WALTON HIGH SCHOOL

GLOBALL HISTORY 1

C. ORTIZ

 

Poverty in the Roman Empire

 

l. INTRODUCTION

The Global History class offers you the opportunity to learn about the past. The way people have lived, organized forms of social, political and economic ways of living will give you information that will help you become a better informed person. It will prepare you to become a future citizen who will be able to participate effectively in the social and political processes of your community. As you learn how to deal with problems in your community and you actively participate in trying to solve problems that affect your neighborhood you will become a public analyst.

Through this web quest you will find out that the quality of life of the Roman people and those conquered changed with the decline of the Roman Empire.  Rome was one of the classical civilizations that reached greatness for its political and social ideas during an approximate 1,000 year period from 509 B.C. to 476 A. D. Rome established a precedent with a republican form of government  where people elected their representatives; as an empire it controlled trade routes and incredible riches flooded into Rome. Roman power extended from Spain to Egypt but as an empire it began to decline and all of Europe would turn into an obscure period of cultural and social decadence as the quality of life of its people changed.  Poverty affected the majority of the population in Rome as a republic and as an empire.

You are now a peasant living in Rome during the time of the Roman Empire and one of the only few who can write. A group of peasants have selected you to make a written report to the Emperor as to how you and other peasants like you have impoverished affecting your quality of life.  You will have to explain orally to the emperor the content of the written report.  So you will have to keep research and keep written records gathering information that has affected the peasant life under the empire. You will be a peasant who will analyze the public policy of Rome towards the peasant. You will be asked to create new policies that the emperor would accept that would alleviate peasant burdens.

 

 

TASK

At the end of this webquest you will have completed a written report explaining how poverty has affected the quality of life of the peasant in the Roman Empire. You will suggest new policies that would help the Roman peasant. The report should have a cover, an illustration and a bibliography.  . You will also present an oral report to the class. It must be a minimum of five typewritten pages, double space and neatly presented.   You will follow the Global History Public Policy Analyst steps to research as follows:

 

1.     Identify the Problem 

Go to http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/ppae/step1a.html

 

2.     Gather Evidence

Go to http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/ppae/step2a.html

 

3.     Determine Causes

Go to http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/ppae/step3a.html

 

4.     Evaluate the Policy

Go to http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/ppae/step4a.html

You will be graded following the criteria specified in the evaluation sheet below.

 

 

lll. Process

1. Use the Internet to do the research using the PPA worksheets of the Tips program and handout prepared by the teacher

 to gather evidence on the problem, its causes and the policies enacted by the Roman government to deal with the problem of poverty.

     2. You will be assigned to a group where you will discuss all information gathered.

      3. Each group will prepare one report to hand in where you will specify the following:

           a. What is the problem?

           b. What is the evidence that the problem existed in the Roman Empire?

           c. What were the causes to the problem?

           d. What policies were enacted by the Roman Empire to solve the problem?

            e. What policies can you create to correct the problem?

            f. What is the best policy to correct the problem?

 

IV.Global History Concepts

 

As you research information about the Roman Empire you will be able to identify and expand knowledge about three basic concepts studied in Global History:

 

a.      Political Systems

b.     Change

c.     Power

 

V. Skills

1. Use of technology

2.  Analysis of data

3.   Writing

 

 

RESOURCES:

 

1.     British Museum’s “Compass: on line collection

http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/compass/

 

2.     Encarta Online Deluxe

www.encarta.com

 

3.     http://www.geocities.com/colosseum/ring/5382/

 

4.     http://myron.sjsu.edu/index.htm

5.     http://www.school.discovery.com/lessonplans/programs/fallofempire/answers.html

6.     http://www.pbs.org/empires/romans/social/index.html

 

7.     References of poverty in Rome

  1. www.vuw.ac.nz/classics/clas207bibl.html  

 

 

V. Conclusion

Through this webquest you will have prepared a report explaining how poverty affected the quality of life of the Roman peasants and you will have presented possible alternative public policies that could have been followed to diminish the problem. You have learned to analyze the problem of poverty in Rome.  You have been able to identify public policies and have evaluated the effectiveness of such policies which has enhanced your ability to use your judgment and awaken your awareness to public policies.

You are now prepared to explore the effects of poverty in Europe with the rise of feudalism during the Middle Ages, period which will reflect the decadence of social conditions affecting the peasants whose life was submitted to serfdom and to almost complete servitude.  Your next webquest will be to investigate peasant life in the feudal period and compare the life of the medieval peasant to the Roman peasant.

 

 

EVALUATION:

YOU WILL BE GRADED ACCORDING TO THE FOLLOWING:

 

Performance

Needs improvement

1

Satisfactory

2

Good

3

Excellent

4

Completion of worksheets with correct information

 

 

 

 

 

Interpretation of information

 

 

 

 

 

Ability to identify policies enacted

 

 

 

 

Ability to identify possible policies that governments can enact today to avoid change of quality of life of its citizens.

 

 

 

 

 

Curriculum Standards:

This webquest responds to the followings curriculum standards:

Social Studies:

2:1.2:2

The student will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments and turning points in world history, and examine the broad sweep of history from a variety of perspectives.

4:1

Explain how societies and nations attempt to satisfy their basic needs and wants by utilizing scarce capital, natural, and human resources.

 

Understand how scarcity requires people and nations to make choices which involve costs and future considerations

 

Critical Thinking

 

English Language Arts:  1:1

      Interpret and analyze information from websites in the internet and other sources.

      Compare and synthesize information from different sources in the internet and other textbooks.

      Speaking and Writing. 

      Relate new information to prior knowledge and experience.