I select and use relevant teaching strategies to develop knowledge, skills, problem solving and critical and creative thinking.
In History I presented a PowerPoint to my students on Ancient Rome which focussed on the government. I taught this explicitly and asked students to take notes. I then used two students as examples of the two main groups in government. This was like story-telling as I gave the students the characteristics of what they were like. I then asked the two students to give me an action as to what would represent their type of people and the student representing the senators stood tall and proud, arm crossed over his chest. While the student representing the plebeians showed a limp arm. These were excellent visual cues for the rest of the class.
In this lesson students were exposed to explicit instruction, followed by storytelling and visual cues. They were then asked to be independent and use written information to find out about other factors that give an overall picture of what life was like in Ancient Rome.
See the resources and images of students working during this lesson:
Life in Ancient Rome:
Clothing_(Information_Sheet) Food_(Information_Sheet) Government_(Information_Sheet) Housing_(Information_Sheet) Public_Health_(Information_Sheet) Roads_and_Transport_(Information_Sheet)
After participating in the jigsaw activity students had to answer the question-‘What was life like in Ancient Rome’ and they were to create a poster to represent life in Ancient Rome. They also had to write a critical and creative response as to whether they would like to have lived in Ancient Rome.
Stephanie Rodert 