To complete this lesson students will need to be in groups of two or three. Each group will pretend to be a squad that is under Alexander the Great. However, as a member of his army you have never met him. Your squad is up for promotion and in order to get the job they have to research their commander. They will do this by reading two different sources to get the job done.
Each squad will read CLOSELY together. One article is from the internet and they will need sticky notes to complete the CLOSE reading. When students finish reading this article, they will be able to take a small quiz to check their understanding. I ask them to show me the score their group receives.
The second reading will be their choice between two different battles that Alexander the Great was part of. A member of the group will have to come up and choose the article for the rest. Using this article they will have to annotate and read it together.
I ask that when they finish the article to come up with a quick response to what they have learned so far. This needs to be completed by each student so that I can check their initial understanding.
When groups finish I share with them some of the information from all three texts. If I tried to read ll three, it would take too long. I summarize some of the key details and give the class time to add these to their notes.
Before they write a response, we discuss what we have learned. I prompt their thinking and let them lead the discussion. I continue this as they cover what they learned. Toward the end, I ask them to infer more and come up with character traits that would describe him.
To complete the lesson, I ask the class to write a brief paragraph telling me two to three key details that were interesting to them. After each detail they need to include their opinion for why that detail was of personal interest.