Pompeii: Teacher Guide

Pompeii: Death and Discovery

Following will be a collection of suggested activities, worksheets, and discussion information, as well as complementary powerpoint presentations.

Objectives

After this project, students will...

Understand the ways in which the destruction of Pompeii affected the Romans.
Understand the significance of the discovery of Pompeii.
Understand how archaeologists and historians come to conclusions about ancient life using archaeological artifacts.
Be able to recognize the meaning of some of the most common abbreviations in Pompeian graffiti.
Be able to draw simple conclusions based upon artifacts found in an area as well as their contexts.

National Standards

As a whole, this project should utilize the following National Standards for Classical Language Learners:

1.1: Students read, understand, and interpret Latin. During the course of the VFT, students should have chances to interpret authentic as well as created Latin phrases and sentences they "find" in Pompeii.
2.1: Students demonstrate an understanding of the perspectives of Roman culture as revealed in the practices of the Greeks or Romans. After analyzing information and artifacts provided by the VFT, students will consider what they know about the daily life of Pompeians.
2.2: Students demonstrate an understanding of the perspectives of Roman culture as revealed in the products of the Greeks or Romans. Students will be presented with information regarding and images of artifacts and buildings found in Pompeii, and draw some of their own conclusions as to the lives of Pompeians.
3.1: Students reinforce and further their knowledge of other disciplines through their study of classical languages. Students will have many chances to improve their English vocabulary and grammar through continued study of authentic Latin.
3.2: Students expand their knowledge through the reading of Latin and the study of ancient culture. This VFT will not only increase students' knowledge of ancient cultures but will increase their awareness of their own history and the methods used to discover history.
4.1: Students recognize and use elements of the Latin language to increase knowledge of their own language. While discussing the Latin language's vocabulary and grammar, it will be inevitable to discuss English grammar and vocabulary; students will increase English vocabulary via derivatives.
4.2: Students compare and contrast their own culture with that of the Greco-Roman world. The trend for comparison is begun with the "End of Pompeii" page: students are asked to compare Vesuvius to Mount St. Helen. They will be asked to continue comparison in different assignments throughout.
5.1: Students use their knowledge of Latin in a multilingual world. Students will be given chances to post their answers to translation problems given throughout the VFT. They will also be asked to comment on the answers of others, and their answers will be available to the internet at large.
5.2: Students use their knowledge of Greco-Roman culture in a world of diverse cultures. Students will be given chances to post their answers to interpretation problems throughout the VFT. They will also be asked to comment on the answers of other, and their answers will be available to the internet at large.

Handouts and Other Helpful Extras

Handouts are offered in Microsoft Word document format.

Project Goals: I try to always provide my students with my expectations. I then ask that they rate the effort they apply to each goal and how well they think they achieved each goal.
Effort and Achievement Rubric: This makes judging their own effort and achievement a little easier for students.
Reflection Journal: The VFT regularly offers prompts for a reflection journal that ask students to think more deeply about the information provided.
The End of Pompeii Powerpoint: This is offered instead of that particular webpage because it is much more powerful visually. It comes with extended quotes by Pliny the Younger.
Discussion Guide for Knowledge Found: This is a short guide which translates the Latin on the page and gives a few dicussion suggestions for the teacher to help guide his or her students through the page.
Class Participation Rubric: This is just a quick, simple rubric to use in order to judge class participation during the project. It is a Microsoft Publisher file.
Reflection Journal Rubric: I developed this rubric to reflect my personal goals for my students in completing their reflection journals.
Problem-Solving Rubric: This rubric helps students and teachers decide how well they are completing the problem-solving portion of the VFT.

Assessment

This is just my suggestion for assessing your students' successful completion of the project. Rubrics for each type of assessment are found in the handouts section above.

20% Class Participation Students should spend class time listening to the teacher and each other and remaining on topic.
30% Reflection Journal Students should show thoughtfulness and make a sincere attempt to answer the prompts for their reflection journals.
30% Participation in Problem-Solving Students should make honest attempts to work on and solve any and all problems presented to the class during the VFT. They may, however, choose not to post their answers publicly.
20% Archaeology Analysis Students should utilize time given in pairs or small groups to sift artifacts out of dirt, piece them together, and analyze their possible meanings.

Bibliography

In addition to the links I have provided on each webpage and connected to each picture, I have used these sites while creating my own VFT.

RubiStar: I use RubiStar's rubric format to help me make my own, including the rubrics I created for this VFT.
Reconstructing Artifacts: This is the lesson I chose to use as a hands-on activity to finish up the VFT.
Odyssey in Egypt: This VFT inspired the problem-solving aspect of my own VFT.