Concepts & Categories to Analyze Ancient Cultures

1. 6th Grade World History Concepts & Categories to Analyze Ancient Cultures Kelly Barber – STEM Coordinator Angela Orr – Social Studies Coordinator

2. Rationale for Teaching Concepts Concepts are the “furniture” of our minds. A well-furnished mind is a source of joy, academic success, citizenship, career satisfaction, and lifelong learning. When a student forms a concept from its examples, he or she knows more than the definition of a term (e.g., river: he or she also knows some vivid examples of the concept that add flesh to a bare-bones definition, such as the Mississippi, the Amazon, the Yangtze, and the Volga). This is deep conceptual learning rather than superficial knowledge of a vocabulary word.

3. Description of “Concept” A concept is defined by critical characteristics shared by all examples of the concept. For something to be an example of a concept, it must contain all these critical characteristics. To help students form the concept, the teacher helps them first to see these critical characteristics across different examples and, then to summarize those characteristics in a definition that students themselves write.

4. Important Concepts in 6th Grade Social Studies: • Religion • Government • Technology • Culture • Economics • Law • Why would an in-depth understanding of concepts like these be important to teaching world history?

5. One Type of Concept Lesson • Concept Development • 90-120 minute lesson • SNAPSHOT Experience (today – 20 minutes) Steps in Lesson • Activate Prior Knowledge • Individual Brainstorm • Small Group Brainstorm • Whole Group Brainstorm • Small Group Categorization • Whole Group Consensus & Gallery Walk Notetaking • Defining the Concept • Applying the Concept

6. SNAPSHOT LESSON PRACTICE • Read through the sentences at the top of your handout. • Work in a small group to brainstorm as many words and phrases as possible that come to mind when you think of the term culture. • Share with another group and add to your list. • What we’re leaving out of this snapshot… • Individual brainstorm • Whole group brainstorm (rather than two groups) • (Remember when brainstorming with students, no idea is wrong until categorization begins. Keep the conversation open and honor all ideas. Deleting words is a later step.)

7. SNAPSHOT LESSON PRACTICE • Back in your small group, use the PERSIA Method to categorize all of the words and phrases that you associate with culture. All words must either be deleted by consensus (“This isn’t a word related to culture.”) or fit into one of the categories. How this differs from a traditional concept lesson… Traditionally, you would allow students to define their own categories and then come back together as a whole class and decide on the BEST five categories. These categories become your critical characteristics of the concept. In this case, we are giving you some critical characteristics that you can use all year long for categorization.

8. So what are the PERSIA categories?

9. Political P • Leaders & Leadership Style • Government System • Military/War • Constitution/Documents • Individual Participation • Laws/Courts • Structure of Gov’t • Treaties

10. Economic E • Currency/Money • Resources • Trade • Industry • Technology • Agriculture/Farming • Infrastructure • Labor & Production

11. Religion R • Importance day to day • Belief/Teachings • Religious Leader(s) • Worship Practices • Holy book and sites • Values • Who & what is worshiped • Relationship to Government

12. Social S • Family • Roles of different genders • Class Structure • Language • Education • Lifestyles • Entertainment

13. Intellectual/Artistic I • Art & Music • Writing & Literature • Philosophy • Math & Science • Inventions & Innovations • Education • Technology • Fashion • Discoveries & Exploration • Architecture

14. Area A • Geography • Physical characteristics of location (land, waterways, natural borders, types of soil, etc.) • Movement of people, goods, and services • Human Environment Interaction • Region

15. SNAPSHOT LESSON PRACTICE • After categorizing your terms, work as individuals or small groups to complete the final steps in defining and revising your definition of culture. These steps are highly important, and having an agreed upon definition of an important concept is essential. We are skipping this step today, but you never should. Instead, for important concepts, write the student composed and agreed upon definition on a large poster to hang in your class for the entire year as a reference point.

16. Practicing the PERSIA Method • ESSENTIAL QUESTION: • How can the PERSIA Method help my students to better understand ancient civilizations and organize their understanding so that they can more effectively discuss and write about their learning? • SMALL GROUP PRACTICE WITH THE TEXTBOOK • In your groups (Egypt, China, India), use the textbook to take notes using the PERSIA Method.

17. PERSIAN Consider Text Coding P (leader) P (law) The President signed a bill today E (money) approving millions of dollars to I (scientific discovery) fund immunizations to protect S (health) S (health) Americans from the flu virus.

18. PERSIA in Practice Should be used regularly for different purposes… • Note Taking • Asking Great Questions • Analyzing Readings • Primary Source Analysis and Annotation • Review of Chapters • Comparisons of Cultures • Ranking of Important Cultural Characteristics in a Civilization (within categories and across categories) • Preparation for writing

19. PERSIAVocab Key Terms Rule by a king or a queen monarchy P Type of government King Henry VII

20. PERSIA Comparison Chart

21. PERSIA Writing Prompts

22. How does this learning relate to the instructional shifts?

23. Thank you so much! We hope to work with you again soon. Contact us with any questions. Kelly Barber kbarber@washoeschools.net Angela Orr aorr@washoeschools.net