Spain Under the Romans

Roman Republic

In the final task, our students will have to read the information, elaborate a timeline and create a mind map of the Roman Republic dividing this period in three parts: The Roman Republic, the Expansion of Rome and the Crisis of the Republic.

In order to develop critical and creative thinking skills in CLIL in my students, in my opinion the best option is the mind mapping in history.

The elaboration and using of Mind Mapping in a history lesson opens up a series of advantages to students because it helps them to situate events in time. At the same time, allowing them to develop a physical representation of their thinking that goes from the concrete to the more abstract. In the case of the institutions of the Republic, a mind map will help students see where ideas need to be developed. This useful tool will help especially those visual and mathematical/logical learners for revision, they will be able to refresh what they have learnt during the lesson. In addition, it helps students to organize information and it is fun and easy for students.

*To see the final task click on "Más información".

Activate students´ vocabulary

Hello travelmates!!

Did you like this virtual journey? I hope you enjoyed going on this journey to Ancient Rome, and the most important thing, now you have a good overview about how Romans used to live in the past. Fortunately, we can still see the remains of the Roman legacy around Europe, especially in Italy, but also in Spain too. Here, we can find fantastic Roman buildings such as the aqueduct in Segovia among others. 

For the purpose of researching other aspects of Roman daily life such as you will find in Road to Rome, the streets of Rome, going to school, games and races, building a city and teenagers joining the army  and so that you become in experts in Roman times, I have designed  a series of  final tasks that I am sure you will love to do.

*To see the tasks click on "Más información".

Tasks proposed for bilingual students

A Roman Building

Look at the image and answer:

·         What is the name of this building?

·         Where is it situated?

·         What was it used for?

Locating different inhabitants of Spain

LOCATING DIFFERENT INHABITANTS OF SPAIN BEFORE THE ROMANS

Main objectives.

1. To locate different people living in Spain before the Roman invasion.

2. Introduction. In this activity, students  will use a fact sheet or an atlas to locate people living in Spain before the Romans.

3. Development. Each student will have the fact sheet and an atlas. They will also have a map of Spain. They will look for the information and they have to locate the different peoples on the Spanish map.

4. Final task. When they have finished the task, collect all the ideas and place the different cultures and peoples on a big Spanish map.

Task: Read the fact sheet and use an atlas to locate these cultures on a map.

Fact Sheet.

BEFORE THE ROMANS. Before Romans arrived to the Peninsula, Spain was inhabited by other people. These people are called Pre-Romans peoples.

When the Romans came, they met native people known as the Iberians. Iberians inhabited from the Southwest part of Spain thorough the Northeast part.

Celts used to live in the North and Northwest part, while CeltiIberians inhabited in the inner part of Spain.

But not only Pre-Romans lived in the Peninsula before the Romans. Other cultures came from the Mediterranean and found in Spain a good place for their business, such as the Phoenicians, who stayed in the South part of Spain, the Greeks who inhabited the East coasts from Catalonia to Valencia or the Carthaginians who came from Africa and stayed in different places like Murcia, Andalucia or Islas Baleares.

Thanks to all these cultures, a lot of new things were introduced in Spain, such as the writing method, coins, unknown animals and plants, new techniques for agriculture…

Task taken from: http://www.educa.madrid.org/web/colegio1/aicole/sos5P/contenidos/10_ancient_history/ancient_history.pdf

Spanish languages

Romans stayed in Spain for a long time. When they arrived in the Peninsula, they found different cities and peoples with different habits, cultures and languages.

 The Romans spoke Latin, the official Italian language in the time, so they made everybody in their Empire speak Latin too. Latin became the international language of the time. So many cities and villages in all Europe started to speak Latin.

 In Spain, the Romans conquered almost the entire Peninsula. In these conquered territories, people had to speak Latin, but they mixed it with their own original languages, and this is how Castilian, Galician, Portuguese and Catalan languages were born. This is also why they are so similar! Because of the Latin they all have in common.

These languages have changed since that period, but Latin is still present in the majority of their words.

What about the Basque language? Why is it so different to the rest of languages spoken in the Peninsula? Well, we said earlier that the Romans conquered ‘almost’ the entire Peninsula, but not quite! The Basque People, in the North, never surrendered to the Roman invaders. Therefore their language was never influenced by Latin.

Latin was the international language in Roman times. People from different countries and cultures could communicate by speaking this language. What would you say the international language is today?

Task taken from: http://www.educa.madrid.org/web/colegio1/aicole/sos5P/contenidos/10_ancient_history/ancient_history.pdf

Interesting articles

The best movies about the Roman Empire

Ancient Rome on Film: the Best Movies About The Roman Empire.

Tools and reference books

Useful CLIL documents

Multiple Intelligences

How can we develop multiple intelligences of our students in a lesson of Rome´s origins from Monarchy to Republic?

I propose you a lesson for students of 1^st ESO level.

TOPIC: ROME´S ORIGINS ( FROM MONARCHY TO REPUBLIC)

• Level: Students of 1^st ESO

• CEFR: A2

• Time: 50 minutes 

Activity	Grouping	Skills	Intelligence developed	Resources	Time
Presentation and interpret illustrations (warm-up task)	The whole class	Teacher-students Listening speaking	Linguistic, interpersonal, Visual-spatial,logical-mathematical	Power point with pictures from Roman legacy	5-10´
Read aloud, listen to teacher explanations and answer questions orally about the Rome´s origins	The whole class	Teacher-students Listening, reading and speaking	Linguistic, interpersonal, intrapersonal	CLIL textbook, power point presentation, maps	15´
Locate the Roman Empire  in a map	Individual work	Listening, speaking	Visual/spatial	Maps, the Internet	5´
Draw a timeline	Individual work	Listening, writing, speaking	Logical/Mathematical	Notebook	5-10´
Identify and describe the main institutions of the Republic drawing up a chart	Small groups	Listening, reading, speaking and writing	Verbal/linguistic, visual and spatial, Naturalistic	Notebook	10-15´
Make a mindmap of the Rome´s origins	Small groups	Listening, reading, speaking and writing	Verbal/linguistic and Visual and mathematical/ logical	Notebook, a computer, the Internet,	10-15

Glossary

v Amphitheatre: an open air, semi-circular structure built on a hillside in which many people could watch theatre or sporting events.

v Aqueduct: a type of bridge built to transport water overland into a town or a city.

v Assemblies: a political institution made up of Roman citizens that made laws and elected public officials.

v Barbarian: a person or community that was not part of the Roman civilization and who were considered to be less civilized.

v Conquer: to take control of a people or place by force.

v Dictator: an elected official given absolute power over Rome in times of crisis.

v Emperor: the ruler who had total authority over the Roman Empire.

v Latin: n. language of the Roman city area, later spoken all over the Roman Empire.

v Legion: the main unit of the Roman army, made up of between 3000 and 6000 soldiers.

v Magistrates: people who governed the city.

v Pantheon: the group name for all of the Roman gods.

v Patrician: a noble or member of the Roman aristocracy.

v Plebs: ordinary people from Rome´s lower social classes.

v Republic: a system of government in which the people and their elected representatives hold power.

v Romanisation: the process of extending Roman culture throughout the territories of the Empire.

v Senate: the aristocratic institution responsible for decision-making during the Roman Republic and, to a lesser extent, during the Empire.

v Slave: a worker who has owned by a citizen. Slaves had few rights, but they could buy their freedom if they saved enough money.

v Toga: an item of clothing worn by Roman citizens, made from a single piece of material.

v Villa: a large country house that included land and a farm, worked by slaves and owned by a wealthy Roman citizen.

v Students will incorporate new words to glossary.

(SOURCE: Social Sciences. Geography and History 1.2. GARCÍA SEBASTIÁN, M & GATELL ARIMONT. Barcelona. Vicens Vives, 2010)

Do you know the founders of the city of Rome?

Do you know that the twin sons called Romulus and Remus founded the city of Rome in 753BC?