Early+Modern

=Modern World History I (1400 AD-1750 AD) for Middle and Older Students=

This was a year for older and middle age students to study what is traditionally considered “Western Culture.” However, we included several sessions on what was going on in the rest of the world too, because I think it is important to understand what was happening in different places during the same time. This was a little easier to do than some of the previous years, because our focus, time-wise, was so much more narrow—about 1400-1750. We actually reached a little bit earlier when we discussed the Renaissance because it started around 1300 in Italy, but in general we focused on only 350 years. Believe me, this was enough! So much happened during that time period with such reverberating effects on who we are today, it was important to spend time really understanding various cultures as they grew during these years.

The big ideas for this year: · Form an understanding that we are still living in an Enlightenment world (contrast with Renaissance and before) · Put artists in context of what was happening in history · Show how philosophic ideas affected things (i.e., religious movements)/did not affect some things (i.e., most of daily life for regular people) · Show how science and philosophy were really one thing at first and how they became separated (tie into current ideas about teaching evolution alongside intelligent design) · Know what was happening outside of our Western history and why that non-European history also made the world we live in today

We continued to use little booklets as references for what they learned, but we also sometimes just had illustrated notes pages (I was still working on helping them learn how to take notes in outline form). This time, I color coded the handouts based on the main topic. Each sheet or booklet had culture and date expanse on it at top: Philosophy: blue, excerpts from texts, like textbooks Art: white booklets, lives of artists and illustrations, overall movements Music: yellow booklets, lives of artists and lists of pieces, overall movements General (life/politics/economy): green, outlines and lists

I have included in many of the areas my notes pages for myself. Now the kids were older, I did focus a lot more on delivering “lectures” though we did mix up plenty of hands-on stuff as well. Still, it was time for them to get the feel for how they would learn at high school or college. Plus, as you delve into issues in depth, I really believe you have to “scaffold” (this is an education term, forgive me!) a student’s historical learning by providing some good informational context. I wanted to structure the lectures so that the students would find patterns and connections themselves, but I HAD to give them a certain amount of help in order for them to do this. I wanted to spark them to think about issues more in-depth, and so I had to get the factual information “out of the way” of their thinking, so to speak. Since we were also going to be studying the arts fairly heavily during this time period, I wanted to make sure they saw them in the historical context of what was happening in everyday life as well. So, lecturing for at least part of the class became a norm. We had been doing this on and off for a couple of years, so the students were prepped a bit for the change. Also, there were several times I asked the students to go back to notes from previous years to remind themselves of what they had learned earlier. In other words, they sometimes had “homework” to read before class.

A note about my notes pages—these were written for me to use during my lectures and are often full of incomplete sentences, lists, etc. I tried to ensure that everything I stated was factual, by cross-checking resources. If I wasn’t sure, I let the kids know that this was one historian’s interpretation (they understood the nature of history by now, as we had often gone over it!). Many of the notes are “cut and pasted” from long forgotten web sites and ARE NOT MY OWN WRITINGS. I was very sloppy about attributing because these were meant for just my use, as they are now meant just for your reference. Other times, I summarized information from several different sources in a way that made sense to me. It may not make sense to you and that’s okay. These are just included for your information. As happened every year, I had to re-teach myself the history of that time period because a) it’d been a while since I taken history classes at high school and college, b) the interpretations of history change over time, as well as the amount of information uncovered through archaeology and historical research and c) when I learned history it was the usual “dates and famous white men” type of history. I was focusing on stuff I thought was much more important. And I was especially excited about learning the history of art and music, as I did not have a strong background in either. I very much enjoyed my own research into these areas and must give credit where credit is due—my family and especially my husband picked up the slack in housekeeping, cooking, etc. when I spent hours pouring over books, cruising the web and writing up lessons.

Two other things to note—we’d kicked off the year with Pirate/Underwater Archaeology Camp (see this page) to introduce the age of exploration for this year. Also, we had had such success with our Medieval Faire as a year-end activity the previous year, that I proposed they might wish to do a Colonial Fair this year as an end of the year activity. They all agreed it would be fun so we did!

Session 1: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We started out with a review game of the previous year’s work (1 A.D. to about 1500 A.D.) I asked to the kids to review their booklets and notes from last year and then we did a review “quiz” in round-robin fashion. I also introduced them to the historical idea of “eras” and “ages,” because they would be hearing a lot about these this next year. I pointed out that these are historical conventions (like country boundaries, not really real, just a way to grasp in idea) that are often disputed. In order that could see these various eras and ages, I created a timeline that compared them all to one another ([|eraschart.pdf] and [|agesanderas.doc]).

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Session 2: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Reformation and the printing press <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">For this session, I asked the kids to read up on some stuff we had done two years previously, about the philosophy of Ancient China ([|chinese philosophy.pdf]), the legacies of Ancient Greece ([|legacies.pdf]), and a new booklet on “Humanism” ([|humanism.pdf]) This helped lead into the discussion of the whole change in worldview that came with the Reformation and Renaissance. My notes for this class: [|Reformationnotes.doc] and [|humanism.doc] For the students, I had two other handouts (besides the Humanism booklet), [|Reformationoutline.doc] and [|PrintingPress.doc] In both of these, you’ll not that I highlighted certain words and phrases—this was to help students pick up the idea of outlining by listening for key ideas in a lecture.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Give out objects of power and have kids guess what they mean (having power) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Printing Press: info about what types of things were now available and how this fueled exchanges of ideas and loss/gain of power by different people or institutions (show examples of broadsides and pamphlets printed from the Internet) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Reformation: Developed from humanism, plague, exposure to different way of life, printing press <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Broad overview of events and people up to Puritans in England and Huguenots in France <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Why it was so important: break up of Christian world, along with spread of Christianity <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Olders and youngers: discuss freedom of the press in the U.S./discuss internet’s role as new distributor of info and ideas (blogs and such)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Session 3: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Renaissance Italy (daily life, Medici, merchants and banks) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">My notes: [|Italian Renaissance notes.doc] Outline for the kids: [|Italian Renaissance.doc] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Go over highlighted outline of the various city-states and what life was like in them. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Make a cookie map of the city states (This was always a popular way to work in geography! Make a non-rising cookie dough, roll out, and cut out shapes of the Italian peninsula. Bake and cool. Let everyone using different colors of icing to mark out where the different city-states were—use mini-chocolate chips to mark the capitals or main cities. Eat.)

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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Session 4: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Renaissance Italy (philosophy) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">My notes: [|Neoplatonism.doc] Student booklets: [|neoplatonism.pdf] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Neo Platonist: Marsilio Ficino, believed in studying the grand ideas in Plato and other philosophers rather than being active like the civic humanists. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Giovanni Pico: believed that he could reconcile all philosophies and show that a single truth lay behind them all <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s “Oration on the dignity of Man” (Pico) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Read excerpts from various writings to see if they are Medieval viewpoints or Renaissance viewports (see [|duelingquotes.doc])

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Session 5: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Renaissance Italy (art) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This was an intensive multimedia day. I happened to have access to a projection system so students could see the paintings on a large screen (blank wall, really), but you can also use a computer screen for smaller groups. In order to give the students any appreciation of art in the Renaissance, I needed to cover art in the Middle Ages—otherwise they would not have understood the importance of the changes that occurred and why those were so influential, even up to this day. So in this section, you have many notes, PowerPoint presentations, and handouts (the booklets were to remind the students of what they had seen in the slides). Another important note: we had already planned a visit to the National Gallery of Art, where you may find quite a few of these pieces of artwork. So when I chose which pieces of art to highlight, I tried to pick several that they would actually see in person at the Gallery. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">My notes: [|MedievalArt.ppt], [|Difference Medieval-Renaissance Art.doc]; [|ItalianRen1.ppt]; [|ItalianRen2.ppt]; [|narration-renaissance.doc] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Student booklets: [|middleagesart.pdf]; [|renartoverview.pdf]; [|earlymidrenart.pdf] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Go over art in the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Assign homework (writing a short story as if they lived in Italy during the Renaissance): [|WritingAssignment.doc]

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Session 6: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Northern Renaissance (architecture and art) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">My notes: RenaissanceArchitecture.ppt; [|narration-architecture.doc]; [|northerren.ppt]; [|narration-northernrenaissance.doc] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Student booklets: [|renarch.pdf]; [|northernrenart.pdf] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Go over Renaissance architecture styles and then the northern Renaissance <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Don’t forget to take up the writing assignment and evaluate it

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Session 7: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Renaissance (politics) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Politics in the Renaissance became quite a web of intrigue. It really was like a soap opera! So for this lesson, I created pictures of all the “players” and put three large blackline maps (Europe in 1400, 1500 and 1600) over a big piece of metallic sheet (my hubby bought this for me at Lowe’s). I taped these at the top so I could flip them over in order, starting with the 1400s. The maps need to be fairly simple line drawings, focusing on country borders. I traced maps using overhead transparency plastic (see [|1400big.jpg], [|1500big.jpg] and [|1600big.jpg]), then projected them onto big sheets of paper so I could trace the outlines. Then I printed out the “players” on cardstock ([|playerscards.pdf]), but them out and glued small magnets on the back of each one. Using my notes, which was also the handout for the kids, [|Players.doc], I told the various stories, moving the pieces around to the various countries as needed and challenging the kids to keep track of who was now related to who. It was really a lot of fun.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Session 8: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Age of Discovery <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">My notes: [|Exploration Timeline.doc] (way too much info, but read all you want) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Printed out a blackline master map of the Atlantic Ocean between Europe (including Italy) and the Americas onto overhead transparency plastic sheets for 8 teams. I should make a note that one of our moms had inherited an overhead projector at this point, but you can do this without one. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Put students in teams of two (mixing up the usual buddies) and gave them information sheets (Cabot.doc; Cartier.doc; Cook.doc; daGama.doc; Dias.doc; Drake.doc; Hudson.doc; LaSalle.doc) about the different explorers with the routes they had used to explore across the Atlantic. Each team needed to read about their explorer, trace their route(s) in a red overhead pen on the transparency <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· We then we placed all the transparencies on top of each other to see where the most “traffic” was. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· After that, we all read about how you navigate using the North Start (see PowerPoint at []) and use the following handouts: HowtoFindtheNorthStar.doc; NavigationbytheNorthStar.doc; HowtoMakeaSextant.doc; MeasuringLatitude.doc) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Let the kids make their sextants and use them

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Session 9: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Field Trip to the Washington National Gallery of Art! <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Because I wanted the kids to see works they had seen in the PowerPoint presentations, I laid out a specific route to take through the Galleries. I had a map, and my own notes (very long document: [|tourofnga.doc]). I also made a Treasure Hunt ([|Treasure hunt master.doc]) for the students so that they would look closely at works or art rather than just glancing at them. I luckily had a bunch of cheap clipboards leftover from our “dig” summer camp, so we used those for the kids to write on. They were sworn to let each other have the fun of finding the “treasures” rather than telling them where things were, though if someone asked for help they could give hints. We went up on a weekday so the Gallery wasn’t particularly crowded. I did a little bit of lecturing here and there about some piece of artwork or another, but mainly let the kids roam around the various rooms (we kept a close eye on them—they had to stay within the themed gallery sections). I remember this as being one of the absolutely most fun field trips even though it was raining and we had to walk several blocks to get to the Gallery from the Metro. The guards in each gallery were very kind to us and complemented the kids on being so focused and well-behaved. They were!

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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Session 10: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Elizabethan England (Daily Lives/Music) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">My notes: for daily life, all online (use the [|www.delicious.com/jweller] site and search by Elizabethan tag); for music, [|RenaissanceMusic.doc] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Student handouts: [|Instructions for Time Travel research.doc]; [|Music of the Renaissance.doc] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· The tables were turned and it was time for the students to do the research and let me know what they discovered about life in the Elizabethan period. I used several computers as stations, assigned the students in teams, gave them their instructions and set up the following page on all the computers, [|Elizabethan Era research links.htm] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· The students did their research and compiled their lists. They then reported back to the group as a whole and gave me their written list to compile to send out to everyone later. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Then we went over the music of the Renaissance. I had been able to download music files of lots of different pieces that I referenced and was able to play them for the students. You’ll see references to the pieces I used on the information sheet. You should be able to find these much more easily than I did at that time, but I do have some good sites for such music listed at the [|www.delicious.com/jweller] site (search by Elizabethan and Music tags). Some are also listed on the sheet itself. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Homework: I compiled the list of the 10 things you needed to know from each group (here’s ours: [|top 10 things to know.doc]) and sent to the kids that and a mystery story I'd created based on their facts: [|story.doc] and [|story with errors.doc] (the errors our criminal made are highlighted). The following week the kids all had figured the mystery out.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Session 11: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Elizabethan England (Christmas Carols and Feast) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We were right at Christmas, so we decided having a feast was in order. Everyone picked a Renaissance style food to bring and I gathered together information about Christmas carols, some of which started about then (most really came later, but that was okay!). I gave out a copy of a Carol songbook ([|carols.doc]) and played some of the files I’d found online, providing some of the history I’d researched on each of the carols (see [|www.delicious.com/jweller] site and search by the carol tag)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Session 12: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Asia (China) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">My notes: (I can’t find my general notes for the history of China, but the outline for the students can help you—includes the voyages of Zheng He and Ibn Battuta); [|narration for China art.doc] [|narration for Japan art.doc]; [|ChinaJapan art.ppt] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Student notes: [|Qing history outline.doc]; [|china.pdf]

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Session 13: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Asia (Japan) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">My notes: (I can’t find my general notes for the history of Japan, but the outline for the students can help you). <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Student notes: [|japan history outline.doc]; [|japan.pdf] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Set up stations for students to do some hands-on art projects. I had sent out a note the week before to prepare them (art projects planning.doc). I set up the following ones: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Paper cuttings (just used regular bright colored origami paper): [|directionspapercutting.jpg] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Jade carvings (I found some light green soft bar soap at the dollar store—it was so soft they could carve it with plastic knives) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Watercolor fans (these were oval-shaped fans cut out of file folders with popsicle handles that they could paint with watercolors) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Zen painting (I had some black paint they could use with some examples to follow) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Landscape painting (again, could use some watercolors—I had watercolor paper—and I had a few examples to remind them what they had seen the art slide shows): [|directionszenlandscape.jpg] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Zen dry garden (used flat containers, sand, made little rakes out of plastic canvas cut and stuck through with a bamboo skewer-see below picture, smooth and sharp rocks) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Chinese calligraphy (let them choose which attributes they wish to draw for a banner for themselves-I had a few calligraphy brushes and ink): [|directionschinesecall.jpg]; [|call001.jpg]; [|call002.jpg]; [|call003.jpg], [|call004.jpg]; [|call005.jpg]; [|call006.jpg]; [|call007.jpg] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Katakana Japanese calligraphy (this syllabic form of Japanese can be found at [] - I let the kids write their names as closely as they could using the syllables) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Session 14: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Asia: India, Islamic Empires, and Indonesia <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">My notes: [|Indonesia.doc] (again, I can’t find my notes on either India or the Islamic empires, but the student notes will guide you); [|Indiaetal art.ppt]; [|narration for indian art.doc]; [|narration for islamic art.doc] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Student notes: [|india outline.doc]; [|islamic outline.doc]; [|indonesia outline.doc]; [|india-islam-indo art.pdf] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Go over the basic history of each of the areas, then look at the art PowerPoint, making sure to note distinctions between western art and Asian art. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· To make a “metallurgy” project, I printed out a copy of the Arabic for “peace be with you” for each student ([|arabicpeace.gif]). They used a piece of cardboard as a base and some white glue to write with. When the glue dried, we covered them in foil, pressing the foil down around the characters. Then we used a light brown paint to “wash” over the foil. Once the paint was dry, when then rubbed off the raised parts of the calligraphy. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· The students also worked to create a calligraphy picture with their name (use English letters, but they can be stretched and shaped as needed)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Session 15: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Russia <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Student outline: Fill in the blank: [|Russia outline for students.doc]; with answers: [|Russia outline.doc] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Go over the history of Russia, letting the kids fill in the blanks as they go. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Read three Russian fairy tales and have the kids act out the stories: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">o Baba Yaga: [] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">o [|Prince Ivan.doc] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">o [|The Frog Princess.doc] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Dance the Troika, a traditional Russian Folk Dance: (YouTube demonstration with teens: [])

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Session 16: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Africa <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We had covered many of the great civilizations of Africa in the previous year, so I reminded the students of these, and of how varied Africa was during this time. This time, I focused on two groups of people who are a link to the earliest human societies, and to the pirates of northern Africa. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">My notes on the Bushmen: [|African Bushmen.doc] [|pirate notes.doc] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Student outlines: Fill in the blank: [|Africa notes for students.doc]; with answers: [|Africa notes.doc] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Go through the outlines with the students, and have them fill in the blanks. Before going on to the colonial period (last page of notes), try to help them comprehend how different the life of the earliest inhabitants of Africa was from our life today. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· If you would like to show video, there are some old PBS/BBC videos of the San Bushmen and Mbuti pygmies you might stumble across. Here is a clip from a PBS video about the San here: [] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Here is one about the pygmies on YouTube that might be useful, focusing on dance and music style (Note: the women are topless): [] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Now talk about the earliest colonies by the European powers and the various indigenous empires. (it won’t hurt to remind them that Jamestown was founded in 1609!) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Create African masks from printouts, markers, feathers, beads, etc. You can print outlines from this site: [] (they have a tremendous variety). You can also show them some real masks by searching the Internet, or using the collection I pulled from various sites: [|collection.pdf]

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Session 17: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Americas: First Contact (Age of Discovery from the other side) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We had already talked about the explorers and now it was time to look at the Age of Discovery for a different angle—that of the people who had been “discovered.” Before class, I sent a link to students to this article: [] and asked them to think about the following questions: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">My notes: [|First contact notes.doc] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Notes for kids: [|first contact for kids.doc]; [|taino.doc]; [|wampanoag.doc], [|powhatan.doc] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We started out discussing the article and the different points of view. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Look at the points of contact map and the timeline (part of the first contact for kids.doc) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">([] has theories on what happened to the Roanoke Colony) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Go over the three major players (Spanish/Portuguese, British and French) and have the kids take notes on their papers. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Hand out the three documents comparing the Native Americans to the Europeans they encountered. (The original for these documents was the comparison of the Wampanoag and the Pilgrims created by Scholastic. They don’t have it in this form anymore—it’s an interactive website: [] now. I created the other two handouts based on their layout.) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Have the students do a quick role play of the encounters with what they were REALLY thinking about each other (this should be fun and humorous). <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Talk about the Columbian Exchange and what that is about. Have the kids look through their notes on that and see how the exchange didn’t go one way. Some things were good and some were bad. But it happened and there is no turning back now. Talk about how exchanges are still happening today, both for good and ill. Are we more aware of the damage we might cause than the Europeans were?
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">How can a person simultaneously be a hero to one group of people and a villain to another?
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">How did Columbus’ journey change the world?
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Do you believe that celebrating Columbus Day with a parade constitutes “hate speech?” What do you believe constitutes “hate speech?”
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">What compromise would you suggest between parade protestors and people who wanted to celebrate their ethnic pride?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Session 18: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Scientific Revolution in the Western world <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">My notes: [|The Problem of the Planets.doc]; [|scientists bios.doc] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Student Handouts: [|Before and After chart.doc]; [|Timeline of Scientists.doc]; [|scientists cards.pdf]; [|game rules.pdf] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Read through “The Problem of the Planets” (originally from []) well enough that you can tell it as a story, a mystery that was solved by science. Concentrate on how ideas are changed, added to, subtracted from, etc. all the time. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Go over the Before and After chart, talking about all that we have studied up to now, what went on along with the Scientific Revolution (use the Timeline of Scientists to include the people and refer to the scientists bios notes for fun details), and then what came after. Focus on the results of the scientific revolution. It is very important that the students understand that this is a huge change in thinking about the world, so emphasizing the “before” and “after” is the most important thing to do. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· The next thing we did was play a card game (had the group split into smaller groups to play). Use the above scientists cards and game rules files to create the game. I printed one set per family so they could take them home to review on their own.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Session 19: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Politics of Europe/Industrial Revolution in England //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">At this point, we needed to start planning our Colonial Fair. The kids had all had some history of colonial America, either earlier in our co-op or just coincidentally (we DO live in Virginia with Williamsburg, Jamestown, etc.). And we had had our experience from the previous year with the Medieval Faire to help us get started. I asked the kids to start thinking about fun and educational activities they would like to do. // <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">My notes: [|europeanenlightenment.doc]; [|playersiicards.pdf]; [|Everyday life of the 1600s and early 1700s.doc] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Students notes: [|Players II.doc]; [|Everyday life of the 1600s and early 1700s-student.doc] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· We needed to go back to the “soap opera” of the monarchs of Europe. Once again, I made magnets of the rulers and placed on the magnetic sheet covered with maps from 1600 and then 1700 ([|1600big.jpg] and 1[|1700big.jpg]). I gave the students a sheet of notes with the main points highlighted in different colors. The whole point of this exercise is not to have the kids memorize dates and who ruled when, but to be able to recognize some names of particularly influential leaders, to understand how the politics of Europe led to how family connections and rivalries influenced many decisions, and to get a sense of changes that were starting to happen in that part of the world. So I kept the pace fast and furious, with funny stories and lots of questions about who was NOW related to who since so-and-so’s sister married so-and so’s son. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Then we moved on to everyday life for peasants and nobles, the agricultural revolution and the beginnings of the industrial revolution. I gave them a sheet of notes with “fill in the blanks” to keep them focused but to cover as much material as possible. Again, the idea is to use the particulars to give them a sense of the big picture. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Homework: [|timeline rubric.doc] I wanted the kids to practice their skills in summarizing history logically and using a timeline. So I created a multi-week project for them. The instructions and rubric I used to evaluate their work are included in the above document. I asked them to focus more on the process (how they thought about things, how they made decisions on what to include rather than what not to include) more so than having a “perfect” finished product.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Session 20: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Mannerist Art and the Baroque Era (Art) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">My notes: [|narration-mannerist.doc]; [|Mannerism.ppt]; [|narration-baroque.doc]; [|baroque.ppt]; [|baroque.ppt]; [|baroque-architecture.ppt] Student notes: [|mannerism.pdf]; [|baroque.pdf]; [|rococo.pdf]; [|baroque architecture.pdf] This was a lot of sitting and looking at slides but the kids put up with it. I tried to make it as interactive as possible, getting them to point out characteristics that I had mentioned when they noticed them in certain pieces of art work. Actually I think they did enjoy it, but it was an awful lot of sitting.

Session 21: Literature and Music from 1600-1750 My notes: [|music dance lit notes.doc] Student notes: [|Literature2.doc] · Go over literature, giving the examples of each writer’s work and what their significance was in the scheme of literary history. · Go over the changes in music, especially the rise of the orchestra and opera. Play various pieces of music (listed on the student handout) that demonstrate various characteristics of music during this time. · Give the history of the development of formal dance. Show dance clips from []

Session 22: FIELD TRIP! It all kind of started as a joke. I had found, in my research, a reconstructed German farm at []. Of course, it WAS in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. I sent out a note to everyone and said "let's go on a field trip." Before we knew it, several families decided it would be great fun to go! Not everyone did but enough of us did to make it worthwhile. We had, at that point, decided to represent a middle colony colonial village fair, so this was perfect research! As we planned our trip, we also found the Ephrata Cloister, an early religious community (similar to the Shakers): [] and a tour around a modern Amish farm in a buggy! We had a blast and learned a lot, too.