Brittany Doyon
Topic: Modern Egypt
Grade Level: 2/3
Starting Date: March 14th
INTRODUCTION TO UNIT
Learning Goal
Students will develop an understanding of life in modern Egypt through the lenses of geography, language, daily routines, religious tradition..
Understandings:
Students will
· Be able to locate and recognize the country of Egypt when given a map.
· Be able to place Cairo on a blank map of Egypt.
· Understand the designated spoken and written language of Egypt is Arabic.
· Understand like them, Egyptian children attend school and learn similar subjects as American school children.
· Know temperature influences the work/school day routine.
· Become familiar with Islamic prayer rituals.
MA. Frameworks:
2.4 Locate five major rivers in the world: Mississippi, Amazon, Volga, Yangtze and Nile.
2.6 Explain the difference between a continent and a country and give examples of each.
2.8 With help from the school librarian, give examples of traditions or customs from other countries that can be found in America today.
Objectives to be Assessed
· The country of Egypt is located in Africa.
· The specified language of Egypt is Arabic.
· Written Arabic can be understood by most (those who are literate), however, spoken Arabic varies in understanding by region.
· The hot and dry climate affects the daily routine of the Egyptian people.
· And become familiar with basic Egyptian elementary school practices.
· .The Islamic prayer ritual
Rationale
The students have spent the last 3 months studying Ancient Egypt. Many of the students have posed questions about life in Egypt today or have simply said people don’t live there anymore. The purpose of this unit is to provide them with an introductory level of understanding and knowledge in each of the 4 categories presented.
LESSON PLANS
Prerequisite Knowledge
Students will need to know that life in Ancient Egypt influenced, but is not the same as life in Egypt today.
· NOTE: A plan to assess/review this information is located in the Implementation Procedures Section, under Modern Egypt: DAY 1
Activate Prior Knowledge:
Each lesson is focused around one specific part of modern Egyptian life. The discussion/activities are designed so that the student will be able to receive information and then have a chance to process it by engaging in small group/independent investigations.
Implementation Procedures
· Modern Egypt: (DAY 1)
o Prior knowledge:
§ “Our past theme was Ancient Egypt, for the next five days we are going to be talking about Modern Egypt…”
§ “What does “modern” mean?”
· Establish a class understanding of the word “modern”.
§ Independent/Small Group
§ Students fill out a premade K-W-L chart on Modern Egypt.
o Discussion
§ Whole Class
§ ACTIVITY: “Where’s Egypt?”
· Explain that Egypt is a county, like the United States.
· Explain that Egypt is on the continent of Africa.
· Whole class discussion about what is located on the map of Egypt (Maybe a review for some students)
o Major cities (emphasis on the ones mentioned in previous lesson), Nile, other important landmarks.
o NOTE: A pre-existing classroom poster is being used.
o ACTIVITY: “Did You Know”
§ Small Group: “Did you know…”
§ Students will fill out the corresponding activity sheet.
o Wrap-Up
§ Regroup class as a whole
§ Ask for the class to share information found.
§ Record student thinking on a whole class K-W-L chart.
· Language: (DAY 2)
o Whole class discussion
o Lead-In:
§ “What is Language?”
§ “Is language just spoken, or just written?”
§ “What language do you speak?”
§ “Do you speak a different language at home?”
o Show pictures and samples of written Arabic.
o Explain Arabic is the written and spoken language of Egypt
o Ask students to make observations regarding the samples.
o Explain Arabs everywhere can read what is called “classical” Arabic.
o Spoken language differs from place to place
§ EX: “An Arab from the nearby country of Syria or Saudi Arabia can read a Cairo newspaper, but would have trouble understanding a taxi driver from Cairo”.
o ACTIVITY: “What Am I?”
§ Make Connection to the Taxi Driver example.
o Reference Pgs. 22-3
o ACTIVITY: ““Say it in Arabic”
§ Small group
§ Rehearse a script
o Wrap-Up
§ Regroup as class
· Students greet (in Arabic) and shake hands with 3 people.
· After greeting sit down.
· Family Life: (Day 3)
o Prior Knowledge:
§ Average temperature of Egypt
· Use this question to engage the class.
§ Point out that the temperature effects what time the business/school day begins and what time it ends.
· Begin to initiate compare and contrast concept. “How does weather/temperature effect our day?”
· Businesses close midday for a few hours.
o People go home to escape the heat.
o While home, they have their most important meal of the day, Lunch.
o Go through the Egyptian School schedule.
· Lead In: “Just like businesses, school begins early to avoid the heat brought on during midday.”
· Read passage (pg. 45-6, Egypt: Ancient traditions, modern hopes. By: David C. King)
o Pause at highlighted words to discuss meaning.
o Write main events on chart paper.
· Verbally initiate discussion that suggests similarities and differences the American child’s schedule.
o ACTIVITY: “Schedule Ditto”
§ Small Group
· Student Chosen
· In looking at the two schedules, students will write as many similarities and differences as they can find.
§ Give Egyptian and American sample schedule.
o Wrap-Up
§ Whole Class Discussion
§ Bring students together to share their understanding of the 2 sample schedules.
§ Acknowledge the biggest difference is the time.
· Religion (DAY 4)
o Whole class
o Lead In: “What is Religion?
§ The people always face the holy city of Mecca, in Saudi Arabia.
o ACTIVITY: Google Earth (presented by computer and projector)
§ Explain what the program is.
§ Allow students to see the whole planet.
§ Zoom to Boston, MA.
§ Zoom to Cairo, Egypt.
§ Zoom to Mecca
· Explain that this is the holy city in which devout Muslims face when they pray.
o Wrap-Up:
§ Students will regroup as a class.
§ Brief discussion and reflecting on the traditions investigated in the lesson.
§ “What did we learn?”
· Bringing Everything Together (DAY 5)
o Opportunity to revisit material that was not finished or needs more time.
§ Depending on the activity/discussion topic, the layout of this period of time will be structured as necessary.
o MAKEUP ACTIVITY: “Schedule Ditto”
§ Whole Class:
· Activate Prior Knowledge:
o Review with students what they remember about the Egyptian School day.
o Write student thoughts on board.
§ Small Group
· Student Chosen
· In looking at the two schedules (American/Egyptian), students will write as many similarities and differences as they can find.
o Wrap-Up
§ Students will regroup as a class.
§ In a round-robin style, students will share 2 pieces of information they learned through-out the week.
§ Teacher will write shared information on the K-W-L chart that was made by the class during the first day of the unit.
Materials
(Sorted by Day)
· Day 1
o Handouts:
§ K-W-L Chart
· Day 2
o Pictures of written Arabic
§ Stories, Newspaper, Websites (Provided by classroom)
o “Say It in Arabic” scripts
· Day 3
o Book: Egypt: Ancient Traditions, Modern Hopes
o Schedule Ditto
· Day 4
o Modern Egypt PowerPoint
· Day 5
o Schedule Ditto
o Class K-W-L chart
CONNECTING THEORY TO PRACTICE
Differentiated Instruction
All lessons contain a whole class discussion that allows all classmates to hear and think about peer insights. Discussions around concepts are reinforced by the use of many types of visual aids (text, graphic, or both). Visual aids are also being introduced through a variety of media: PowerPoint, chart paper, oversized flashcards, etc. Written activities are designed with opened questions. These allow for responses with various depths into the material. By knowing the students and their level of ability, the expectations for each assignment will vary so each student can celebrate their own success. As per Tomlinson and McTighe, “There needs to be a balance between student construction of meaning, and teacher guidance.”(pg. 85) The lessons in this unit are designed to placed the teacher in a facilitator role. The teacher should present concepts/topics to the students. It is the students’ job during each of the discussions/activities to analyze, question, and make sense of any material presented. Also, within the unit, the students will use a K-W-L chart twice to assess their knowledge before and after the unit is over. This key component represents Stage 2 of Understanding by Design (Tomlinson & McTighe, pg. 88) As the students start the unit, they will become aware of the learning goals of the class, and some that were created by them (through the K-W-L chart).
Modifications/Accommodations and Extensions
When participating in written activities, the students who need extra guidance (reading, and writing) will be placed in small groups with another available adult. A heavy emphasis is placed in the classroom to use “Just Right…” materials and workspaces. A few of the flagged students need reminders on what makes the “Just Right” workspace for them. Accommodations for the specific students are labeled below as necessary:
Flagged Students: Axel (reader, writing coach), Zachary (writing coach, may use a T-stool for Focus, special pencil), Chantal (reading, writing coach), Darius (reading, writing coach), Russell (needs to sit at a table for written assignments)
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