Engage high school students with ancient Egyptian poetry from the New Kingdom. The first lesson is a hymn attributed to the tenth pharaoh of the eighteenth dynasty, Amenhotep IV, who changed his name to Akhenaten in honor of the sun god Aten. The second lesson is a selection of love poems from the same period.
*This resource is compatible with PDF & Google Workspace.*
The resource contains the following:
Two 45-minute lesson plans to instruct High School students in an English Language Arts or Humanities class.
The educational digital download contains the following features:
- Includes Teacher Notes for “The Great Hymn to the Aten” and "New Kingdom Love Lyrics"
- 2 Lesson & Pacing Calendars
- 1 Public Domain text of “The Hymn to Aten.”
- Includes engaging guided reading comprehension questions and determining the meaning of words in context=
- 7 Selected New Kingdom Love Lyrics
- "The Unsuccessful Bird-Catcher"
- "Joy"
- "Most Beautiful Youth Who Ever Lived"
- "Let's Slip Down to the Pond"
- "I Love a Girl, But She Lives Over There"
- "Love-Sick"
- "I Have Not Paint for My Eyes"
- Provides useful background knowledge to the discovery of the lyrics and their translation from Egyptian hieratic script
- Also includes useful informational text: an excerpt from public domain text — New Light on Ancient Egypt by Gaston Maspero (1908)
- 2 Google Form Assessments
- 1 Assessment for “The Great Hymn to the Aten”
- 1 Assessment for "New Kingdom Love Lyrics"
- Question Bank for “The Great Hymn to the Aten” and "New Kingdom Love Lyrics"
- 18 Quick Check Questions for "The Great Hymn to the Aten"
- 13 Guided Reading Questions for the Love Lyrics
- 1 Writing Activity (includes prompt, instructions, and notetaking form)
- 2 Cornell Notetaking Template
- Frayer Models for Vocabulary Instruction
- 2 Hyper-Linked Lists of Further Reading about Ancient Egyptian New Kingdom Poetry
- Teacher Answer Key for All Questions
- Standards Chart and Extra Content
- with extra writing prompts for further assessment
- Go further and compare "Canticle of Brother Sun" by Francis of Assisi and "Song of Myself" [1, 51] by Walt Whitman
Possible Uses Across the Curriculum:
- High School or Higher-ed Humanities or Language Arts Class
- A Social Studies / History Unit on Ancient Egypt
- A Poetry Unit or Writing Lesson
Duration of Lesson: Two 45-Minute lessons (plus plenty of extension activities)
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