Reminder

There will be a word bank of capitals, there will be a word bank of countries, and there will be a word bank of landmarks. Each one will be alphabetized.  This is a pass/fail exam (90/150 to pass). The extra credit option needs to align with the tests of the other Early World teachers, so please stop asking me to give you a word bank that tells you which capitals go with which countries. You are studying from the actual testing maps and the study guide was provided to you a month in advance. Much appreciated. 

Linking the Indian, Muslim Caliphates, and the Chinese worlds

On the first day of this spring quarter, you took a virtual field trip to the Asia Society in New York to examine the Tang shipwreck.  Evidence found aboard directly linked 9th century CE Tang China to the Abbasid Empire (Iran, Iraq, and surrounding regions).  Remember the cobalt blue and white pottery or the plate that featured a Persian man illustrated? (Top left hand corner of below picture) The curators concluded that "the objects in the exhibition attest[ed] to the exchange of goods and ideas more than one thousand years ago when Asia was dominated by two great powers: China under the Tang dynasty and the Abbasid Caliphate in West Asia."

We have now closed this (trade) loop by finished our final unit on Roman and Islamic Empires. Neither Song China nor the Abbasid Empire survived Mongol invasion.  Next year, all classes will consider how the innovations in Asia and the Middle East contributed to the resurgence of Western Europe in the High Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Europe received printing, gunpowder, and the compass from China, as well as the bubonic plague (Black Death), which arrived in Italy in 1347. (Southernization) The Byzantine Empire will fall in 1453, and many of its scholars fled in its final years to Italy, with Greek and Latin manuscripts in tow.

This story will continue in the fall of the 2017-2018 school year . . . . . . 

Islam: Historical Development and Belief System

                                                              Introduction to Islam

                                                                Spread of Islam from Arabia

                                                      Islam: My Life, My Religion (BBC)
                         

Geography Test Study Guide

Attached is the final study guide for the geography test to be held on Monday, June 5.  You need 90/150 to pass this test.

Beowulf Debate

On Friday, the class will debate themes embedded within Beowolf.  The sides are (1) Beowolf depicts a pagan Germanic society governed by a heroic code of honour, one where the attainment of a name for warrior – prowess among the living overwhelms any concern about the soul’s destiny in the afterlife; VERSUS (2) Beowolf depicts the newly Christian understanding of the Germanic world.  You may sign up for a SIDE here. MAKE SURE you sign up for the CORRECT PERIOD. 

Fall of Western Roman Empire and Continuation of Eastern Byzantine Empire

Christianity Internet Field Trip

Once you have completed your board game, you may move onto this internet field trip regarding Christianity.  The goal is to understand the theological and political differences between Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Protestantism.   

You will need the worksheet attached here as well as the visual on Protestantism here. 

Computer or Board Game: Roman Edition

This week, we begin our next unit on Rome: The Rise of Rome through Christendom.  Students will be organized into groups of three to create either a board game or a computer game that teaches others about the important facets of the rise and fall of the Roman Republic and Empire.  To create your game, you will use the following sources:

Eyewitness to History primary sources

Amy Chua's Day of Empire (Chapter 2: Tolerance in Rome's High Empire) 

1. To construct the game, each group makes the initial decision whether to make a board game or a computer game.  The board games may be inspired by the board games of your youth, you may use supplies such as figurines, game pieces, dice and unique cards, and you may organize your game in a transportable box such as is used for present giving.  The computer games may easily use Scratch, which may of you learned to use in 6th grade in the middle school, or, depending on your own personal aptitude, perhaps another programming environment such as GameMaker or Unity.  The computer science teachers might be willing to answer a question here or there, but they will not help you learn a new programming language or debug your games. In other words, do not choose the computer option unless you are very confident in your ability to proceed with the utmost independence.  

2. You need to begin your research by reading the above sources and creating a time line of events in the rise and fall of the Roman Republic and Empire.

3. You need to decide on the necessary elements of your game, i.e., what would be necessary in terms of pieces to tell the story of the Romans.

4. You need to decide how to incorporate the historical evidence into your game, i.e., what would be necessary in terms of game design and structure to tell the story of the Romans.

5. You need to double-check that the game elements and the historical evidence are seamlessly integrated.

The GRADING RUBRIC is available here. 50 points.

VIDEOS

The Roman Empire. Or Republic. Or...Which Was It?

Fall of Rome 

                                               Engineering An Empire: Rome (Architecture)

                                                  TedX Teenage Life in ancient Rome

                                              TedX Life of Ancient Roman wealthy women
   

Unit 8 Rise of Rome through Christendom

Final Revisions Using Writing Guide

You may check whether your footnotes are done appropriately using the citation guide of the blog.

You may revise your overall paper using the writing guide from the winter quarter.

Demo Bucketing and Thesis Statement: Achilles' Influence on Alexander the Great

Pericles Funeral Oration and Alexander the Great Board Notes

Greece Exam Study Guide

Greece Study Guide             

100 points on Greek history         

30 points on Euro Geo

Section I. The Iliad (Book 1, 6, 23 and 24)

Values at play in the dispute between Agamemnon and Achilles

Burial practices and rituals surrounding the death of Patroclus

The values embodied by the characters of Hector and Achilles

Section II. Multiple Choice

Political systems in the Greek city-states

Monarchy in Mycenae

Aristocracy in Early Athens

Limited Democracy in Reformed Athens

Direct Democracy in Golden Age of Athens

Oligarchy in Sparta

Section III.  Matching Key Terms With Appropriate Definitions  

Political systems, Greco-Persian war, and Peloponnesian War

Pericles                       Council of Elders       Delian League                        oligarchy

Socrates                      Democracy                 Peloponnesian League         aristocracy

Assembly                    Citizen                        Persian view                         Solon

Leonidas                     Council of 500           Greek view                            Cleisthenes   

Spartan view             Athenian view           Battle of Thermopylae          Tyranny

Section IV. Sorting Supporting Evidence from a Scholarly, Reliable Source

Peloponnesian War: Inevitable or Avoidable

You will be required to sort supporting evidence from Chapter 6 of Thomas Martin’s book on Ancient Greece into two categories, events that made war inevitable between Sparta and Athens and events that made war avoidable between Sparta and Athens. 

Section V. Short Answer (5 points)

Athenian democracy

You will be asked to compare Athenian political structure to our own in terms of equality and participation. Think constitutionally.

Section VI. Short Answer (5 points)

You will be asked to discuss how the Achilles figure influenced Alexander the Great.  

Alexander the Great

Spring Quarter Research Paper: Body Paragraph Toolkit

                                          Quoting, Paraphrasing & Summarizing Evidence

Peloponnesian War

Geography of the Peloponnesian War 

                                                                  Peloponnesian War Video

The Persian-Greek Wars

Tuesday (7th period) or Wednesday (8th period) Class Debate

Were the Spartans Fighting For A Compromised View of Freedom at Thermopylae?

You will have five sources from which to draw: (1) Chapter 5 of Thomas Martin's Ancient Greece which distinguishes Sparta's oligarchic, militaristic city-state with Athens' developing democracy and naval power; (2) Chapter 6 of Thomas Martin's Ancient Greece which provides a scholarly account of the Persian-Greek Wars; (3) the debate packet with the perspective pieces by Byron Farwell (no) and Paul Cartledge (yes); (4) the videos below.

The format will be the rotating round debate structure we used for the Ashoka debate just before Spring Break.  Each side will get a 2-3 minute intro, followed by a series of four minute rounds, concluding with a 2-3 minute conclusion.  Individual participation (quality and quantity) will be tracked and graded. May the games (or war) begin!

Defending Sparta from a Spartan or broader Greek perspective

vs.

Attacking Sparta from a Persian perspective

John Green Crash Course World History

History Channel (Last Stand of the 300)

Greek City-States: Divergent Political Systems

PBS: Greek City-States (More Focused on Sparta) 

Education Portal: Athens under Solon and Cleisthenes 

Ted-Ed Sparta 

Ted-Ed What Did Democracy Really Mean in Athens?

Divergent Political Systems: Judging Disputes 

Procedure: Break students into five groups and assign each group a different political system: (1) monarchy in Mycanae; (2) aristocracy in Early Athens; (3) limited democracy in Athens amidst reform; (4) direct democracy in the Golden Age of Athens; and (5) oligarchy in Sparta.  

You have to resolve a dispute.  It involves a wealthy landowner, Odysseus, and one of his poorer neighbors, Alexandros. Alexandros has seen slaves of Odysseus encroaching on his property snooping around.  He wants to challenge Odysseus legally, suspecting that Odysseus wants to take part of his land to increase nobleman's own estate.  When he brings his claim, Odysseus defends his encroachment on the grounds that his expenses have increased, and he needs the additional land. 

Decision-Making Question 

1. Who has the power to make this decision?
2. What is the basis of this power?
3. Which side of the dispute will the government favor? Why?
4. What is the likely judgment?  

Analyzing The Iliad as a Source of Greek Values

Here is the link to The Iliad board and typewritten notes from our student-led discussions of Books 1, 6, 23 and 24.   You may look at the other class's notes in addition to your class's notes.

Mansa Musa

                                                                Mansa Musa Ted-Ed

                                                       Mansa Musa and Islam in Africa

Sparta debate

Chicago Council on Global Affairs

Mr. Janus will be taking groups of students to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs two times this quarter.  The first is  "'Beyond the Book: Education for the next Generation" on 4/25 at 6:00 pm, while the second is "Europe's Year of Destiny" on 5/15.  Please see one of us for a permission slip. 

Greece Unit: Agamemnon to Alexander the Great

On Tuesday, we will begin our unit on Greece: Agamemnon to Alexander the Great.  Please study the geography of the peoples bordering the Aegean Sea, including the Greeks, the Persians, and the empire of Alexander the Great.  The following images are used for educational purposes to allow students to study for their map test. (Source: World History: Patterns of Interaction by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Map Races 

See handout of cities, territories, water bodies, etc. 

Students in groups of three. 

They will race to find the most! 

Rules: must do it together (can't split it up) and can't look up on phone. 

The Mongols, Gunpowder, and the Silk Road

Class Discussion Notes

1. The Mongols were eager to preserve and protect the Silk Road so they could tax it. 

2. They innovated a vast communication network (yam system) 

3. By reinvigorating the Silk Road (maritime and land), they contributed to the spread of the bubonic plague to Europe. 

4. The Mongols encouraged religious tolerance in their vast empire crossing the networks of the Silk Road. 

5. They relocated and transferred officials, skilled artisans, etc. from place to place, thereby leading to the transfer of knowledge, skills and technology. 

Secrets of the Sea: A Tang Shipwreck and Early Trade in Asia Virtual Field Trip

We ended the Winter Quarter with the land routes of the Silk Route. Over break, I traveled to New York to see a ground-breaking exhibition titled "Secrets of the Sea: A Tang Shipwreck and Early Trade in Asia" showcasing artifacts from a find of 60,000 gold, silver, and porcelain artifacts preserved by the ocean sediment and dating from the Tang Dynasty (618-907). 

Scholars working on this exhibition have made two claims or conclusions based on the evidence aboard. First, this ship proves that in the 9th century C.E. intense seagoing trade occurred throughout Asia, with an Arab-made vessel likely made in the Persian Gulf traveling from South China to Arabia or Persia. Second, the Tang Dynasty in China served as the "factory of the world at this time," thereby revealing the early roots of globalization. Kilns from across China produced -- likely on a "made to order" basis -- unique pieces specially made for Arab and Persia markets.  Thus, the "sheer ambition" and "sheer scale" of this single cargo transport revealed a maritime Silk Road that would have been much more sizable than the overland Silk Road. 

(Source: Asia Society, New York, Secrets of the Sea: A Tang Shipwreck and Early Trade in Asia, March 2017) 

Using the "app" entitled "Asian Civilization Museums" on your phone, the museum website on your computer, and/or the physical file of photographs taken onsite, please tour the museum exhibit. Look for three pieces of supporting examples for each of the above two claims by the Asia Society, and the Asian Civilization Museum in Singapore. Use an example of an artifact within your supporting examples.  Record those six pieces of evidence on your Virtual Field Trip Analysis Sheet.

Silk Road Travelogue (25 Exam Points)

You will work in assigned groups of three. You will (1) write an experiential and creative travelogue* in the form of a primary source (think: letter, diary, journal) portraying a person who participated in the Silk Road exchange, (2) choose an artifact to analyze visually and write a caption summarizing your analysis underneath the image, and (3) finally glue everything to poster board in a way that captures and symbolizes the network of exchanges of the historical Silk Road.  By the end of the period, you will have a poster with a minimum of three travelogues, three artifacts (one per group member), and three analytical captions.  The grading rubric is below.  

What should you use as the supporting evidence to create your travelogue?

• The video tutorial from John Green on the Silk Road we watched in class 
• The video tutorial from Ted-Ex on the Silk Road we watched in class  
• The board notes from our discussion of the video tutorials (bottom of page)
• The computer game from Stanford University that you played in class 
• This map distributed in class.
• This short article on Southernization in China (1-7 is India, 8-12 is China) 
• This longer article on the Silk Road distributed in class. 
• This United Nations artifact website for the Silk Road lets you pick artifacts particular to different geographic regions (Afghanistan, China, Greece, etc). 
• This website has some actual letters sent that you may use for inspiration beginning on the 2nd page. 
• Our visual analysis of artifact question page. 

Rubric

1. Each student in the group prepared a creative, deeply thought out portrayal of a Silk Road personage. Overlapping reduces score. 

2. Each student in the group chose and deeply analyzed a Silk Road artifact to include on the poster in the form of an annotated caption. Overlapping reduces score. 

3. Poster is attractive and professional.   

4. The details on the poster are historically accurate and symbolic of the networks of exchange of the Silk Road. 

5. Poster is completed on time.  

* A travelogue is defined as "a movie, book, or illustrated lecture about the places visited and experiences encountered by a traveler." Yours will be in the form of a poster.

Student-created board notes from class based on above videos: 

Outlining Bucketing and Supporting Evidence of Body Paragraphs and Writing the Final Essay

Here is the handout from class that may be used multiple times to develop your separate body paragraphs:

PLANNING BODY PARAGRAPHS BY SUBJECT AND EVIDENCE

Here is the Writing Guide from class to help you write the final essay:

WRITING GUIDE

Winter Quarter Research Paper

Piggybacking off your first two projects on the Dynastic Cycle and Philosopher's Tea, we will begin your Winter Quarter Research Paper.  You are encouraged to use themes in ancient and pre-modern Chinese history with which you are already familiar.

Examples include:

centralization of power 

bureaucratic structures 

education or technology 

religious systems and institutions 

organization of the military and war 

impact of foreign invasion

massive public works projects 

lives of peasants (conscription for labor, taxation, revolts against dynasties) 

innovations in belief systems (Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism) 

the use of belief systems by political institutions

Where should you look for sources?  Exactly where you have already been looking for the last two projects plus the Asian book cart pulled specifically for our class by Ms. Volk in the Pritzker Traubert Library.  You need to use two books, two reputable and scholarly electronic sources, and one primary source.  Once you have met that independent research requirement, you may also incorporate evidence from the Craig text which I scanned and uploaded for you. Take research notes with quotation marks to avoid "accidental" plagiarism.  Use this format. 

Asian Philosopher Tea

Confucianism 

                                                                      Doaism

Dynastic Cycle Project

Some of the first civilizations arose in China four thousand years ago along its two major river systems, the Huang He (Yellow) and Yangtze Rivers. Early Chinese dynasties had a belief in the Mandate of Heaven which meant the gods gave the Emperor the power to rule, but if he did not please them he could be removed. They say that every time a natural disaster occurred, a harvest was poor, or invasions began, the leaders of the different clans would fight to gain the Mandate.  The Zhou Dynasty first used this philosophy when they overthrew the Shang, yet this philosophy reappeared to legitimize new dynasties through 1644 (and perhaps even into the 20th century, through 1911 at the time of the Nationalist Revolution, or longer still. As historians, however, we should question to what extent this cycle fits the trajectory of ancient Chinese dynasties, and in doing so, understand its strength and weaknesses as a “model.” The dynastic class handout from class may be found here.

Dynastic Cycle Poster Rubric (20 Points)
Name: ______________
Assigned Dynasty: _______________
(1=low, 5=high)
Answer to question
Use of specific evidence (events, people)
3+ scholarly citations with pg #s
Attractive and symbolic representation

8th period Optional: If you were interested in the ancestor worship we briefly discussed today, you may find more at this optional extra credit article.  Read it and write 7-8 sentences summarizing how families venerate their ancestors.  http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/cosmos/prb/journey.htm  Worth 1 homework assignment.

Unit 5 China begins

(beginning through 17:10)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Qsd05kjnayM

2000 Years of Chinese History (Mandate of Heaven)

 Ted-Ex What Makes the Great Wall So Extraordinary? 

Gupta Empire: Contributions to Astronomy & Mathematics

Although preceded by two Guptan rulers, Chandragupta I (reign 320-335 CE) is credited with establishing the Gupta Empire in the Ganges River valley in about 320 CE, when he assumed the name of the founder of the Mauryan Empire. The period of Gupta rule between 300 and 600 CE has been called the Golden Age of India for its advances in science and emphasis on classical Indian art and literature. Gupta rulers acquired much of the land previously held by the Mauryan Empire, and peace and trade flourished under their rule.  Sanskrit became the official court language. In 499 CE, the mathematician Aryabhata published his landmark treatise on Indian astronomy and mathematics, Aryabhatiya, which described the earth as a sphere moving around the sun.

Astronomy, astrology, mathematics, and religion were closely linked in ancient India. Astronomy developed out of the need to determine solstices, equinoxes, and phases of the moon for Vedic rituals. Eighteen early astronomical texts or siddhantas, of which only the Surya-Siddhantha, written around 400 BCE, survives, discuss topics including lunar and solar eclipses, astronomical instruments, and the phases of the moon. The Vedanga Jyotisha composed by the astronomer Lagadha about 500 BCE outlines a calendar based on a five-year cycle or yuga with 62 lunar months and 1,830 days. India's earliest calendar, the Saptarshi calendar is broken into 2,700-year cycles and a version counting back to 3076 BCE is still in use in parts of India today.

Astronomy flourished under the Gupta Empire (c. 320-550 CE) during which time Ujjain in central India emerged as a center for astronomical and mathematical research. In 499 CE, Aryabhata, an Indian astronomer and mathematician who was also head of the university at Nalanda in Magadha (an ancient region located in what is now Bihar), composed the Aryabhatiya, a significant treatise about mathematics and astronomy written in Sanskrit. Aryabhata described a spherical Earth that rotates on its own axis and the orbits of planets in relation to the sun. He dated the universe to approximately 4,320,000 years and calculated the length of the solar year. India's first space satellite, launched in 1975, was named Aryabhata in his honor.

By 550 CE, the original Gupta line had no successor and the empire disintegrated into smaller kingdoms with independent rulers. Unlike the Mauryan Empire's centralized bureaucracy, the Gupta Empire allowed defeated rulers to retain their kingdoms in return for a service, such as tribute or military assistance. Samudragupta's son Chandragupta II (r. 375–415 CE) waged a long campaign against the Shaka Satraps in western India, which gave the Guptas access to Gujarat's ports, in northwest India, and international maritime trade. Kumaragupta (r. 415–454 CE) and Skandagupta (r. c. 454–467 CE), Chandragupta II's son and grandson respectively, defended against attacks from the Central Asian Huna tribe (a branch of the Huns) that greatly weakened the empire. 

(Reproduced and adapted for educational, non-commercial use only by students of Early World History, the above summary may also be found at http://www.pbs.org/thestoryofindia/)

Our final video clip from Story of India is available here.