Aksum Empire Full Unit Lesson Plans Axum

This purchase includes all three lessons on the Aksum Empire offered by Full Story History. Students will learn about the rich history of Ethiopia, The impact Christianity had on the region, and the amazing technology found in the Aksum Empire.

What's included?

8 Pages of PDF Worksheets

3 Lesson Plans

Preview each lesson below:

1. Aksum Empire Lesson Plan | Worksheet | Axum

Lesson Outline:

Warmup - Find an image of a coin from the Aksum empire and project it for students to see. Explain to students that this coin is actually a primary source and I ask the class to discuss with elbow partners what they can learn about a civilization just from looking at this coin. Then students share out their answers. Use this opportunity to

Group work - Break students into 4 groups and assign each a primary source to break down. Explain to students that in order to understand a primary source sometimes they need to pause and identify words or phrases they do not understand. When they come across words or phrases they don't know they shouldn't give up on trying to understand the document they should research the terms they do not know and plug in more understandable language.

Prompt students to write down on the whiteboard/tech tool that can be projected, what a historian can learn about Aksum from that source. Then have each group share their findings.

Give students the remainder of class to write the paragraph response to the essential question. Ensure students understand their first sentence should take a stance, while the rest of the paragraph should draw evidence from the primary sources. I encourage students to write (Source One), (Source Two), (Source Three), or (Source Four) at the end of the sentence to cite their evidence.

2. Aksum Empire Lesson Plan | King Ezana | Axum | World History

Lesson Outline:

For this lesson I first show the video clip (9 minutes) from the PBS documentary on the Aksum Empire. Students answer the corresponding questions as the video plays. Then we go over the questions together as a class so that any confusion can be cleared up.

Following this students will watch a short video made by UNESCO World Heritage. By the end of the video students should understand the following:

1. Ethiopia is one of the oldest Christian Empires. They still practice the religion in a very similar way as they did during the Aksum Empire

2. The empire became Christian in the 4th century AD. They have deep Judeo-Christian Roots because the Queen of Sheba was from Aksum and married the King of Israel.

3. The arc of the covenant which holds the 10 commandments is located in Ethiopia and has been since the Aksum Empire.

In the next part of the lesson I tell students that I need there help. I can't decide which textbook passage I should use for the following school year. I need them to play the role of a teacher and evaluate two textbook passages and tell me which one is more useful. Then students are directed to the textbook work. Students read both textbook passages and detail many of the differences. Then independently students will answer which textbook they believe provides a better description.

3. Aksum Empire Lesson Plan | DBQ | Primary Sources | Axum

Lesson Outline:

Warmup - Find an image of a coin from the Aksum empire and project it for students to see. Explain to students that this coin is actually a primary source and I ask the class to discuss with elbow partners what they can learn about a civilization just from looking at this coin. Then students share out their answers. Use this opportunity to

Group work - Break students into 4 groups and assign each a primary source to break down. Explain to students that in order to understand a primary source sometimes they need to pause and identify words or phrases they do not understand. When they come across words or phrases they don't know they shouldn't give up on trying to understand the document they should research the terms they do not know and plug in more understandable language.

Prompt students to write down on the whiteboard/tech tool that can be projected, what a historian can learn about Aksum from that source. Then have each group share their findings.

Give students the remainder of class to write the paragraph response to the essential question. Ensure students understand their first sentence should take a stance, while the rest of the paragraph should draw evidence from the primary sources. I encourage students to write (Source One), (Source Two), (Source Three), or (Source Four) at the end of the sentence to cite their evidence.