Idaho Social Studies 9-12.WC.3
The Standard
Examine the Hellenic concept of the polis in Greek city-states, including, but not limited to the ideas of democracy, citizenship, civic participation, and the rule of law.
Idaho Content Standards: K-12 Social Studies · Ancient Greece (c. 800 BC – 150 BC)
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Explain how a Greek polis was a political community with a city and surrounding land. Describe who could take part in government in Athens and how laws shaped public decisions.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Given a list of people in Athens, students can identify who could vote in the assembly or serve on a jury. They can explain why Athens was a democracy but Sparta had different political rules.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think a polis was just a city on a map. They may assume everyone in Athens could vote, or that every Greek polis was a democracy.
How to Assess It
- On an exit ticket, ask who could vote in Athens: a male citizen, a woman, a resident foreigner, or an enslaved person. Ask students to name one way courts could hold officials to the law.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give groups Athens role cards for a male citizen, woman, resident foreigner, and enslaved person, then hold an assembly vote with only eligible participants.
Ask students to write: Why was Athenian democracy limited even though it had an assembly and courts?
Run a card sort matching the Athenian assembly, Athenian jury, and Spartan council to descriptions of their members and decisions.
Read a local city council agenda and compare who may speak and vote at its meeting with who could participate in Athens.
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