Lesson Plan 1 – History and its Cultural Legacies: Democracy for the Greeks

GANAG Format Lesson Plan:

Subject Area: Social Studies

Grade: 7^th

Goal: Students will know about the cultural legacy of democracy for the Greeks, during the period of time from the 6th century B.C. to the 4th century B.C; then they will be able to begin comparing it to their current lives, specifically to their school community.

Access: Students will draw a map of Greece without aids, with the details they remember of the political map we saw in the last lesson of Greece in the 6th century B.C., and with the most details they remember of the physical map they replicated from the current Greece.

New Information: The teacher will present the topic of democracy for the Greeks, based on the reading students had to do on the topic, describing how it was born and giving details about its development during the time frame from the moment it was created until the time of the suppression of democratic institutions because of Macedonian hegemony in 322 B.C. and will answer students’ questions. Students will individually write a question regarding something they want to know about the topic, and then share the question with the class.

Apply: Students will then compare what they learned about democracy in the Greeks and what they know about democracy now. They will in pairs make a chart with the following columns: characteristics of democracy in the Greeks, characteristics of democracy in their school community, similarities between both, and differences between the two. In the exercise it has to be clear what they think democracy is about, its essence, topic in which we will go further in the following class.

Generalization: At the end of the lesson students will write individually a definition of democracy in their own words and post it on the wall of the classroom.