Goals and Objectives
Explore the issues of Historiography in Roman history. Teacher will inform the students on the significance of Tacitus, Plutarch, Dio Cassius and Suetonius and how these serve as some of the important primary sources available to historians and history students in understanding the period. Show the students how it is only these fragments of history that have survived for centuries that allow us to reconstruct a historical image of Rome in various periods.
California Content Standards
6.7.1 Identify the location and describe the rise of the Roman Republic, including the importance of such mythical and historical figures as Aeneas, Romulus and Remus, Cincinnatus, Julius Caesar, and Cicero.
6.7.8 Discuss the legacies of Roman art and architecture, technology and science, literature, language, and law.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-8.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources.
6.7.8 Discuss the legacies of Roman art and architecture, technology and science, literature, language, and law.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-8.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources.
Vocabulary
Primary Sources and Secondary source. Context, Corroborate, Authenticity, Historiography, Senatorial Offices, Magistrate, Tribune, Praetor, Aedile, Pomepii, Julius Caesar, Sulla, Crassus, Cicero, Popular factions, Patrician families, consulships, Tacitus, Suetonius, Plutarch, Dio Cassius.
Lesson Introduction
Using the example of text and email messages of our society as being a possible blueprint for future historians to create a representation of our society. Teacher will open with the sentences,
“Salve genus. Donec et lege vestra, hos textus commodo at tu me misisti. Finge tibi si construere et historici nostri status illorum nuntiis visus est.”
Hello Class. Please look at your phone and read the last few texts you have sent. Imagine if you were a historian and you had to construct your vision of our state with those messages alone.
This introductory statement serves as a hook as well as to show students just how difficult Roman history can be. The sources we have to work on were written hundreds of years ago in not only a different style then the next generations may be familiar with but a different language as well.
“Salve genus. Donec et lege vestra, hos textus commodo at tu me misisti. Finge tibi si construere et historici nostri status illorum nuntiis visus est.”
Hello Class. Please look at your phone and read the last few texts you have sent. Imagine if you were a historian and you had to construct your vision of our state with those messages alone.
This introductory statement serves as a hook as well as to show students just how difficult Roman history can be. The sources we have to work on were written hundreds of years ago in not only a different style then the next generations may be familiar with but a different language as well.
Content Delivery
Springboarding off the introduction of the work students will immediately be considering the significance of sources, not just past but future. The teacher will go over specifics of both primary and secondary sources. Suggested further hook. “Primary sources are the genuine article, an actual relic of the past even if it’s not a relic in the way most students will think about it. While they can be akin to the golden idol Indiana Jones steals in Raiders of the Lost Ark but primary sources covers much more. It can be as subtle as newspaper articles from the era and as bold as an old plane’s shell from World War Two. The important aspect is determining what the source means. Secondary sources is something that analyzes and interprets a primary source. They come after and help further our understanding. A review of Indiana’s adventure would be considered a secondary source as the movie would be a primary source.”
For Roman history the primary sources are in fact a sometimes meager shell of the once great Empire. Teacher will inform students how the limited amount of records and evidence forces us to examine a few amount of sources to try to breath life into a vast and rich history. Teacher will review Tacitus, Suetonius, Plutarch and Dio Cassius by describing their origins and then bridge the scaffolding by having the students select certain passages to examine and analyze.
At least twenty examples found from Tacitus’ Annals, Suetonius’ Twelve Caesar’s, Plutarch’s The Parallel Lives.
Tacitus Annals
Plutarch Parallel Lives
Plutarch Twelve Caesars
Roman History
For Roman history the primary sources are in fact a sometimes meager shell of the once great Empire. Teacher will inform students how the limited amount of records and evidence forces us to examine a few amount of sources to try to breath life into a vast and rich history. Teacher will review Tacitus, Suetonius, Plutarch and Dio Cassius by describing their origins and then bridge the scaffolding by having the students select certain passages to examine and analyze.
At least twenty examples found from Tacitus’ Annals, Suetonius’ Twelve Caesar’s, Plutarch’s The Parallel Lives.
Tacitus Annals
Plutarch Parallel Lives
Plutarch Twelve Caesars
Roman History
Student Engagement
Students will analyze and discuss both the significance of the sources, i.e. their authenticity and origins, and interpret them for various aspects. They will think of the related cultural connotations for their chosen sources and write a paragraph response to each of the four sources that they will select. They can work on these analyzing assignments in groups of three or four but their answers must be their own. After this assignment students will be asked to use their knowledge of primary sources and search the school’s digital library services and find both one primary source and two secondary sources. These sources will be brought in the following days and shared amongst their group for further discussion that will extrapolate what the articles are and their significance in the same way as the first set of articles but in an discussion forum.
Student Assessment
Informal Formative Assessment - During the middle of the class the students will break up and review the worksheet with the available sources.They will then select four of these sources and come up with a developed response that analyzes and interrupts the source in a paragraph.
Formal Formative Assessment - For homework students will use the knowledge they have collected on Roman sources and retrieve 1 primary source and two secondary sources to be brought back the following day for in class discussion.
Formal Formative Assessment - For homework students will use the knowledge they have collected on Roman sources and retrieve 1 primary source and two secondary sources to be brought back the following day for in class discussion.
Lesson Closure
Both the group assignments and the sources will be collected at their respective points. Teacher will review which of the vocab terms are key and likely to be in the quiz at the week’s end as well as the test at the unit end. The teacher will conclude classes by asking the students to once more consider just what kind of lasting impression our society will be making on future generations and promote that we should set an example with this new knowledge they have received.
Accommodation for students with special needs
Additional vocabulary support will be allocated for English Learners, striving readers and students with special needs with source information to help them locate definitions. Grouping the English learners during the vocab and discussion phases of the lesson plan will help also and Structured Character charts will be available for the students to help maximize their focus on key individuals from the unit.