Literacy Infused Lesson Plan Components

Subject: Ancient Rome

Grade level: 9th
Teacher(s): Julia Melchiorre and William LoFaro
Learning Segment Title: The Comparison of Augustus and Caesar
Length of each lesson: 50 mins.
Central Focus:
This unit will build on students’ prior knowledge of democracy and a republic led by public
leaders in a world with geographical influences. This unit will help students explain the (four)
following concepts of comparing two leaders and evaluating the effects of different geographic
landmarks. This unit will develop the following (four) skills of students as they learn to analyze
similarities and differences and become familiar with mapping. Students will be able to apply the
learning from the unit to real world political and societal contexts. Students will be able to
demonstrate this learning when they complete the formative and summative assessment
correlated with it.

Essential Question(s):
How was the society of Rome carried into today’s society?
Why are some rulers more effective than others and how is it related to the general public?

Learning Standards:

Content Standard:
9.3 CLASSICAL CIVILIZATIONS: EXPANSION, ACHIEVEMENT, DECLINE: Classical
civilizations in Eurasia and Mesoamerica employed a variety of methods to expand and maintain
control over vast territories. They developed lasting cultural achievements. Both internal and
external forces led to the eventual decline of these empires. (Standards: 2, 3, 5; Themes: MOV,
TCC, GEO, GOV, CIV)

9.3b Empires used belief systems, systems of law, forms of government, military forces, and
social hierarchies to consolidate and expand power.
-Students will compare and contrast how the Mauryan, Qin, and Roman civilizations
consolidated and increased power.

9.3c A period of peace, prosperity, and cultural achievements can be designated as a Golden
Age.
-Students will examine the achievements of Greece, Gupta, Han Dynasty, Maya, and Rome to
determine if the civilizations experienced a Golden Age.
Content Objective: Students will be able to analyze similarities and differences between
historical figures and events.

Language Standard:
RH6: Compare the point of view of two or more authors for how they treat the same or similar
topics, including which details they include and emphasize in their respective accounts.

Language Objective: Students will be able to compare topics based on the author’s perspective.

Academic Language

Vocabulary: compare, contrast, similarities, differences, emperor, lineage, republic, assassination,

consul, biography, describe, policies, dictator

Syntax: Venn diagram for sorting and organizing student thoughts and allowing them to visually
represent similarities and differences

Discourse: Students will participate in an oral debate against other class members based on the
leaders they prefer

Language function: Students will analyze, explain, compare, argue, and justify their reasoning
using evidence from primary sources and elaboration based on their secondary knowledge.

Differentiation:

Special Needs of Students: This class has some ELL students, such as Ernesto and Maria,
struggling students, and gifted students. The ELL students have limitations in reading and
writing, but are fluent in vernacular English conversation. Most speakers are at a level 1
according to the NYSESLAT test and do not have optimal familial ties with the English
language. These students are in the beginning stages of language acquisition and rely heavily on
pictures, nonverbal cues, and graphs in order to understand aspects of the lesson. Students will
need support in language development overall with the help of their classmates and teacher.
Struggling students may be allotted more time and have accommodations made for them,
especially according to their IEPs if they may have one. Gifted students will be encouraged to
accept challenges and make more nuanced Venn diagrams or pursue independent studies.

Pre-assessment & Student Readiness: The pre-assessment will be an exit ticket from the previous
day, in which students list several qualities they admire in America’s current leader and several
they feel as though could be improved. If 75%-85% of students score proficient on the
pre-assessment, the lesson will continue as planned. Students who did not score proficient will be
grouped and the teacher will be aware of the group, giving aid and supplements, such as
vocabulary word banks and sentence starters.

Content Differentiation: Based on the pre-assessment, students may choose to focus on certain
articles over others in their groups. For example, ELL students may benefit from the document
with images and find it more useful in their Venn diagram and argument. Gifted students may
choose to further analyze the bias of the authors and base their opinions on that aspect as well.

Process Differentiation:
ELL students may have a word bank to choose from when creating the Venn Diagrams and have
prelabeled columns to work with. In the guided practice, gifted groups may choose to create their
own categories for the Venn diagram or create a more complex version to better suit their
nuanced thoughts.

Product Differentiation: ELL students may choose to orally record their “paragraphs.” Gifted
students may veer from the traditional quote and elaboration method and use more advanced
writing techniques. Struggling students will be given paragraph outlines to fill in with their
quotes and thoughts to minimize the stress of creating a body paragraph.

Lesson 1 - Comparison of Caesar and Augustus

1. Procedure:

Anticipatory Set (hook, motivation, etc. to engage students) : (6 min)

● Hook: Teacher will explain the story behind the months of July and August,
coming from Julius Caesar and Augutsus; students will get a sense of the
personalities of each leader; story will be engaging and captivate student’s interest
● Activating prior knowledge: “Notice and Wonder” Activity: Students will be
shown two different statues, one of Caesar, and one Augustus.
● Students will be asked to identify what they know, what they notice, and what
they wonder when observing the statues.
● The class will discuss and teachers will answer several questions and ask
supporting ones.

Initial Phase (instruction – direct/indirect) (13 min)

● As a class, teachers and students will read and annotate two articles about Caesar and two
about Augustus.
● Students instructed to circle key adjectives while readings and underline key descriptive
phrases
● Teacher will guide questions and discussions and explain rule of Caesar and Augustus as
seen by the authors of these pieces
● Bias will be lightly discussed by not focused on; teacher will instead elaborate more on
the rules and policies set in place by the leaders and how they were interpreted
Middle Phase (practice-guided/independent) (6 min)
● In groups pre-made based on differentiation from the pre-assessment, students will create
a Venn diagram based on the words and phrases they annotated to describe Caesar and
Augustus
● Teach/explain Venn diagram
● Venn diagram will be labeled “Caesar” and “Augustus” respectively with a similarities
column in the center
● Teacher will circulate the room and check for misconceptions or misunderstandings
● In groups, one person will be nominated to be a cross-pollinator role, in which they are
sent out by their group for a few minutes to check on other groups’ work and bring back
ideas; this will help share and spread knowledge and may help groups who are stuck or
need assistance
Concluding Phase (closure/summary: Action/statement by student(s)/teacher to wrap up
lesson) (5 min)
● After completing their diagrams, the class will reconvene and students will be given the
opportunity to share their groups findings as well as what they discussed.

10. Follow up: What comes next to reinforce the lesson (HW or supplemental instruction).
● Homework for students will be to find three quotes from the documents in class to
support their position on who they believe was a better leader
● Students will compile these quotes into a paragraph with a topic sentence and conclusion
sentence; quotes will be properly cited
● Model and evaluative criteria will be given prior to completing the homework
Material/Source:
http://www.c3teachers.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/C3-FINAL-WH1-Better-Caesar.pdf
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/media/teaching-idea-ancient-rome/
Homework

Name:_____________________________________________________ Date:____________

Using two quotes from the Caesar and Augustus documents, write at least four sentences arguing
who you believe was the more effective leader.

____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
Optional Challenge:

Pick an above article and analyze the author and their potential bias. State who the author is,
their relationship to the subject at hand, and what traits or characteristics may impact their
writing.
OR
Pick an above article and analyze the type of source it is. State what kind of document it is and
how the document type influences its content and message.

____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
Sentence Starters:

I firmly believe that _________________________ was a more effective leader because…

A documented primary source shows that …
According to _______________________________________…
In conclusion, I hold my claim because…
Augustus showed his effective leadership skills as he was described…
Caesar demonstrated his leadership by…

Evaluative Criteria

Check Plus, Check, Check Minus ✓+, ✓, ✓-

For this assignment, a ✓+ response includes:
● Two citations used.
● Minimum four sentence paragraph with a clear claim.
● Sentences are written clearly and neatly with correct grammar and spelling.

For this assignment, a ✓ response includes:

● One citation used.
● Minimum three sentence paragraph with an attempted claim.
● Sentences are clearly written and neat; some grammar or spelling mistakes are ok.

For this assignment, ✓- a response includes:

● Zero citations used.
● One or two sentence explanation with no claim.
● Sentences are messy and unclear.