Several ancient civilizations are explored in this theme. Through selections from the books Lost Temple of the Aztecs, The Great Wall, and The Royal Kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, and Songhay, students work with author perspective, cause and effect, topic, main idea, and details, and the strategy focus of summarizing. This unit strengthens students’ understanding of the greater worlds through time as we continue to work on text features and how to approach and come to a more complete understanding of nonfiction text.
Students are responsible for knowing the following vocabulary at the end of this theme:
Key Vocabulary
intricate: made up of many details
metropolis: a major city center of culture
momentous: very, very important
empire: large area made up of many territories under one government
adorn: decorate
durable: sturdy and long lasting
ingenious: clever and original
insurmountable: impossible to overcome
grueling: physically exhausting
extravagance: careless spending on luxuries
exclude: keep someone or something else out
vicinity: a region within a close range of a place
flourish: to grow extremely well
bartering: trading goods without the exchange of money
primary: main or basic
entourage: a group of followers
summarize: telling the most important parts of a reading in a quick way
viewpoint: how the author views his/her topic
bias: an unfair preference for or dislike of something
paraphrase: restate something using other words