World Civilizations: Ancient Mesopotamia People

Summary

The students will be provided with a model of a PowerPoint, and then create their own about ancient Mesopotamia. PowerPoint will provide the students with an opportunity to become more familiar with using technology in the classroom, and also use their creativity to present the material. By using PowerPoint, the students will more than learn the necessary information of the different groups, they will also be more involved and interested overall. I also believe that studying ancient Mesopotamia, students will improve research and critical thinking skills by recognizing how it impacted modern global societies. The students research 8 ancient civilizations: Sumerians/Akkadians, Babylonians, Hittites, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Persians, Phoenicians/Lydians, and Hebrews.

Materials

Social Studies textbook

Computer with Internet connection and PowerPoint software per group

LCD projector

Miscellaneous research material

Student Prior Knowledge

Students will come into this lesson with functional knowledge of the geography of ancient Mesopotamia, and creating and using PowerPoint presentations.

Intended Learning Outcomes

After reading the chapter and observing an example, the students will work in groups and correctly label 15 major accomplishments, or cultural characteristics of each of the main civilizations in ancient Mesopotamia in a PowerPoint presentation.

Instructional Procedures

To begin this lesson, the teacher should briefly review the information previously learned and the information found in the textbook by asking the students questions. Next the teacher explains the group project activity, and his or her expectations, i.e. rubric. Following the instructions, the teacher demonstrates a brief PowerPoint presentation (this may be about a subject of a previous unit). After the instruction the students are divided into small groups. The students then have the remainder of the class period to work on their PowerPoint presentations. The teacher may need to give brief review to individual groups concerning different aspects of using PowerPoint. During the next class period the students will present their Power Points to the class within 5-10 minutes each.

Extensions

Assessment Plan

Student performance will be assessed according to a rubric created for this particular assignment.

Bibliography

Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. World History: People and Nations, Modern World. 2000.

University of Wisconsin. Power Point Rubric. [Online] Available http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/pptrubric.html, March 3, 2004.