LESSON PLAN OUTLINE

JMU Elementary Education Program

A. TITLE/TYPE OF LESSON Touring the Parthenon B. CONTEXT OF LESSON AND UNWRAPPING OF THE STANDARD My cooperative teacher hinted we would be starting to learn about ancient Greek next week. The students immediately tried to finish their work so they could start learning about Greece on time. As an introduction to Ancient Greece, Mr. Torrens thought it would be a good idea to give them a tour of the Parthenon on an interactive website, as well as showing them the Parthenon on Google Earth. The students just finished learning about the continents, oceans, and hemispheres. Ancient Greece is a perfect unit to start as students have started to become curious about what is in each of the continents. After the tour of Parthenon, students will then have to write a postcard describing the Parthenon. This will integrate writing and social studies SOLs C. STANDARDS OF LEARNING Fine arts 3.2 The student will describe and use steps of the art-making process, including brainstorming, preliminary sketching, and planning, to create works of art. Fine arts 3.13 The student will identify how history, culture, and the visual arts influence each other. History 3.1 The student will explain how the contributions of ancient Greece and Rome have influenced the present world in terms of architecture, government (direct and representative democracy), and sports.

A. LEARNING OBJECTIVES Understand what are the broad Know what are the facts, rules, generalizations the students should specific data the students will gain begin to develop? (These are through this lesson? (These knows typically difficult to assess in one must be assessed in your lesson.) lesson.)

Do what are the specific thinking behaviors students will be able to do through this lesson? (These will also be assessed in your lesson.)

The student will be able to recognize the similarities between architecture and Greece and the United States.

The student will be able to identify The student will be able to write a the Parthenon and Acropolis. paragraph using letter format.

The student will be able to recognize the steps of the art process as well as why planning is important before creating a final product.

The student will be able to describe and illustrate characteristics of the Parthenon.

B. ASSESSING LEARNING What will your students do and say, specifically, that indicate every student has achieved your objectives? Remember every objective must be assessed for every student!

Objective The student will be able to recognize the similarities between architecture and Greece and the United States. The student will be able to identify

Assessment I will ask students what the Parthenon resembles/ any buildings they are familiar with. I will show students the virtual

Data Collected

the Parthenon and Acropolis.

The student will be able to write a paragraph using letter format. The student will be able to describe and illustrate characteristics of the Parthenon.

tour/ Google Earth. The postcard will show what they perceive the Parthenon as. The postcard to their friend The postcard to their friend

C. MATERIALS NEEDED List all materials that will be needed to teach this lesson. Who will be responsible for securing each item? Acropolis-virtualtour.gr me (computer) Google Earth- me (computer) Blank post-card-me Art supplies-students D. PROCEDURE Engage I will ask students what they know about Ancient Greece. I will then show them a picture of the Parthenon. Questions I will ask: Does anyone know what building this is? What do you notice about this building? What do you think this building was used for? Explore- We will take a tour of the Parthenon. While on the tour, I will point out the Acropolis and the significance of it (upper city and many of the city states of ancient Greece are built

around an acropolis where the inhabitants can go as a place of refuge in times of invasion). I will also point out the attributes of the Parthenon, such as the white columns, the
symbol of Greek democracy, high point of Greek art, replaced an older Athena temple, a place of religion. Closure- We will talk about how we would describe the Parthenon. I will write the adjectives they use on the board. I will then ask them what this group of words is called. Hopefully they will recognize they are adjectives. Then I will give students the blank postcard with lines on one side. Students will have to pretend they are a tourist and just toured the Parthenon. They will write at least three sentences using some of the adjectives we wrote or they may create their own. On the back of the postcard, the students will draw a picture of the Parthenon. Clean-Up E. DIFFERENTIATION For ELL students, they will be able to visually tour the Parthenon as well as express their understanding of the Parthenon through drawing. For early finishers, I will have them write at least five sentences. F. WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THIS LESSON AND WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT? The internet could have glitches, therefore I will have several visual pictures to show the students saved to the computer just in case the internet messes up.

Lesson Implementation Reflection

As soon as possible after teaching your lesson, think about the experience. Use the questions/prompts below to guide your thinking. Be thorough in your reflection and use specific examples to support your insights. When I taught my lesson, the Social Studies blocks were shorter because the children had two specials that day. I was aware of this prior to teaching my lesson. This lesson served as an introduction to the Parthenon and ancient Greece. They absolutely loved being able to tour the Parthenon and being able see what the Parthenon looks like now through Google Earth. Before creating their postcards, I explained the directions. I explained that they had to write a letter to someone important to them. In the letter they must describe their trip to the Parthenon, using at least two adjectives. We quickly reviewed what an adjective is and provided a few examples of adjectives we could use to describe the Parthenon, in case the children got stuck. I also told the students they had to draw how they viewed the Parthenon on the other side. While the students were creating their vision of the Parthenon, many students asked if they could add certain details or color it certain colors. I made sure to give them the freedom to do what they wanted so I wouldnt limit their creativity. All of the students had a clear understanding of several attributes of Greek architecture in the Parthenon through their pictures. However, some of their letters were a little rocky. Writing letters is a second grade SOL, so I made sure to show their writing workshop teacher the final results. If I would have had the full amount of time, I would have shown them several postcards from vacations people have written so they would be able to distinguish postcard writing from paragraph writing. Throughout the implementation of the lesson, there were many things I learned that I will definitely be sure to think about the next time I plan/ implement a lesson. One take away was the incredible feedback I received from the class when I took them on a tour of the Parthenon and we visited Greece via Google Earth. Taking the students on this visual tour helped them gain the most realistic experience possible. We all know that we learn best through experience. While it isnt realistic to take a field trip to Greece or even Nashville (where a replica of the Parthenon is located), most schools nowadays have resources that allow you to get pretty darn close to taking these field trips and taking the children back in time. Another take away I gained from this experience was the importance of reviewing any and ALL skills needed to complete a task. In this lesson, I should not have assumed the children already have learned to write letters. Instead, I should have taken time to review with students or talked to the writing workshop teacher and asked her to do a quick review with the children.