The opening activity for this lesson uses a comparison of text messaging and hieroglyphics to get kids thinking. I wrote some text message phrases using abbreviations on the board so that they could see that text messaging and hieroglyphics both use symbols to represent words or phrases. For example, Where are you at/WRU@; what are you doing/WRUD. I asked them what they thought Egyptians might have sent in their text messages. The entire class was anxious to add to the discussion.
After this discussion we I handed out hieroglyphic alphabet and common Egyptian word manipulatives for the students to use in a group activity. They really enjoyed working together to translate hieroglyphic messages. Their favorite part of this activity was translating their names into hieroglyphs using the Egyptian alphabet manipulatives. I have quite a few kinesthetic/physical learners in my class and this activity really addressed that learning style. This would also be good for visual/spatial and verbal/linguistic learning styles.
In my opinion, this is a great lesson plan because it incorporates activities that address several different learning styles and encourages students to become actively engaged in the learning process. I thought that using text messaging was a really good way of gaining student interest in the topic because it is so much a part of their daily lives. It also gave the students an interesting means of comparison and contrast between ancient communication and the way we communicate today.
Tomorrow we plan to continue with the lesson by watching some video clips from the PBS site that demonstrate how Amenhotep used hieroglyphs to document history, promote international diplomacy, and keep himself in power. I'll keep you updated!
