Little Tweeks to Get a WOW!

My ancient Greece unit is solid.  It builds a foundation for future units. I had even built in some flexibility with multiple readings and activities so that I could vary my teaching from year to year but still address each learning objective. 

But nevertheless, the unit was flat.  I remember thinking that the unit needed a wow factor.  I wanted all of the learning to congeal into a powerful conclusion that would have them thinking about Greece weeks later.

 So I took all of the readings that I use in class and instead of using my standard teaching copy, I started from scratch with clean copies so that I could read them with new eyes. 10 minutes later I had what I was looking for.  It really only required one very small change. I changed order of readings in a way that allowed me to develop a new idea.  

I began the unit as I always had but included a new theme: “What are the qualities of a good leader?”  Then after a brief activity on the geography of Greece I assigned a reading from Plato’s Republic.  For those not familiar with it, it is a discourse leadership that promotes the idea that a philosopher leader is best.  I have always included the reading but it was more incidental to the unit than essential. We discussed it as a class and students finished by writing a personal belief statement as an exit slip.

Next we began preparation for our Athens and Sparta debate.  The kids love this. We focused on types of government but also kept in touch with the theme, “What are the qualities of a good leader?” I was amazed at how the debate frequently touched on the theme and was ecstatic when one student added to closing statements “Maybe the Spartans were better warriors, but that doesn’t mean they were better leaders, force isn’t leadership.”  Big smile from me.  J

 The finally tier of this sequence was an analysis of Pericles’ Funeral Oration.  Once again for those not familiar, Pericles, the leader of Athens, is speaking to the families of dead Athenian soldiers at a public funeral.  He masterfully describes the greatness of Athens, gives credit for the greatness to generations of soldiers past, implores the mourning to respect the  legacy of the dead by supporting the continuing war.  I decided to recreate the speech and have the students evaluate it as I did so.  To make it more fun we had some student lie on the floor to remind the class what this event was.  Others were told they were their families and should act the part.  I entered from the hall wearing a full toga and wreath.  The families jeered.  I stood on the desk but instead of reading Pericles I read the Gettysburg Address.

 This surprised even me. As I went into the hallway to create “the big entrance” a student mentioned that it sounded like Lincoln at Gettysburg. I remembered that Lincoln had used Pericles as a model while writing the Gettysburg address. Once in the hall I searched for it on my iPhone and went with it (two minutes to read, 2 minutes to explain and connect).  It was well received, and made a powerful connection that the students really liked.

As I dramatized parts of the speech students shared what they thought the text was saying.  We shared, analyzed and then moved on.  The next day the topic for that discussion was “Was Pericles a Good Leader?” The resulting conversation included Socrates, Plato, Athens, Greece, Lincoln, Obama, Congress, our Principal, and me. 

We had fun, lots of fun, trying to make sense of the past and the world we live in today.  I came into class the next day to students still debating. Later that week I ran into a student and a parent at the local Starbuck’s and the mom told me about how they had talked about Pericles and Congress at dinner.