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Project Description
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This assignment is a performance event for Social Studies in the area of early River Valley civilizations. The students are to imagine they are an emperor wanting to expand their lands in ancient times. They are to write a story explaining how they would attempt to conquer the Persian Empire, which at this time is the biggest empire we have learned about, and take it for their own. Each student will work individually. The students are to mention the following items: the name of the Empire you rule, how you will communicate with your army and/or fleet, explain the war technology you will use, tell how to economically support your army, and tell who won the battle, your empire or the Persians.
This project was used as an end of semester performance event in Social Studies. After we covered four chapters in the text, Our World's Story, including the river valleys of Tigris, Euphrates, Nile, Indus and one chapter over religions, we took notes over the civilizations, rulers, locations, and religions for the Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, Hittite, Assyrian, Egyptian, and Persian Empires. This was condensed into a worksheet (see link below). The student's performance task was to gather this information during a couple class periods. These topics are part of the curriculum for the early river civilizations. There was also attention placed on discussing the development of war technology and the sharing/using of ideas between civilizations, due to their interactions in trade and war. Students were to then read their stories to the class.
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Rubric Information
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| Rubric Title | Battling the Persian Empire |
| Rubric ID | 133240 |
| Teacher Name | Ellen Clements |
| School | Eldon Upper Elementary |
| Subject | Social Science |
| Grade | 6 |
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Project Includes
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| Links | Performance Task Worksheet |
| Standards | NSS-EC.5-8.1: Productive Resources
NSS-EC.5-8.6: Gains From Trade
NSS-G.K-12.1: The World In Spatial Time
NSS-G.K-12.2: Places And Regions
NSS-G.K-12.4: Human Systems
NSS-WH.5-12.2: Early Civilizations
NSS-WH.5-12.3: Giant Empires
NSS-WH.5-12.4: Expanding Zones
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| Teacher Tips | I feel the project was successful. The students inquired about the use of technology. Some wanted to use modern day devices for their battle with the Persians. My reply was no, not unless you can explain how they created it with the resources they had at that time in history. Some students had difficulty beginning. We simply went step by step through the rubric to complete their paper. This took approximately 50 minutes for a few students. Others were very excited, knew how their battle would go, and took about 20 minutes. Little changes I would make are show clips of battles, battering rams, catapults, chariots, etc. The game Age of Empires has a wonderful opening scene where men are marching to battle in the fog, then meet their enemies in a valley or prairie area. Many were interested in the game which covers the empires we have read about. I will introduce the game before even covering the empires next time.
An associate teacher told me about RubiStar. It made the definitions of letter grades clear to the students. When I wrote the rubric, I intended for the C story to have all the elements on the checklist, B stories were more detailed, and A stories were above and beyond.
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