Our 6th grade Social Studies curriculum moves through a large range of times, places, and ancient civilizations. Given the English Language learning needs of my student, many text learning skills like strategic textbook reading, outlining, etc., are done in social studies rather than language arts. In addition, I have found that online resources are especially rich for social studies and science. At the same time, I find that resources for Egypt are much more readily available than some other civilizations... Egypt can be "overdone".

With all this in mind, I used this unit to build student skills in 3 important general areas, while they learn and communicate specifically about Ancient Egypt. The 3 general skills areas in the unit which can be applied to any online work are:
1. Targeted use of subject specific resources, both text and web.
2. Taking online notes quickly and efficiently for later reuse in new ways.
3. Reflecting on and evaluating interactive learning websites.

I found out in doing the unit that all kinds of kids found a variety of ways to get 100% involved, to learn, and to show their learning in eye pleasing ways.

p.s. If you learn by seeing, check out one of the video clip explaining the unit,
(about 17 minutes.... 15 mb... loads right away from fast connection, slow at home).
(Quicktime plugin needed, click here if not installed with your browser, works for both Mac and Windows versions)

Lessons Overview

Lessons Overview

#1 The Scroll

#2 Organizing Online Notes

#3 Art on Paper

#4 Evaluating Online Activities

Standards

Resources and Extension Ideas

Links to samples

Assessing the Unit

Video presentation of unit