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