Lesson Plan

Day: Wednesday
7

Date: 7/9/16

Time: 8:25-9:20

Learning Area: Humanities and Social Sciences

Rome and Source Analysis
Curriculum content description:

Year:

Topic: Ancient

Analyse primary sources and secondary sources to identify values and perspectives on
people, actions, events, issues and phenomena, past and present. (ACHASSI156)
Identify the origin and purpose of primary and secondary sources (ACHHS209)
The evidence for the emergence and establishment of ancient societies (including art,
iconography, writing tools and pottery) (ACOKFH002)
Key features of ancient societies (farming, trade, social classes, religion, rule of law)
(ACOKFH003)
Students prior knowledge and experience:
Students have been studying Ancient Rome for a number of weeks in their history classes so
they have been exposed to and are familiar with the content. This is their first source
analysis assessment and they are still familiarising themselves with the terminology of the
questions and what each questions requires from them in their answers.

Learning purpose:
Historical Skills
Analyse primary sources and secondary sources to identify values and perspectives
on people, actions, events, issues and phenomena, past and present. (ACHASSI156)
Identify the origin and purpose of primary and secondary sources (ACHHS209)
The Mediterranean World - Rome
The evidence for the emergence and establishment of ancient societies (including
art, iconography, writing tools and pottery) (ACOKFH002)
Key features of ancient societies (farming, trade, social classes, religion, rule of law)
(ACOKFH003)
Learning objectives:
Evaluation:
On completion of this lesson, students
5-10 minutes at the end of the lesson
will be able to:
will get the students to score their
Demonstrate an understanding of
confidence for the assessment on
how to answer questions in a source
scale from 1 5 (ask students to raise
analysis
their hands for appropriate level)
Demonstrate the skill to draw
information from the provided source

and their own knowledge of the topic

in order to answer the questions

Preparation and Resources:

(Detail what resources will be used and what other preparation of the learning environment
will be required)

Practise source analysis booklet (students will have hard copies, teachers will have
digital copy)
Laptop (to provide myself with digital copy)
Definitions page

Catering for diversity (detail any adjustments considerations for educational/resource

adjustments)

Begin by working as a whole class in answering one of the questions

Then students will work on their own to answer the questions and teachers will assist
as required will allow for students to help each other in their immediate group
Students will all be sitting the same test on the day so practise materials are all the
same

Timing:

Learning Experiences:
1. Introduction:

2 mins

20
mins

Today we will be working on our source analysis. As a class we will complete

source analysis three to make sure that everybody understands what these
questions are asking. As well as ensure you have an understanding of all the
terminology used. After we have gone through source three you will be working
on the final two sources in your books. You can work within your groups only,
however if you are too noisy and unproductive you will have to work by yourself.

2. Sequence of learning experiences:

Define key terms;
What is a primary source?
Produced during the period
Anything from written documents, art, statistics
What is a secondary source?
Produced after the period of study
Sometimes they comment on, interpret on the period using primary
sources
Includes things like books, journal articles, art
And how do you know if a source is biased or not?
Supporting/opposing a particular view
In History bias is not always a bad thing because it is showing you the way
a certain group thought etc (good to remember if you plan to continue
history studies in upper years)
Get all students to turn to source analysis number three. Ask the students who
would like to read the source (will require 5 students to read)
Draw the students attention to the caption underneath and read it to them.
Explain to them that during this test they are able to use both the information
provided in the source, the caption underneath and any knowledge they have on
the subject to answer the questions. (stress that the captions are, again, very
important in upper year history)
Then read first question to the students and ask them what they think the
question is requiring them to do. (redefine terms if students are struggling)
Ask the students how they could receive full marks for the question. (ie
identifying source as either primary or secondary and providing example/reasons
why from source)
Write answers on board.
Ask if anyone has any further questions.
Look at the question 2 of the source analysis number 3.
Ask students what they think the question is requiring them to do.
Ask the students how they could receive full marks for the question. (need to
provide two different reasons why they thought this source was created ie to
record his dislike of the games, to warn his friends about the games)
Write answers on board.
Ask is anyone has any further questions.

20
mins

Look at the question 3 of the source analysis number 3.

Ask students what they think the question is requiring them to do.
Ask the students how they could receive full marks for the question. (ie
identifying what aspects of life in Ancient Rome are discussed and what evidence
is there in the source this question allows for them to bring in their own
knowledge
Write answers on board.
Ask is anyone has any further questions.

Ask students to work through the rest of their source analysis book.
Let all student know this is the time to ask for questions if they still dont
understand or are having trouble with anything in the practise source analysis.
Walk around room as support.
Allow children to work within their immediate groups, if unproductive students
will have to work silently.
Ask questions.
Make sure students have a good understanding of the terminology.

5 mins

3. Lesson conclusion: (How will you summarise the learning and relate it
to the lesson objectives?)
Somebody tell me what is a primary source?
Somebody tell me what is a secondary source?
Are there any questions that you are not sure what they are asking you to do?
On a scale of 1-5 how is everyone feeling for their test? (further break this down
into five categories starting at 5 ie most prepared)

Lesson Evaluation:
(Reflect on the lesson. What worked? What did not work? What would you change? Why?)
Note that myself and Jess )the other Murdoch prac teacher) taught this lesson to two groups
of students.
What Worked
Working through an entire source analysis as a class worked really well. This was a concept
that was relatively new to them and by going through it as a class it meant that everybody
was being provided with and participating in creating an example of how to address the
different questions. The class was quite engaged with this process both in regards to
providing answers to my questions and also in completing the work.
Our mentor teacher provided us with the opportunity to run the same lesson again with the
second HASS class, during this lesson myself and the other prac student were much more
successful in our classroom management. After a discussion with our mentor teacher when
we finished our first attempt of our lesson he ran through a couple of techniques he uses for

classroom management and we gave some of them a try the second time around. They
worked really effectively with the second group and they were on task for a greater
percentage of the time in comparison to the first group.
At the end of the lesson with the second group of kids about 90% of the kids said they were
extremely confident going in to their assessment on Friday, with the rest saying they were
about a 4 out 5 in regards to confidence. In regards to this class completing an example
together was extremely beneficial.
Defining the key terms at the beginning of the lesson worked really well for both lessons. All
the students were confident and comfortable with the examples we had agreed upon and
were able to recall them at the end of the lesson. In the second lesson we did finish a little
bit earlier and Jess (other Murdoch prac) played a game with them to determine who would
leave first on the bell. They had to define a term correctly in order for their entire table to
leave on the bell. All students were engaged and the majority of the students were
participating.
Throughout the lesson Jess and I were walking around the classroom, as well as our mentor
teacher, helping the students as required and ensuring their answers were detailed enough
to gain the allocated marks. Many students in both classes were eager for our feedback and
would voluntarily ask for us to read their answers rather than us just looking over their
shoulders.
Jess and I tag teaming during the lesson worked really well. I was more comfortable with the
content side of the lesson than she was so we split the lesson so that she covered the
majority of the instructional and definition aspects and I looked at the content and specifics
of the source analysis questions. We supported each other well and would add on to what
the other said if we omitted something we had pre-planned. While this is a relatively
unusual situation for teaching it was great for our first prac as the support system helped
our lesson run smoothly.

What did not work

When we ran the lesson for the first time our classroom management did have some flaws.
In particular towards the end of the lesson when the students were getting ready to pack
up. They were packing up as we were still speaking and we were trying to talk over the
noise meaning some students missed out on what we were saying. In the second lesson we
improved on this by instructing the students when they began to pack up that they needed
to stop until we instructed them to pack up. This resulted in all students being involved in
the conclusion of the lesson. Another classroom management issue was we didnt have an
effective strategy to gain their attention so we opted to call for their attention in the first
lesson. While this did work it took a while and was quite disruptive. During the second
lesson we opted for clapping patters which was effective and didnt require us to raise our
voices at the kids.
During the conclusion for the first group of students some of them were sitting around a 3
out of 5 in regards to their confidence going into the test on Friday. They werent willing to
volunteer what it was they were having trouble with in order for us to help them. I think this
may have been due to them not knowing Jess and I very well and they will hopefully
approach our mentor teacher for help.