This document outlines a differentiated unit of study for history. It introduces a layered curriculum model that divides learning into three levels based on complexity of thought: Layer C involves gathering information; Layer B applying and manipulating information; and Layer A critically evaluating issues. The unit focuses on investigating history and includes objectives, outcomes, assessment criteria, and example activities for students at each layer, including note-taking, timelines, debates, and presentations. The goal is for students to earn a minimum of 100 points across the layers to complete the unit.

1. PRESENTATION
A
DIFFERENTIATED UNIT
OF STUDY
Caroline Tanner &
Elizabeth Ben Gida
1

2. 2

3. 3

4. 4
LAYERED CURRICULUM
A teaching model that divides the learning process into three
layers based on the complexity of the students thought
process
A layered curriculum asks students at each layer to:
LAYER C: Gather Information
LAYER B: Apply or manipulate information
LAYER C: Critically evaluate an issue
Nunley, K, (2006). Differentiating the High School Classroom. Thousand Oaks, CA,
Corwin Press

5. Investigating History
Stage 4 Topic 1
Inquiry questions
What is History?
How do historians investigate the past?
Why is conserving our heritage important?
Objectives – Students Learn to:
•interpret and construct time lines
•define the terms that describe historical periods of time
•sequence societies and events within specific periods of time
•ask historical questions
•distinguish between fact and opinion
•draw some conclusions about the usefulness of sources including a website
•examine differing historical perspectives and interpretations
•explain cause and effect
•identify significant people of the past
•examine the motives for people’s actions in the past
•explain the consequences of people’s actions
•describe some aspects of family/community heritage
•appreciate the value of preserving and conserving our heritage
5

6. 6
Outcomes
 4.1 describes and explains the nature of history, the main features of past
societies and periods and their legacy
 4.4 identifies major periods of historical time and sequences people and
events within specific periods of time
 4.5 identifies the meaning, purpose and context of historical sources
 4.6 draws conclusions about the usefulness of sources as evidence in an
inquiry
 4.7 identifies different contexts, perspectives and interpretations of the past
 4.8 locates, selects and organises relevant information from a number of
sources, including ICT, to conduct basic historical research
 4.9 uses historical terms and concepts in appropriate contexts
 4.10 selects and uses appropriate oral, written and other forms, including ICT,
to communicate effectively about the past.

7. 7
POINTS SYSTEM
LAYER ATTEMPTED POINTS
REQUIRED
C 60
B 20
A 20
 Layer C must be
completed before
moving onto Layer B
 Layer B must be
completed before
moving onto Layer A
To complete this unit students must earn a
minimum of 100 points.
• Students are allowed to

8. 8
Student Contract – Investigating History
Stage 4 Topic 1
Name:
Start date:
Finish date:
My Progress Chart
I, ____________________________________________ will complete the assigned points in each layer by
the finish date ____/____/____.
Signed ___________________________________
Print name ___________________________________
LAYER
ACTIVITY
NUMBER
ACTIVITIES
COMPLETED
POINTS
POSSIBLE
POINTS
RECEIVED
DATE
COMPLETED
C 1  (compulsory) 10
C 2  (compulsory) 10
C 3  (compulsory) 5
C 4  (compulsory) 10
C 5 10
C 6 10
C 7 5
C 8 10
C 9 10
C 10 10
C 11 10
C 12 10
C 13 10
C 14 10
B 15 15
B 16 15
B 17 15
B 18 15
B 19 15
A 20 25
A 21 25
A 22 25
A 23 25

9. 9
LAYER C
Gathering Information
Activities worth 10 points each
Minimum 60 points required
*Compulsory Activities
1. Note-making from lectures – make notes from a minimum of 4 of the 10min
introductory lectures at the beginning of each lesson*
2. Note-making from text – make notes from a minimum of 3 texts on either The
Rosetta Stone, Heinrich Schliemann, Stonehenge, or The Tollund Man completing
the Note-Making Handout*
3. Terminology quiz – Definitions of Time* (5 points)
4. Create your own personal timeline*
5. Dictagloss – with a partner complete the dictagloss activity heritage sites
6. Read a chapter from the text on life in Ancient Rome and complete the end of
chapter questions
7. Cloze passage – complete the Cloze Passage activity (5 points)
8. Source work – Complete Analysing Sources Handout
9. Significant Historical Figures – choose a significant historical figure and complete
Significant Historical Figure Handout
10 Film as a Source – write down 10 new ideas learn’t from the film on life in Ancient
Egypt viewed in class
11. Researching Ancient Greece – complete Graphic Organiser
13. Hieroglyphics – write a message in hieroglyphics for another class member (5
points)
14. Interview – create at least 10 questions and interview an older family member

10. 10
1. List one personal event for every year of your life. For example – first day of school, moving
house, moving from another country, lost your first tooth, etc.
2. Research online and add local, national, or international events that occurred at the same time
as your personal events.
PERSONAL & HISTORICAL TIMELINE
Date Event

11. 11
NOTE-MAKING FROM A TEXT
Topic: Title: Page Number:
Date: Author: Date of
Publication:
WHO
(who is this
about)
WHAT
(what is
happening)
WHERE
(where is this
occurring)
WHEN
(when is this
occurring)
WHY
(why did this
occur)
Is this source
useful?
Why?
(Does this
help in your
research? Is
this a reliable
source?)
OTHER
(important
quotes, facts,
points of
interest etc
with page
number)

12. 12
DEFINITIONS OF TIME
DECADE In the year of the Lord
CENTURY 1000 years
MILLENNIUM
A period of history
delimited by a start event
and an end event
ANNO DOMINI OR AD
A period of history having
some distinctive feature
BC 10 years
ERA 100 years
AGE
Before Christ
Pair up the historical term with the definition.
Some of the words above come from Latin, the language spoken by the Romans and used for
the written word for many years after
Clues: Deca means 10, Mille means 1000, Cent means 100, Anno comes from the word year,
Domini comes from the word meaning Lord.

13. 13
ANALYSING SOURCES
Decide if these sources are primary or secondary and explain why.
SOURCE DESCRIPTION PRIMARY OR SECONDARY/
WHY?
Ancient oil lamps.
Extract from The War History of
the 18th Battalion Durham
Light Infantry by W D Lowe,
1923.
Extracts from a diary written by
J Theodore West between 1853
and 1866
Extract from 18DLI War Diary
Appendix C May 1917.
Cartoon entitled 'Amputation'
by Thomas Rowlandson, dated
1785.
Photograph showing men at
work in Saddler Street,
Durham, 1923.
Map showing the results of the
Agricultural Survey for Durham,
1810

14. 14
SIGNIFICANT PEOPLE OF THE PAST
In every period of history, there are people who left such a mark that we still remember their
names today. For example, Tutankhamen, Julius Caesar, Henry VIII, Marie Antoinette, and the
list goes on.
 Chose one significant person and answer the following questions using the approved
websites below.
 Consult your teacher once you have chosen your significant person to make sure it is an
appropriate choice.
Questions
1. Who is the significant person you have chosen?
2. What period of history did come from?
3. Where in the world did they come from?
4. What are some memorable things they did?
5. Chose one particularly memorable thing they did. Why did they do this?
6. What impact did this thing have on their society at the time?
7. Did this impact extend to future generations?
8. Why do you think we remember themtoday?
9. Why do you think you are only to use certain websites? What sort of issues have we
learnt arise with internet research?
Websites to use
1. The BBC - www.bbc.co.uk/history
2. Who2? - www.who2.com and direct links from this site are OK too
3. The Historical Figures of George Stuart - www.galleryhistoricalfigures.com

15. 15
My Research Notes About ___________________________________________________________________
Choose three things you would like to know about Ancient Greece and research for the answers using three different source types
Name:
Date:
Research
Question 1
Research
Question 2
Research
Question 3
Research
Source 1
Research
Source 2
Research
Source 3
GRAPHIC ORGANISER

16. 16
Hieroglyphics
Can you write your name in hieroglyphics?
Can you write a message in hieroglyphics for someone else to decode?
A B C D F
G H I & E J K
L M N O P
Q R S T U
V W X Y Z

17. 17
LAYER B
Apply or Manipulate Information
Activities worth 20 points each
Minimum 20 points required
15. Create an online timeline – using the information gathered
for your personal and historical timeline
16. Life story – present your findings from the interview with an
older family member either as a poster, powerpoint, essay,
or photo essay (feel free to experiment with a different
method of presentation with teacher approval)
17. A Day in the Life of... – write a minimum of 5 journal
entries for a person (your choice – real or fictional) living in
Ancient Rome or Ancient Egypt
18. Significant Historical Figure – using the information gathered
on the SHF Handout write a 500word exposition on why your
chosen person is historically significant
19. World Heritage Sites – choose one world heritage site from
the dictagloss activity write an article for a travel magazine

18. 18
Creating an Online timeline
1. First, you have to sign up. Go to http://www.xtimeline.com/index.aspx and click on the
sign up tab. Fill in your details and then click on submit. You are now a member.
2. After you sign up, you’ll be taken to your timeline dashboard, which shows all of your
timelines. Click New Timeline:
3. Choose a name for your timeline and click Create Timeline:
4. Add an event to it by clicking Add Event:
5. Fill out the details for the event then click Create Event:
6. That’s it! Your event will be added to your timeline.
You can now add additional events, create layers, add extra text, add pictures, and more.
Your Task
1. Add the events from your Personal and Historical Timeline onto your online version, with
the personal and historical events being on two different layers
2. Add a brief summary of the events
3. Attach a minimum of five pictures
4. Play around with the features and decide on the final layout and appearance.
5. Email the link for your finished timeline to your teacher
Feel free to browse other timelines on the site for ideas

19. TRAVEL MAGAZINE
ARTICLE
19

20. 20
LAYER A
Critically evaluate an issue
Activities worth 20 points each
20 points only required
20. The Rosetta Stone Debate – Where does it belong? In groups
of 6 hold a formal debate for the class
21. Heinrich Schliemann and The City of Troy True or False? – in
pairs, conduct an interview (live, radio, video) with
Schliemann investigating his claims
22. Unlocking the Mystery of Stonehenge – individually or in
pairs present a PowerPoint presentation or video discussing
the main theories on what it is, why it was built, and how it
was built. Finish the presentation with your own theory and
evidence to back it up.
23. The Tolland Man – play the role of detective and complete
the report on How did the Tolland Man Die? Report to be
presented to the class

21. 21
Heinrich Schliemann and Troy
This activity is to be done in pairs.
The year is 1873 and the world has just heard that the famous
archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann has discovered the city of Troy
mentioned by Homer in his work, The Iliad. Many people are saying that
his claims are false. One of you is an investigative reporter and your boss
has asked you to investigate the claims made by Schliemann in
preparation for an interview with the man himself. One of you is
Heinrich Schliemann himself and you are prepared to do the radio
interview to prove your critics wrong.
Your task in this activity is to each prepare for the interview to be
presented in front of the class.
The reporter must prepare a list of questions about
 Schliemann’s life
 His work prior to his discovery of Troy
 What he found at Troy
 The theories that exist about Schliemann’s work other than what he claims
 What he says about the evidence to support these other theories
Heinrich Schliemann must prepare to his answers to these questions.
To begin this assignment
 Gather your sources. Visit
www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/literature/iliad.htm to find out the story of
the Iliad.
 Visit www.archaeologyexpert.co.uk/HeinrichSchliemann.html. From this site, you
will find information about Schliemann’s life, where he was born, his family, his
early work and how he died.
 These two sites should get you started and it will be your own research from
there. Remember when using the internet to gather sources you must consider
the reliability of the source, it may not necessarily be correct. HINT – if you find
some information on one site, see if you can find it on another site to verify it.
 Once you have gathered the information you need to come up with a list of
questions that will be asked during the interview and a list of answers to the
questions
 Once you have your list of questions you need to write a script for the interview.
You don’t need to memorise the script, you can use palm cards during the
interview
 It is advisable to practice your interview before it is time to do it in front of the class.
HAPPY RESEARCHING
Extra question – who is the woman in the picture and what is she wearing?

22. 22
SCHLIEMANN INTERVIEW

23. 23
SCHLIEMANN INTERVIEW

24. ROSETTA STONE DEBATE
24
The Rosetta Stone: where does it belong?
This famous 2,200-year-old stone has been in the British Museum since 1802, where it
has been admired by millions of visitors over the years. It remains at the centre of a
controversy: should it stay in Britain or go back to its homeland, Egypt?
A few weeks ago, in December 2009, this controversy was once more in the news. Dr
Zahi Hawass, a well-known Egyptian scholar who has been fighting for the return of the
stone for several years, returned to London to argue his case.
A French soldier in Napoleon’s army discovered the stone in 1799, in El Rashid,
a village at the mouth of the River Nile, Egypt. When the French were defeated by the
British army, it was then taken to Britain and has remained there ever since.
The ancient stone is black granite, roughly rectangular in shape and 114 cm high. The
front of the stone is smooth and is inscribed with tiny writing, using three different
scripts. The top part is hieroglyphic, a script made up of small pictures which was used
by priests in Ancient Egypt (for example, there are images of a basket and an eye); the
middle section is written in demotic, the common script used in Egypt at the time; the last
section is in Greek, the language of administration, used by the rulers. The ancient stone
is from 196 BC, the Ptolemaic Period. The text is actually written by priests in honour of
their young 13-year-old king, Ptolemy.
The stone is important because it holds the key to understanding hieroglyphic, a script
which had died out centuries earlier and which no modern linguists had been able to
understand before the stone’s discovery. Since the same text is written in three
languages,
in 1822 translators were able to use the other scripts on the stone to help decode the
hieroglyphics. Of course, this was of huge importance to Egypt and Egyptology.
Dr Zahi Hawass would like to place the artefact in a new museum near the Pyramids, to
be completed in 2012. He also wants to bring back other priceless objects from Ancient
Egypt held around the world and he accuses Britain and other countries of theft. It is
thought that the British Museum may finally agree to loan the Rosetta Stone for a few
months.

25. WHERE DOES THE
ROSETTA STONE
BELONG?
25

26. 26
NATURALIST
 Graphic
Organiser(C)
 Cloze Passage(C)
 SHF Exposition(B)
 Tolland Man
Detective(A)
INTERPERSONAL
 Dictagloss(C)
 Family
Interview(C)
 Life Story(B)
 Rosetta Stone
Debate(A)
INTRAPERSONAL
 Terminology
Quiz(C)
 Timeline(C)
 Journal Entries(B)
 Stonehenge
Presentation(A)
BODILY/KINESTHETIC
 Hieroglyphics(C)
 Timeline(C)
 Journal
Entries(B)
 Tolland Man
Detective(A)
VISUAL/SPATIAL
 Film Study(C)
 Source Work(C)
 Life Story(B)
 Schlieman
Interview(A)
MUSICAL/ RHYTHMIC
 Dictogloss (C)
 Cloze passage(C)
 Life Story(B)
 Stonehenge
Presentation(A)
VERBAL/LINGUISTIC
 Note-making(C)
 Text work(C)
 SHF Expostion(B)
 Schlieman
Interview(A)
LOGICAL/
MATHEMATICAL
 Timeline(C)
 Graphic
Organiser(C)
 Online Timeline(B)
 Rosetta Stone
Debate(A)
ACTIVITIES TO
SUIT ALL
INTELLIGENCES

27. 27
ASSESSMENT
Marked for:
 Correct answers
 Evidence of learning
 Completion of tasks
Marked by:
 Completion of tasks (Layer C)
 Direct questioning during class (Layer C)
 End of unit Jeopardy (Layer C)
 Layer B Rubric
 Layer A Rubric
GRADES
 To finish the unit, students must complete at least 100 points from the layered
curriculum. The points for each activity represent the numerical mark the task is out of.
 Layer C activities are checked off and marked during class time as they are completed
and will total a mark out of 60. Students may complete extra activities with the best
marks going toward their overall total.
 Layer B activities are to be handed in for marking for a total mark out of 20. Students
may complete extra activities with the best marks going toward their overall total.
 Layer A activities will be presented to the class for a total mark out of 20 following the
presentation rubric. Only one activity may be attempted.
GRADE MARK
A 86+
B 71-85
C 56-70
D 40-55

28. 28
RUBRIC FOR PRESENTATIONS
LAYER A
Marking Guidelines
MARK CRITERIA
17-20  Puts on a highly informative presentation
 Exceeds the task requirements
 Demonstrates a clear understanding of the role
 Evidence of extensive research
13-16  Puts on an informative presentation
 Meets the task requirement
 Demonstrates an understanding of the role
 Evidence of wide research
9-12  Attempts to put on an informative presentation
 Meets most task requirements
 Demonstrates an understanding of the role
 Evidence of some research
5-8  Attempts to put on an informative presentation
 Meets some task requirements
 Demonstrates some understanding of the role
 Evidence of little research
1-4  Little information presented
 Meets few task requirements
 Demonstrates little understanding of the role
 Evidence of little to no research

29. 29
RUBRIC FOR DEBATE
LAYER A
CRITERIA MARK
1-5 6-10 11-15 16-20
1. Organization and
Clarity:
viewpoints and
responses are outlined
both clearly and
orderly.
Unclear in
most parts
Clear in some
parts but not
over all
Most clear and
orderly in all
parts
Completely
clear and
orderly
presentation
2. Use of Arguments:
reasons are given to
support viewpoint.
Few or no
relevant
reasons given
Some relevant
reasons given
Most reasons
given: most
relevant
Most relevant
reasons given
in support
3. Use of Examples
and Facts:
examples and facts are
given to support
reasons.
Few or no
relevant
supporting
examples/facts
Some relevant
examples/facts
given
Many
examples/facts
given: most
relevant
Many relevant
supporting
examples and
facts given
4. Use of Rebuttal:
arguments made by the
other teams are
responded to and dealt
with effectively.
No effective
counter-
arguments
made
Few effective
counter-
arguments
made
Some
effective
counter-
arguments
made
Many
effective
counter-
arguments
made
5. Presentation Style:
tone of voice, use of
gestures, and level of
enthusiasm are
convincing to audience.
Few style
features were
used; not
convincingly
Few style
features were
used
convincingly
All style
features were
used, most
convincingly
All style
features were
used
convincingly

30. 30
RUBRIC FOR LAYER B
Marking Guidelines
MARK CRITERIA
17-20  Exceeds the task requirements
 Follows the correct structure of the task to the letter
 Evidence of extensive research
 Demonstrates a high degree of control over spelling and punctuation
13-16  Meets the task requirement
 Follows the correct structure of the task
 Evidence of wide research
 Demonstrates control over spelling and punctuation
9-12  Meets most task requirements
 Follows the correct structure of the task
 Evidence of some research
 Demonstrates some control over spelling and punctuation
5-8  Meets some task requirements
 Some structure of the task
 Evidence of little research
 Demonstrates variable control over spelling and punctuation
1-4  Meets few task requirements
 Little to no structure of the task
 Evidence of little to no research
 Demonstrates little control over spelling and punctuation

31. THANKYOU
GOODBYE
AND
31