Middle and New Kingdom Egypt

Name: Megan Cavitt

Class/Subject: Sixth-grade World Cultures

Date: November 15, 2010

Student Objectives/Student Outcomes:

Students will demonstrate an understanding of the similarities and differences between Middle
and New Kingdom Egypt by using a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast the political and
economic features of the two kingdoms.

Content Standards:
16.E.3a (W) Describe how the people of the Huang He, Tigris-Euphrates, Nile and Indus river
valleys shaped their environments during the agricultural revolution, 4000 - 1000 BCE.

17.C.3b Explain how patterns of resources are used throughout the world.

Materials/Resources/Technology:
- Venn Diagrams drawn by students to take notes on
- Large Venn Diagram to be projected onto the board
- List of key terms to be projected onto the board
- Online textbook so pictures such as maps can be projected onto the board

Teacher’s Goals:
Students will achieve the objectives set forth by sharing prior knowledge about ancient Egypt
and using knowledge acquired during the lesson to construct a comparison of political and
economic developments throughout Middle and New Kingdom Egypt.

Time
 Introduction of Lesson:
2 minutes Teacher will provide some information on the transition from the Middle
Kingdom to the New Kingdom, explaining that Egypt suffered through decades of
civil war because of the lack of a unifying authority.

Lesson Instruction:
10 minutes A mini-lecture on the New Kingdom and its military and economic achievements
will be given. During the lecture, a list of key terms will be projected onto the
board and students will be given the opportunity to write down the terms and their
definitions as notes. The terms and definitions can also be found in chapter 4,
section 3 of their textbook if they do not finish copying them during class.
- During the New Kingdom, Egypt became an empire by conquering land
along the Mediterranean and the southern reaches of the Nile. The reasons
(economic and political) will be stressed: more territory kept Egypt safe from
invaders and gave it access to more resources.
- Egypt’s contentious relationships with its neighboring countries will also be
emphasized.

Students will then be divided into pairs and asked to complete the middle section
10 minutes
of the Venn Diagram, which is the comparison section. Any similarities between
the Middle and New Kingdoms will be written in this section.

5 minutes Next, the entire class will spend some time sharing the similarities they identified.

10 minutes Finally, students will be divided into groups based on the topics of the reports
they recently completed. For example, all of the students who wrote about
engineers will form one group, while all of the students who wrote about pharaohs
will form another group. Each group will come up with a list of three to five
interesting facts about their topic that they would like to share with the class.

Assessments/Checks for Understanding:

The discussion on similarities and differences between the Middle and New
Kingdoms will give students a chance to demonstrate their knowledge of the
political, religious, and economic structure of the two kingdoms. The Venn
Diagrams can be graded if the cooperating teacher chooses to do so. Whether or
not they are graded, they will eventually be returned to students as notes.

Sharing facts from their reports will allow students to demonstrate their
knowledge of a specific social group in ancient Egypt and benefit from their
classmates’ knowledge of other social groups.

2 minutes Closure/Wrap-Up/Review:
The teacher will ask students how researchers know so much about ancient Egypt.
After listening to students’ answers, the teacher will explain that Egyptian art and
writing is the key to our understanding of life in ancient times. This provides a
segway to the next lesson, which is on Egyptian achievements in art, writing, and
architecture.