Reading, Listening and Viewing a Text ... Pompeii

If you are looking for a high-interest topic to tackle the reading, viewing, and listening standard, look no further!

Pompeii, Mt. Vesuvius' eruption, lava, Pliny the Younger... it's all here. The videos are superb, the the text is rigorous (but short, accessible- and has humor!) and the audio is great.

I LOVE teaching Pompeii because the students are fully engaged- mesmerized!

1) The text for READING is by Pliny the Younger. A first-hand account of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. Knowing that students may struggle a bit with the language, I have created a paired activity where students summarize each sentence. I have included my summary of each sentence (in case they get stuck- or ) to compare with the student's finished activity. Yes, Pliny actually calls his uncle out for snoring!

2) The LISTENING text is "The Dog of Pompeii" by Louis Untermyer. If you don't have the text in your anthology, try this link to the audio. (It's free!) http://readlifelong.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/6/1/13617939/dog_of_pompeii_01.mp3
Students individually complete a worksheet (included) after reading.

3) The VIEWING component uses two videos readily available on the web- one made by PBS that is 2 minutes in length (but packs a punch!) and another lengthier, informative video. Check it out here: http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/natural-disasters/mount-vesuvius1.htm

Once the students have completed activities on EACH of the modes, there is a writing assignment. The writing assignment begins as a group activity. Groups will write a paragraph and compare to my sample paragraph. Then, students work individually for the final assessment- a similar paragraph that compares the three modes: reading, listening, and viewing.

This is a week-long lesson, but you can just teach a part of this lesson if you are focusing on other standards (For example, you may have "Dog of Pompeii" in your anthology. You can use the worksheets and activity for just this story instead of teaching the entire unit).

I have listed the links below so you can check out the awesomeness of the modes in this lesson before you purchase. I LOVE them and they work really well with this standard.

Thanks so much for your interest. Enjoy teaching Pompeii!

Please check out these links to make sure you will like the subject matter before you purchase.

http://www.pompeii.org.uk/s.php/tour-the-two-letters-written-by-pliny-the-elder-about-the-eruption-of-vesuvius-in-79-a-d-history-of-pompeii-en-238-s.htm

http://readlifelong.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/6/1/13617939/dog_of_pompeii_01.mp3

http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/natural-disasters/mount-vesuvius1.htm

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/episodes/herculaneum-uncovered/108/