Assignment+One

Assignment #1: Selection of Curriculum Area, Grade Level, and Rationale Grade 7 Social Studies-Ancient Civilizations My focus: Archaeology and Ancient Rome

For the last several years I have been a teacher at Citadel Middle School, in several capacities most recently in a temporary posting as the Teacher Librarian. I am a middle school social studies specialist by training (although I have yet to teach this curriculum). Naturally, therefore, my thoughts turn to social studies. In our school the grade six and seven social studies is taught on a A/B year rotation, and coming up this year is the grade 7 content, Ancient Civilizations. There are many teachers that have not adapted their teaching to reflect the updated 2006 IRP documents. . In the past several of the teachers have spent a long time on an “Early Man” unit which is not strictly speaking a civilization. Furthermore some teachers use units that they have been using for years based on photocopied packages, that involve reading information pages and filling in the blanks or responding to comprehension questions. There is one teacher in particular, imagining I had retained my position as Teacher-Librarian, I would like to work with to create new unit around archeology, using resource based learning.

One of the big questions that I want to ask is “How do we know?” In the case of Ancient Civilizations sources rely heavily on archaeological findings. For example, tombs and the artifacts found in them are a major way in which understanding of religion and social structure has been constructed. Experimental Archaeology is a potential area of interest and engagement of students. This is an area in our library in which there is a need so that students can gain an understanding of how information in secondary texts, that students generally rely on, is obtained. An understanding of the kind of sense-making and critical thinking processes that goes on in archeology will help students understand how we know about the main aspects of Ancient Civilizations (which are defined in the IRP curriculum organizers- Identity, Society, and Culture; Governance; Economy and Technology; and Human and Physical environment.)

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 * PLOs connected with Suggested Achievement Indicators**


 * A1 apply critical thinking skills – including comparing, classifying, inferring, imagining, verifying, using analogies, identifying relationships, summarizing, and drawing conclusions – to a range of problems and issues**

Suggested Achievement Indicator:
 * select a relevant problem or issue for inquiry
 * use comparison, classiﬁcation, inference, imagination, veriﬁcation, analogies, and relationship identiﬁcation to clarify and deﬁne an issue or problem
 * compare a range of points of view on an issue
 * draw conclusions about an issue or problem


 * A3 compile a body of information from a range of sources**

Suggested Achievement Indicator:


 * compare the advantages and disadvantages of speciﬁc types of sources for speciﬁc purposes (e.g., primary, secondary; print, video, electronic, graphic, artifacts)
 * compare information-gathering methodologies (e.g., primary research – surveys, archeological excavation, interviews; research using secondary sources; testing hypotheses)
 * apply criteria to evaluate information and information sources (e.g., bias, reliability, authorship, currency, audience, conﬁrmation from multiple sources)
 * explain why it is important to cite information sources (e.g., respecting others’ intellectual property, keeping track of where they acquired the information, distinguishing between fact and opinion, helping readers identify sources of additional information)
 * represent information fairly and cite sources consistently