Because Ancient Civilizations (Ancient World History) is often one of the first history courses your middle or high school students encounter, it’s important to teach with a foundational approach. In an Ancient World History class, the strategies that are fun an engaging can also have direct ties to your content.
Ancient Civilizations Teaching Strategies
Map Making – Students need to understand the physical geography of our world. This helps them to better understand Ancient Civilizations. Making maps can help them learn this basic geography. There are many strategies you can use! However, one of my favorites is turning my students into cartographers with the Mapping the World Cartography Activity.
Categorization – In Social Studies classes, teaching students to organize information into categories is key. Graphic organizers have been around for ages. Use Social Studies-specific graphic organizers or acronyms like SPRITE or GRAPES to reinforce the skill of categorization. These help students to digest the information while categorizing. This GRAPES Poster & Organizer Bundle will get you started off on the right foot.
Primary Source Analysis – There are tons of primary sources available for teaching Ancient Civilizations! From images to ancient documents, students can learn about the past through the eyes of that time period. Using primary sources also reinforces the skills of inquiry, historical thinking, and cause and effect summation. With this Introduction to Analyzing Primary Sources, your students will develop the skills to utilize this method throughout all of their history courses in the future.
Notetaking – While we work to move away from direct instruction as much as possible, students still need to learn the skill of notetaking. Switch your lectures up to interactive lectures and allow students to process their notes as they take them. Engage students with the Prehistoric People Interactive Lecture & Vocabulary lesson.
Around-the-Room Strategies
Archeology Digs – This is one of those examples of tying your strategy into your content. We can teach about the process of archeology digs with a strategy that mimics the endeavor. You can teach a lot of content at once while students have fun with this What is an Archeology Dig? activity! Setting up is easy!
Walking Tours – Walking tours are a great way to cover large amounts of content while helping your students engage with history. Use great visuals as well as chunked readings. Students can practice the skill of collaboration while they learn. Try this Paleolithic Age to Neolithic Age Walking Tour in your classroom!
Centers Activities and Collaboration – Much of what we learn in Ancient History courses requires judgment on historical accuracy. Through the use of centers, students can collaborate and discuss topics and content they examine for each era in history. With the Geography’s Effect on Early Settlement activity, students can dip their toes in the collaborative waters to engage with the content and one another.
For a full Ancient Civilizations unit, you can download the Introduction to Ancient World History, which includes all strategies and lessons noted above (and more!).
Though your foundational Ancient Civilizations unit does set the precedence for the rest of the school year, it doesn’t have to be intimidating or overwhelming. With these ready-to-use resources (and the all-inclusive unit!), prep is easy! Use these strong strategies you need to know for teaching Ancient Civilizations to your World History students!
Happy Teaching!
