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I assigned last THurs (due Mon) a culture project. Students had to write a short essay pretending they were slaves based on information that could be found in the stage 6 culture section. The essay had to include these 7 items:
1) your name
2) Where you are from
3) How old you were when you became a slave
4) How long you've been a slave
5) How you were freed (you must be freed)
6) What job you did as a slave
7) who is your patron
I've only read a few so far and they are pretty entertaining. The things missed most so far are that they couldn't be freed before age 30 and that I was asking for #5 what form of manumission. I pointed out which sections were important (because we didn't finish reading the culture in class) and that they needed to read the whole culture section first BEFORE writing the essay.
But all in all this wasn't a bad idea and got them to engage with the culture more than just reading and discussing the section or doing a worksheet (which is what I used to do). My middle school kids do NOT in general extract information from text very well and I think a big mistake made by new teachers is that students are like them--that they can read and comprehend information. Mine certainly can't--not my average students. My top students, yes, no problem.
1) your name
2) Where you are from
3) How old you were when you became a slave
4) How long you've been a slave
5) How you were freed (you must be freed)
6) What job you did as a slave
7) who is your patron
I've only read a few so far and they are pretty entertaining. The things missed most so far are that they couldn't be freed before age 30 and that I was asking for #5 what form of manumission. I pointed out which sections were important (because we didn't finish reading the culture in class) and that they needed to read the whole culture section first BEFORE writing the essay.
But all in all this wasn't a bad idea and got them to engage with the culture more than just reading and discussing the section or doing a worksheet (which is what I used to do). My middle school kids do NOT in general extract information from text very well and I think a big mistake made by new teachers is that students are like them--that they can read and comprehend information. Mine certainly can't--not my average students. My top students, yes, no problem.
