World History and Geography to 1500 A

World History and Geography to 1500 A.D.

WHI.2 The student will demonstrate knowledge of early development of humankind from the Paleolithic Era to the agricultural revolution.

SOURCE http://fsmitha.com/h1/ch00.htm

This online article discusses social, political, and economic characteristics of hunter-gatherer societies. Specifically, it addresses social organization, religious beliefs, and survival methods. The article also provides a brief history of agriculture, and discusses the effects of agricultural innovations on ancient societies.

This article provides necessary background information regarding the characteristics of hunter-gatherer societies in a straightforward, concise manner. The article is short and at an accessible reading level, so that the it could be read either as homework or actually in class. This article, due to its discussion of relations between different tribes, is especially useful if the teacher wishes to tie issues of multiculturalism and diversity into her lesson.

Although it is difficult to infuse a multicultural perspective into a lesson on hunter-gatherer societies, this article does offer a reasonable opportunity to do so through a class discussion. The opening paragraph of the article explains that hunter-gatherer tribes were suspicious of one another; they viewed each other being strange and unknown and as competition for food. Prior to reading the article, the teacher may ask the students to complete a Do Now or a journal entry on the question “Can you think of an example of someone who was afraid of or didn’t like someone else because they were different? Why do you think people are sometimes afraid of people who are different from them?” The students can then read the article, and the teacher can lead a discussion on why hunter-gatherer tribes were fearful of each other, how they perhaps responded to each other when they met, and how their fears and responses compare to modern man’s fears and responses to different cultures or belief systems

WHI.3 The student will demonstrate knowledge of ancient river valley civilizations, including Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Indus River Valley, and China and the civilizations of the Hebrews, Phoenicians, and Kush.

SOURCE http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/~reffland/anthropology/learning/ancient_religion/index.html

This site provides basic background text on the religious beliefs of several ancient civilizations. In addition to providing information on religious beliefs, the site also contains information about the social, political, and economic structure of the civilizations. The site contains numerous pictures and video clips interspersed throughout the text, which provide further clarification on the topics discussed. The site also contains many examples of modern societies which are believed to have belief structures similar to those of ancient civilizations.

This site provides a nice mix of factual information and interactive opportunities. Students have the opportunity to reinforce their understanding of what they have read through pictures and video clips. The site also offers an interesting mix of different belief systems, which enables the teacher to draw the class into discussions on diversity. Furthermore, this site also refers to modern cultures, so that students not only learn about ancient cultures (which they may or may not find worthwhile), but also about cultures and belief systems that exist today.

This website could be used in a cooperative learning lesson in which students work in small groups to research one of the cultures covered on the site. Students could be instructed to read the information regarding the belief system for their culture, and then make a visual representation of the belief system to present to the rest of the class. For example, they might be instructed to create a short skit that represents the religious beliefs of their civilization. After the skit the group might be asked to answer questions about the belief system posed by the class or by the teacher. Following the group presentations, the teacher may ask the students to hypothesize on what the civilizations would have thought of each other had they met. She might ask for volunteers from two different groups to role-play such an interaction. The class could then discuss the role of diversity and cultural interaction not only throughout ancient times, but also in the modern world. The students could be asked to draw similarities or differences between the two eras, and hypothesize as to causes for those similarities or differences.

WHI.4 The student will demonstrate knowledge of the civilizations of Persia, India, and China in terms of chronology, geography, social structures, government, economy, religion, and contributions to later civilizations.

SOURCE http://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/ A Visual Sourcebook of Chinese Civilization

This source, A Visual Sourcebook of Chinese Civilization, prepared by renowned Chinese scholar, Patricia Buckley Ebrey, is considered one of the best teaching resources for studying Chinese civilization. The site includes great visuals, maps, art, poetry, and a time line. Professor Ebrey covers from the ancient period right through to the twentieth century. Teachers will find this site an excellent aid for their students in understanding Chinese history, culture, and society. I choose this site because I have used it in teaching and some of the professors at UVA refer to this site in their presentations. The sourcebook works well because it provides excellent visuals on ancient tombs, palaces, pottery, calligraphy, and other art forms along with maps for each era. There is also a teacher’s guide for each content unit.

From a multicultural teaching perspective, the sourcebook will provide students with knowledge about China’s social and cultural history. Students will gain insights into China’s unique social values, cultural and class identification symbols. I would use this resource as an aid to a lecture lesson and for a group research project. The source offers strong content for a comparative analysis between Chinese and western civilizations.

SOURCE http://www.buddharet.net/e-learning/buddhism/bs-s01.htm

The site offers multiple avenues for studying Buddhism, including origins, migration, readings, basic beliefs, meditation class projects, tales, and online research projects. I chose this site because of the variety of resources offered and the emphasis on the four aspects of Buddhism: free inquiry, self-reliance, tolerance, and loving-kindness and compassion. These four practices link well the pedagogy of prejudice reduction and multicultural integration of ethnic groups.

I would use this site for a number of group activities: meditation activity, chart activity demonstrating the four key Buddhist practices applied to today’s world conflict areas, and group skits using ancient Buddhist tales. These activities allow students to experience Buddhism and gain new perspectives in identifying aspects in their religious beliefs that share a commonality with Buddhism.

SOURCE http://www.snowcrest.net/doughnt/hindu.html

This site is fabulous for learning about all the key world religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Taoism, Sikhism, Pantheism, Ancient Religions, Pagans, Zoroaster, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Bahrain-Faith. The site carries articles about what is happening now in the world in each religion. The site does not have many visuals but does have links to other sites that do. The sites philosophy is

Religion is a natural extension of self-knowledge. To know yourself is to know mankind. Mankind’s belief systems are a reflection of the knowledge and the wisdom of all societies throughout history. The inquiring mind eventually most reflect and weigh these beliefs against its own experience of reality.

The above statement can be used in a group inquiry lesson with each group studying one of the religions listed above and presenting their findings to the class. Self-knowledge development and reflection about different religions assists students in broadening their ethnic and racial attitudes.

SOURCE http://www.hinduism.co.za

This website has won five awards for its content and layout. Besides offering the usual history, practices, culture icons, this site is a good resource for gaining a different perspective from the Hindu view on other religions. It is a good source for understanding religious tolerance through Hinduism, which practices acceptance of other religions. In addition, the site is a great source for understanding why Hinduism supports a caste system. The site also lists ten search engines and multiple reference connections.

WHI.5 The student will demonstrate knowledge of ancient Greece in terms of its impact on Western civilization.

SOURCE Women’s Life in Greece & Rome http://www.stoa.org/diotima/anthology/wlgr/
The specific site I would use within this domain is under “VI. Public Life.” Then click on: 173. Women demonstrate and obtain repeal of the Oppian law., which links to the website http://www.stoa.org/diotima/anthology/wlgr/wlgr-publiclife173.shtml.

This website is part of the “The Stoa: A Consortium for Electronic Publication in the Humanities.” It looks to be a very credible resource and is doing a wonderful deed by digitizing documents from ancient and medieval history. One of the most appealing aspects of the “Women’s Life in Greece & Rome” site is that it encompasses multiple aspects of women’s life, from religion to occupations to private and public life. Additionally, it is rich with primary sources, each source containing a short commentary preceding it, which makes for various activities where students can act as historians.

As a result of the site including the different facets of women’s lives, the teacher can infuse women into the curriculum and can use this website to escape the Contributions Approach and Additive Approach that Banks speaks of, whereby the curriculum includes only notable characters and irrelevant sidebars of information without being truly infused into the course. One specific lesson to teach from this site deals with women’s role both in and out of the home and their effect on their society. Women demonstrate and obtain repeal of the Oppian law contains two documents where Roman men speak of their opinions on a revolt led by the women of their society. I would have the students read these two documents, then discuss and analyze what women’s roles were supposed to be according to the two writers, and then maybe briefly tie in the topic’s relevance, and how even our country looked at women (and other races) in a very similar light.

WHI.7 The student will demonstrate knowledge of the Byzantine Empire and Russia from about 300 to 1000 A.D.

SOURCE http://www.patriarchate.org/ecumenical_patriarchate/chapter_4/html/hagia_sophia.html#HagiaSophia
http://www.washburn.edu/hiweb/ClassicalMed/ByzantiumImages.html
http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/Byzantium/byzhome.html

I chose the Saint Hagia Sophia website for exploring Byzantine art and architecture. It has movie clips of both the interior and exterior of the church as well as art and digital galleries to explore. The galleries have a variety of pictures from which to choose. I also used the other two sites to gain background information on a variety of Byzantine churches and temples. Saint Sophia was built during the Justinian reign and includes several domes in its architecture. Its completion helped confirm Constantinople as the capital of the Christian Roman Empire, and it is considered one of the grandest accomplishments of this era. In relating Byzantine architecture to Roman models, using St. John of Studion, in Constantinople, would provide a solid example for students to compare.

After discussing religious themes of Byzantine art and architecture show students pictures of the renowned churches of the Byzantine Era (Saint Hagia Sophia, San Vitale, St. John of Studion-based on Roman architecture). On a graphic organizer they could jot down what they observe about each and why these churches were important in the culture. We would discuss the architecture, shapes and colors they notice both internally and externally. To make it relevant to them, I may put up more modern churches and have them compare the architecture of this to that of St. Sophia.

Also, there are many pictures a teacher could use to have students look at the religious themes that developed during this era. A teacher could choose five pictures and use them as “do nows” at the beginning of each class period for a week.. The following week, the students could take out their ideas on the art and discuss what they found.

SOURCE Byzantium: Gallery http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/Byzantium/gallery.html. It contains paintings and objects from the Byzantine Empire, as well as a brief contextual background and information on the materials and techniques used during that era.

This site is under the domain of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, specifically focusing on the works of art from the Byzantine Empire. The collection features at least 15 different images, which is a very workable number for a classroom, with a variety of objects portrayed. The Met Museum is also a reliable resource, and therefore the information provided with each image, which is succinct and would be valuable to a lesson, is trustworthy.

What better way to teach about Byzantine art than by delving into it first-hand? This website will enhance not only a lecture with great visuals but would also be great for photograph analysis. These photos are both good models from the era from which they derive, and can also be tied in a lesson to how they relate to the Greek culture which preceded it. These images
represent both sexes as well as religious life, which permeated the Byzantine Empire. Thus, this site can be used for more than just an additive purpose to the normal predominantly white male curriculum; it demonstrates how multiple cultures affected the time period.

WHI.8 The student will demonstrate knowledge of Islamic civilization from about 600 to 1000 A.D.

SOURCE http://www.pbs.org/empires/islam/

The website that I found categorized Islam into four distinct realms. These were faith, culture, innovation, and profiles. I felt these correlated well with what the SOLs expected students to learn. The website provides background in each area for those, like me, who are not familiar with this time period. I also liked their educational section because it integrated videos on the subject and gave teachers important segments on which to focus. All of the resources the teacher needs were provided for each lesson. Although some were basic vocabulary sheets, there were projects that made the students examine the culture in a meaningful way. They encouraged students to use power point presentations, artistic abilities, and provided rubrics for their projects. The website also provided wonderful pictures of architecture that could easily be incorporated into the classroom.

In order to active students background knowledge, I may ask them to discuss what they have heard or know about the Islam culture and beliefs. I believe that with recent events, students may have misconceptions, but will be willing to share their ideas. Once this was established, I may begin the unit by posing questions such as: Does Islam have any influences in our nation? or Are you personally impacted by it in any way? I want to make this relevant for them. Using the innovation section of the site, I would then tie in stories about Islamic contributions and achievements that impact their lives today (paper and publishing, algebra, medicine). They would also watch excerpts of the video regarding writing, art, architectural, and scientific innovations.

WHI.10 The student will demonstrate knowledge of civilizations and empires of the Eastern Hemisphere and their interactions through regional trade patterns by... describing Japan, with emphasis on the impact of Shinto and Buddhist traditions and the influence of Chinese culture.

Cultural resources on ancient and medieval Japan: World Civilizations
SOURCE http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/ANCJAPAN/ANCJAPAN.HTM

This source catalogues the Shinto creation myths, along with other examples of Japanese literature. In a Social Studies classroom, the teacher can use the myths to do a concept development lesson highlighting similarities and differences between Shinto, Hindu, and Buddhist accounts of creation. This could be used to highlight the impact of Chinese cultural and religious practices in Japan. An understanding of religious traditions other than Judeo-Christian ones is important for students in this increasingly multicultural society. This site aids that understanding by presenting religious texts along with historical content and art and architecture images.

WHI.12 The student will demonstrate knowledge of social, economic, and political changes and cultural achievements in the late medieval period by... explaining conflicts among Eurasian powers, including the Crusades, the Mongol conquests, and the fall of Constantinople...explaining the preservation and transfer to Western Europe of Greek, Roman, and Arabic philosophy, medicine, and science.

SOURCE Internet Medieval Sourcebook: Fordham University Center for Medieval Studies, part of the Online Resource Book for Medieval Sources http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook.html

This site has literally hundreds of primary source documents on topics related to the Middle Ages, particularly the Crusades. The documents come from a variety of sources including letters and clerical writings from both Muslims and Christians. I chose this source because it is easily navigated. It has a richness and variety of materials organized by topic. Each item begins with an explanation of where it came from, who wrote it, etc. The sources assist in infusing a multicultural perspective in a study of World History by providing sources of both Western and Eastern origin. Students could use the first-person accounts to create a dialogue or play about the Crusades and cross-cultural conflicts during the period. They can also read about the contributions of Arab literature and science.