1. Read the article: Pompeii: Portents of Disaster.

2. Do your own research on Pompeii. There are many videos online as well as numerous online resources. You may want to start by reading first-hand accounts of the disaster by Pliny the Younger.

3. Pretend you are living in Pompeii around A.D. 60 (nineteen years before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius). Write a letter describing Pompeii to a friend in Rome who is coming to visit.

4. To prepare to write this letter about the past, you will need to research the ruins and artifacts of Pompeii to see what they reveal about daily life in Pompeii. You will then use your research to write a two to three-page letter to describe daily life, the city itself, and the people of Pompeii.