The Nile Valley Through the Eyes of Art

The Story:Through this unit students will use the thinking skills of Observing and Describing along with Questioning and Investigating to interpret information from visuals such as The Mummy Case of Pannkhenamum, and Funerary Mask located at the Art Institute of Chicago. This unit will also include artifacts such as painted scenes of farming along the Nile and Egyptian calendar used to predict flooding. There will be a short film on The Seated Scribe put together by the teacher himself as an artifact to helps students understand the importance even the Egyptians thought about the art of writing and the development of hieroglyphics. The film Secrets of The Rosetta Stone will help students examine the progression of deciphering of hieroglyphics. Images of the Pyramids of Giza will serve as the testament to the Old Kingdom as well as Treasure of Tutankhamen will serve as works of art students will examine for clues about Egypt’s wealth during the height of its civilization. As a final activity students will put together a short film on the Mummy Case of Pannkhenamum that will document their own discovery along this journey.

This will include The Nile River as a natural resources of that defines Ancient Egypt with its source of new ideas and how they organized life around the river’s annual flooding, religion and the belief in many deities that were tied to nature and the unity of upper and lower Egypt to form the world’s first nation-state. This unit will include new farming and writing methods marked Ancient Egypt’s early period; Ancient Egyptian rulers built pyramids during the old kingdom and they acquired more territory during the middle kingdom, and during the New kingdom became the world’s biggest power. Finally Nubian culture began as early as 7000 B.C. along the upper Nile. The Egyptians conquered Northern Nubia in 2000 B.C. and other Nubians established the Kush kingdom in the south. In the 1600s BC the Kush kingdom flourished, but in the 1500s B.C. Egyptians ruled parts of Kush. Kushites ruled Egypt in the 700s and brought cultural changes.

Context And Timeline: Teachers from the Walt Disney Magnet School, located in Chicago’s north side at 4140 N. Marine Drive in Chicago, Illinois, will teach this unit. Our school focuses on integrating art and technology into everyday learning experiences for its students. Rod Earles, sixth grade teacher will be leading this unit with the art direction of Kim Varner -Art, and Katie Fitzpatrick - Media Resource. This unit will be introduced with a trip to the Art Institute of Chicago on October 27, 2010 and will run through approximate 7 weeks of lessons to be completed by December 17, 2010.

Rod Earles - 6th grade teacherKim Varner – Art TeacherKatie Fitzpatrick – Media Resource Teacher

Objectives & Inquiry QuestionsUnit Objectives – Students will be able to:• Interpret information from visual art and artifacts focusing on the skills of Observing, Describing, Questioning, and Investigating.• Analyze information by Questioning, Investigating and drawing conclusions• Create graphic organizers• Evaluate the impact of the Nile River on life in ancient Egypt• Analyze the relationship between nature and the religion of the ancient Egyptians• Examine how the people of Upper and Lower Egypt were in conflict and then unified• Examine the technological innovations of early ancient Egypt• Explore the innovations of the Old Kingdom, territorial expansion of the Middle Kingdom and dominant power of the New Kingdom• Examine artifacts for clues about Egypt’s wealth during the height of its civilization

Students’ Inquiry Questions: Why was the Nile important to Egypt? (Bathing? Drinking water?) What problems the Nile River caused, what did they do as a result? How did Egypt become a farming society? What were their jobs on

the farm? Why did Egyptians worship so many gods? What are all the symbols on the calendar? What are all the symbols on the mummy case? Why are there so

many? What do the symbols mean? Why are there so many artifacts from ancient Egypt? What would Egyptians use for writing? What are the meanings of hieroglyphics? What was inside the Egyptian pyramids? How are step pyramids different from ziggurats? Who built the pyramids? How?

Teacher Inquiry Questions:

In the past I’ve been amazed at the detail in which most 11-12 year olds want to go into after a brief discussion of the Egyptian belief in an afterlife and the mummification process. This is why I chose this topic and these works of art to further students’ understanding of Egypt.

Students should be able to grasp the need for ancient civilizations to have a source of water for all life. The Nile River affected the development of ancient Egyptian civilization and they maintained their civilization throughout many changes as well as influenced other cultures at that time. My desire is to enhance students’ learning by presented works of art students will find relevant for this unit and interesting on a personal level.

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences will undoubtedly play a part in this unit. My plan is to certainly appeal to the visual learners with the artifacts chosen however I will be open to the process in which all learning styles can represent students’ knowledge.

I will be using Marzano’s Best Practices for allowing students to retain information and deepen their knowledge of this magnificent ancient culture.

Teacher Inquiry Questions: (Continued)This is more of a content driving questioning system in which I will approach the standards based learning experience. As you see the Artwork chosen certainly will without a doubt enhance lessons.

Why was the Nile River important to ancient Egyptians? What were the Red Lands and the Black Lands? Why did Ancient Egyptians develop a calendar? Describe some of the cooperative efforts among farmers. How did nature affect ancient religious beliefs? What do you think the symbols could have meant on the calendar? Who worshipped at the temples? What did they believe the temples

were? (After student introduction to afterlife, mummifications, etc.) What

new ideas do you have Egyptian culture now? How and when did Egypt become the world’s first nation state? (In reference to unified crowns) How does this show unity? In what

ways does it remind you that our own flag symbolizes? How did Egyptians explain events in nature? What role did King Narmer play in unifying Egypt? Why was there more than one burial chamber? What is an Egyptian scribe? How did rulers build the pyramids? Who built them? Why is the old kingdom called the age of pyramids? Why was a strong central government needed during the middle

kingdom? Who was Akhenaton? Why was the hippo so important to Egyptian culture? How did Hatshepsut show courage? Who brought the idea of horse drawn chariots to Egypt? Why do you think the crook and the flail buried with King Tut? What do the treasure about King Tut tell you about the time of his

rule? Why do you think it would be important to hide the location of King

Tut’s tomb? Why might Egyptians put picture on the soles of their enemies on

their sandals?

Content StandardsIllinois State Social Studies Standards

6.2 Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the early civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Kush.

6.2.1 Locate and describe the major river systems and discuss the physical settings that supported permanent settlement and early civilizations.

6.2.2 Trace the development of agricultural techniques that permitted the production of economic surplus and the emergence of cities as centers of culture and power.

6.2.3 Understand the relationship between religion and the social and political order in Mesopotamia and Egypt.

6.2.5 Discuss the main features of Egyptian art and architecture.

6.2.6 Describe the role of Egyptian trade in the eastern Mediterranean and Nile valley.

6.2.7 Understand the significance of Queen Hatsheput and Ramses the Great.

6.2.8 Identify the location of the Kush civilization and describe its political, commercial, and cultural relations with Egypt.

6.2.9 Trace the evolution of language and its written forms.

Illinois State Art Standards

25.A.2d Identify and describe the elements of 2 and 3 dimensional space, figure ground, value and form; the principles of rhythm, size, proportion and composition; and the expressive qualities of symbol and story.

25.B.2 Understand how elements and principles combine within an art form to express ideas

26.B.2d Demonstrate knowledge and skills to create works of visual art using problem solving, observing, designing, sketching and constructing.

27.B.2 Identify and describe how the arts communicate the similarities and differences among various people, places, and times.

Unit Lesson PlansAccessing Prior Knowledge About Egypt Using Artifacts

Objectives:Use artifacts and primary sources to acquire information about early centers of civilizationsInterpret information from visuals

Procedures: "Pyramids of Giza" – PowerPoint Slides of Google Images

o Access prior knowledge by asking students what they know about early centers of civilizations beginning with northern Africa (Egypt). Record information on Pyramid shape graffiti board

"Funeral Mask" - PowerPoint Slides of Funerary Mask from the Art Institute of Chicago

o Ask students to examine the funeral mask and tell what they see. Point out that the mask if as example of the great wealth of early Egypt.

"I go into my library, and all history unrolls before me... I see pyramids building; I hear the shouting of the armies..." (Alexander Smith, 1863)

o Why do you think the author referred to the building of pyramids? (Because they are some of he most dramatic structures every built)

Assessment:Class Discussion on accessing prior knowledge

Seeker of Knowledge – The Man Who Deciphered Egyptian Hieroglyphics

Objectives:Read a biography to find out about the person who deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphics in the 1800's.Discover unique features of the Egyptian writing system.

Procedures: "Seeker of Knowledge - The Man Who Deciphered Egyptian

Hieroglyphics", written and illustrated by James Rumford. Explain Historical scholars have combined hard work and intuition to

unlock secrets of the Egyptian past. Share what students know about hieroglyphics – Students will then read the story.

o Which Hieroglyphic most resembles it's meaning? Summarize the Reading - Jean-Francios Champollion tried for years

to decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphics on The Rosetta Stone by using his knowledge of other Egyptian language on the stone and of ancient Greek. When Champollion received a copy of pharaohs’' names in hieroglyphics he was able to connect the hieroglyphs to sounds and decipher The Rosetta Stone.

Use Graphic Organizer to reach all learners - Main Character, Setting, Problem, Main Event, and Solution

Assessment:Analyze Literature Questions

What discovery did Jean-Francios Champollion make that helped him unlock the mystery of ancient Egyptian writing? (Discovered that the pictures represented sounds)

How did scholars hope to decipher ancient Egyptian writing? (Since they could read ancient Greek, they hoped to use that language to decipher the hieroglyphics on the Rosetta Stone)

Do you think it was important that scholars deciphered ancient Egyptian Writing? Why or Why not? (Possible answer; yes, because it allowed people to learn about ancient Egyptians’ culture and history.)

Farming Along the Nile River

Objective:Use the thinking skills of observing and describing a painted scene of daily life along the Nile River in Ancient Egypt.Use the thinking skills of questioning and investigating to conclude the importance of the Nile River on life in ancient Egypt.

Procedures: Students will take approximately 5 minutes to close observe the

scene of an Egyptian farmer plowing fields with the help of an ox.o Farming with the help of domesticated animals

Students will Think-Pair-Share what the observed and describe it to his/her partner

Think of questions that this piece brought about and share with partner.

o Irrigation issues like dikes, reservoirs, canals carried over from the Fertile Crest Chapter – and rain not being abundant and dependable in ancient Egypt

o Focusing on the importance of the Nile River for this civilization

Areas that could be investigated about this piece and share once again with partner

o In what ways could the Nile River be used? - Source of water, transportation, and the deposit of fertile soil for farming

Report out partner discussions with the class

Assessment:Students evaluate the impact of the Nile River on the life of ancient Egypt

The Nile served as a natural resource and defined ancient Egypt. Early farm settlements arose along the Nile River about 5000BC. Egyptians organized life around the river’s annual flooding.

A Source of New Ideas and Religion – Ancient Calendar

Objective:Use the thinking skills of observing and describing the calendar of ancient Egypt to understand reason why a calendar was developed.Use the thinking skills of questioning and investigating the problems with the Nile River and the importance of religion of ancient Egypt, and how they were tied to natural events like flooding.

Procedures: Students will spend 5 minutes closely observing the piece without

teacher revealing that the idea is a calendar and describe using only body movements of what the figures are doing in the

Teacher will ask the guided questions: Who do you think the 4 female figures in red are? (Isis) Who do you think the 8 kneeling figures are? (Horus) What do you think this piece was used for in Ancient Egypt?

(Answers will vary but may result in the worship of gods) Ask students what problems the Nile River caused and what the

ancient Egyptians did as a result (excess flooding drowned people and livestock and ruined crops; occasionally the Nile did not flood, resulting in starvation. As a result Egyptians tried to predict when the Nile would flood)

Why do you think the Egyptians developed a calendar? (Predict the flooding season)

Assessment:The Egyptians believed in many deities, many tied to nature and the development of a calendar was used for the prediction of the flooding seasons. Students will create their own Egyptian calendar with non-linguistic representations of the three seasons (inundation, emergence, and harvest) of the Egyptian calendar.

The Seated Scribe – Louvre Museum, Paris France

Objective:Use the thinking skills of observing and describing of The Seated Scribe gives us insight on the importance of major achievements of Egypt’s Early Period.Use the thinking skills of questioning and investigating of The Seated Scribe gives us insight on the importance of major achievements of Egypt’s Early Period.

Procedures: Teacher will continue with artifacts of the Seated Scribe movie

constructed of pictures from the Louvre museum Teacher guided questions

o What is a scribe? (Recorders of the words and brave deeds of their king)

o What was his station in society? (Of importance but not notoriety)

o If he weren’t a pharaoh why would ancient Egyptians decide to create a statue of a scribe? (As a result of the importance of a scribe’s station in life however wasn’t the same as that of a king)

o What were the materials a scribe would need? (Knowledge of hieroglyphics, papyrus reed soot mixed with water served as ink)

o How are these materials different today? (We use paper today however graphite has replaced the need for soot and water, and hieroglyphics has been replaced with letters and words)

Assessment:Social needs in ancient Egypt led to inventions like papyrus and the need for the specialized job of scribe to the king. The fact that The Seated Scribe was created serves as a symbol of the king’s thought of importance of this person in ancient Egypt.

Secrets of The Rosetta Stone - Film

Objectives:Discover unique features of the Egyptian writing system.

Procedures: Students will view the film to help understand the steps it took in

deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics Student will organizer notes in a sequence chart that will include

important people and places involved in the discovery of the stone’s meaning.

Assessment: Summarization of events that lead to the complete understanding of

Ancient Hieroglyphics

Art-Focused TEAM LessonMummy Case of Paankhenamum

Inquiry Questions:What can we convey by examining artifacts such as the Mummy Case of Paankhenamum and the images painted on it?Is there any significance to what is painted?

Objective:Students will be able to make observations of Paankhenamum Mummy Case and describes screens depict.Students will question the meaning of the symbols and investigate their meaning as archaeologists have determined.

Procedures: Students will be reminded of the religious significance of previous

civilizations studied and review how things in nature were often explained by many Gods.

Brainstorm what they already know about the process of mummification and Ancient Egyptian burial practices.

Students will be asked to view the Mummy Case of Paankhenamum at the Art Institute of Chicago

Students will be asked to complete a “4-corners” activity where teacher will direct what will be asked for each corner.

o First corner (top left) is to make an observation of the mummy case.

This would result in drawing and should focus on the head and torso of the case.

For students finding this difficult ask them to write at least four things they observe about the mummy case.

o Second corner (top right) is write a description of the of the mummy case.

This should result in at least 4 statements describing the mummy case.

o Third corner (bottom left) is to write at least four questions you have about the mummy case

o Fourth corner (bottom right) is to create four topics the student would like to investigate about the mummy case.

These topics should result in topics including: Afterlife Ritual Mummification Process Egyptian Gods and other deities Tomb/Pyramids Building Etc… anything unit appropriate would be

acceptableAlternative Opening – divide students into groups of 3 to have the cover the entire Mummy Case. This would have to be done before the Museum visit and museum groups would then have to be scheduled to view Mummy Case together.

Materials: Student

Clipboard Pencil

Teacher White Construction paper (9x12)

Assessment:Student will assess on the detail in which observing, describing, questioning, and investigating take place.Four-Corners Graphic Organizer will be on a 16 point scale, 4 pts. per corner for completion with details.Research Rubric will be used as formal assessment for a final investigation of topic of the students choosing.

Art Lesson PlanTitle: Creating an Egyptian CartoucheInquiry Questions:-How did a culture develop a writing system to communicate?-What is the difference between an alphabetic and a glyph system of writing?Objective:Students will create a name cartouche using Egyptian HieroglyphicsProcedure:-Discuss background information: The word hieroglyph comes from Greek and means “sacred writing in stone.” In 1822, Jean Francois Champollion, a French linguist, discovered the key to reading The Rosetta Stone, a tablet with writing in hieroglyphics, demotic, and Greek. The hieroglyphic system uses a total of about 700 signs, 23 of them alphabetic (compared to English language with 26 letters). Most of the rest represent a combination of sounds, while some stand for whole words. Most signs are based on things commonly found in ancient Egypt such as people, animals, plants, and objects. Hieroglyphic signs could be read in several directions: left to right, right to left, or top to bottom. With so many symbols, most people did not learn how to read and write. Scribes generally wrote letters, records, and literature. The names of Kings were written on an oval stone called a Cartouche.-Look at Hieroglyphic alphabet handout.-Using phonetics, students will sound out their names.-Students will search for the symbols that represent the sound the letters in their name make. Do not use silent letters. -Students draw the symbol that represents the phonetic pronunciation of their name. Draw on the oval shape from top to bottom.-Female students add and “egg” and a “t” at the end of their name to indicate a female name.-Transfer the Hieroglyphic name cartouche to a piece of tin (4x12 inch). Place paper over tin, place soft writing surface under tin and trace over the Hieroglyphs with the pencil. The tin will now have an impression of the Hieroglyphic symbols.-Trace over symbols on tin with permanent markers.-Add a decorative frame around the Hieroglyphic symbols using geometric shapes.Materials:

Hieroglyphic alphabet handout, pencils, magazines for tracing, permanent markers, and 20 gauge tin.Assessment: Performance/observation: Did each student gain an understanding of the Egyptian language by correctly identifying the symbols that phonetically represent their names and draw them vertically on the materials provided?

Reflections and FindingsAs all teachers are aware there are best practices that should be incorporated into every lesson; identifying similarities and differences, summarizing and note-taking, cooperative learning, and non-linguistics representations are all part of a teacher’s bag of tricks. This goes without saying a great unit would incorporate more than just the ones mentioned above, so when the Art Institute of Chicago wanted to focus on “Thinking Skills” I knew this would harmoniously work within my current process of carrying out the big ideas in my curriculum. I found that focusing on observing and describing was closely related to identify similarities and differences, and having a basic conversation about what students observed described, and allowing discussion with peers was a great way to engage all learners. However I did find this to be nearly impossible to assess due to the fact many of my students wanted to report something completely new to their peers and I adjusted my thinking accordingly. I quickly decided to use “Think-Pair-Share” grouping to allow students the chance to say what was on his/her mind without having students feel they needed to come up with something entirely new from other students. After this activity sharing became more manageable and seem to focus on the big ideas of the art. I absolutely loved using art work as “the hook” for a lesson. The feedback from students was fantastic once they realized it wasn’t about being “correct”. The commentary could vary for each student. They loved pointing out what someone might not have seen before. “Oh Yea!, I see that now” was spoken more than a few times in my room during this whole process.

The Mummy Case of Pannkhenamum proved to be an igniting piece of work. After spending more than a few days observing and describe, the questions flew. Most queries focused on the meaning of symbols and the desire to truly understand more about the ancient rituals of mummification and the Egyptian belief in an afterlife. I loved having the students focusing on one symbol or character from the mummy case to investigate. This lead to even greater discussions and the use of the Internet as a tool to discover the meanings following such fantastic artwork. Once students learned the names of symbols and deities I found many self-corrected and corrected others when terms and names were not used correctly. The connections made by students really cemented the belief I originally had the comparing and connecting go hand-in-hand with the thinking skills I was meant to focus on with this unit.

The Egyptian calendar was a project that seemed to take on a life all it’s own. As we viewed this piece of art many students wanted to focus on the meaning once again of the symbols and characters. Within ONE 20-minute assignment the questions from class exploded in a frenzy of investigations for homework. I was more than pleased with not only the in-depth conclusions of Goddess Ma’at (in class thought to be Isis) and kneeling Horus, but the meanings behind symbols that I hadn’t noticed myself at first glance. The Nile was a truly valuable resource for Ancient Egypt. The yearly flood lead to the creation of the calendar to predict said flood. Students researched the “three seasons” of the Egyptian calendar. Inundation (the flood of the Nile), Emergence (planting and nurturing season), and Harvest are represented in the calendar as three concentric cycles. The Egyptian calendar project organically grew out of this discussion. Students were asked to create their own calendar using Non-Linguistic Representation of the three seasons in the same way the Egyptians used in making their own calendar. One student, not so artistically inclined, also created what turned out to a word cluster diagram in the same shape as the calendar. He used word association and synonyms for inundation, emergence, and harvest along with deities names to capture the meaning behind the calendar. I was pleasantly surprise at the outcome.

I completely agree with the importance of the use of thinking skills for exploration and discover however there comes a time where students will be responsible for coming to the correct conclusion and may not reach this on his/her own just with the artifacts alone. I’m not complete convinced with today’s education standards driving instruction, teachers have the luxury of allowing students to discover at their own pace and even to draw incomplete conclusions. My question would be at what point in the process does the instructor step in and fill in the gaps with correct information? I certainly see the value of “Thinking Skills” but conclude it’s a drop in an ocean of educational focus and may even be heading in the opposite direction as the current test based instruction. This holistic approach valued with big picture concepts is just not how our system is set up at the present.

ResourcesTextbook:Harcourt Social Studies World History, 2007ISBN-10 0-15-354241-1

Trade Books:Archaeology for Kids, Uncovering the Mysteries of the Past, by Richard PanchykISBN 1-55652-395-5

Everyday Life in the Ancient World, KingfisherISBN 0-7534-5464-5

Hieroglyphics Without Mystery, an Introduction to Ancient Egyptian Writing, Karl Theodor ZauzihISBN 0-292-79804-0

Film:Ancient Egyptian and Greek Art - National Gallery of Art - Art and Artist Series, 2006 (DVD)

Of Time, Tombs and Treasure: Treasures of Tutankhamen – Chapter 1

The Quest for Immortality in Ancient Egypt – Chapter 2

Secrets of the Rosetta Stone – In Search of History – The History Channel, 1997 (DVD)

Under Wraps, An Autopsy of Three Egyptian Mummies - Astarte Resources 1998 (VHS)

Images for PowerPoint: Personally scanned from Harcourt Social Studies World History, 2007or Stockphotos.com unless other wised stated