GENERAL LESSON PLAN

Name: Steven Thomas

Date: 10/1/14 (When the plan was written.)
Subject: Social Studies
Length of Lesson: 45 Minutes
Grade Level: 6th
Core Curriculum Objectives:
Standard 1
Students will understand how ancient civilizations developed and how
they contributed to the current state of the world.

Objective 1
Explain why physical geography affected the development of early
civilizations.

Common Core Objectives (ELA):

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.6.2

Interpret information presented in diverse media and formats (e.g., visually,

quantitatively, orally) and explain how it contributes to a topic, text, or issue under
study

Vocabulary Development:
Through the course of the lesson, the following vocabulary terms will be introduced and
explained.
The 4th Wall
City-State

 Democracy

Preparation: A copy of Aristophanes Frogs will be needed for this lesson. (

http://classics.mit.edu/Aristophanes/frogs.html) However, You only need to print out the
first scene (or about two pages for the lesson.

9:00-9:20

Introduction:
I will begin this lesson by
reviewing the previous ancient
cultures that they have
discussed. I will then
introduce the culture of
Ancient Greece by going
through their Ancient
Civilizations Inquiry Chart
and having them fill out the
sections relating to religion,
geography, government, and
technology.

Management:
I will manage the class by
leading the discussion
amongst students and by
calling upon random students
to ensure that they remained
focused on the activity at
hand.

9:20-9:30

I will then explain that one of

the biggest contributions
Ancient Greece made to the
modern world is drama. I will
then pass out copies of Frogs
and tell students that this play
is an example of an ancient
comedy

I will manage the class by

leading the discussion
amongst students.
Furthermore, by having
students share their own
personal accounts of what
drama is and their own
experiences with it. This will
help them stay focused on the
activity.

9:30-9:45

I will then call on volunteers

to read the parts of the play
outloud. after this little
performance I will ask student
to compare Frogs to comedies
today. What is the same?
What is different? What do
the differences say about the
culture of Ancient Greece.

I will manage the class by

making sure everyone is on
task and that they are paying
the proper respect to the
actors..

Adaptations:

ELL students will be provided with a translation of the play (an advantage of using a
classic public domain play is that so many resources are readily available.)
Students who are on a higher academic levelcan help by potentially taking the role of the
characters that have the most lines. They can also serve as directors who help other
students perform the piece.
Integration:
Besides the two standards that are listed on the top of this page, this lesson also integrates
drama with the lesson (it deals with a classic piece of drama.)
Furthermore, a classroom that is tech-focused could do interesting things with this lesson.
You could show them videos of this performance, as well as images and videos of ancient
greek theaters. This will provide both context for the play and the culture of Ancient
Greece.
Ancient greek theater also utilized very fanciful masks for the performers. You could
structure an art lesson around designing the masks for a performance.
If the students really enjoy Frogs you could use sections of it as a narrative text for
language arts instruction.