Grade 6 Lesson at a Glance: Chapter 12, Lesson 1

Houghton Mifflin Social Studies
A Message of Ancient Days

Lesson at a Glance
Chapter 12, Lesson 1: The Golden Age of Athens (pp. 362-368)

The Big Idea
Framework Concept: Culture During its Golden Age, Athens was a center for art, literature, ideas, and culture.

Present Pericles' three goals for Athens, and discuss the ways in which they were accomplished. Point out the use of government payroll to enable even poorer citizens to hold office.

Describe Athenian society and outline the daily activities of wealthy men and women, and children by making a timeline for one day. Talk about noncitizens, the metics and slaves. Discuss the role these noncitizens played in supporting the Athenian economy and culture.

Lesson Outline
Use the Lesson Outline to preview the content of the lesson. You may wish to print it for your students as a guide during reading.

Check for Understanding

Organize students into groups or teams, and assign each one of the following roles: wealthy male citizen, wealthy female, wealthy male child, wealthy female child, male slave, female slave, metic, mining slave. Ask each group or team to prepare a fact sheet on the life of their assigned role, including daily activities, role in Athenian society, and hopes or plans for the future. Ask each group to present their work and discuss.
Ask students to draw a vase and decorate it with a scene from Athenian daily life. Have them look through the lesson for models before they start.

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