It's time for Era 3 in my classroom, and I have about 14 class days (including an assessment day) to teach this Era (I am using the older Era pacing this year). I always run into the issue of whether to spend about a day on a major ancient civilization or have a PBL where the students explore ONE ancient civilization in huge detail. I have experimented with both and still feel the whole picture is left out no matter where I go.
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How do you choose which ancient civilizations to teach and what key points to focus on for each?
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Just saw this post now, but I wanted to just share an activity that I do that might help. In NY, I just follow the state framework on which civilizations/topics to cover but I definitely don't spend too much time on content on all these civilizations as I used to. Instead, I give students/groups a bit more ownership of the information and have them create a real estate advertisement on the topic. Even if you're going to teach it in class, it might work well as an informal assessment. I let students use Google Slides, Canva, etc. - basically whatever they're comfortable with.
These are the requirements:
Imagine time travel exists and you are charged with promoting travel to different time periods/locations. Create a real estate advertisement for one of the four river valley civilizations we have examined. Your goal is to promote travel to your time period and location. Make sure your advertisement:
-describes the geography of the region
-describes all the reasons why your river valley allowed civilization to develop
-mentions all the benefits of living in the civilization you chose
-use images that complement your ideas
-be creative - do not make a list, make an advertisement with a persuasive message and the evidence to back it up -
Todd Nussen This seems really fun. Do the students like it?
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Todd Nussen This seems really fun. Do the students like it?
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Overall, I'd say yes. For most, it doesn't seem too challenging that they can't complete it and it allows the creative ones to show off a bit. For everyone else, it at least shows me that they understand the materials. Here are a few examples: