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