Why Walk Like an Egyptian?

Rationale: This set of lessons is an excellent example of student-centered instruction and differentiation, not only for students with special needs but for students who are gifted or simply struggling with the particular topic. For the gifted students, an extension is included where the students are required to use more critical thinking skills and doing additional research. It also includes several ways to remediate students who are not grasping the topic or who may be struggling doing research. The use of technology in the lesson lends itself to individualized instruction. ELL students can use online translation programs to translate any words they run into that are extremely unfamiliar, and the difficulty of the available research sites the students are required to use can be adjusted for each student. For the projects in this lesson, students are in mixed groups based on abilities, which means they can help each other out. See also: Appendix: A-1, A-2, A-4, A-8, A-9, A-10, A-11

Lesson Title: Why Walk Like an Egyptian?

Grade Level: 2nd Subject: History
Time Required: 4 days, 30-40 minutes a day (allowing five minutes on either end for cleanup and set-up). o Day 1: intro and hieroglyphs activity o Day 2-3: Egyptologist Research Project, begin rewrite o Day 4: Rewrites completed and checked by group, closing arguments

Objective:
Acting as Egyptologists, the students will answer the question Why is ancient Egypt important? in several ways. They will decode hieroglyphs, write stories, research ancient Egypt and draw their own conclusion in answer to the above question.

Standards
VA SOL History 2.1: The student will explain how the contributions of ancient Egypt influenced the present world in terms of architecture, inventions, the calendar and written language. VA SOL Geography 2.4a: The student will understand the relationship between the environment and culture of ancient Egypt. VA SOL Writing 2.11: The student will write stories, letters and simple explanations.

Focus
Enduring Understandings 1. The students will understand the contributions of the ancient cultures, like Egyptians in the areas of science, architecture and writing, and understand how they affect us today. Essential Questions 1. Why is it important to study ancient cultures, like Egypt?

Procedures
Lesson Set The lesson will start with an introduction to the new unit: Ancient Egypt and the essential question for the unit: why is ancient Egypt important? We will brainstorm as a class the answers to that question, writing them on the board underneath the question to return to later. The students will then use a quick lesson on hieroglyphs and a special decoder to do a fun activity translating hieroglyphs and decorating their own cartouches. Rationale Students will always learn about history. They should already understand that many things learned in the past can help us today, but this lesson will reinforce that idea. Remind students what it means to learn from history, by saying things like: if you put your hand in the fire and it got burned, would you do it again? Why? the obvious answer is no, because it hurt. Similarly, You had a great time on a roller coaster at Bush Gardens, would you try one at Kings Dominion? the answer should be something along the lines of yes, because it was fun. You can learn something similar from studying ancient cultures, like those of Egypt and China, but you learn more things, answers to questions like Why are there 365 days in a year? and why is the Washington Monument a big pointy thing?. This can be a great investigative tool: students can ask themselves why they need to know about an ancient culture, and by investigating the answer to that question, they learn about things like irrigation, or writing development that can teach us lessons about ourselves even now. Activities o Introduce new unit on ancient Egypt. o Pass out decoder key of the hieroglyphic alphabet o Have the students decode several cartouches and other items independently, then have them create their own cartouche using the decoder key. Ask questions about writing with pictures, how it looks, does this feel like something they did every day, etc. o Collect cartouches for display they should be colorful so be sure to provide crayons. o Discuss the activity with the students; what did they think about the writing, was it hard, etc.

o Explain that hieroglyphs were used to write special things. Show them a picture of the Rosetta Stone and briefly describe how this was the key to us understanding the hieroglyphs and discuss the hieratic, which was the everyday writing, comparing it with the more religious and formal hieroglyphs. o Show the students several pictures of painted or carved images on Egyptian temples or tombs. o The students will then write a brief story about what they see happening in the image. They can write whatever they believe to be happening, but they must be able to back it up with something they see in the image. o Now that the students are all well acquainted with Egyptian carvings and hieroglyphs, they are all going to be Egyptologists for the next activity. o Have students guess at what an Egyptologist does and then explain that they are a person who studies Egypt. o Present the essential question: Why is ancient Egypt important? Take suggestions of answers and write them underneath the essential question on chart paper so that it can be displayed in the classroom for the duration of the unit. o The students will be given a document full of links to go and visit to research different aspects of ancient Egypt. There will be two (very obvious) sites that would not be good research sites (selling something, not reliable, etc). These can be manufactured ahead of time to say something like Elvis created ancient Egypt in 1950. These are not placed to trip the children up, but to practice their skills with evaluating sources. o The goal of their research will be to answer the essential question and attain the enduring understandings. In the links will be information on Egyptian architecture, writing, nature, and science and inventions.

For example: obelisks, irrigation, why they lived in the Nile River Valley, paper made from papyrus, 365-day calendar, pyramids, and hieroglyphs. The students will record their findings on a provided worksheet. o On a worksheet provided, the students will chose two sites they thought were the most helpful and two sites that were not good sources. o Once research is complete, the student will bring their research to their groups (assigned beforehand based on creating an equal mix of abilities) and discuss the essential question, using their research to draw a conclusion as a group as to why ancient Egypt is important. o They will fill out a worksheet similar to their research notes sheet representing the group consensus. o Now they have drawn a conclusion, the students should return to their original stories created from the pictures and rewrite them, applying what they have learned. They will bring these stories back to their group to be reviewed for factual errors before turning them in to be displayed. o The students will fill out anonymous checklists assessing their group and how it worked. *note: if all groups seem to be working well together, this step may be unnecessary. o Once all stories are finished, critiqued, fixed, and turned in, return to the essential question. Review the answers given in the beginning and ask: o Are those answers correct? o What new answers can you give to this question having studied Egypt for yourselves? o Write the new answers under the previous ones on the chart paper and discuss what the students have learned in the unit, using that initial chart as a guide as to where they started.

Lesson Closure Congratulate the students on being excellent Egyptologists, and creating truly inspired works of art with their cartouches and their literature. Return to the essential question and follow step 14 above, asking the students to re-evaluate their early answers and change or add to them. Tell the students they cannot take of their Egyptologist hats yet, as there was much more Egypt to study. Now that they understand the Egyptian culture, they can apply all of their knowledge to unwrap tomorrows topic: mummies. Assessment/Evaluation For evaluation, the students writing will serve as a major evaluation factor. It will be collected and read both the first piece and the revised to make sure they applied what they have learned. The research notes will also be collected to check for completion and then returned to the students. In order to determine the students ability to evaluate sources, the worksheet on the resources will be collected. The students need to have chosen two good sources and two bad ones. To make sure group activities are done with respect and fairness, the groups will be frequently observed and will need to fill out a short, anonymous evaluation of their peers at the end of the activity. The group sheets will also be a good source of information to ensure that students were able to communicate their ideas and come to conclusions as a group. Feedback will be provided orally and in writing when the items are returned to them with written comments and if the class seems deficient in a particular area, that area will be revisited. Student Products 1. Translated hieroglyphs page 2. Their names in decorated cartouches 3. First draft of story from an Egyptian picture 4. Individual Research Notes worksheet 5. Source Evaluation worksheet 6. Group Research Findings worksheet 7. Group evaluation (anonymous) 8. Final draft of picture story

Supplemental Activities: Extension and Remediation

o Extension: Solve the mystery of an artifact. A big, carved artifact (plow) just washed up from the Nile. Use the provided decoder to find out who the artifact belonged to, what it is, and how it was used. This will require the student to have some fun decoding the writing and also may require additional research to discover what the item is and how it was used. o Remediation: several options for remediation include: o Research remediation students will use the previously provided links to answer a series of questions that will fill in the blanks on a fascinating story about King Tut. o Inability to answer the essential question the student will spend time doing a fill-in-the-blanks activity talking about the Egyptians and their accomplishments. Adaptations for Diverse Special Learners Fortunately, using computers for research automatically lends itself to differentiated instruction. Gifted learners can be given harder to identify bad sources or more challenging research sites, ESL students will have the ability to translate any difficult words they find when researching using a translation program on the computer. For lower readers, the research sites can be chosen accordingly and for other disabilities, accommodations can readily be made. Students can also use the computer to write their story if writing help is included in their IEPs. Differentiated Instruction Gifted learners have more activities to do that engage more complex applications of what was learned. Students are also grouped based on their abilities, so the gifted students can help the lower students understand what they have researched and apply it to their findings. The groups will also feature a mix of creative writers and technical writers so they can help each other. Integration of Instruction Taking a study break from research by dancing to the song Walk Like and Egyptian will provide the students with a silly bit of exercise.

Collaboration with Families The weeks topic will be included in the weekly newsletter sent via email to the parents and will include helpful links for their students to use at home, good books or videos to look up online or check out in the library, and games that can be played for fun and learning. A copy of the hieroglyph key will also be included as an attachment should the parents want to write something with their students. See page 17 for a copy of the newsletter.

Resources
Included Resources o o o o o o o o o o o o o Hieroglyph key worksheet Worksheet with hieroglyphs to decode Cartouches for the students to put their names in SmartBoard/slideshow with Rosetta Stone and several scenes from Egyptian tombs or temples List of online sources with two bad sources (see: Web and Attachment Resources) Research Notes worksheet Source Evaluation worksheet Group Research Findings worksheet Group Evaluation Checklist Sample unit newsletter with home resource suggestions Mystery artifact worksheet Source Evaluation remediation sheet Essential question remediation sheet

Web and Attachment Resources 1. Rockingham County Schools: Ancient Egypt Page 2. The British Museum 3. Neferchichis Hieroglyphs 4. Thinkquest Egypt Facts 5. NOVA Ancient Egypt 6. Hieroglyph Typewriter 7. Mr. Donns Ancient Egypt 8. Ancient Egypt Facts 9. Ancient Egypt 10.Bubba Ho-Tep (bad site) 11.Weekly World News (bad site)

Use this key to decode your hieroglyphs.

Research Notes: Architecture (remember, thats building and construction style!) 1. What is an obelisk?

2. Do we use obelisks today?

3. Who built the pyramids?

4. Why did they build the pyramids?

Inventions 1. What is irrigation?

2. Do we still use irrigation today?

3. What about the calendar? Why is our calendar 365 days?

Geography/Culture 1. Why did the Egyptians live in the Nile River Valley?

2. What kind of writing did the Egyptians use?

3. Do we have something like Egyptian writing today?

Conclusions: As a group, we find that Egypt is... (circle your group consensus) Important Not Important

We decided this because... (List five reasons why or why not!) 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Research Site Evaluation: I found these two sites to be the most helpful: 1.

2. I liked them because... (Explain how these sites were helpful or why you thought they were the most helpful)

I found these two sites to be the least helpful: 1.

2. I chose them because... (Explain why these sites were not helpful and why you chose them as the least helpful)

Group Work Checklist 1. Everyone in my group worked together to accomplish our goals. Yes Sort of No Comments:

2. We stayed on task and kept our focus. Yes Comments: Sort of No

3. I contributed to my group Yes Comments: Sort of No

4. We all did our assigned jobs Yes Comments: Sort of No

5. What grade should you get? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10/10

6. What grade should your group get? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10/10

Questions, Comments and Concerns:

Miss Hannons Class Parent Newsletter

Iwy em hotep! No, it isnt a typo; it is our guess at how the Ancient Egyptians said hello! If you hadnt guessed already, our social studies topic of the week is going to be Ancient Egypt! We are going to be watching several videos in class as well as decoding so hieroglyphs and trying our hand at Egyptology. How can you help, you ask? Here are a few suggestions: we will be watching a movie mythbusting Hollywood, I will include a selection of movies and television episodes for you to watch at your discretion with your children. Ive also incl uded a hieroglyphic key and instructions just in case you want to join in the decoding fun with your student. As always, I have a selection of excellent childrens books that are available at your local library that hit on the topics we will be covering in a fun way. Finally, Ive included some links to videos and websites that you and your student will find informative and entertaining! I look forward to delving into the past with you and your student! Senebti (goodbye) until next week! Books: Adventures in Ancient Egypt by Linda Bailey If I Were a Kid in Ancient Egypt: Children of the Ancient World by Cobblestone Publishing You Wouldn't Want to Be a Pyramid Builder: A Hazardous Job You'd Rather Not Have by Jacqueline Morley Pharaoh's Boat by David Weitzman Pyramid by David Macaulay Movies/TV: The Mummy (1932) classic horror film, not remotely accurate but fun to watch Prince of Egypt (1998) PG for thematic elements Stargate (1994) PG-13 for science fiction elements Any of the Discovery Channel Egypt specials Links: http://www.rockingham.k12.va.us/JWES/Egypt/Egypt.html http://www.eyelid.co.uk/hieroglyphic-typewriter.html http://egypt.mrdonn.org/ http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/games/puzzlesquizzes/brainteas eregy pt/ http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/photos/ancient-egypt/

Help! This item just washed up on the shores of the Nile. With it came two scrolls. We need you to discover what it is and what it was used for. Mystery Item:

Scroll 1:

Scroll 2:

Questions: 1. What is this item? 2. What was it used for? 3. Did the ancient Egyptians use it? 4. Do we use something like it today?

King Tut: A True Story

Go to: http://www.woodlandsjunior.kent.sch.uk/Homework/Egypt.html Scroll down and click on Tutankhamun on the side of the screen. Answer the following questions: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. When did King Tut live? What Dynasty was he part of? Where was King Tut buried? When was his tomb discovered? Who paid for the excavations (digging for) his tomb? What was found inside the tomb? How many years did the archaeologists look for the tomb? Why was the discovery so important for historians?

6. 7.

8.

Fill In The Blanks

The student will go to: http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0210200/ancient_egypt/ facts .htm and click on Egyptian Introduction Now, fill in the blanks: Egypt is located in the northern part of _________. Farmers first settled in Egypt along the _____ River around 5000 B.C. The ___________ River flows into the Mediterranean Sea from the south. Egypt receives little rainfall. Without the _______ River, the area would be entirely desert. Before modern dams were built the Nile River would flood each year. The floods usually began in _________ and ended in ________________. These floods would bring thick, rich ____________ from the mountains of central Africa. The ________ would spread over the riverbanks creating a fertile ground for the early Egyptians to grow their ______________. One of the reasons that Egyptians were able to develop an advanced _______________ is because they were surrounded by _____________. With the rich deposits of the _____________ ______________, the ______________ weather, and the well-organized ________________, the Egyptian people were able make a good living with only a small portion of their day. This gave the people time to invent writing, build ________________ systems, and build magnificent ____________ all within 2000 years.