Eileen Hernon
Social Studies
While I was student-teaching, I taught my third graders about the Ancient Greek contributions to our current society. Below are some examples of lessons and activities my students participated in.
This is a picture of the KWL chart I used to introduce Ancient Greece to my students. I used it as a pre-assessment to gauge their prior knowledge. It also served as a tool for engaging students, because they were able to pose their burning questions and have them answered. This chart was completed while we read the book Growing Up in Ancient Greece. I really loved kicking off the unit with a guided read-aloud, and plan to do so again in the future. It was a great way to give the kids a little taste of what life was like in Ancient Greece, which then paved the way for us to talk about specific contributions like architecture, art, and democracy later on.
To the right is the early stage of a concept development map I helped my students create when we were learning about Greek democracy. Democracy was a surprisingly challenging concept to teach, because a lot of my students didn't really understand what government was, let alone why democracy was a revolutionary form of government. This map organized the different aspects of Greek democracy, resulting in a fuller understanding of the concept. I have a feeling large, student-made anchor charts like this will be a staple in my future classroom, because they serve as a very nice reference point for the students and break down abstract concepts into their more concrete features.
This is a whole-group lesson on the ancient olympics. It was essentially a guided picture walk through the ancient olympic arena. It also includes a video clip of the 2018 olympic torch lighting ceremony--which happened to take place the very day that I taught this lesson. My students really liked visual discovery; they would examine pictures of Greek ruins all day if I let them. When I have my own classroom, I plan on including pictures and primary sources whenever possible, because they instantly give students a more authentic understanding of the time period being studied.