Pottsgrove School District
Unit Planning Organizer
Subjects
Social Studies
Grade / Course 6th
Unit of Study
Ancient Rome
Unit Type(s)
Topical
Pacing
Dominant Focus: Geography, Culture, Contributions
Skills-based
Thematic
Weeks: 6 weeks
Current Priority State Standards and/or Common Core Standards
List the priority standards (written out in bold) that will be taught during this unit of study.
CAPITALIZE the SKILLS and underline the important concepts for all priority standards addressed in this unit.
7.1.6.B - DESCRIBE and LOCATE places and regions as defined by physical and human features.
8.4.6.A – EXPLAIN the social, political, cultural, and economic contributions of individuals and groups to world history.
8.4.6.C - EXPLAIN how continuity and change have impacted world history.
- Belief systems and religions
- Commerce and industry
- Technology
- Politics and government
- Physical and human geography
- Social organizations
Current Supporting State Standards and/or Common Core Standards
List the supporting standards (written out in non-bold) that will be taught during this unit of study. Supporting standards should not be unwrapped.
8.4.6.B – Identify and Explain the importance of historical documents, artifacts, and sites which are critical to world history.
8.4.6.D – Compare conflict and cooperation among groups and organizations which have impacted history and development of the world.
Priority
Standards
“Unwrapped” Concepts
“Unwrapped” Skills
(Students need to know)
(Students need to be able to do)
Ex: 8.12.U.D
May also include concepts in unit but not specified in
standard
Ex: Verb (concept)
7.1.6.B
Places and Regions as Defined by Physical Features
(e.g. Apennines, Alps, Mt. Vesuvius, Tiber River, Peninsula,
Seven Hills of Rome, Mild Climate)
Places and Regions as Defined by Human Features
(e.g. Farm land, Canals & Ports, Coliseum, Forum, Temples)
8.4.6.A
8.4.6.C
Contributions of Individuals and Groups to World History
(e.g. Plebeians, Patricians, Etruscans, Latins, Aeneas,
Romulus, Remus, Cincinatus, Marcus, Senate, Consuls,
Magistrates, Tribunes, Assembly, Tripartite, Spartacus,
Hannibal)
- social
- political
- cultural
- economic
Impacts of Continuity
commerce & industry / technology (ECONOMIC)
(e.g. ports, trade, crops)
- impacts (then)
- impacts (today)
politics & government (POLITICAL)
(e.g. Tripartite)
- impacts (then)
Bloom’s II
Taxonomy
Ex: 4 - Analyzing
DESCRIBE (places and regions as defined
by physical features)
2 - Understanding
LOCATE (places and regions as defined
by human features)
EXPLAIN (social, political, cultural, and
economic contributions of individuals and
groups to world history)
2 - Understanding
EXPLAIN (impacts of continuity)
2 - Understanding
- impacts (today)
physical & human geography (GEOGRAPHY)
(e.g. ports, farm land, Appian Way)
- impacts (then)
- impacts (today)
Impacts of Change
belief systems & religions / social organizations (SOCIAL)
(e.g. Plebeians, Patricians, Gladiators)
- impacts (then)
- impacts (today)
politics & government (POLITICAL)
(e.g. Tripartite)
- impacts (then)
- impacts (today)
physical & human geography (GEOGRAPHY)
(e.g. Cloaca Maxima – underground sewers to drain
marshes between the hills)
- impacts (then)
- impacts (today)
EXPLAIN (impacts of change)
Essential Questions
Essential Questions are engaging, open-ended questions that educators use to spark
initial student interest in learning the content of the unit about to commence.
Identify the Essential Questions that will be used throughout this unit to focus your
instruction and assessment. For consideration, ask yourself the following about each
essential question:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Is this question written in student friendly language?
Can this question be answered with one of the Big Ideas?
Does the question lead the students to discovery of the Big Ideas?
Does the question go beyond who, what, where, when and ask the students to
explain how and why?
Corresponding Big Ideas
Big ideas are what you want your students to discover on their own as a result of
instruction and learning activities.
Identify the Big Ideas for each corresponding essential question.
The goal is for students to effectively be able to respond to the teacher’s essential
questions with the big ideas, stated in their
1. How did the geography of the region impact this civilization?
1. First, the fact that it was a peninsula made it easy for them to
travel by sea and develop trade as well as provided protection.
Second, they also had plenty of fresh water, good soil, and mild
climate for farming. Third, much of the region was mountainous
which provided streams, and the hills provided elevation for
building cities that were protected. However, the landscape did
make it difficult to travel by land.
2. How did the contributions of this civilization impact its social
political, economic and/or political development?
2. Rome’s Tripartite government and written laws led to a more
balanced social class system between the Patricians and Plebeians.
This made the society and government more stable, otherwise there
would have been upheaval by the majority group.
IF TIME TO ADDRESS: The later period of the Roman Republic
experienced wars because of expansion and political crises. This
eventually led to the fall of the Republic.
3. How do the contributions of this civilization impact your life or
society today?
3. The establishment of the Roman government provided the idea of
the Republic upon which the American government was founded. In
addition, the ideas of a constitution, civic duty, written set of laws,
checks and balances, and the three branches all developed from the
Roman model.
Plan for Instruction
Make connections between learning experiences and teaching strategies.
Engaging Learning Experiences
(Authentic Performance Tasks)
 Novel: Tiger Tiger
 Novel: Detectives in Togas
 Comparison/Contrast of Roman and Greek
culture, government, economy


Researched-based Effective Teaching Strategies
 graphic organizers
 outlines
 audio and video (DI)


Common Assessments
Note to Curriculum Designers:
Review grade-or course-specific state standardized assessments for the types of questions directly related to the “unwrapped” Priority Standards' concepts and skills in
focus for this unit of study.
2. Identify the vocabulary used and frequency of these questions.
3. Compare/contrast this information with the “unwrapped” concepts and skills listed above to determine how closely the two are aligned.
4. Create the Post Assessment using the Common Formative Assessment Template (Appendix A).
5. Create the Pre Assessment. Decide whether the pre-assessment will be aligned (directly matched to post-assessment but with fewer questions) or mirrored (exact
number and type of questions as post-assessment.
Create Informal Progress Monitoring Checks. Create short, ungraded “checks for student understanding” for the educator to administer throughout the unit of study that are
directly aligned to the post-assessment questions (selected-, short-, extended-response, and/or performance-based) and that coincide with learning progressions—the “building
block chunks” of instruction.
1.
Post Assessment: CFA #8
Pre Assessment: CFA #8
Informal Progress Monitoring Checks:
Unit Vocabulary
Tier 3
Tier 2
Literary Terms
 Alps
 Plebeians
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 peninsula
 Patricians
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 temples
 Tiber River
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 Republic
 Coliseum
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 Senate
 Etruscans
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 dictators
 Latins

 monarch
 Aeneas

 Assembly
 Romulus and Remus

 Latin
 Cincinatus

 Forum
 Marcus

 checks and balances
 Consuls

 legions
 Magistrates

 veto
 Tribunes


 Tripartite

 Spartacus

 Hannibal
Instructional Resources and Materials
Technology
Program / Text
Teacher Created
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