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Washington state standards

Relevant Washington State Social Studies standards:

SSS2.6-8.2 Evaluate the breadth, reliability, and credibility of primary and secondary sources to determine the need for new or additional information when researching an issue or event.
G1.6-8.1 Construct and analyze maps using scale, direction, symbols, legends, and projections to gather information.
G1.6-8.2 Identify the location of places and regions in the world and understand their physical and cultural characteristics.
G2.6-8.1 Explain and analyze how the environment has affected people and how people have affected the environment in world history.
G3.6-8.1 Explain how learning about the geography of the world helps us understand global issues such as diversity, sustainability, and trade.
H1.6-8.1 Analyze different cultural measurements of time.

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Existing Class structure

Table of contents

Ancient greece integration

Unit project

The basics of my current unit curriculum

Where and how Ancient Greece would be included

Description of summative project

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reviewing the curriculum

6^th Grade World History course consists of the following:

Unit 1: Welcome and Exploring Identity (September)

Unit 2: Geography and History Skills (October/November)

Unit 3: Intro to Ancient Civilizations (focus on the Mediterranean Region) (November-January)

Unit 4: Exploration of Ancient Civilizations in Africa, the Americas, and Asia (February-April)

Unit 5: Connecting the Ancient with the Modern World (May/June)

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reviewing the curriculum (2)

Unit 2 focuses on introducing and/or reinforcing geography and history skills, including:

Learning relevant vocabulary (e.g., compass rose, map key, primary source, secondary source)
Reading maps
Understanding how the landscape can shape human activities
Differentiating between primary and secondary sources and describing their role in aiding the work of historians
Seeing how different perspectives can influence historical accounts
Placing historical dates in a chronological sequence (timeline)

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What does integration look like?

Geography Skills

Use Google Earth to explore Greek geography and ancient Greek ruins
Maps of ancient Greece – worksheet and vocabulary
Impact of mountains, rivers, sea on how people live – food, security, other resources on ancient Greek communities
Map of own neighborhood

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What does integration look like? (2)

Historical Time Skills

Introduce Timelines – have students make personal timelines of their lives
Gain understanding of BCE vs. CE
Use the progression of Ancient Olympic events to illustrate historical timeline

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What does integration look like? (3)

Primary and Secondary Sources

Ancient Greek artifacts – e.g., vases and sculptures that show daily activities, food, sports, musical instruments, stories
Accounts of Ancient Greece that came hundreds of years later
Hands-on History Archaeology project – create your own pot and reconstruct it

Primary

Archaeology Project

“It was the stade-race, or short foot-race, that determined the length of the stadium at Olympia. This was the most ancient and indeed the only event at the first thirteen Olympiads. The winner of the stade-race had the Olympiad named after him…” – Swaddling, p. 57

Secondary

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Putting it all together

Summative Project: Create Your Own City State!

Incorporate all of the elements into a project to demonstrate learned geography and history skills
Preview the study of ancient civilizations
Connect individual identity (Unit 1) to the identity of a society
Introduce social issue awareness
Practice group work skills

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Putting it all together (3)

City-State Project Elements

Name and motto
Geography
History
Form of government
Culture – e.g., food, dress, athletics, music
Social issue challenge/solution

*Each group will have 4-5 students

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Putting it all together (3)

Expected Products

Welcome/Introduction – a brief speech to provide overview/background (e.g., form of government)
Flag and motto
Map of city-state with geographical features
Historical timeline of major events in the city-state’s history
Cultural “artifacts” - a primary and secondary source
Social issue challenge/solutions essay – choice from selected UN Sustainable Development Principles and ways city-state will address it

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Example: Social issue challenge/solution

Parts of Your Essay	Model Text
Introduction: Describe the challenge as it relates to your city state. What is the current situation that you are facing? What are people’s concerns?	In Suslandia, there is a need for affordable and clean energy. Everyone burns wood for their hot water and the heat in their homes. It makes our air smoky and sometimes it’s hard to breathe. We are almost out of wood so it’s becoming super expensive. People are worried that they will have to take cold showers and will freeze to death.
Body Section: What are some strategies that would help your city-state address the challenge? What obstacles would they need to overcome?	We could build community windmills since it’s very windy in our city-state. They would make electricity that could charge a battery to plug our heaters into. We could even use electricity to heat hot water. Another option could be power from the sun. It could heat our water directly and we could also store the power in batteries. These strategies could work on most days but maybe not when it’s cloudy or the wind is calm. People might also think that the equipment is ugly. We would also need to make sure people didn’t die from getting electrocuted.
Conclusion: Briefly summarize your main points. What do you want your reader to take away from your essay?	If we want to have clean and affordable energy, we will have to change from just burning wood to something else like wind power or solar. Both of these will be cleaner since they don’t create air pollution. We can invest in them now so we don’t have expensive, dirty wood that we can’t pay for.