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I chose to use Ancient Rome for this lesson. Kansas standards for 6th grade History, Government, and Social Studies (HGSS) are hinged on Ancient World Civilizations out to 1300 C.E.. I chose Rome because I believe it to be one of the most influential civilizations ever. There is much we have learned from it and there is much we continue to learn from studying it.

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Two of the Kansas standards for HGSS that students will be able to engage in open dialogue about are: Choices have Consequences, and Relationships among people, places, ideas, and environments are dynamic. While these are broad topics, students will be able to retrieve information from the lesson to fulfill thought-provoking and well-rounded answers to these ideas.

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Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as

inferences drawn from the text.

Describe how a particular story's or drama's plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as

how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.

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Richard Platt (Author), David Parkins (Illustrator)

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Roman Diary: The Journal of Iliona, A Young Slave (Historical Diaries)

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Roman Diary: The Journal of Iliona, A Young Slave (Historical Diaries) [Platt, Richard, Parkins, David] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Roman Diary: The Journal of Iliona, A Young Slave (Historical Diaries)

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Fiction Choice Affordances and Limitations

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Fiction Choice Affordances and Limitations

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Affordances:

With this story being written as journal entries through the experiences of Iliona it allows the reader to position themselves in her shoes and feel exactly what she feels. The story is broken down into multiple short journal entries accompanied by detailed and descriptive images to support the journals. There are also a small collection of images that seem to express what Iliona was thinking about but didn't necessarily include in her entries. This story is also historically accurate when using names, places, times, and events that took place in Ancient Rome.

Limitations:

While this story, comprised of first-hand experiences, covers a multitude of different events and situations, it does lack the detail of what Ancient Rome was like. It does not get into detail on their clothing, crafts, tools, hair styles, and other things along these lines.

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Use context to determine the meaning of a word or phrase.

Read and comprehend high-quality informational text of appropriate quantitative and qualitative complexity for sixth grade.

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Eyewitness Ancient Rome: Discover one of history’s greatest civilizations (DK Eyewitness)

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Eyewitness Ancient Rome: Discover one of history’s greatest civilizations (DK Eyewitness) [DK] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Eyewitness Ancient Rome: Discover one of history’s greatest civilizations (DK Eyewitness)

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Nonfiction Choice Affordances and Limitations

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Nonfiction Choice Affordances and Limitations

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Affordances:

The greatest thing about this text is the extreme level of detail it provides in almost every aspect of living in Ancient Rome. It covers topics ranging from Army life, Family life, Technology, Emporers, Combat, Dinner Parties, Roman Gods, and Country life just to name a few. It highlights the details that have been purposely provided by ancient Romans through the use of real-world images and photographs. Understanding these details and why they were important to Romans then helps us paint the pictures in our heads as we expand our knowledge of this time period through multimodal means.

Limitations:

This book is strictly informational and does not create a typical story consisting of a beginning, middle, end, character development, plot, climax, etc. Some of the pages have a lot of information and the way it is displayed can make it difficult to ensure that everything on the page was read.

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Integrate information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words to develop a coherent understanding of a topic or issue.

Consult reference materials both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or

determine or clarify its precise meaning or its part of speech.

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Who Were the Ancient Romans?

Citizenship

Romans did not necessarily live in the city of Rome. At its height, the empire stretched from Mesopotamia to Scotland and from Romania to Morocco. Nor did language define a Roman. Latin was the primary language of the city of Rome, but Greek was spoken throughout the empire, alongside hundreds of local languages and dialects. It was citizenship, which could be awarded to any male in the empire (including slaves), that set Romans and their families apart from other inhabitants of the ancient world. A Roman was a citizen of Rome.

From Republic to Empire

In 509 BC, the Roman Republic was established and over the next few centuries gained control of the Italian mainland. Following a series of civil wars, Julius Caesar's adopted son Octavian consolidated control over the expanding Roman Empire and received the title of Augustus from the Senate in 27 BC. Emperor Augustus Caesar died in 14 AD, but the era of peace he established lasted for more than 200 years.

Rome's Legacy

Romans greatly influenced the Western world during their thousand year history. They built cities across much of the ancient world, influenced the development of Western culture and literature and developed organized systems of government. The government of the United States was influenced by the Roman republican government.

LOOKING, THINKING, AND LEARNING

The two sets of activities that follow call on your observation and thinking skills as you closely examine selected objects from Ancient Rome.

LOOK AT THIS!

The first three activities provide close-up views with guiding questions and background information. What will you learn about the connections between power, status, citizenship, and images in ancient Rome? How do these objects relate to identity and how people are portrayed or remembered? Who is represented and who is not?

SURPRISE ME!

The next three investigations offer pop-up hot spots on selected objects to reveal intriguing information about Roman culture, gods, goddesses, and mythology.

How do these objects relate to what the Romans thought was important?

SURPRISE ME! Exploring the Statue of Serapis

Click on the pop-up hot spots on the image of Serapis below to reveal some cool facts about this important god!

The Romans, like the Egyptians and Greeks believed in many gods and goddesses. Serapis was a god of the sun, healing, and fertility. Worship or belief in Serapis was developed in Egypt by the Ptolemies, Macedonian Greeks who ruled Egypt from 305-30 BC. The god combined the features of the Egyptian gods Apis and Osiris (show) with the appearance of Greek gods with beards like Zeus and Hades. This combination of Greek and Egyptian characteristics made it easier for both Greeks and Egyptians to worship him. Romans continued to worship Serapis when they ruled Egypt and much of the Western world.

SURPRISE ME! Exploring Four Season Mosaic: Summer and Fall

Wealthy Romans decorated their homes with mosaics, pictures or patterns made from small pieces of marble, stone, and glass called tesserae [tes-er-ray]. This mosaic was once a part of a hallway floor in a house in a town in Antioch, a major city in Roman, Syria and illustrates the four seasons. The seasons are represented as Erotes [er-o-tees]. They are mythological figures depicted as small boys with wings. They were the mischievous companions of Eros (also known as Cupid), the son of the goddess of love Venus (Aphrodite in Greek), and were often shown in a variety of costumes, pretending to do different things. From left to right the seasons are spring, summer, fall and winter.

Click on the pop-up hot spots on the images of Summer and Fall below. Each will tell you different facts about the images and mosaics as well.

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Citizenship Romans did not necessarily live in the city of Rome. At its height, the empire stretched from Mesopotamia to Scotland and from Romania to Morocco. Nor did language define a Roman. Latin was the primary language of the city of Rome, but Greek was spoken throughout the empire, alongside hundreds of local languages and dialects.

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Interactive Choice Affordances and Limitations

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Interactive Choice Affordances and Limitations

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Affordances:

This interactive website immediately displays a world map of Ancient Rome at its peak. This quickly ties into the sections on Romes expansion and size discussed in both the fictional and nonfictional text choices. There is a section that takes different pieces of Roman culture and has the user deep-dive into what they actually see. It initially starts by collecting information about what the user initially sees and then provides more in-depth viewing and detail highlighting to support the user's initial thoughts and builds on those. It also links many different forms of Roman culture that we wouldn't normally notice. For example, with the section discussing Roman coins, not only does it focus on the monetary value and whose face is on it, but it also ties in Roman artwork and how they viewed the Arts.

Limitations:

This greatest limit for me with this website was the lack of range. The parts of Roman culture that it discussed, it discussed very well and in great detail. I just wish it would have included more, particularly more about the expansion of Rome than just a map.