Class Activity: Responding via Number
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Give your students individual numbers at the start of the class by printing a
roster and numbering the roster 1 though however many students you have. You
can let them know their number as you take attendance if easiest.
During the class, as you ask questions related to the images on the screen,
do so by number rather than by name. This can be useful at the start of the
semester when you don’t have everyone’s names memorized, or for a larger
class.
Participation is switched from singling out whoever falls in your eye line, and
instead becomes a theatrical “game” where students are nervous about being
picked but usually are more willing to talk because it is a random, semi-playful
gesture.
You can have them answer questions from where they are sitting, or ask a pair to
come up and formally analyze a work standing by the screen at the front of class.
Class Activity – Ancient Egypt Recap
At the end of the lesson or the beginning of next lesson, ask the class to work in pairs or
small groups to answer the questions below. Provide a sheet with a selection of images
covered in class for them to refer to, or use the PPT to project the sheet so they have
images as a resource to refer to as they answer the questions.
1) Discuss how the Palette of Narmer is an early example of several ancient Egyptian
conventions of representation. What is going on in the narrative depicted? Can you
relate it to other objects we have seen in class over the past few lessons? How/why?
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Twisted perspective
Simplified contoured figures
Low relief
Different registers used to indicate distance and hierarchy
Hieratic scale
Animal figures used to indicate the narrative (eg. Intertwined tails of the bulls =
unification)
 Hieroglyphs
 Equating earthly ruler with godly ruler
 Glorification of the king
2) Why were structures like pyramids and objects like the statue of the butcher or
statues of pharaohs created in Ancient Egypt? What do Ancient Egyptian funerary
statues tell us about their cultural attitudes toward death?
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Ka, the idea of a spirit housed in a statue after life
Statues and objects = status symbols to remind the living of rulers
Objects that were useful in the afterlife were created like the butcher
These tell us death and the afterlife were taken very seriously by Ancient
Egyptians and that these eventualities were prepared for all the way through life
We can relate this preparation to cultures today who plan funerals in advance or
who leave commemorative objects or architecture for the dead