ND Curriculum Initiative

Subject & Standards

Needs Assessment/Rational

The students will understand why the mighty Roman Empire split and collapsed as well as understanding how the Byzantine Empire was left to control the Eastern Empire. Also, in groups, students will present thier project using a PowerPoint Slide Show.

Understandings & Goals

Enduring Understanding: 1. I want them to understand that eventhough Ancient Rome became powerful, even the Empire had glaring weaknesses and failures we need to learn from. 2. Power has to be distributed fairly and by the people in a democracy. And in its decline, it became the powerful eastern Byzantine Empire. They will understand this using Chapters 6 & 10. 3. Also, the students will learn the PowerPoint program and to be able to use it as a valuable tool in their academic or professional life.
Goal(s): 1. To understand how the small-city state of Rome became a vast, diverse empire that spanned the entire Mediterranean world. 2. To be able to understand how the lessons of Ancient Rome were incorporated into the development of America. 3. To recognize the Eastern Byzantine Empire accomplishments and failures. 4. To be able to use PowerPoint as a valuable tool for academics as well as professionally in the future.

Questions Answered

Essential questions: 1. How can we compare the modern United States of America to Ancient Rome?  2. What lessons do you think we learned from the problems and failures of the Roman Empire? 3. What effect did Christianity have on the Roman and Byzantine Empires?
Objectives: 1. Students will be able to navigate the PowerPoint Program effectively. 2. Students will be able to describe the structure of the Roman Republic and the ways it changed socially, economically, religiously, and politically. 3. Students will be able to explain how the Roman Empire came into being and the role of emperors. 4. Students will be able to recognize the Fall of Rome and the creation of a Western and Eastern Empire. 5. Students will demonstrate the creation of the Byzantine Empire, its accomplishments, influences, and failures in the society of the time. 6. Students will learn PowerPoint and use it as an effective learning and teaching tool. Peer teaching will be the focus and goal.

Assessment

What quiz and test items (e.g. simple content-focused questions that require a single, best answer) will provide evidence of understanding?  Quizzes after each objective is addressed will be used to assess student’s understanding of the presentation.
What academic prompts (e.g. open-ended questions or problems that require students to think critically and then to prepare a response / product / performance) will provide evidence of understanding? Groups with an objective will be responsible for asking open-ended questions and questions that evoke critical thinking.
What performance tasks and projects (e.g. complex challenges that are authentic, mirror the real world and require a performance or product) will you include that will provide evidence of student understanding? Students will complete web quests, create maps, and use PowerPoint to record and present information
What other evidence (e.g. observations, work samples, dialogues, student self-assessment) of understanding will you collect? Rubrics, observations and student presentations using PowerPoint will be used.

Instructional Strategies

My students will use a combination of inquiry-based and project-based learning to complete the project, “Rome Wasn’t Built In A Day.” Students will be gathering information about their research objective. A group will be assigned an objective. The objectives that will be discussed will involve how the Roman Republic changed, outlining economic & social problems that ended the Republic, characterizing life under Pax Romana, the influence of Christianity on the Roman Empire, and the reasons for the decline of the Empire and the creation of the Byzantine Empire. Project-based learning will help students design a slide show using PowerPoint. This project will be a tool used for peer teaching of their objective to the rest of the class.