Towson University

Department of Secondary Education

Lesson Plan Template
Name: Garrett Maternick

Date: 5/5/2016

Brief Class Description (contextual information including number of students, subject,

level, IEP/ELL/GT or other special considerations):
I am teaching a seventh grade world cultures GT class of around 32 students. The class is divided
into 8 groups of around 4-5 students per group. Since it is a GT class, there are no IEPs for
students with behavioral issues. However, the lesson will be modified to challenge these students
more than a traditional class.

Unit: Europe/Ancient Rome

Lesson Topic: The Fall of Rome
Lesson Length: 1 - 45 Minute class period.
Prior Knowledge (How do you know the students are ready for this lesson?):
The class will be ready for this lesson because we have studied the entirety of Rome
excluding its collapse. As a class, we started off the unit by studying Rome as a monarchy. Over
the course of the past week we have moved through the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire.
The previous lesson, Chronology of Ancient Rome, has set the background knowledge for this
lesson because it shows the events that lead to Romes collapse. Students will use this lesson to
take a closer look at the factors that contributed to its collapse.

Alignment:
Standard: 6.5.B.3.c. Summarize the factors that led to the decline of the Roman
Empire.

Objective: Students will analyze the social, economic, and political reasons for
government collapse in order to evaluate which factor had the most impact on the
collapse of the Roman Empire.

Assessment: Students will complete a DBQ Exit Ticket. In this assessment students
will be asked, Based on the political, economic, and social reasons for why governments
collapse, which factor you think contributed most to the collapse of the Roman Empire?
Cite at least three examples from the political, economic, or social section of your chart.

Materials Needed:

The Fall of Rome Reading Handout (+Modified Handout for IEP Students)
Assessment/Exit Ticket (+Modified Exit Tickets for Standard & IEP Students)
Poster Paper & Markers
Computer, Projector, & Slide of Dystopian Movies

Technology Integration/Needs:

Students will use the slide on the computer to brainstorm the reasons for the collapse of
government and society in the movies. They will share their answers in a brief discussion.

Lesson Procedure:
Opening Activity (describe your warm-up/engagement/hook/motivation):
Drill: Brainstorm 2 reasons why governments and societies can collapse.
Time Allotted: 5 minutes (2.5 to work & 2.5 to review)
Adaptations (for IEP, ELL, culture, and other special needs):
As students complete the drill, the teachers will walk around the room and stamp the completed
drill papers. Every student who gets a stamp will receive extra credit if they have a stamp for
every drill of the week.
Transition (explicitly linking concepts/activities/objectives):
Now that you all have started brainstorming on the reasons for the collapse of
government/society, analyze the pictures on the board to expand your thoughts. You have 2
minutes to think, then we will discuss.
Activity 1 (describe activity):
Students will read the handout, The Fall of Rome. In this reading students will read about the
main factors that lead to Romes collapse. Prior to reading, the teacher will go over that students
should focus on the political, economic, and social reasons for why governments/societies
collapse. This reading includes: social problems, economic problems, military reasons, political
problems, and barbarians. As the students read (individually), they will be expected to highlight
or underline important information in the text. In addition to underlining/highlighting, students
should annotate next to highlighted text whether the reason is P for political, S for social, or E for
economic. Students can combine military reasons into the political category.
Time Allotted: Maximum 10 minutes
Adaptations:
Students with IEPs for reading and writing will have readers and scribes. In addition, low
performing students will receive a reading handout that has already been underlined and includes
definitions.
Transition:
Great work everyone! Now we will move into creating a group poster about the fall of Rome.

Activity 2 (describe activity):

In the second activity, the class will work with their groups to create a poster on the political,
economic, and social reasons for why Romes government/society collapsed. The teacher will
describe to the class that they should focus mainly on the political, social, and economic reasons.
The teacher will hold up the poster model, which has the poster divided into three sections:
Political, Social, and Economic.
Time Allotted: 15 minutes
Adaptations: None
Transition:
As you all can see, there are many factors that contribute to a nations collapse. How did the
factors from the reading connect to the reasons you came up with about the movies? What do
you think was the leading factor for collapse of Rome?
Closing Activity (summarize learning and/or revisit objective):
Before we complete the assessment, we will revisit the objective. Next, students will be asked to
complete the assessment using their groups poster and their complete graphic organizer from the
reading. In this assessment students will be asked, Based on the political, economic, and social
reasons for why governments collapse, which factor you think contributed most to the collapse
of the Roman Empire? Cite at least three examples from the political, economic, or social section
of your chart.
Extension/Follow-up (homework, etc. optional):
If students finish the exit ticket, they can work on finishing The Geography of Rome handout.