Lesson Plan Using Primary Sources
Content Area: Social Studies
Title: Egyptian Discoveries
Grade Level: Middle School
Common Core Standards
RH.6-8.1. Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources.
RH.6-8.2. Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.
RH.6-8.10. By the end of grade 8, read and comprehend history/social studies texts in the grades 6–8 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
Essential Questions:
Behavioral Objectives
Students will...
Activity 1
Use the following Primary Source Howard Carter's Diary to answer the questions provided to you.
Use the following Primary Source from Dr. Zahi Hawass to answer the questions provided to you.
Use the following image to draw conclusions about the importance of photographs to document archaeological finds.
http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/gri/carter/004-p0276.html
http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/gri/carter/014-p0456.html
http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/gri/carter/021a-p0265.html
http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/gri/carter/022-p0280.html
http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/gri/carter/032-p0088.html
http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/gri/carter/053a-p0250.html
http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/gri/carter/062h-p0028.html
What doe each of these object tell you about the life and death of a pharaoh? Make sure you explain the importance that each object may have had.
Activity 4
Now that you have read primary sources from both Dr. Hawass and Howard Carter on their discoveries, you are to compare the tools, techniques, and primary sources used and created based upon the documents in the following chart. Copy the chart as a model for your own Google Doc comparison.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AosY_4biV78WdENBRTlDam5vSEpBdjk1dklqZDlJeWc
Title: Egyptian Discoveries
Grade Level: Middle School
Common Core Standards
RH.6-8.1. Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources.
RH.6-8.2. Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.
RH.6-8.10. By the end of grade 8, read and comprehend history/social studies texts in the grades 6–8 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
Essential Questions:
- How can we understand moments in history by “stepping into the
- What can we learn from archaeological findings?
- What do artifacts tell us about the human past?
Behavioral Objectives
Students will...
- Read various primary sources and examine them for meaning as they pertain to the study of Ancient History.
- Compare archaeological accounts overtime discerning advances in technology and how that impacts the study of archaeology.
- Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary sources.
- Determine the main ideas of the primary source and summarize its content accurately.
Activity 1
Use the following Primary Source Howard Carter's Diary to answer the questions provided to you.
- What is the audience this document is written for?
- When does Carter start his journal?
- Where is he? (please note city, country, continent, and hemispheres)
- What is the date the discovery of the tomb is made?
- Whose does the tomb belong to?
- What artifacts did Carter find on November 25th?
- Where were these artifacts located in the tomb?
- Infer why these artifacts were important to learning about the owner of the tomb?
- What artifacts did Carter and his team find on November 26th?
- Where were these artifacts located in the tomb?
- Infer why these artifacts were important to learning about the owner of the tomb?
- What artifacts did Carter and his team find on November 2th?
- How did Carter and his team determine this was King Tutankhamen?
- Write a summary based upon the primary source.
- What is the last date of this excerpt of Carter’s Journal?
Use the following Primary Source from Dr. Zahi Hawass to answer the questions provided to you.
- When was this document written?
- What audience is it written for?
- It is often said that Hatshepsut was murdered by Thutmose III. According to Dr. Zahi Hawass how did Hatshepsut most likely perish?
- Explore the additional resources liked to the main page. The Scan, The Press Release, and The Wet Nurse’s Mummy. Which of these best identifies the link between technology and identifying the mummy of Hatshepsut? Explain your answer.
- What prompted Dr. Hawass to start looking for Hatshepsut’s mummified body?
- Where did Dr. Hawass decided to start looking?
- Who originally excavated the tomb of Hatshepsut?
- What technologies did Dr. Hawass use to attempt to identify those mummies that were not unknown?
- Write a summary based upon the primary sources.
Use the following image to draw conclusions about the importance of photographs to document archaeological finds.
http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/gri/carter/004-p0276.html
http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/gri/carter/014-p0456.html
http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/gri/carter/021a-p0265.html
http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/gri/carter/022-p0280.html
http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/gri/carter/032-p0088.html
http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/gri/carter/053a-p0250.html
http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/gri/carter/062h-p0028.html
What doe each of these object tell you about the life and death of a pharaoh? Make sure you explain the importance that each object may have had.
Activity 4
Now that you have read primary sources from both Dr. Hawass and Howard Carter on their discoveries, you are to compare the tools, techniques, and primary sources used and created based upon the documents in the following chart. Copy the chart as a model for your own Google Doc comparison.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AosY_4biV78WdENBRTlDam5vSEpBdjk1dklqZDlJeWc