3. Virginia Standards of Learning
History
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.
4. Virginia Standards of Learning
Writing
3.9 The student will write for a variety of purposes.
a) Identify the intended audience.
b) Use a variety of prewriting strategies.
c) Write a clear topic sentence focusing on the main idea.
d) Write a paragraph on the same topic.
e) Use strategies for organization of information and elaboration according
to the type of writing.
f) Include details that elaborate the main idea.
g) Revise writing for clarity of content using specific vocabulary and
information.
5. Objectives
• Students will be able to describe the physical characteristics of
ancient Greece, Rome, and West Africa with 85% accuracy.
• Students will be able to explain how the people of Greece, Rome,
and West Africa adapted to their environment to meet their needs
with 85% accuracy.
• Students will be able to locate Greece, Rome, and West Africa
with 100% accuracy.
6. Activity/Strategy #1: Jigsaw
(Yueh-Min, Yi-Wen, Shu-Hsien & Hsin-Chin, 2014)
• The class will break into small groups. Each group will be assigned a
different part of the book. They will become the experts.
• Students will use a graphic organizer to record the important facts that
they need to know. From their graphic organizer, students will create a
poster. They will then use their poster to teach the rest of the class
about their chapter.
• We will create a class chart with important facts.
• http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=29814589-
51d7-4d7c-a6ba-d57ea263aca5%40sessionmgr120&vid=15&hid=126
7. Activity/Strategy #2: Journal Writing
(Dianovsky & Wink, 2012)
• Each student will pick a civilization and then a job they might
have done if they lived in that time.
• They will compose an entry about their day as if they
lived in that time.
• http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=10&sid
=29814589-51d7-4d7c-a6ba-
d57ea263aca5%40sessionmgr120&hid=126
8. Activity/Strategy #3: Think-Pair-Share
(Kaddoura, 2013)
Students will be provided with a research question about ancient West Africa. They will use the books and
website provided to find out information about their question.
Students will have to be able to support their statements by providing evidence from the book or website.
Students will then pair up with other students who had the same question and see if they found the same
information and then share out to the class what they found.
Sample questions:
• What was the land and the environment like?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of living in this environment?
• What natural resources did they have? What could they do with them?
• How did the people adapt to living in their environment?
• What jobs did the people have? – Did they farm any crops? If so, how?
• Did they trade like ancient Greece and Rome? If so, how?
http://eds.b.ebscoh
ost.com/eds/pdfview
er/pdfviewer?sid=298
14589-51d7-4d7c-
a6ba-
d57ea263aca5%40ses
sionmgr120&vid=15&
hid=126
9. Bloom’s Taxonomy
Comprehension Knowledge Evaluation Synthesis
Discuss
information with
partners
Recall information
from book
Compare
information found
Create a poster
Locate
information in a
book or website
Compose a journal entry
10. Assessment
• Journal entries
• KWL chart
• Mini quiz on specific civilizations
• Discussions
• End of unit assessment-
• Multiple choice, matching, written response, map with locations to be
identified
11. REFERENCES
• Dianovsky, M. T., & Wink, D. J. (2012). Student Learning through Journal Writing in
a General Education Chemistry Course for Pre-Elementary Education
Majors. Science Education, 96(3), 543-565.
• Kaddoura, M. (2013). Think Pair Share: A teaching Learning Strategy to Enhance
Students' Critical Thinking. Educational Research Quarterly, 36(4), 3-24.
• Yueh-Min, H., Yi-Wen, L., Shu-Hsien, H., & Hsin-Chin, C. (2014). Jigsaw-based
Cooperative Learning Approach to Improve Learning Outcomes for Mobile
Situated Learning. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, (1). 128.
