Poetry and PreReading
PreReading activities are crucial when students are assigned a text which is uninteresting, unfamiliar, and unfriendly if the objective is to evoke deep thinking and learning. If I were to assign a reading on, say, a forerunner of Homo sapiens to a class of eighth graders—a rather dense text requiring an understanding of evolution, random selection, and survival of the fittest—I might devise some group activities to build a bridge across the space between being outside and stepping into the text. I think I would begin with a conversation about the three terms above and then ask for ideas about the most significant evolutionary change for Homo sapiens or modern humans. Yes, that would be changes in our brain.
Given new digital tools like ChatGPT4, I might put students into small groups and give them five minutes to chat with the bot to prepare some information to share with the whole class. I’d assign this prompt to each group:
“Human evolution is a small chapter in the evolutionary history of life on Earth. When and where does that chapter start? How does it unfold?.
Here is the kind of material the bot will provide:
Smith4: The chapter of human evolution begins within the larger context of primate evolution. Here is a brief summary of how it unfolds:
- **Origin of Primates (~65 million years ago)**: The first primates appear soon after the extinction of the dinosaurs. These small, generalized mammals live in trees and have forward-facing eyes, grasping hands, and a relatively large brain for their body size.
- **Split from Other Primates (~7 million years ago)**: The lineage that will lead to humans diverges from the one leading to our closest living relatives, the chimpanzees and bonobos. The earliest hominins (members of the human tribe, Hominini) appear in Africa.
- **Early Hominins (~4-7 million years ago)**: The first hominins such as Sahelanthropus and Australopithecus begin to show adaptations for bipedalism (walking on two legs), which is a key feature distinguishing early humans from other apes.
- **Genus Homo Emerges (~2.5 million years ago)**: Homo habilis is among the first to be classified within the genus Homo due to an increase in brain size and evidence of tool use. This period marks the beginning of a significant increase in cognitive abilities.
- **Control of Fire (~1-2 million years ago)**: Homo erectus or Homo ergaster begins using fire, which contributes to changes in diet, social behavior, and migration patterns.
- **Homo Neanderthalensis and Homo Sapiens (~400,000 - 300,000 years ago)**: Neanderthals evolve in Europe and Western Asia and are well-adapted to colder climates. Meanwhile, Homo sapiens, or modern humans, evolve in Africa.
- **Spread Out of Africa (~200,000 years ago for early migrations, ~70,000 years ago for a larger migration)**: Homo sapiens begin to migrate out of Africa in multiple waves, eventually spreading across the globe. They develop complex tools, art, and cultural practices.
- **Extinction of Other Homo Species (~40,000 years ago)**: Homo sapiens are the sole surviving species of the genus Homo following the extinction of Neanderthals and other contemporaneous species like Homo floresiensis.
- **Development of Agriculture (~12,000 years ago)**: The Neolithic Revolution sees the rise of agriculture, which leads to permanent settlements and the growth of large-scale societies.
- **Advancement of Civilization**: With the development of writing systems and the increasing complexity of social structures, vast empires and cultures rise and fall, leading to the modern age characterized by rapid technological progress.
Human evolution is notable not just for the biological changes but also for the unprecedented cultural and technological advancements. While the timeline presented here is very condensed, each of these points represents a major area of study within paleoanthropology, archaeology, and related disciplines.
I’d be prepared to display images to reinforce the timeline,
65 million years ago
40 Million Years Ago: Old World Monkeys
5 million years ago: Australopithecus, closest relative to the hominids
2 million years ago: The earliest human Homo habilis (handy human, the first thinker)
40,000 years ago: Homo sapiens (wise human)
10,000 years ago: Modern Humans
Homo habilis was the first hominid to have a brain large enough to support cognitive activity. However, its mouth, jaw, larynx (voice box), throat, and tongue were not yet ready to produce speech. Although habilis must have communicated through gestures, facial expressions, perhaps vocalizing of sorts, they did not have the wherewithal to develop a language as we know. I’d lead a discussion of what life must have felt like with the ability to think without the ability to speak.
Within a few days I’ll have a newsletter post ready to publish about the physical changes in speech structures in store for habilis which would afford the development of speech. I don’t think I would use the following poem with eighth grade students, but I will cross-post it here and encourage you to read it in preparation for the post to come later this week:
