Educational Technology Lesson Plan

The Ancient Civilizations

Andrew Kelly
5th Grade Social Studies/History

Common Core Standards:

Describe the characteristics of Maya, Inca, Aztec and Mississippian civilizations including:
a. Location;
b. Government;
c. Religion;
d. Agriculture;
e. Cultural and scientific contributions.

Lesson Summary:
During this lesson, my students will learn the important parts of the Aztec, Inca, Mississippian Empires.
Estimated Duration:
I estimate that this lesson will take 3 class periods. (50 Minute Classes) 1 class for students to research one
civilization, the next day to create their presentations, and the last class for the students to present what they
learned about the civilizations.
Commentary:
I anticipate that the challenge with this lesson will be all the sources online where people believe that the
Aztecs predicted the earth to end in 2012 and all the false information being produced. Something I feel will
get the students hooked will be the sport that the civilizations had that resembled soccer in a way. Also, the
weapons used, and the culture all around I feel the students will find interesting.

Instructional Procedures

Day 1:
During the first 15 minutes of class, I will explain the activity clearly and what I expect from them.
During the next 25 minutes, I will let the students use the computers, iPads or what technology they need to
research the given civilizations and get their notes down on what to included in presentations.
With the last 10 minutes of the class I will let the students ask me questions they have (if any) and let them get
comfortable before creating their presentations the next day.
Day 2:
This entire class will be spent getting the presentations together and inserting video clips if necessary.
I will assist the children in adding special features if wanted and helping them get through as smoothly as
possible.
Day 3:
This will be presentation day. If a group wants to volunteer to go first, they may. If no one volunteers, I will
choose them in alphabetical order by civilizations given.

Pre-Assessment:
Identify one strategy to pre-assess student knowledge of the standards your lesson addresses.
Tell me what you will do to determine what your students already know about the information being taught in
the lesson.
Getting pre- assessment data helps you figure out how quickly or slowly you should move through the
lesson.
Pre-assessments may be as informal as a reflection on students prior learning, a conversation about concepts
or warm-up problems at the beginning of class that are not scored. They may be more formally structured,
such as a quiz or an assigned writing topic.
Scoring Guidelines:
Checklist
Did the students go into detail about the provided civilizations?
Did the students include information about the required topics from the given civilizations?
Kept presentation under the given time frame?
Clarity of presentation?
Presentation had proper punctuation?

Post-Assessment:
After the presentations, the students can give the other classmates a little quiz consisting of three to five
questions to see if they were paying attention.
Scoring Guidelines:
The scoring will be out of 25 points. Up to five points for each item required in the checklist.
Students should be able to meet the requirements for the checklist provided without a problem.

Differentiated Instructional Support

If a student is struggling in the class, then they are welcome to come to me for help if need. I would sit down
with them and help them off to the side to give their own part for the groups presentation. For those students
with special needs, they could draw out a map or a visual presentation to go along with the prezi presentation.
For accelerated students, if they would like to provide some fun facts, they can earn up to 4 extra points for the
groups grades.
Discuss additional activities you could do to meet the needs of students who might be struggling with the
material:

Extension
http://www.history.com/topics/maya
This is a link from the history channel. While there is an explanation of facts from the Mayan empire, there is
also a video to watch, that discusses and illustrates on a map some of the information. Students could benefit
from using this link by getting a feel of the visuals needed for the presentation on Prezi, and how to write about
the civilizations.

Homework Options and Home Connections

A homework assignment that could be given after the presentations are for the students to find 5 websites that
talk about the given civilization and discuss what makes them think that it is a good website to use or a bad
website as well.

Interdisciplinary Connections

This lesson can be intergrated with Math in a way, as well as Science. I believe math could be integrated in this
lesson because while students are learning about the cultural contributions of these civilizations, they could
learn a little more about the Mayan calendar and how they came up with the measurments on the calendar
compared to how many markings on it as well. I believe this lesson would work well in the lesson because
while focusing on the culture, a good thing to take a look into is how they built the structures so high, with
what little technology they had. The lever and pulley idea being a major tool used during these times.

Materials and Resources:

For teachers

Computer, Source to turn websites into a QR code. Microsoft Powerpoint, or Prezi

For students

Microsoft Powerpoint, Prezi Source to read and make a QR Code (iPad, iPod,
Smartphone, etc.), YouTube

Key Vocabulary
Agriculture
Monarchy
City-State
Culture
Social Classes
Maize
Barter
Glyphs
Architecture
Mythology
Cuzco

Additional Notes