Qin Emperor and the Terracotta Warriors - Department of Education and ...

The Qin Emperor and the

Terracotta Warriors

Unit of Work

Victorian Essential Learning Standards Level 5

Humanities / History; Interpersonal Development;

Information and Communications Technology; Thinking

Processes

Contents

Introduction................................................................................................................................................................ 2

Learning focus............................................................................................................................................................ 2

Victorian Essential Learning Standards ..................................................................................................................... 3

Teaching and learning activities................................................................................................................................. 4

Activity 1: Recall of prior learning ........................................................................................................................ 4

Activity 2: The Emperor Qin Shi Huang ............................................................................................................... 5

Activity 3: The mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shi Huang........................................................................................ 6

Activity 4: The terracotta warriors......................................................................................................................... 7

Activity 5: The students as archaeologists............................................................................................................. 8

Assessment................................................................................................................................................................. 9

Unit resources .......................................................................................................................................................... 12

Teacher resources..................................................................................................................................................... 12

Appendix 1: An overview of the Emperor Qin Shi Huang and the terracotta warriors ....................................... 12

Appendix 2: Some extracts on the Emperor Qin Shi Huang................................................................................ 18

Appendix 3: The mausoleum of the Emperor Qin Shi Huang ............................................................................. 19

Appendix 4: Pictures of terracotta army .............................................................................................................. 20

Appendix 5: A template for a work sheet on the terracotta warriors ................................................................... 24

Appendix 6: Bibliography.................................................................................................................................... 25

Student resources ..................................................................................................................................................... 26

Appendix 7: Paragraph summary on the Emperor Qin Shi Huang ...................................................................... 26

Appendix 8: Research task on the terracotta warriors ......................................................................................... 27

Appendix 9: Student self assessment sheet.......................................................................................................... 28

Appendix 10: P-M-I Table................................................................................................................................... 30

Published by the

Department of Education and Early Childhood Development

March 2007 Updated 2009

? State of Victoria 2009

Introduction

In ¡®The Qin Emperor and the Terracotta Warriors¡¯ students undertake a range of activities. There is an

assumption that the class would have already undertaken some study of ancient China ¨C such as laid out in the

unit ¡®The Great Wall of China¡¯ ¨C and would have a sense of certain features of Chinese geography and culture.

This unit is an opportunity for students to widen their understanding of the role played by key individuals ¨C in

this instance the Emperor Qin Shi Huang ¨C and to learn of the burial practices of the rulers of China, which in

turn can offer an appreciation of the way power was exercised and enhanced. Students will also become

familiar with the remarkable terracotta warriors that were put in place as part of the mausoleum of the Emperor

Qin Shi Huang. Students will read excerpts from historians about the Qin Emperor and will be able to consider

the range of opinions about his rule. They will have activities to assist them in forming their own opinions

about the Emperor Qin Shi Huang and will use evidence to justify their point of view. They will use a range of

strategies for learning and will work both in groups and individually.

Learning focus

This unit addresses learning focus statements from all three strands at Level 5:

Physical, Personal and Social Learning:

Interpersonal Development

?

work co-operatively to achieve a shared outcome.

Discipline- based learning

History:

Historical knowledge and understanding

?

use a variety of sources

?

describe the roles of key individuals

?

explain key features of community life of ancient societies, including religious belief and art.

Historical reasoning and interpretation

?

frame key questions, plan research and report on findings

?

identify content, origin, purpose and context of historical sources

?

identify strengths and limitations of historical documents.

Interdisciplinary learning

Communication

Listening, viewing and responding

?

consider own and other¡¯s points of view.

Information and Communications Technology (ICT)

?

use graphic organisers to structure thinking processes

?

use ICT to create and communicate their findings.

Thinking

?

use a range of question types and locate and select relevant information.

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DEECD, Victoria 2009

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Victorian Essential Learning Standards

Strand

Domain

Dimension

Physical,

Personal and

Social Learning

Interpersonal

Development

Working in

teams

Discipline-based

learning

History

Historical

knowledge and

understanding

Historical

reasoning and

interpretation

Interdisciplinary

Learning

Communication

Listening,

viewing and

responding

Information and ICT for

Communications visualising

thinking

Technology

Key elements of standards

. accept responsibility as a team member and

support other members to share information,

explore the ideas of others, and work

cooperatively

¡­analyse and describe key events in ancient

societies

¡­use a variety of sources to describe key

aspects of these societies

¡­analyse the ways ancient societies were

governed

¡­..describe the roles of key individuals

¡­frame key research questions, plan their

investigations, and report on their findings

¡­evaluate historical sources for meaning,

point of view, values and attitudes

¡­use a range of primary and secondary

sources including visual sources

¡­.identify the content, origin, purpose and

context of historical sources

¡­interpret complex information and

evaluate the effectiveness of its presentation.

They consider their own and others¡¯ points of

view, apply prior knowledge to new

situations, challenge assumptions and justify

their own interpretations

¡­use linguistic and non-linguistic

representations, such as graphic organisers,

to help structure their thinking processes

ICT for

¡­use ICT to support oral presentations to

communicating live local audiences

Thinking

Reasoning,

processing and

inquiry

Reflection,

evaluation and

metacognition

Studies of Asia

¡­use a range of question types, and locate

and select relevant information from varied

sources when undertaking investigations

¡­use specific language to describe their

thinking and reflect on their thinking

processes during their investigations

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Teaching and learning activities

This unit focuses on students using previous knowledge to form generalisations about the newly introduced

society of ancient China. There is a particular emphasis on students forming their own questions prior to

conducting research of their own. They will also be working often in small groups and so will need to be guided

to achieve a productive outcome.

The focus in this unit is on the person of the Emperor Qin Shi Huang, both as an example of the impact of an

individual on a society, and as a figure of controversy. Students will be encouraged to consider the range of

opinions about this Emperor and to construct their own account of him. The unit also turns its attention to the

mausoleum built for the Emperor and above all to the terracotta army of several thousand soldiers and their

attendant weapons and horses. Students consider pictorial and written sources and conduct research on

particular aspects of this remarkable artistic achievement. They also have opportunities to have ¡®hands-on¡¯

experience of the work of archaeologists.

Activity 1: Recall of prior learning

It is assumed that students will have already done some preliminary study on ancient Chinese society and on an

additional ancient society such as Egypt or Rome. They should therefore have some experience and knowledge

of another culture and be in a situation to draw on these understandings when making comparisons with China.

As a means of introducing this unit, teachers explore with their students how they know of societies in the past.

Students can do this exercise by working with a partner to write down their understandings. This discussion

should elicit responses such as:

? archaeology

? official documents and histories

? artefacts

? scientific analysis.

Students should also be able to provide specific examples from their previous studies of ancient societies. They

will record the findings in their notebooks.

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Activity 2: The Emperor Qin Shi Huang

Having had the general discussion on the sources of knowledge about ancient societies, the teacher can then

introduce the person of Qin Shi Huang, known as the First Emperor, and the ruler most closely associated with

the expansion of the system of walls in China in the late 3rd century BCE. Teachers emphasise to their students

how extensive can be the influence wielded by an individual ruler.

We know of this emperor through:

?

the accounts of the Han Empire historian, Sima Qian, who was writing a century or more after the

death of the Qin Emperor

?

tales such as that of Meng Chiangnu (see unit on The Great Wall of China)

?

knowledge of the mausoleum (tomb) in which Qin Shi Huang was buried.

The 2005 Chinese film, Hero, told the story of that emperor¡¯s efforts to unite several kingdoms and of the

attempts by his enemies to assassinate him. By using some excerpts from such a resource, teachers could make

some interesting comparisons regarding the ways in which an historical figure is represented.

As an exercise in using primary and secondary sources, the students are given a worksheet with a series of

excerpts about Qin Shi Huang (See Unit resources, Appendix 1). The class is to be divided into small groups

and handed out a sheet of paper with three columns, headed ¡®pluses¡¯, ¡®minuses¡¯ and ¡®interesting¡¯ (See Unit

resources, Appendix 2).

Students read the extracts on Emperor Qin Shi Huang, and put into each column a summary of the main points

about the First Emperor, in this case, the positive things, the negative things and what students find interesting

in these extracts. They will be able to swap their summaries with another group, to see what others emphasized.

When they have their own sheet returned, they may make any necessary additions or adjustments.

The teacher can draw out some consideration of how reliable these accounts of the First Emperor may be.

Students are invited to discuss what the strengths and limitations of each type of source would be, and to note

briefly the conclusions of the discussion.

Students in their small groups write down on A3 sheets a minimum of five questions they have about the Qin

Emperor. They should be encouraged to write both open and closed forms of questions. The groups questions

are displayed around the room and students will be able to view the questions that the class has compiled. Each

member of the group selects two questions to research, one of which must be an open question. Time is

provided for this research activity and then students report back to the class on their findings.

(The resources cited below in the resource guide provide a good deal of information, and school libraries will

be able to assist. It may be of interest to compare accounts of the First Emperor such as those found online e.g.

(reading level more advanced, but

gives a simplified version)

(more

accessible). The students will be preparing to write a summary paragraph about the Emperor Qin Shi Huang.

(The exercise is set out in Unit resources, Appendix 5.)

One way of encouraging the class to debate their opinions of the Emperor Qin Shi Huang is for the teacher to

write up on the board a contention such as: ¡®The Emperor Qin Shi Huang had no positive qualities¡¯. The

students line up according to whether they agree or disagree ¨C strongly or mildly ¨C and then have to justify their

position by citing specific evidence. If they change their point of view, they may move to the appropriate place

in the line, but they must justify their change of mind.

A different exercise to get the class thinking could be to ask them to find five points of similarity and five

points of difference between the Emperor Qin Shi Huang and the Australian Prime Minister ¨C or some other

well-known figure.

Having considered a range of information, the students now have a basis for writing a paragraph on Qin Shi

Huang (see Unit resources, Appendix 7). The emphasis should be on supporting their opinions by the use of

specific evidence. Their responses become part of the assessment of this unit.

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