Week of February 28-March 4

After having previously previewed the new chapter with a brainstorming  
of what we already knew about Ancient Egypt and a brief discussion of  
its societal class structure, last week we started fully into our work  
on Ancient Egypt (Chapter 2). We defined key terms (silt, pyramids,  
pharaoh, afterlife, mummies, hieroglyphics, and papyrus) in our  
notebooks and read silently then aloud p. 16-20. We did so using our  
new reading method of allowing students to call on each other, which  
proved quite effective.

Students were told that the next week they would get the chance to do  
a very hands-on activity dealing with one of the legacies of Ancient  
Egypt.

We also handed back In-Class Work #1 and reviewed the answers, making  
clear that it was important to ensure they had the correct answers and  
that--hint hint, hint hint--they might be seeing similar questions in  
the future.

Students also completed Homework #1, which was to read part of a CNN  
transcript on events in Libya and to define four new words from it in  
their notebooks.