Elements of Greek Culture
http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtec596/project1/greek.html
Unit Authors
This unit was developed by Cheryl Lafond and Bill Wolbach and delivered to sixth graders at Mann Middle School.
Content Areas
The integration of the concepts in this interdisciplinary unit were implemented through activities in Social Studies, Language/Literature, Math, and Art.
Organizing Theme
The theme of this unit is "what were the elements of Greek culture and society that influenced modern western government, architecture, and literature?" This was the essential unifying question for this interdisciplinary unit.
Implementation
The interdisciplinary project included ways of addressing the challenge that "all children can learn" through a variety of ways including hands'on activities. This unit also includes ways of addressing different learning styles. The total project took about three weeks. The unit was taught in 2-3 hour blocks of time each day for Social Studies, Math, Language/Literature, and Art.
Outline of Activities
Although this was an interdisciplinary unit, Literature had the biggest impact within this unit.
Week 1
- Development of societies in relationship to topography, which included the emergence of city states/government where students maintained a time line in the classroom and the spread of culture through travel(Social Studies)
- On the wall size map in the classroom, students added detail trade routes, place names, etc. (Social Studies)
- A study of Greek myths: the oral tradition, religion, primitive science, which the students compared and used the elements of Greek myths to write a science fiction story (Literature)
- Greek plays: as art and entertainment, in teaching values, and reinforcing society (Literature)
- The rights and role of the female-Athens and Sparta during a Socratic Seminar (Literature)
- A study of maps, where they are given map coordinates for places studied (Math)
- Create a Greek mask after looking at the art in Greek plays (Art)
Week 2
- Development of government through a comparison of Athens and Sparta and the types of governement in each (Social Studies)
- Role of the Oracle in Greek life by student analysis and recreation of Oracle predictions (Literature)
- The development of the Greek alphabet to our present letters-Students memorize names of Greek letters and write messages using Greek Alphabet (Literature)
- Watch a film called "Donald in Mathimaticsland" and discover the development of geometry through a study of Pythagoras (Math)
- Reproduction of Greek art through coins, reliefs, and friezes (Art)
Week 3
- Students will study the Peloponnesian War and write a newspaper account on the Battle of Thermopylae and draw an eight panel comic strip on the war (Social Studies)
- The influence of Greek language and literature on our western language (Literature)
- Students will be introduced to the Trojan War and write a newspaper accountof the Trojan Horse incident from the perspective of the Trojans/The Greeks (Literature)
- Graphing to present visual information that they have learned (Math)
- Paper production through marbelized paper and Greek architecture (Art)
Student Products
The students produced a wall size map of the Greek culture and a collage of illustrations of the Trojan War.
Thinking Skills Engaged
Since the unit was based on the idea that "all students can learn", many thinking skills were implemented. Students were encouranged to use their creative and critical thinking skills, as well as observing skills to produce and present in their own illustrations.
Lessons Learned
The teachers that were involved in implementing this lesson were completely satisfied on how the lesson went. After assessing the students through a unit test, quizzes, oral language components, written assignments, and essays, the teachers honestly felt that their interdisciplinary unit was a success.
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