"Rome" if you want to, "Rome" around the world!

This week we stayed in Europe, and moved over to Ancient Rome. Seeing as I have traveled to Italy before, this was the civilization I was most excited for. I love learning about Rome and it's culture.

In the direct instruction, Erica and Kristine focused on Roman architecture, culture, and government. 

For the intro, Erica and Kristine used an awesome YouTube clip, shown to the right. It was like having an aerial tour of Ancient Rome. The facts and information they used were interesting, it seemed like the students were engaged. They seemed to chose things that were still relatable to students today. Their organizers were a great tool. I think one change I would make is using different symbols for each organizer. Stars were used to indicate information that needed to be recorded, but it figuring out where it belonged was a little confusing. I think another downfall that was unavoidable was snack. Students had to go at 5:00 pm, which meant the guided practice became disjointed. The activity was a really cool matching game that they created online, but because the students had the break, it seemed to lose it's place in the lesson. My comment card for this lesson can be found here.

Next, Erica and Kristine used possibly the coolest inquiry lesson I have ever seen. Students used QR codes and iPads to take part in a treasure hunt. Clues and artifacts were mixed around the room, as if in a mixed up museum, and students needed to match them back up again. It was a great opportunity for the students to get up, move, and explore. This was easily the most engaged I had seen them throughout the entire fieldwork experience. The pitfall to a lesson like this is time management, it is easy for students to side tracked or to take advantage of moving and talking with their friends. They needed constant reminders of how much time was left to stay on track. After they were done, students worked in their rows in a think-pair-share to see how they did. Students were asked to share their results with the class and explain how they got to those conclusions. The teachers then revealed the answers. My comment card for this lesson can be found here.

For their last lesson, Eria and Kristine also had students create a thinglink. Students were split into three groups and assigned one facet of Ancient Rome. I think it was a smart idea to give the students the bones of the project - they were provided a background picture and specific things to include. Students could use any of the notes they took, as well as their results from their museum search, to fill in the required pieces. Erica and Kristine also provided two websites the students could use if they needed more information. Again, the time got to the lesson, and a lot of the students left before time was up. This meant a lot of the projects were incomplete because there was only one student working on them. It's not something to hold against the group, just an unfortunate outcome of the program.

In the end, I think the unit plan was very engaging for the students. With a few minor tweaks, it would be classroom ready!