One way of bringing home to pupils what was so special about life in Ancient Athens is to compare it with life in Sparta. Also one of the strongest city-states, Sparta was, in many ways, very different from Athens. Through the use of 6 micro stories pupils work out the key elements of Spartan society which they then compare with what they know of life in Athens, using a Venn diagram. To make more engaging pupils are then asked to consider in which city state they would have preferred to have grown up. This offers scope not only for pupils to realise the difference in upbringing for boys and girls of their age but it also opens up the all-important question, which is, It depends who you were.
Step 1
Start by simply showing the map on slide 3 which shows Sparta and Athens. Now introduce the idea that the word Spartan is now part of our vocabulary today. Show cartoon on slide 4, asking pupils what they think it means, before showing the definition on slide 5.
Begin the main part of the lesson with six short ‘stories’ as described on slides 6-11. What do they tell us about
