As promised, I used my coins for a lesson this past week in class.
For those of you who do not know, I am a new high school
history teacher. I have realized that for the current generation, it has essentially come down to me verses their cell phones in class. As such, I am ALWAYS looking for alternative lessons to conduct with my students. Hands-on activities are a must.
Unfortunately, by the time I finally started
collecting Roman coins, I
had already covered the "Ancient World" with my students. Luckily, the Latin teacher in our building
had heard about my ideas and asked me to team-teach with her.
I spoke about the
history of ancient
Roman coins in general, the fact that they are primary documents, and I talked about roughly how much they were worth/ what they could buy back then. I also spoke about how they are found and how much they are worth today. I also shared some Roman
rings and a ballista
arrowhead with the students.
The teacher I team-taught with
had the students copy down any Latin they could find on the coins and she helped them translate it to English. I offered a list of abbreviated terms that might have been useful.
The students REALLY ate everything up. They were genuinely interested and enthusiastic about the subject. They showed respect towards my coins and they asked so many great questions! At the end of the lesson I let each student keep a slug I
had culled from my small
collection.
At the first possible moment, I WILL do this again with my students. I am planning on having my 9th or 10th graders do an archaeological dig/ clean some coins.
Enjoy the pictures, everyone! Feel free to leave comments and ask any questions!
P.S. Myself and a few of the students were a little camera-shy. Please excuse any pictures that look slightly posed!
