Lesson #4 - Mummies

I was very excited to teach this topic because so many students had ranked it highly on the interest survey that we administered with our pre-assessment. We chose to use the direct instruction model to teach the steps of the mummification process. We pushed two desks together to make the mummification table and had the students sit on the floor in front of it. Although they were a little confused about this new seating arrangement, they seemed to adapt fairly quickly. We began the lesson with some review and tried to activate the students' background knowledge of mummies by discussing what they already knew about pyramids.

After the introduction, we started telling a story about how Catherine B. was a pharaoh's wife who had recently died. As I walked through the steps of mummification, I was excited to see how engaged the students were. They were fascinated by the different props that I used and shouted "ew!" and "gross!" when I described how the ancient Egyptians removed the organs from the body. I think that making the demonstration as graphic as possible helped hold the students' attention and caused them to remember the steps more vividly. In doing this demonstration, I wish that I had made some sort of poster with the vocabulary words that I used ("canopic jar," "natron," etc.) to reinforce these terms and provide a form of word study for the students. I think that giving the students these terms gives them something to latch onto and helps them feel knowledgeable about the topic.

After the demonstration, I showed a few pictures of mummies and the Valley of Kings. I think that the students were very interested in these photographs and enjoyed discovering that not all mummies were buried in pyramids. I have been constantly amazed this year by how a nonfiction text can be so engaging for students--definitely not something I had expected! After looking at the photographs, Catherine B. read a short article about a mummy that was recently discovered and showed a picture. There was some confusion as the students passed the picture around, so I think that in the future, it would be a better idea for the teacher to hold the picture. The students were excited about the idea that there are still mummies that are undiscovered.

After this discussion, the students returned to their desks to complete a sequencing activity. We wanted them to create a flipbook of the steps in the mummification process. After cutting out the pages of their books, they put the steps in order and numbered them. Then a teacher would come by and check their work and staple the pages together. I liked that this assignment provided some differentiation, especially for the low readers in the class. Although there was text on the pages, there were also clear pictures that made the sequencing easier for those with reading difficulties. One ELL student was one of the first students to successfully order his pages; his smile indicated how excited he was about understanding the steps. One problem that I noticed during this assessment was that we never clearly defined if we wanted the flipbook to be completed individually or as a group. Mr. F. seemed enthusiastic about the way the students were discussing the steps together, but our original intention had been for the students to complete the assignment individually so we could get a good idea about what they learned. I also think that we should have made some sort of checklist to note who sequenced their pages correctly the first time; this system would have made this a more accurate assessment. Also, I would have liked to have drawn more attention to the text in the flipbook. We could have read the completed books together at the end or asked different students to read a page.

I was very pleased with how this lesson turned out. I think that the students were very well behaved because they were interested in the topic. My only regret is not spending more time on the guided practice portion of the lesson. I think that if we had reviewed the steps a little more explicitly, all of the students would have been more successful at completing the flipbook by themselves. One technique that we observed in QUEST is using hand signs. I think that giving each step a hand sign would have helped the students remember the steps even better. Other than that small change, I thought that the lesson went very well.