River Systems: Then and Now The Fertile Crescent

Overview In this lesson, students will read and analyze informative text to learn facts about Mesopotamia, the land between two rivers. They will read about the effects of the river system on the land, its people, and the rise of the first civilization. They will then write response to inform about the topic.

Key Vocabulary: nomad The Fertile Crescent Mesopotamia irrigation plow canal city-state barter

Engage the LearnerTime: 15 minutes

Show the video Mesopotamia: From Nomads to Farmers.

Tell students that they will watch a video about Ancient Mesopotamia and what life was like for a Sumerian child. This video will give background knowledge for the nonfiction reading text.

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Grade: 6

Lesson Objective

Students will write a short response to expository text with supporting evidence from the text.

Materials

✦ Video: Mesopotamia: From Nomads to Farmers. http://youtu.be/OZ8qOZURfiI?list=PLFA20A15BF7B4B8F5

✦ Nonfiction text: The Fertile Crescent

✦ Cornell Notes Template

✦ Perfect Paragraph Template (Leveled)

✦ Google Documents

Standards

✦ CCSS W.6.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.

THE FERTILE CRESCENT The Euphrates and Tigris Rivers

River Systems: Then and Now The Fertile Crescent

Explore the Concept Interacting with Text

First Read Session: 20 minutes

Distribute The Fertile Crescent. Students will read this text with a partner. As student read, tell them to keep in mind the many ways people used the river and its resources over time.

Model: Choose a student to role play Partner Reading with the teacher.

Partner A will read a paragraph, while Partner B follows along.

At the end of the paragraph, Partner B will paraphrase what was just read.

Partners switch roles.

Partners continue until the finish the selection.

Explain the Concept and Define the TermsSecond Read Session: 30 minutes

The teacher reads the text aloud. During the read aloud, model how to highlight important ideas, concepts, or questions from the text. Students should copy the highlighting in their own copy of the text.

Elaborate on the ConceptTime: 20 minutes

Using the annotated text, The Fertile Crescent, students will take notes using the Cornell Notes template. With their partner, students extract the central ideas and details from the text. Their notes should include examples from the text. Keep the notes because they will be a resource for the culminating assessment for Activity 3.

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Universal Access

✦ Partners should be heterogeneously paired to assist students who are Approaching Grade Level or English Language Learners

Universal Access

✦ Advanced learners may not need modeling and may annotate independently.

✦ For At Grade Level or Advanced students, use a blank Cornell Notes template.

✦ For Approaching Grade Level or English Language Learners, use the template with sentence starters.

River Systems: Then and Now The Fertile Crescent

Evaluate Understanding of the ConceptTime: 45-60 minutes

Using their annotated text and Cornell Notes, students will respond to the following question, making sure to cite at least 3 pieces of evidence from the text to support their answer.

How did geography encourage the rise of civilization?

Students may use the provided template or create their responses in Google Documents.

Closure Time: 20 minutes

Tell students that they have learned many facts about Mesopotamia and it’s rivers. Have them think about the first Activity that explored California. Ask them to jot down some similarities and differences about the two places that are so far apart on the globe. Discuss the similarities and differences.

Pose this question: Why is it important to take care of our rivers?

Possible responses:

✦ They give us clean drinking water.

✦ They are home to fish and wildlife.

✦ They are fun!

✦ They are part of our history.

✦ They are good for our economy.

There are many things kids can help protect rivers. Ask students to think about ways they can assure our rivers stay healthy? Record their notes on chart paper.

Possible responses:

✦ Conserve water: close faucet when brushing teeth, short showers

✦ Picking up trash in the community or along river banks.

✦ Go play by the river! When people are aware of the beauty of the rivers, they are more likely to take care of them.

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Universal Access

✦ Use the Writing Templates to differentiate writing scaffolds for all learners.

River Systems: Then and Now The Fertile Crescent

The Fertile CrescentBackground Knowledge: When people first learned to farm, their farming methods were simple. But over many years, these methods improved. In this section, you will read about some of these improvements. You will also learn how better farming methods led to the rise of cities and the world’s first civilization in a land known as Mesopotamia.

The Land Between the Rivers

The first civilizations arose on a wide, flat plain between two great rivers, the Tigris (tīgrihs) and Euphrates (yoo fray teez). These rivers flow from the mountains of present-day Turkey into the Persian Gulf. In ancient times, this plain was called Mesopotamia (mehs uh puh tay mee uh). The name comes from a Greek word that means “land between the rivers.”

Mesopotamia was part of a larger region that historians call the Fertile Crescent. This area of fertile land stretched in a large curve from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea. The Fertile Crescent gave birth to the world’s first farming communities.

According to many scholars, a people known as Sumerians (soo mihr ee uhnz) migrated to Mesopotamia thousands of years ago. The land they settled became known as Sumer (soo muhr).

A Challenging Place to Farm

Mesopotamia offered the Sumerians fertile soil for farming. The Tigris and Euphrates both carried fine, fertile soil called silt down from the mountains. Each year, the rivers flooded their banks. Flood waters carrying this silt spread across the plain. When the flood waters finally went down, they left behind a fresh layer of moist, rich earth.

However, Mesopotamia’s geography also posed challenges to Sumerian farmers. The same spring floods that brought fresh soil also brought danger. In years of heavy flooding, whole villages might be swept away by the flood waters.

In addition, most of the region beyond the rivers was a desert. During the summer, the ground baked rock-hard in the hot sun. With no rain for months, plants withered and died. Winds blowing out of the mountains whipped up dust and sand into gritty clouds that turned day into night.

New Agricultural Techniques

Despite these challenges, the Sumerians turned Mesopotamia into productive farmland. Two new agricultural techniques made this possible.

The first of these techniques was irrigation, or a system for watering crops. With irrigation, farmers could keep their crops alive through the hot, dry summer. The Sumerians dug many miles of irrigation canals to carry water from the rivers to their fields. These canals allowed them to plant crops far from the rivers.

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River Systems: Then and Now The Fertile Crescent

The second technique was a new way of preparing the ground for planting by using a plow. Before Sumerian farmers invented the plow, they used digging sticks to poke holes in the damp ground. Then they dropped seeds into these holes. Sowing seeds in this way was hard, slow work.

A farmer using a plow cut a long, shallow furrow, or trench, in the earth. It was much easier to drop seeds into this furrow than into small holes. The plow also loosened the soil so that roots could grow more quickly. By hitching oxen to their plows, the Sumerians made this invention even more useful. A farmer using an oxen-powered plow could prepare much more land for planting each spring than could a farmer using a digging stick.

The Emergence of Cities

Improved agricultural techniques helped the Sumerians produce a food surplus. With a dependable food supply, families increased in size. Over time, the population, or number of people, in farm settlements increased. Villages that began as groups of mud huts grew into towns of neat mud-brickhouses.

Around 3000 b.c., the Mesopotamian plain saw the emergence of cities. Uruk was the first of these cities. It had a population of as many as 40,000 people. But Uruk was soon joined by other cities such as Ur, Lagash, Sippar, Nippur, and Babylon.

The Sumerian City-States

As cities continued to grow, some became powerful city-states. A city-state is made up of a city and the surrounding land and villages that it controls. Each Sumerian city-state was independent of its neighbors. It had its own government and laws. Its people worshiped gods that were special to that city. Each city-state was also a center of trade. Although Mesopotamia was rich in fertile soil, it lacked wood, stone, and metals. Sumerian traders traveled far to find these resources and bring them back to their cities.

Two advances made such widespread trade possible—the wheel and the sail. With wheeled carts and sailing ships, Sumerians could carry their surplus grain and wool over long distances. They could also bring home heavy trade goods like lumber, metals, and precious stones. Trade gave Sumerians access to products that were not produced in Mesopotamia.

Most trade was done by barter. Barter is a trading system in which people exchange goods directly without using money. By bartering their farming surplus for needed resources, the Sumerian city-states grew in wealth and power. Increased travel also meant that ideas traveled faster from one community to another.

Source: Textbook Ancient Civilizations, Prentice Hall 2006

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River Systems: Then and Now The Fertile Crescent

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Cornell Notes Template

Main Idea Notes: Supporting Details, Examples, Definitions

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River Systems: Then and Now The Fertile Crescent

Conclusions/Inferences/Questions from Text

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River Systems: Then and Now The Fertile Crescent

Cornell Notes Template

Main Idea Notes: Supporting Details, Examples, Definitions

The term “Mesoptamia” means …

What is the Fertile Crescent?

Sumerians were…

An advantage of living in between the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers was…

A disadvantage of living in between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers was…

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River Systems: Then and Now The Fertile Crescent

Sumerian agricultural techniques were…

These techniques helped the Sumerians by…

Sumerian city-states were…

Conclusions/Inferences/Questions from Text

I can conclude that ______________________ because ________________ and _______________________.

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River Systems: Then and Now The Fertile Crescent

Ancient Mesopotamia

Directions: Thoroughly respond to the following question, making sure to cite at least 3 pieces of evidence from the text to support your answer.

How did geography encourage the rise of civilization in Mesopotamia?

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Super Sentences and Perfect Paragraphs © 2009 by Mack Lewis. Scholastic Teaching Resources

Topic Sentence (yellow): Tells the main idea.

Supporting Sentence #1 (blue): Gives a reason, example, or event to explain the topic.

Detail Sentence #1 (green): Gives a detail about the first supporting sentence.

Supporting Sentence #2 (blue): Gives another reason, example, or event to explain the topic.

Detail Sentence #2 (green): Gives a detail about the second supporting sentence.

Conclusion Sentence (red): Repeats the main idea in different words.

Directions: Use the template to create your rough draft. Paste or write one sentence in each box.

Super Sentences and Perfect Paragraphs © 2009 by Mack Lewis. Scholastic Teaching Resources

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Super Sentences and Perfect Paragraphs © 2009 by Mack Lewis. Scholastic Teaching Resources 91

Name Date

Directions: Use the template to create your rough draft. Write one sentence in each box.

1. Topic Sentence (yellow)

10. Concluding Sentence (red)

2. Supporting Sentence (blue) 6. Supporting Sentence (blue)

3. Detail Sentence (green) 7. Detail Sentence (green)

4. Detail Sentence (green) 8. Detail Sentence (green)

5. Optional: Extra Detail Sentence (green) 9. Optional: Extra Detail Sentence (green)

Perfect Paragraph

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