History is one of the most interesting subjects for grade 6 and 7 students in the middle school. Different from the grade 6, there is not only one more level, H level in 7th grade history to feed different demands, but also with more classes each week, students have more content to learn with higher requirements. How did the 7th graders learn history? Let’s look back at the highlights from this semester.

The 7th grade history class mainly covers the Ancient Greek and Ancient Roman periods. History teachers designed interesting activities to encourage the students to practice their research skills and build up their knowledge, observation ability, critical thinking and creativity.

S level: A Festival to Celebrate the Pax Romana

The Pax Romana(Roman Peace) lasted more than 200 years since Augustus became the first emperor of Roman Empire. During this peaceful and stable period, the Roman Empire flourished in different aspects like economy, culture, and art. S level students’ task was to create a festival brochure to inform the public of the achievements during the Pax Romana and celebrate and enjoy them. They needed to design three events besides the name of festival, the date and time. These three events could relate to the topics of Augustus, trade & economy, literature & art, construction projects, laws, religion, food and recreation. Students researched sources to show the real Romans daily life.

We collected a lot of creative ideas in the students’ works. For example, in a market game, you can use the coupons to buy the goods from different places in the Roman Empire because the road system provided the transportation. If you like sports, you can participate in the chariot race and gladiator fighting. If you are interested in the architecture, you can join the the architecture model competition or the temples tour, in which you can enjoy the stories of the Roman gods and build together or pray in the temples. For the Great Augustus, students created different events including the quiz game with prize, drawings to show his achievements, poetry and statues for him. And if you brought home-made food for the party, you could taste the different kinds of Roman food for free.

It was a wonderful party for everyone!

S+ level: a Senate style role-play activity

The form of the government is an important Roman legacy which we can know from the modern representative governments in many countries. When the S+ level students were learning this part of Ancient Rome, Mr. Seevers designed a Senate style role-play activity to help them know the characteristics of classical Roman government and how the government came up with solutions with critical thinking.

Students were divided into the two main social classes of Ancient Rome, the wealthy patricians and the working class plebeians. Here are the two issues “facing Rome” (SHSID) examined. One is ranking students according to their scores makes students feel bad and not want to work hard or makes school more competitive.

The other one is how much homework given would be fine. Is Homework having a bad affect on learning or is it important for learning? What changes can be made and why?

Students discussed with group members and wrote down a solution. Each group chose a representative to present their group’s proposal and had the Senators vote on which plan they want to recommend to the Consuls. If the Tribunes found the proposal unfair to the Plebeians they may VETO and must explain why they thought it is unfair and if they want to provide an alternative solution.

During the class, students tried to practice the Roman democracy to solve the issues. They needed to analyze, discuss to find a solution, present their ideas clearly and face each other’s questions. The role-play activity not only helped the students experience the Roman democracy and identify the basic features of government, but also encouraged them to apply what we learned in class to solve the problems we face in our lives, that is why we learn history.

H level: Time Travel to Ancient Greece

Students in Class H turned up to work in a time-travel agency in history class. They could use time-travel machines to send clients to different historical times and spaces. The first trip was to Ancient Greece. How can you convince the potential clients to take your trip plan to Ancient Greece? Students worked on creating a product pitch to persuade clients to choose their company as their favored time travel agency. They needed to decide on a company name and a logo, choose which city-states to travel to, create a real-life model of a hotel which fit in with Ancient Greek architecture, what there is to do and see in the city-state, create a menu for the hotel restaurant where the clients can have dining options. And one more important thing, you can hire a Greek god or goddess to work as the tour guide.

This activity combined the history of the ancient Greek city-states, architecture and art, Greek mythology, and Greek daily life. In order to truly reproduce the historical style of ancient Greece, students needed to research and collect historical sources and make a speech to sell their trip plan and show off what a great organization they owned, which would help them to convince the clients to buy their tourism services.

When looking back at the history class of this semester, the seventh grade students practiced their abilities and skills in research, sources analysis, critical thinking, creative thinking, and comprehensive writing in various activities. History class will help to build upon the curiosity and enthusiasm that characterizes middle school students as independent learners and global citizens.

(Written by Liu Chen Pictures by G7 History teachers Edited by Serene Yang, Niall Keenan)