Submitted by: Charlotte Sabalis
School: Holman Middle School
Summary
This project was designed to give students the feeling of nationalism and pride those members of a city-state experienced. Students were put into four groups, representing the city-states of Thebes, Athens, Sparta and the kingdom of Macedonia. Then they were tasked with creating a speech, a flyer, a blog, a poster, a bibliography, two videos, notes, and participate in a debate (or “war”) fought between two alliances. The goal of the lesson is to have students use these products to convince fellow classmates and guests that their city-state is superior as a form of government and culture over all the rest.
TIPC Ratings
Approaching:
I instructed students on how to evaluate and cite sources from their research. Then each group designated a Researcher to assist all team members with implementing strategies to find specific information. The Researcher helped group members evaluate and cite the sources they used for the project.
Developing:
I created the groups students worked in based on their answers on a political ideology quiz, and the roles were already established but students did get to choose thier specific role. Communication was contained to Holman students, parents and faculty. However, students did communicate with each other using discussion boards outside of school time, and many groups chose to meet outside of school to work together.
Approaching:
Students were challenged to create products to persuade outsiders to choose their culture and form of government to rule Greece. The problems they faced were those of ancient civilizations, but they did employ higher-order thinking skills when deciding how to justify their mistakes and clarify how they will succeed as the rulers of Greece. Groups also work hard to decide what information would be more influectial for their debate and organize it in an engaging manner.
Developing:
Students were given specific artifacts to create within the project guidelines. Although they were structured in the types of media to create they were allowed to decide which information was used within their products and the best way to shape that content so that it was engaging to all groups.
Student Artifact
