Learning Strategies Binder

Luke Witham

Entry 4: Ancient Rome through Role Playing

Citation: None
Content Area: Social Studies
Grade Level: 10th
Standards Addressed:
History 1: Students understand major eras, major enduring themes, and historic influences in
United States and world history, including the roots of democratic philosophy, ideals, and
institutions in the world by:
(D1) Analyzing and critiquing varying interpretations of historic people, issues, or events,
and explain how evidence from primary and secondary sources is used to support and/or
refute different interpretations.
Description
This activity is centered around using advanced texts in an atypical manner. The students will
be using the play Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare to examine multiple aspects of
ancient roman society and history. Students will be asked to take turns reading a loud and
“acting” certain parts of the texts. The strategy being used here is learning through role play.
When learning about something such as Ancient Roman Civilization, it is very easy to rely
heavily on presentations and text book style articles; however, for students who have a harder
time learning in this manner, the role playing and acting will combine visual, auditory, and
kinesthetic learning all into one learning session. Using this form of text, students will be
exposed to a new method of studying historical concepts, as well as learning how to draw
conclusion from complex texts. This activity will be used as a learning strategy to examine
some of the intricacies of roman society, the historical importance of Julius Caesar, and Julius
Caesar’s legacy.

Constructing
To prepare for this activity, the teacher needs to have several things lined up before the class
period starts. First, the teacher needs to have an understanding of how Roman society was
structured, as well as they should know what the key concepts they want to enforce are. Also,
the teacher should have a working understanding of Julius Caesar and his influence on the
world and Rome. Furthermore, the teacher should have passages that highlight the main
themes of the lesson picked out before the class starts. Lastly, the teacher needs to have
enough copies of the texts for the students, or they need to print off the scenes they plan on
using.
Implementing
Naming the Strategy: The strategy of using complex texts in an unorthodox method allows
students to learn key information through various means. The teacher could begin the class
with “pre-reading” questions about what the students know already about Roman Society, or
Julius Caesar. However, when using a complex text in a roleplaying activity, it might be more
beneficial to front load students with information on Roman Society and Caesar, and scaffold
their way up to Julius Caesar. The strategy that utilizes front loading would allow students to
form connections before reading, then have the reading and acting solidify or advance their
connections. For students, who might not have gathered much form the front loading, seeing
the main themes played out in front of them, and even taking part in the scenes will help
build those academic connections. During this activity, the teacher should be asking a
multitude of “during-reading” questions. When using complex texts like this, it is important
that students are not getting confused and then lost. For example, “How does the
Shakespeare’s use of a soothsayer represent pagan religions and culture in Roman Society?”
Or “What does the citizens reaction to Caesar’s death tell us about public opinion of Julius
Caesar as a ruler”. The “post-reading” section of this activity, the teacher will ask the
students to answer questions and reflect on the aftermath of Caesar’s death and how Rome
was impacted.
Why this Strategy? This strategy is helpful for students of all different learning levels and
capabilities. It highlights all of the important aspects of Ancient Rome in a manner that is
new and ties in several different learning styles. By using visual, auditory, and kinesthetic
instruction, along with peer to peer instruction, every major learning style.
Reflection: At the end of the activity students should have the ability to reflect on what they
have learned and be given an appropriate amount of time to solidify the new connections they
through this activity. Once the students have had time to reflect, they could be given a simple
assignment to formally reflect and summarize the text, while keeping the ideas surrounding
roman society in mind. Also, if the students are ready to handle a more serious assignment,
they could be tasked with creating their own text that highlights some similar aspect as the
original text. This could involve students writing scenes for a play, creating comic strips, or
even creating their own videos.
Extending
I. One possible way to extend this strategy would be to read the entire book as a class
and still have students act out scenes that represent the main ideas of this lesson
II. For students who have a hard time, or cannot role play in front of the class they can be
asked to write and maintain a reflective journal of each day’s activity. And for
students who have a hard time drawing conclusion from the text they will be offered
the chance to use a translation of the text that is in modern English rather than the
original.
III. To further challenge students, once the class has finished Julius Caesar, the teacher
could then assign firsthand documents and literature that directly came from ancient
Rome. From there the students could be asked to write a formal assignment that draws
conclusions and similarities from the two texts.