Elementary Education Lesson Plan Template for 4881 Placement Experience

Header: Ancient Romes Human Characteristics and Adaptations

Student Name: Yarden Batson
Grade Level: 3rd Grade
Date of Lesson Enactment: Thursday October 16th, 2014
Topic: Ancient Romes Human Characteristics and Adaptations
Enduring Understandings: (What big idea(s) will students understand as a result of this
lesson?)

Students will understand that people need to change in order to successfully live in
certain environments.
Students will understand that in order to make a change people need to be aware of the
characteristics of the environment surrounding them so that they can make good choices
about the adaptations they will need to take on.

Essential Questions: (What question(s) will students grapple with as they learn through this
lesson?)

What is an adaptation? Of Ancient Rome?

What is a characteristic? Of Ancient Rome?
How did Ancient Romans adapt?
How do people change in order to fit into an environment?
Why do people need to adapt?
Why did the location of Ancient Rome cause people to adapt?

Primary Content Objectives:

Students will know: (facts/information)

What the words characteristic and adaptation mean

The human characteristics and adaptations of the Ancient Romans

Students will be able to do: (skills and behaviors)

Compare and contrast characteristics between different environments.

Be able to answer questions
Work independently
Write and/or draw a plan for an ancient civilization
Create an early empire and discussing/creating its land and people with certain
characteristics and adaptations that are correlated with the land mass they live on.

Related state or national standards: (Examples include State Standards of Learning, Common
Core State Standards, Next Generation Science Standards or National Curriculum Standards for
Social Studies)
SOLS
Standard 3.4
The student will develop map skills by
a) locating Greece, Rome, and West Africa;
b) describing the physical and human characteristics of Greece, Rome, and West Africa;
c) explaining how the people of Greece, Rome, and West Africa adapted to and/or changed their
environment to meet their needs.
Standard 3.8
The student will recognize that because people and regions cannot produce everything they want,
they specialize in producing some things and trade for the rest.

Assessment: (How (and when) will students be assessed? What evidence will you collect to
determine whether students have met the lesson objectives? Will the assessment(s) be a preassessment (diagnostic), formative (ongoing feedback) or summative?)

Students will be assessed informally and with a formative assessment when they raise
their hands throughout the lesson to ask questions, share information, and answer
questions. I will know and I can continue a discussion if students are having a tough time
understanding the material.
I will use the plan they create to gauge their understanding about human characteristics as
well as adaptations that people need to make in their society. I will include a rubric for
the students designs so that they can see what they will be graded on.
Students will then compare and contrast the society that they create to the one of the
Ancient Romans. I will assess this formatively and use the information to adapt a future
lesson plan on Ancient Rome. Will the students need more instruction on characteristics
and adaptations of Ancient Rome or do they understand what these words mean as well
as how they apply to Ancient Rome.

Materials and Resources: (List here all materials that you will need in order to successfully
teach this lesson. Include technology and website links, texts, graphic organizers, student
handouts, physical manipulatives, etc.)

Chart of vocabulary words with possible picture help

Short video on ancient Roman Roads:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu94sFmNwMw
The ActivBoard
Venn Diagram papers.
The Elmo to show students how to use and label their Venn Diagram
Papers for designing an Ancient Civilization- two types (one lined and one blank)
Colored pencils and pencils
Clipboards
The three different environment pictures
Magnets
Timer on ActivBoard
Picture of Aqueduct along with the word on a poster board
Rubric for their Ancient Civilizations

Key Vocabulary and Definitions:

Characteristic- Something that describes a person

Adaptations- how people change to fit their environment
Aqueducts- A structure that looks like a bridge and is used to carry water over a valley
and to an area in need of water. Aqueducts is a Latin word meaning Water tunnels/tubes.
Aquae Ductus.

Lesson Procedures:
1. Introduction and goal orientation:
Before

Students will be sitting on the rug facing the ActivBoard

I will review where Ancient Rome is with the students and the different
geographical characteristics of the land.
I will then ask what are characteristics? More specifically, the characteristics of
Ancient Rome.
We will then discuss different jobs or human characteristics that the Ancient
Romans had/did.
Students will raise their hands and volunteer their ideas of why Ancient Romans
did certain jobs and not others.

I will ask them how they know and why questions to really help them think about
how humans choose jobs that fit their environment and resources.
I will then ask students what an adaptation is? I will also ask students about an
adaptation that a fox may make to live in the Arctic.
I will then ask students about different human adaptations and what about the
environment of Ancient Rome would make people choose to do things that they
normally would not. Such as road building and trading, as well as aqueducts.
Students will turn and talk and then share their ideas with the class.
I will then tell students that we will be watching a video about Ancient Rome. I
will ask them to watch for what something new and surprising as well as
something they already know about Ancient Rome.
Students will watch the video
We will discuss new things they learned as well as some things that they already
knew about Ancient Rome that they heard in the video

During

I will tell students that they will be designing their own ancient civilization.
I will show them the three environments that they can choose from. One will have a
peninsula, one will be mountainous, and one will be an island.
I will tell students that they will have to design an ancient civilization on one of these
environments. They must include the human characteristics as well as the adaptations that
the people in their civilization will possess as well as how that is connected to the
environment where they live.
I will tell students that they can choose to draw or write about their environment. If they
choose to draw then they must label the people they draw (what are they doing) and state
at the bottom of their paper in 1 or 2 sentences what the human adaptations are in their
environment. I will also provide sentence frames for those that need it: For instance,
One adaptation that people in my environment have to make is _________________.
Another adaptation is __________________. The final adaptation is ___________. The
people in my civilization are __________. They have these characteristics because
____________. These adaptations are important for my people because
______________.
I will tell students that they have 20 minutes to design their environment and to use their
time wisely. This may mean that they write their sentences before they begin drawing if
that is what they choose to do.
I will put the timer on the ActivBoard so students can manage their own time and I will
tell students that this activity is a quiet activity but if they need ideas from their neighbors
they can whisper to one another. They must sit at their tables for this activity.

I will walk around the room and help those that need extra help. I will also grab the
clipboard bin and place the clipboards next to the purple rug.
If students finish quickly I will ask them to think about what a day in their ancient
civilization would look like (this ties into a future lesson).

After

When the timer goes off I will ask all of the students to return to the rug and grab a
clipboard. I will only dismiss tables that are quiet and ready. Students will also know to
bring their Ancient Civilization plans with them.
I will then have the Venn diagram on the board and together we will label our diagrams.
I will label one side my civilization and another side Ancient Rome. The middle will say
both
I will then explain what each section will contain
Then I will ask a few students about their human characteristics and adaptations, the ones
in the ancient civilization that they made.
We will then decide as a class whether or not the ancient romans also had this
characteristic or adaptation and put it into the proper place.
I will ask 3 or 4 more students to share and then tell them to complete their own Venn
Diagrams.
I will keep them on the rug for this and ask that when they finish to put all of their papers
with their names in the finished work bin and steal minutes

2. Connecting to prior knowledge and experiences: (Questions or activities that help

students make links)
We will be connecting todays lesson to what they learned about Ancient Romes
geography last class.
Students also know about adaptations from our Green Adventure day. They can
use this knowledge to help them make connections between animal adaptations
and the adaptations of the people in ancient Rome.
3. Tasks and activities: (What challenging tasks and activities will students engage in as
they construct knowledge, learn new skills or behaviors and develop understandings?)
Students will be designing their own Ancient Civilization
Students will be comparing the civilization they created to Ancient Romes.
4. Closure: (How will you wrap up the lesson and reinforce key ideas? Closure may include
some form of assessment or exit slip)

The closure for this lesson will be comparing and contrasting their ancient
civilization to that of Ancient Romes. Students will also have a chance to share
their civilization with the class at this point.
I will tell students that want to share more about their civilization that I am going
to hang up their plans in the hall for people to see along with their Venn Diagrams
so that they can share with their friends and with me later.

Accommodations for individual differences: (How will the lesson be differentiated to support
diverse learners? Describe additional supports that can be used for re-teaching if needed, and a
challenging extension for students for demonstrate mastery quickly or show evidence of a lot of
prior knowledge.)

I will have sentence structures available for students that need help warming up to writing
and knowing how to construct a full sentence.
I will have a chart with the words characteristic and adaptation and what they mean as
well as Aqueduct and a picture of what it is.
Students will also have a choice about whether or not they want to draw their
environment or write about it.
I will also have a timer which allows students to manage their own time
Students will have a chance to talk to their neighbors quietly if they need help and I will
also walk around the room and help individuals that need it.

Behavioral and organizational strategies: (What behaviors will you model or discuss with
students? What do you want to remember about organizing the lesson and materials? Use this
section for reminders to yourself about behavioral and organizational strategies. For example, do
you want to explicitly model how to work with partners in this lesson? Or demonstrate how to
use mathematical tools?)

I will have everything on the computer that I will need to pull up for the lesson so I can
click on it really fast.
I will also have all of the materials laid out on the side so that students can pick up the
materials easily without causing congestion.
I will also explicitly state my behavior expectations and use the timer to help students
manage their own time.
Certain students will be seated at different spots on the rug. I will have their rug spots
made.

Reflection on teaching: What aspects of your instruction were effective and why? What would
you modify about the lesson if you could go back and teach it again?

Reflection on student learning: Did students meet the objectives outlined above? Share
evidence from your assessment(s) about goals that were met or need future work. What are the
next steps for the students as they learn the concepts and skills outlined above?

Feedback: What feedback did you receive from a peer, CI or US before or after this lesson?
How will you incorporate this feedback into your next lessons?
(Credit: The framework for this lesson plan follows the Understanding by Design approach to
lesson planning, Wiggins & McTighe, 2004)

Human Characteristics and Adaptations of Ancient Civilizations

Name:______________________
Date:__________________
Rubric
What you need to
include:

Doesnt meet
Expectations

Meets Expectations
2 Characteristics are
written about.

Characteristics

Adaptations

3 Adaptations are
written about.

Logic

Adaptations match
the environment.

Scores:

Exceeds
Expectations

Overall Score: ____________

Students will create an ancient civilization after learning about the human characteristics
and adaptations of Ancient Rome. They have chosen from 3 different types of environments and
will come up with at least two human characteristics and at least three adaptations that their
civilization has.
Their civilizations will be compared and contrasted with Ancient Rome in a future lesson.
Students are now focusing on how they can logically connect a characteristic to an adaptation.

SOL Standards that apply:

3.4
The student will develop map skills by
b) describing the physical and human characteristics of Rome
c) explaining how the people of Rome adapted to and/or changed their environment to meet their needs.
3.8
The student will recognize that because people and regions cannot produce everything they want, they
specialize in producing some things and trade for the rest.