Teacher Candidate: Shelby Snyder

Cooperating Teacher:

Date:

Miss Bolen

11/11/2014____
Coop. Initials

Group Size: p.1: 27, p.2: 19, p.6: 27__ Allotted Time: 90 mins Grade Level: __6th____
Subject or Topic: Social Studies: Ancient Egypt

Section: 935

STANDARD(S)
PA Core: History and Social Studies
CC.8.5.6-8.B: Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary
source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or
opinions.
PDE SAS: History
8.4.6.A: Explain the social, political, cultural, and economic contributions of individuals
and groups to world history.
8.4.6.B: Identify and explain the importance of historical documents, artifacts, and sites
which are critical to world history.
I. Learning Objectives
A. Given several guiding questions, students will be able to accurately determine
the main ideas of a nonfiction text about Ancient Egypt collaboratively.
B. Using these main ideas, students will be able to develop a presentation that
accurately explains the importance of their topic in the civilization of Ancient
Egypt.
C. As a result of this lesson, students will be able to accurately describe various
aspects of Ancient Egyptian culture in their own words.
II. Instructional Materials
A. Teacher Preparation
The Nile River Valley Brief #1 (McMeans)
Teacher-created The Nile River Valley Brief #1 Guiding Questions
Handout
Highlighter
Teacher-created PowerPoint
Document Camera
SMART Board
B. Student
15 copies of Ancient Egyptian Society Brief #2 (McMeans)
3 Teacher-created Ancient Egyptian Society Brief #2 Guiding Questions
Handout

 15 copies of Pyramids Brief #3 (McMeans)

3 Teacher-created Pyramids Brief #3 Guiding Questions Handout
15 copies of Mummies Brief #4 (McMeans)
3 Teacher-created Mummies Brief #4 Guiding Questions Handout
15 copies of Hieroglyphs Brief #5 (McMeans)
3 Teacher-created Hieroglyphs Brief #5 Guiding Questions Handout
54 Teacher-created Key Elements of Ancient Egypt (Version 1) handouts
19 Teacher-created Key Elements of Ancient Egypt (Version 2) handouts
27 copies of Our World textbook
27 highlighters
6 classroom computers
Construction paper
Markers
III. Subject Matter:
A. Prerequisite Knowledge: In the previous lesson, students have learned about
the geography of Ancient Egypt and the importance of the Nile River in the
development of the great civilization along its banks. Students have been
taught to identify main ideas from a text. Students have a general
understanding of using PowerPoint to create presentations.
B. Key Vocabulary:
1. Artifacts: items that are left over from ancient times and studied by
scientists to understand the lives of the people in that era
2. Cataract: another name for a waterfall
3. Demotic: a type of ancient Egyptian writing derived from Greek
4. Dynasty: a period in history where members of the same family
govern or rule
5. Giza: location in Egypt of the largest pyramid ever built
6. Great Sphinx: ancient Egyptian monument located in Giza
7. Hieratic: a type of ancient Egyptian cursive writing
8. Hieroglyphics: ancient Egyptian form of writing using pictures that
represent ideas, things, or sounds
9. Ideogram: a picture that stands for an entire word
10. Middle Kingdom: period of ancient Egyptian history from 2025 B.C.
to 1782 B.C.
11. Mummification: process that preserves the bones and soft tissues of
a body after death
12. New Kingdom: period of ancient Egyptian history from 1539 B.C. to
1070 B.C.
13. Nubia: ancient civilization located to the south of Egypt
14. Old Kingdom: period in ancient Egyptian history from 2686 B.C. to
2181 B.C.
15. Papyrus: a kind of plant used by ancient Egyptians to make paper
16. Pharaoh: ancient Egyptian ruler who was believed to be part god and
part human
17. Phonogram: a picture that stands for the sound of a letter

18. Pyramid: type of ancient Egyptian building used as a tomb

19. Step Pyramid: earliest type of Egyptian pyramid made by placing
rectangular blocks of decreasing size on top of each other
20. Rosetta Stone: ancient Egyptian stone tablet that helped modern
people decipher hieroglyphics
21. Tutankhamen: Egyptian pharaoh from around 1334 B.C.
22. Valley of the Kings: an area in Egypt where many ancient Egyptian
kings were buried
C. Big Idea: The civilization of Ancient Egypt thrived for over 3,000 years along
the banks of the Nile River. During this time, ancient Egyptians developed a
unique, evolving society that was highly advanced for the time period. Due to
their way of life and the climate of the Sahara desert, many artifacts from the
ancient civilization have been well-preserved allowing archeologists to
uncover specific details about the lifestyle of the Egyptian people at the time.
There are many similarities between the society of ancient Egypt and our
society today.
D. Additional Content:
1. Ancient Egyptian civilization thrived for over 3,000 years. At the
beginning of the civilization, there were two separate countries,
Upper and Lower Egypt, in the Nile River Valley. In 3150 B.C.,
become unified into one country.
2. Ancient Egyptian history is broken down into 3 kingdoms: the Old
Kingdom (2686 B.C -2181 B.C.) when the famous pyramids were
built, the Middle Kingdom (2025 B.C.- 1782 B.C.) when the
Egyptians conquered Nubia, and the New Kingdom (1539 B.C. to
1070 B.C.) referred to as the golden age because of the powerful
effective rulers that expanded the empire.
3. Ancient Egyptians lived in family units where the father was
responsible for providing for the family and the mother took care of
the household. Boys often learned an occupation from their father.
Ancient Egyptian homes were made of mud bricks and were built
high up due to the yearly floods.
4. The Egyptians built pyramids as a burial place for their dead because
of their belief in the afterlife. People were buried in a pyramid with
many possessions believed to be needed in the afterlife. The first
pyramids built were step pyramids, but they were later built with
smooth sides. Pharaohs and other important people were buried in
the Valley of the Kings. Because of the valuable possessions, many
of these tombs had been raided long before archeologists discovered
them. Tutankhamens (King Tut) tomb was the only one to remain
intact, and this discovery was one of the most important
archeological discoveries ever made because of all the wellpreserved artifacts found in the tomb.
5. Ancient Egyptians believed a person would need their body in the
afterlife and therefore developed the process of mummification to
preserve the bones and tissues of the body after death. This process

was performed by priests and took about 70 days. Studying these

mummies helped scientists learn many things about the lives of
ancient Egyptians.
6. The ancient Egyptians developed a system of writing called
hieroglyphics which are pictures that stand for ideas, things, or
sounds. Later, they also developed other styles of writing, like
hieratic and demotic. In 1799, Jean Francois Champollion found the
Rosetta Stone and used it to decipher the dead language of Egyptian
hieroglyphics. The stone contained a passage translated into 3
different languages: hieroglyphics, hieratic, and demotic, which
helped Champollion decipher the hieroglyphics because he already
knew the two other languages.
IV. Implementation
A. Introduction:
1. Say to students, Yesterday, we learned a lot about the Nile River,
the longest river in the world. Who can tell me where the Nile River
is located? (Expected response: Egypt, Northeastern Africa) Why
was the Nile River so important to development of Ancient Egyptian
civilization? (Expected response: Annual flooding turned dry desert
land into fertile soil for farming.)
2. Say, Did you know that the civilization of Ancient Egypt thrived for
3,000 years along the banks of the Nile River? Think about this: the
United States hasnt even existed for 300 years. (Use PowerPoint).
Well, today we are going to cover those 3,000 years of historyin
one class period. How you might ask, by working together and
teaching each other.
B. Development:
1. Divide students into groups of four (first and sixth period will have 6
groups, second period will have 4 groups).
2. Period 1 &6: Distribute the first page of Brief #2 to group 1, the
second page of Brief #2 to group 2, the first page of Brief #3 to
group 3, the second page of Brief #3 to group 4, Brief #4 to group 5,
and Brief #5 to group 6 and highlighter for each student along with
the corresponding guiding questions sheet,
1. Period 2: Distribute both pages of Brief #2 to group 1, both
pages of Brief #3 to group 2, Brief #4 to group 3, and Brief #5
to group #4 and highlighter for each student along with the
corresponding guiding questions sheet.
3. Explain to students that: each group has a different text on a topic
about Ancient Egypt, they will need to read the text collaboratively
and use the guiding questions sheet to determine the main ideas of
their text, and eventually create a presentation (PowerPoint, poster,
or trifold brochure) to teach the rest of the class about their specific
topic.

Model
1. Using The Nile River Valley Brief #1 and the document camera, model
for students how read the text, use the guiding questions, and highlight
the main ideas of the passage.
a. Read the guiding questions for Brief #1 aloud. Tell students
you will use these questions to focus your reading.
b. Read the Focus box on the left hand side of the page. Tell
students that each Brief has a focus sentence that gives the
reader a quick idea of what the text will be about. Explain that
this answered the first guiding question and record
Northeastern Africa on the question sheet.
c. Read the first section of the passage, Many of the worlds
about five thousand years ago. Point out that nothing in this
section answered any of the guiding questions, but you think it
is still important to note that many civilization started along
river banks and that the Ancient Egyptian civilization began in
the Nile River Valley. Highlight the first sentence, Babylonia,
Assyria, Phoenicia, The Shang Dynasty, and the last sentence
of the paragraph.
d. Encourage students to highlight details they think are important
even if they dont relate to the guiding questions.
e. Read the next paragraph. Explain that this section also answers
the first question. Highlight The source or start of the river is
in Ethiopia. The mouth or end of the river is the Mediterranean
Sea.
f. Point out the bolded sentence and explain that the bolded items
either explain difficult vocabulary, like this one, or describe
important information.
g. Read the next paragraph. Explain that this section answers the
second guiding question and that the river is important to the
civilization because it flooded and allowed the people to grow
crops in the dry, desert climate. Highlight Sahara desert,
heavy rains, floods the surrounding area, and plant seeds
and grow crops in the moist fertile soil. Tell students they can
either record their answers on the question sheet or just
highlight the answers in the passage, whichever they prefer.
h. Read the rest of the passage. Ask students whether or not the
last question was answered in the passage. (Expected response:
yes) Ask for volunteers to identify how the passage answers the
question, How did ancient Egyptians use the Nile River in
their daily lives? (Expected response: grew crops for food and
to make paper with, and dug irrigation channels to use the
water from the Nile to irrigate the crops) Highlight/record their
responses.

i. Give students an example presentation by showing the

PowerPoint slides created for the Nile River Valley.
Group Work
1. Remind students to read the text, use the guiding questions to
determine the main ideas from the passage, and decide if they want to
create a PowerPoint, poster, or trifold brochure to present the
information to the class as a group. Invite students to use their Our
World textbook to see pictures of their topics if they wish, but its not
necessary.
2. Using the PowerPoint, explain the checklist you will use to grade
students presentations.
3. Remind students of the CHAMPS expectations for small group work
by pointing out the poster in the back of the room.
4. As students are working, circulate to monitor student progress, ensure
that students are on-task and working cooperatively, and provide
assistance as necessary.
5. Have one student from each group raise their hand when they are
ready to begin creating their project. Give them permission to either
begin using the computers to make a PowerPoint or get supplies to
make their poster or brochure.
6. Continue to circulate and monitor progress until all groups are finished
developing their presentations.
C. Closure:
Presentations
1. Distribute the Key Elements of Ancient Egypt handout to each
student. (Version 1 for periods 1 & 6, version 2 for period 2)
2. Have groups present their information to the class in order beginning
with group 1.
3. As each group presents, have students record 3 facts they learned
from the group and one question they still have about the topic on
the handout.
4. After all the groups are finished, hold a whole group discussion
about the ideas students found important from each presentation.
5. Explain that this lesson provided a brief overview of the Ancient
Egyptian civilization, but there are many important details from
those 3,000 years of history that we havent discussed.
6. Encourage students to listen for the answers to the questions they
wrote on their handout about Ancient Egypt over the course of the
next several lessons in the unit.
D. Accommodations
Students who have significant difficulty reading grade level texts will be
assigned to groups with accelerated readers. These students will be
monitored closely during the group reading to ensure comprehension of

the text. I will be periodically checking in with these groups to do

comprehension checks by asking students questions about the passage.
The most struggling readers will be given Brief #4 or #5 which have less
difficult vocabulary and less text than the others.
Students who have difficulty with following directions will be given oneon-one directions.
Students (C.D. and N.R.) in period 6 who have difficulty writing will work
a partner to record their facts from each presentation on the Key Elements
of Ancient Egypt handout.

V. Assessment
Teacher observation will be used to assess students ability to determine the
main ideas of the passage. As I am circulating, I will strive to notice if the
students are using the guiding questions to find the main ideas, highlighting
important information from the passage, and discussing with their group
members why they think the information is important to include.
The students presentations will be assessed using the attached the checklist.
The students Key Elements of Ancient Egypt handouts will be collected and
checked for accuracy. This will be used to assess students ability to describe
various aspects of ancient Egyptian culture in their own words.
VI. Reflective Response
A. Report of Students Performance in Terms of Stated Objectives
Period 1: Out of the 6 groups of students, two groups earned a 22/24,
one group earned a 20/24, two groups earned an 18.5/24, and one
group earned an 18/24 on the checklist. Therefore, every group
earned at least a score of 75% on their presentation. These students
struggled to pull out key facts from the other groups presentations.
Only 6 of the 27 students in this class were able to pull 3 facts from
at least 4 of the 5 presentations that werent theirs to earn a 4/5 or
80% accuracy on the handout. 8 of the students earned a 2/5 or lower
on this handout. The rest of the students (13) scored between a 2.5/5
and a 3.5/5. However, I feel that these scores reflect more on the
groups difficulty with explaining their information clearly than the
individual students inability to describe 3 aspects of Ancient Egypt
from the presentations.
Period 2: Out of the 4 groups, one group earned a 23/24, two groups
earned a 22/24, and one group earned a 21/24 on the checklist.
Therefore, every group in the class earned at least a score of 88% on
their presentation. Every student in this class was able to pull at least
3 accurate facts about Ancient Egypt from each of the 3 other
groups presentations to score a 3/3= 100% on the handout.
Period 6: Out of the 4 groups, one group earned a 22/24, two groups
earned an 18.5/24, one group earned an 18/24, and two groups
earned a 17/24 on the checklist. Therefore, every group in the class
earned at least a score of 71% on their presentation. The students in

this class also struggled to pull out key facts from the other groups
presentations. Only 7 of the 27 students in this class were able to pull
at least 3 facts from at least 4 of the 5 presentations that werent
theirs to earn a 4/5 or 80% accuracy on the handout. 7 of the students
earned a 2/5 or lower on this handout. The rest of the students (13)
scored between a 2.5/5 and a 3.5/5. Again, I believe that these scores
reflect more on the groups difficulty with explaining their
information clearly than the individual students inability to describe
3 aspects of Ancient Egypt from the presentations.
Generally, the main reason why students lost points on the
presentation checklist was because they did not cover the
information from the passage thoroughly enough in their
presentations for their peers to understand the information. This was
especially prevalent in periods 1 & 6 in which the students average
reading level is significantly lower than that of the students in
period 2. Only a handful of these students have the ability to
successfully read on grade level. I believe that the students struggles
with the presenting the information thoroughly ultimately stemmed
from the students struggles with comprehending the reading
passage. Because many of the students struggle with reading
comprehension, I feel that they were unable to comprehend the
information themselves, and therefore had difficulty explaining the
information to the class.

B. Personal Reflection
1. How did I make the directions clear to my students? Did all students
understand the directions? What could I have done to make them
clearer?
2. Did I circulate effectively and provide assistance to each group?
How did I ensure that the students were working cooperatively and
effectively together?
3. How did I engage/keep engaged students in the lesson? What could I
have done to motivate the students more or make it more engaging?
Overall, I feel that this lesson went well considering that it was only
my second day with this group of students due to the alternation of
social studies and science courses in the 6th schedule. I wish I would
have had more time to get to know these students so that I could have
tailored this lesson to their exact needs. There are definitely some
improvements that could be made to this lesson. I am very pleased
with how well I was able to differentiate instruction for my students
and adjust the lesson to meet the different needs of the students.
First, I felt that I made my directions and expectations for the students
during the activity clear by explicitly stating what I wanted the
students to do and modeling an example for them. Before they started
working, I also explained what I would be looking for during the
presentations and I posted the requirements on the SMART Board for

all students to visually see and left them projected during the group
activity for students to reference. However, as I was circulating, I felt
that some students were still confused about what I was expecting
them to do. After I realized this, I went around to every group to repeat
the expectations with each small group to ensure understanding. One
thing I could have done before the activity started to ensure all
students understood the directions and expectations was to check for
student understanding immediately after I gave the directions to the
whole group. Miss Bolen noticed this problem too and had suggested a
way of checking for understanding that is to ask particular students to
repeat the directions back to me. Another way I could have made the
directions clearer is to ensure all students were focused on me before I
gave the directions. Miss Bolen noticed some side conversations
during this time that I had missed. If I would have noticed them and
focused the students attention on me before giving the directions, they
probably would have retained them better.
I feel that I circulated the classroom effectively in order to assist each
group in their particular section of the reading. However, it was
especially challenging in periods 1 & 6 that both had 6 groups, instead
of 4 like period 2, because of the greater number of students and
overall lower ability level of those classes. With the smaller class, it
was easier to address each groups particular needs of each group and
spend an equal amount of time with all of the groups to ensure student
understanding simply because there were less of them. I felt that in
periods 1 & 6, there just wasnt enough time to help every group as
much as I should have. It would have been beneficial for me to sit
down with each group to go over the information from their particular
passage, check for comprehension, and make sure that all of the
students understood the information fully before creating their
presentation. This would have improved the lesson dramatically
because if the students understood the information from their passages
better, they could have performed better on the presentations, and then
the rest of the class would have learned more from their peers. I
believe that the difference in scores between the 3 periods (stated
above) also reflect the amount of time I was able to spend assisting
each group. I tried to help all of the groups as much as I possibly
could. However, I felt that I spent unequal amounts of time with the
groups because I spent more time with the most struggling groups. The
other groups really needed my assistance too and I wasnt able to give
them the attention they required. I circulated to monitor their progress
with the project, discuss any questions/issues, reinforce the directions
and expectations, and ensure that the students were working
cooperatively together. While I was circulating, I had to stop multiple
times to help settle group disputes about the project, encourage
students who werent participating to get involved with their group,

and focus the students attention back on the project instead of their
off-task conversations. I believe I did all of this quite effectively.
I engaged the students in the lesson from the very beginning by
activating their prior knowledge on the topic of Ancient Egypt by
reviewing what they had learned yesterday. Then, I challenged the
class to learn over 3,000 years of history in one class period by
working together. The students seemed to be highly motivated by this
challenge and wanted to prove that we could do it together. Another
thing about the lesson that was very motivating was that I incorporated
cooperative learning. Although these students are very social, they
arent given the opportunity to work together in the classroom. By
giving them this opportunity and making the learning a group effort,
the students were motivated to learn. The students were also motivated
by having their choice of making a poster, brochure, or PowerPoint,
and being creative with the colors, fonts, layouts, pictures, etc. chosen
for their presentation. I kept the students engaged during the group
presentations by asking them to record 3 facts from each group in
order to keep them focused. This helped ensure that all of the students
were paying attention. One way I could have increased student
engagement was to incorporate the turn and talk strategy during the
modeling process. This would give every student the opportunity to
discuss the answer and think about the content, instead of just the one
or two volunteers who answered, to increase student participation.
Also, instead of having the groups present in front of the class, it
would have been more beneficial to do a gallery walk. This would
have allowed the students to see the information up close, especially
for the posters and brochures. This would have enhanced student
learning because they would have been able to take in the information
visually in addition to hearing it. The students would have also had
more time to record their facts on the handout and ask questions to the
groups for clarification as they moved between stations. Also, I think
explaining their information to a smaller group, instead of the entire
class, would have made the students feel more comfortable in
presenting. Some of the students had voiced to me that they are shy
and not comfortable speaking in large groups, which was reflected in
the presentations. I think using a gallery walk could have helped to
eliminate some of these problems.
One thing I realized from this lesson was that I underestimated the
amount of time the lesson would take to complete. I thought we could
get it all done in one class period, but it ended up taking 3 days. I
forgot to factor in the time it would take to complete the warm-up
activity, transition time, time to clean up the materials, and the amount
of assistance each group would need. If I would have had more time to
get to know the students, I would have been able to better predict the
amount of support that they would need during the reading aspect of
the group work and the time the entire lesson would take. I have

learned that while cooperative learning is very beneficial, it takes time

to both plan and execute effectively.

VII. Resources
McMeans, J. (2010). Differentiated lessons and assessments for social studies.
Westminster, CA: Teacher Created Resources.
Our world (2005). New York: Macmillan/McGraw-Hill.
Our world: Teacher's edition (Vol. 1). (2005). New York: Macmillan/McGraw-Hill.

Names:
Ancient Egypt Presentation Checklist
1. _______ Presentation thoroughly answered all of the guiding questions. (5 points)
2. _______Information presented was accurate according to the assigned Brief
passage. (5 points)
3. _______Information was paraphrased (written in students own words) and not
copied directly from the passage. (5 points)
4. ______PowerPoint, poster, or brochure includes at least 1 relevant visual/picture.
(3 points)
5. _______Group members spoke loudly and clearly enough for all students to
understand. (3 points)
6. _______All group members shared an equal role in creating and presenting the
presentation to the class. (3 points)

Total score: ________/24

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