Di's+comments+re+Yr+7

1. I think we are too fixated on content and forget that what we teach doesn't always equate with what the students learn or remember.From Yr 7courses I've taught, I believe the work needs to be both interactive and skills based. eg. the best unit I have used for stone age man is a unit on Aboriginal culture where students have to make stone age tools using only the equipment they would have had and then write an evaluation of the process and effectiveness of what they made- Makes the rednecks much more respectful of how hard this is. 2. I also believe we are too Eurocentric. There were pyramids in Central America and mummies iin China. Kids don't know that these countries had civilizations too. 3. I love the archeological unit as a doing activity which will interest the disengaged. 4 We need a scope and sequence of skills so that students are using Historical methodology and evaluative tools to investigate. They also need to understand that History is speculative and rarely certain. I don't think we communicate this 5. If we have to do Greece and Rome, why aren't we comparing them Rome 6. Ancient China is vastly different to middle ages China and we shouldn't be confusing the kids with putting it all together and feeling that we've 'done' China. 7. Re the latest Agora- there is a great opener for developing a unit on the emergence of civilisations. Surely the poi nt of studying civilisations-Egypt Greece and Rome is how they developed., what they gave their people. I like the problem solvinng approach od 'Finding Patterns in Ancient Civilisations. eg looking at advantages and disadvantages of settling in one place and how this caused developments such as fortifications etc. Nice precurser to castles in Year 8. I also liked the division of "River valley' civilations eg Egypt, but also Indus valley and Yellow River as compared to the 'Pastural' civilisations such as Hittites, vedic and Yuan. I like the world comparisons here. 8. Thoughts on the Pompeii unit- Why do we waste time dryly teaching food, clothing, social classes etc from the texts when we could do a great role play activity based on the last day in Pompeii and have the kids researching and presenting their personnas to the class- perhaps through a collection of short stories that the whole class could borrow -encompassing aspects like' what does a proletarieat wear? work at etc c/f slave or soldier. There was a great National Geographic article on an archaeological investigation into why they died. 9. Also what about relating to now eg comparing to people caught in the World Trade Centres or on the planes that were hujacked so that the students could start to empathise with the people.- Also there is a Pompeii exhibition26th june next year. Even if we couldn't get kids there, we could use the materials. 10. 2 great activities- first a unit investigating the lifestyle of Iron age man from archaeological evidence of a "Bog Body' boys love the gruesome stuff of human sacrifice and also the problem solving. Secnd an access Asia Scope and Sequence unit comparing Greece ome with India and China.