Technology for Classroom Practitioners
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Ancient Rome for 6th graders

Objectives: This unit meets Kansas state standards as follows:

Describes the structure and nature of the government of the Roman Republic. (History 4.2.6)

Explains the functions of the three branches of government. (Civics/Gov't 1.3.6)

Identifies and compares the physical and human characteristics of ...early world civilizations. (Geography 3.2.1)

Mapping the Roman Republic

Students will create a graphic organizer showing the structure of the Roman republic. This activity will take approximately two 45 minute class periods.

Materials and Procedures:

Teachers need access to the Internet and Inspiration or other similar software in order to create the concept map. This is an introduction to Inspiration and Trackstar for 6th grade students at Lansing Middle School.

On Day #1, students will use trackstar (Track ID 74450) to read about the structure of the United States government. As part of a class discussion,the teacher will then demonstrate how to create a graphic organizer of the branches of our government in Inspiration.

An introduction to using Trackstar can be found at http://trackstar.hprtec.org/ Choose Track ID 33216 for the introduction.

Directions for using Inspiration to create an Idea map.

Open Inspiration on your computer. When you start Inspiration, you're in Diagram view. The Main Idea symbol appears in the center of your screen. In the place hold type your main idea - U.S. Government. Press Shift+Return (Shift+Enter) to end text entry and select the symbol. Now postion the pointer over the Down arrow on the horizontal and vertical Create button. When you point to an arrow on the Create button, it is highlighted to show you the direction in which the new idea symbol will be created. Continue going to the Create button to create connecting links until the map is completed.

On Day #2, students will briefly review the map created yesterday and then use Trackstar (Track ID 74450) to read about the Roman republic. They will then create a concept map of the structure of the Roman republic. They need to include branches of government, their functions, leaders, functions and limitations of leaders.

Republic Sites

As students complete their maps, they are to compare them to the class map done previously on the US. Students may then be asked to discuss the following questions: 1.What do the Roman and US republics have in common that makes them both republics? 2.How are the two republics different? 3. Which is better, and why?

A rubric for evaluating the student map may be found at Mapping the Roman Republic Rubric

Roman Newspaper

Students will create a newspaper page illustrating some aspect of Ancient Rome. In preparation to do this activity, students will go to Track ID 74508 for background knowledge on life in Ancient Rome. They will then choose what page of the newspaper they would like to publish. They may choose from the following: sporting news, political life, city life, army life, religious news, women's page, fashion, food page, children's page, and building news. All newspapers must contain one story with an illustration, and an advertisement that pertains to the section.

Roman Newspaper Sites

Newspapers will be created using Microsoft Publisher or Microsoft Word.

A rubric for evaluating the newspaper may be found at Roman Newspaper Rubric