Build Rome in a Day
Ancient History or Latin Lesson Plan
Designed by Katie Ward, Polytechnic School, Pasadena, California
Rome Lesson Plan
BUILD ROME IN A DAY
Ancient History or Latin Class Project
FAQs
I have been building Rome with my 6th grade history classes for the past eight years. From the very first time I created and assigned this project, it has been a great success. Students always seem to be excited about constructing their monuments from the moment the project is announced until the day they bring in their models and we assemble the city. Over the years I have worked out many of the kinks in the assignment, and I have developed some tips for making it work more smoothly. Below you will find the answers to some frequently asked questions.
01
How much time should teachers give the students to complete their models?
I usually give the students about one month to work on the project. I have the students draw their large blueprints in class. For students with small buildings, this can easily be done in one class period (often with time left over), but for those with large monuments, drawing the large blueprint can take one to two hours. I then have the students do the rest of their work on their constructions at home.
I always have the parents sign off on the list of deadlines on the "Parent Signature Form," which can be found in the Student Assignment Packet.
02
How do I decide which monuments to assign to my students? And which to give to a single student, a pair or a group of three?
For this project, some monuments are much larger than others, and they are labeled (S), (M), or (L) on the list on the assignment packet and on the "Small Blueprint and Information Cards." I allow students to choose if they want to work alone or with partners. I tell them that if they are working alone, they will have to choose a small monument and if they are working in a group, they will have to choose a medium or large monument. If a student who is working alone really wants a medium building, I will usually let them have one, with the caveat that they will be doing extra work.
If there are far more monuments than you have students, you might just build the monuments of the Roman Forum.
If you need to leave just a few out, I would recommend dropping the baths and Tiber Island. They are very large and quite complicated. In fact, I usually tell the students who are assigned to do the baths that they can just do the interior section if they choose, because including the exterior walls makes the baths very large.
03
How do the tours work on the day the students build Rome?
I always invite parents to come view Rome on the day the projects are due, and I send out an email telling them what time their children's classes are, so they can try to come during the class period when their child will be presenting. Our school has elementary students as well, so I also invite the lower school teachers to bring their classes, so we get a number of younger students who come view the city and the presentations. And of course, it is always good to invite school administrators, who enjoy seeing students engaged in learning in such an active way.
As for the presentations, the students either point to or pick up their models and give their short presentations to the people assembled for the tours. Since I have four different sections of students contributing models to the city and they are not all present at any given class period, I actually assign each student a second building to research in addition to their own, so that more of the monuments are covered in the tours.
Because there are so many people coming and going, the presentations are a hard to grade, so I just collect the information charts and grade those.
04
How do students determine how tall to make their models?
There is no exact method for determining the height of the models. For some of the more famous monuments it is possible to find the dimensions online, and if you want to do the math, you can figure out the height using ratios and proportions, since you have the dimensions of the base of the model. However, for many of the structures, it is nearly impossible to find the actual dimensions with even the most dedicated research. Therefore, the only way to establish a rough estimate of the height for a model is to eyeball it from the pictures. Knowing the dimensions of the base, look to see how tall the building is relative to its width. Is the height greater or less than the width? Twice as tall as it is wide? Half as tall? Two-thirds? Then make your best estimate on the height for the model.
05
How do I know where to put the monuments when we lay out the city on the day we build Rome?
Use the "Rome Model Layout Map" to help you lay out the city. It is fairly true to the actual layout of ancient Rome, though some of the peripheral monuments have been moved in to make it more compact. The central section of the city is quite accurate. Start laying out the monuments of the Roman Forum and the Imperial Fora and work out from there. Your students can help you put the city together like a large jigsaw puzzle.
To make the process of laying out the city quicker, I have made myself a plastic tarp with the layout of the monuments drawn on it. I bought two large plastic drop cloths and drew a grid on them, which I used to enlarge the "Rome Model Layout Map," just as the students enlarged their monuments. Each sqaure on the grid is 24 inches by 24 inches. You can see the tarp on the picture on the home page of this website, since Trajan's Market is a little out of place.
Drawing the large map on the tarp was admittedly time consuming, but it was worth the effort in terms of making the laying out of the city much simpler. All I have to do now is put down the tarp with the map on it and have the students set their models down on the footprints of their monuments shown on the tarp. (Removing the tarp once the monuments are all in place is a little tricky, but the city looks better without the tarp.)
06
How can I make this project more interdisciplinary?
In order to make the project easier for teachers to adopt, the math is done for you in this project, but you can have the students work with the ratios and proportions and explain how the equations are used to enlarge the blueprints.
Also, I like to include a writing component by assigning each student a historical identification paper (answering the 5 Ws) on a famous Roman associated with their building. For some of the buildings the famous Roman is obvious (Hadrian for the Mausoleum of Hadrian, for example), but for others I have had to just choose someone who was living at approximately the time the monument was constructed. (I have found that there is not enough information available on some of the monuments to assign historical identification papers on the actual landmarks in the project, plus writing papers on famous Romans is a good way for the students to learn about the variety of Roman emperors, many of whom we do not have time to cover in class.)
I have also worked with the Latin teacher to cooridinate a "Rome Day," complete with the Latin students reenacting the story of Romulus and Remus. You can also research and organize a Roman feast for your "Rome Day." Students taking French or Spanish can research the impact of the Romans in the provinces, and students taking Chinese can report on interactions with China along the Silk Road.
07
How do I prevent parents from making the students' projects for them?
I tell the students that this project is for them to build, not for their parents. It can be very tempting for parents to want to help their children. It would be a fun project to do with their kid and they want their child to do well, but the students need to tell their parents to let them make their own projects.
As always, there are some exceptions. If there is a task that a parent feels is dangerous, like cutting with a utility knife or sawing wooden dowels, the parent may help. However, any direct assistance that a parent gives must be recorded on an index card an attached in a visible spot on the project: "Thank you to my mom, who sawed the wooden dowels for the colums." I tell the students that they will not be penalized for receiving parental assistance, but that they won’t get credit for the work that a parent did. They always agree that is fair. I also tell them that they will be doing an important thing in giving credit where it is due for any assistance given. I then get bombarded with “what if” questions about whether they need to give credit if a parent drove them to the store to purchase materials, or gave them an idea, or held something down while they glued it. Teachers should use their judgment in answering those questions, but my rule of thumb is that they only need to write a card if a parent physically changed the project in some way with their contribution.
In my experience, this policy works well. The projects come in looking good, but also looking like they were made by sixth graders and not by professionals, which is exactly what I want.