body, illness, and explanations, and of astrology and astronomy and the understanding of the heavens. Ancient systems of science has made important discoveries and inventions, but had not developed a framework of scientific method sufficiently or were able to separate knowledge based upon observation with knowledge that was rooted in superstition.

Ask students what are the difference between magic and scientific method, and have them list the differences and similarities between these two forms of practice. Discuss as a whole class the basic components of ancient science, including astronomy, medicine, beliefs about nature and the physical world, and magic. Provide examples from different civilizations of scientific achievements and worldview, comparing different forms of practice and belief about medicine, astronomy, different calendars, etc.

The students should be kept together as a whole class for this exercise, and they should be told to make notes in their logs in relation to information that is presented to them. Try to present to the class sets of scientific facts and beliefs from each of the civilizations.

Pass out to the students activity worksheets to complete.

Unlike the previous sets of activities, the activities for days sixteen and seventeen will require that students must rehearse, prepare, integrate and coordinate their activities between different teams and different classes. Students before hand will have been prepared for presenting a fair. Based on their study of foods and health of Ancient civilizations, they will plan and prepare before hand foods to share for the class as a whole that are representative of their own civilizations. If possible, students will be allowed to wear costumes or articles of clothing.

Students are to prepare and present their multi-thematic units relating to each of their civilizations as a group. Each member is to play a definite part of the overall project that they undertake at the fair. The objective of this lesson is for the students to develop social and communication skills by sharing their knowledge and expertise relating to their respective civilizations. It is to provide students with a broader framework of reinforcement and involvement in their knowledge, and to provide students a anti-structural framework for making learning fun and to involve series of activities that extend beyond the normal academic boundaries.

Students will prepare activities and manage booths at the civilization fair, which they organize in conjunction with the civilization teams from the other sixth grade classes. This fair will be set up in the morning, and will be held in the afternoon on the designated day for the benefit of all the other grades. Students will have to think of activities, presentations, games, and prizes that they will offer while at the fair. An announcement will be circulated to all the classes of the school a week before. If possible, the fair could be run in the late afternoon or early evening as well for the benefit of the parents

Parts I and II

The climax day will carry on for the entire day and will consist of two parts. The first part will be a game simulation that is carried on in the Auditorium between the teams of all the six grade classes. The second activity will consist of a set of Olympic games that will be conducted outside in the afternoon. Prizes will be offered to the individually (first, second, third place) and for the best team scores (first, second, third place) in each of the events and in a triathlon event.

Part I will consist of a game simulation that will be set up and run in the auditorium, and possibly extended to the different classrooms of the sixth grade as well. Each civilization team will set up in a designated area, and roles and duties will be assigned. There will be messengers, ambassadors, a king, an assembly, priests, an army with a general, merchants, slaves, and peasants. There will be a governing body of judges who issue event cards and determine outcomes of moves each team makes. The outcomes and moves of the game will be decided by a set of cards and a set of dice and numbers assigned for performance in the game, both to teams and to individuals.

Part II will consist of athletic events set up on the school grounds, and will be run to select out winning individual and teams in respective events.

At the end of the day there will be an award ceremony in which a prize is given to each of the place-holders in the competition.

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