“For the next 40 minutes or so, we’re going to be traveling back in time…” Head of Middle School Humanities Jenet Dibble said to her Class 6 students.
With bags and laptops positioned in a corner and no further explanation, Ms. Dibble began placing a pile of magazines, scissors and a silver tin on top of each empty table. In another corner of the room, she added a cup of mini muffins. “Welcome to the Roman empire!” she announced.
“Look under your desks,” Ms. Dibble instructed, explaining that students who discovered a green Post-it note would be designated as ‘patricians.’ “You’re in charge,” she said.
After the three patricians received brief, whispered instructions from their teacher, one explained to the rest of the group—designated as ‘plebeians’—that they were required to cut 800 tiny “tiles” from the magazines within ten minutes without talking. “Stay in character!” Ms. Dibble added.
As the students began their task, the patricians observed them, snacking on the muffins and throwing away the tiles that they deemed incorrect. Understandably frustrated, some of the plebeian students began to “strike,” standing in a designated corner, refusing to cut anymore pieces.
After a few minutes, Ms. Dibble gathered the class back together (offering Oreos to the students who didn’t get to have a muffin) and said, “You’ve now explored the structure of a republic in ancient Rome. Let’s debrief. How did that make you feel?”
Some students expressed their frustration or annoyance, while one student remarked, “I had more power than I thought. The patricians needed something from me – not the other way around.”
“What process do you think would make it more fair or tolerable?” posed Ms. Dibble, to which students suggested more balance and feedback from patricians rather than just throwing away their work.
“What do you think was the reaction or consequence that came from this power imbalance?” their teacher continued. Students recommended ‘speaking out,’ ‘striking,’ ‘getting angry,’ and ‘feeling helpless or fearful.’
“Everything you just listed did happen!” Ms. Dibble said. “Ninety-five percent of the Roman people were plebeians, or common people, and had no voice in government.” The remainder, she explained, were upper-class citizens—or patricians—who controlled the Republic. The struggle between the two was dubbed Conflict of the Orders.
After watching a few short videos that provided more detail on the ancient society, the students had a deeper understanding of the plebeians’ revolt and what happened as a result. With the engaging lesson coming to an end, the students were tasked with creating an illustrated timeline to demonstrate how the Roman Republic changed over time and answering the question “Which change do you think was the most important and why?” using their CER (Claim, Evidence, Reasoning) skills.
