Starting the Project: Assignment 2

My partner and I started work on the project almost as soon as it was mentioned in class. We were very excited, and decided to do our unit on Ancient Egypt from the Stage 4 section of the History 7-10 syllabus. My partner majors in Visual Art, and I major in Society and Culture with a minor in Ancient History, so we thought a unit on Ancient Egypt would be a good way to combine our expertise. We both have a strong interest in Ancient Egypt, although academically I know much more about Ancient Greece and Rome than Egypt.There are a lot of artefacts and sources available on Egypt, including artwork (sculpture and paintings) and ancient buildings and architecture (including Wonders of the World). 

We decided that each of us would plan three 40 minute lessons, each on a different topic:

1. Introduction to Ancient Egypt and Geography
2. Daily Life in Ancient Egypt
3. Art and Craft in Ancient Egypt
4. Religion in Ancient Egypt
5. Death, Burial and Ritual in Ancient Egypt
6. Significant People from Ancient Egypt: Tutankhamun and Cleopatra 

The Quality Teaching Model states that the teacher needs to provide a Quality Learning Environment to the students, and Intellectual Quality and Significance to the lessons. Our unit plan on Smartboard provides these things using Aunthentic Tasks, and Project-based Learning. I created a Project-based Learning assignment using a Webquest for the students to follow. The main task is to build a model Ancient Egyptian house. My partner created an Authentic Task. It is a flash game she designed herself which enables the students to create their own Egyptian god. There are various other tasks throughout the unit. I would say we concentrated mostly on Authentic Tasks because we always wanted the students to be doing something different. If all the tasks are basically the same, it might get boring for students and they will get off-task. 

The syllabus outcomes are:

4.1       describes and explains the nature of history, the main features of past societies and periods and their legacy

4.5       identifies the meaning, purpose and context of historical sources

4.8       locates, selects and organises relevant information from a number of sources, including ICT, to conduct basic historical research

4.10     selects and uses appropriate oral, written and other forms, including ICT, to communicate effectively about the past.