How Dark were The Dark Ages?

The Dark Ages were not so dark, according to this fascinating clip from PragerU.

They were full of color with carnivals, and revived popular drama and they invented the university.

And don't forget architecture! Gothic cathedrals brought color and light.

  

European Sailors and Navigational Tools in the Age of Encounter and Exchange

Studying European sailors in the 1500's? Here are two good resources, both of which might work for short web quests. Here is a link to one that I made.

One includes the Mariners Museum lets you explore the instruments of exploration as well the explorers by time period.  During the Age of Discovery, you can look at short biographies of the major explorers,  and short overviews of ships like the carrack and carrack and tools like the backstaff and quadrant.

PBS World Explorers is another great resource. It uses Google Earth to show voyages of Cabot, Drake,  Magellan and Vespucci, DeGamma, and Columbus.

Buddhism Along the Silk Road: Hyperdoc

Here is a Hypedoc (Webquest) about the spread of Buddhism along the Silk Road between the 2nd and 12th centuries.

It's based on a terrific website simply called " A History of the Silk Road.  It has tabs for Buddhism, important people, travelers (including Ibn Battuta and Marco Polo), inventions (such as paper and gunpowder), Pax Mongolica, and even the Belt and Road Initiative.

Another resource for the hyperdoc was the Sackler Museum's digital exhibit of the Sogdians  (who the museum called "Influencers on the Silk Road.")  The Sogdians were central Asian nomads known for their trade and agriculture during their golden age between the 4th and 8th centuries.

The variety of religion was a big feature of Sogdian culture. In an essay called "Believers, Proselytizers, and Translators, the authors review the development of Zoroastrianism, which started in Iran.

My hyperdoc takes students into the Sackler Exhibit and asks them questions about Zoroastrianism and introduces them to the geography of the Silk Road with a terrific google map. In addition, it looks at the development of Buddhism, especially at its height during the Song Dynasty.  Students also read some of Ibn Batuttua's writing about Muslim life in West Africa.

Greece and Rome: Two Excellent Overviews

Here are two terrific video reviews of Greece and Rome. 
The Greece review runs 18 minutes and the Rome review runs just over 20 minutes.

Mugals- Art & Tolerance

In this review of Mughal art, William Dalrymple offers a terrific portrait of the Mughal emperors -- Akbar, Humayun, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan.

All four promoted and patronized art.  That art was colorful and liberal, at least by Muslim standards. Persians, for example, were scandalized by the art calling it "too ripe and rounded' and "too bright and colorful."  According to Dalrymple, that was because the art did not show the "restraint and geometric perfection of Safavid painting."

The Mughal love for art and its emphasis on liberalism shows a strong humanist streak in many Mughal emperors and especially, Akbar.

According to Dalrymple,  Akbar "succeeded in uniting Hindus and Muslims in the service of a multi-ethnic, multi-religious state, promoting Hindus in his civil service, marrying Hindu princesses and entrusting his army to the Rajput ruler of Jaipur."

Akbar's love for art included religious Christian art like frescoes of Christain saints and painted images of Christ.

Although the art exhibits about which Darylmple writes closed long ago, his essays offer world history students an engaging overview of the Mughals.

Sunni/Shia Divide- Resources

Here are some excellent resources for reviewing the Sunni/ Shia split. I paraticularly like the clip from the Council of Foreign Relations which is only eight minutes.  The NPR story and brodcast is also very good.

From Pew Form on Religion and Public Policy

• The New York Times: How do Sunni and Shia Differ
• An awesome Prezi with embedded video clips
• NPR: Origins of the Sunni/ Shia split
• Council of Foreign Relations: A terrific eight minute video clip reviewing the differences
• NBC News: A short but good clip, What Are the Differences Between Sunni and Shiite Muslims? 
• Pew Form on Religion and Public Life: The Sunni-Shia divide: Where they live, what they believe and how they view each other 

Comics Ideal for World and US History

Here is one of several great comics ideal for World History and U.S History. They were developed by the NYCDOE Department of Social Studies & Civics and tweeted by Joe Schmidt, a curriculum specialist in New York who helped develop the resources. 

 The comics are relatively short, about 25 to 30 pages. All of them are free.  A generic lesson plan that we often use with short comics is to have kids choose five panels that best summarize the story and copy them into a slide deck. After that, students write a short paragraph summarizing the story based on the comic. 

 In addition to the story about Simon Bolivar, there is another excellent comic about Olaudah Equiano, a slave born into the Igbo community in what is now Nigeria. He was captured and sent on a slave ship bound for Barbados. He was eventually sold to a Quaker and over the years was able to purchase his freedom and got involved in the abolition movement and published a narrative of his horrific journey across the Atlantic.

In addition to World History, I also teach US History. The NYCDOE Department of Social Studies & Civics developed a great comic about one of the worst race riots in US History, called the New York City Draft Riots by Nick Bertozzi. It took place in the middle of the Civil War in New York City in 1863 when President Lincoln passed the Enrollment Act, a conscription law that mandated that all citizens between 18 and 40 enroll in the military draft. Protests against the draft turned into a race riot when Irish protesters attacked African Americans because of their competition for low wage jobs and because African Americans were excluded from the draft because they were not citizens.

You can read more about the NYC Draft Riots here at Zinn Education.

Finally, here is a page with all of the NYCDOE Department of Social Studies & Civics comics.

Using Google Gemini to Create Assignments

If you have never used AI to create an assignment, you should give it a try.

I teach World History, both AP World and general World History for freshmen.  I uploaded chapter 1 and 2 about early man and the Paleolithic era in our textbook, Patterns of Interaction, to Google Gemini, and asked it to create a choice board assignment. 

Here is a link to what it created.  I copied the assignment to another google doc and color coded the choices.

Next, I uploaded Chapter 2 about early river valley civilizations and asked it create another choice board. Again, I copied it to another google doc and color coded it.

You can also ask Gemini to create a vocabulary matching quiz based on any chapter you are studying.  Here is a matching quiz I asked it to create on the Paleolithic era.  I copied it to a google doc and reformatted it.

I experimented further and asked Gemini create a test and it did a decent job. It's definitely worth checking out.

Alexander the Not So Great: Through Persian Eyes

He destroyed the great capital of Persepolis and the temples and emblems of the ancient Zoroastrian religion. So, unlike Westerners who tend to see Alexander as a great conqueror and military genius, Iranians do not see him as so great.

In an fascinating article for BBC News Magazine, Iranian historian, Ali Ansari, professor in modern history and director of The Institute of Iranian Studies at The University of St Andrews, Scotland, suggests that Alexander came to regret the destruction he wrought in Persia. He believes that had Alexander lived, "he may have restored and repaired more" than he did during his life.

You can also listen to Professor Ansari on BBC4 Radio 4 in an an excellent  3-part series "exploring world history from a Persian perspective."  Each episode is about 30 minutes and offers some great history through Persian eyes. In part 1, Professor Ansari discusses Zoroastrianism.

A History of the World, I Guess: Bill Wurtz's CLEAN Version

Here's an engaging history of the world (this is the clean, school version--yes, there's a not-so-clean version).

It was made by Bill Wurtz who also made a history of Japan that was released in 2015 and  earned over 3 million views on its first day. But be careful. Look for the clean version before showing it to your class.

Who Were the Sogdians

Here is a hyperdoc about the Sogdians who played a critical role in the trade of goods and ideas on the Silk Road.  It's based on an excellent online exhibit about the Sogdians from the National Museum of Asian Art.

The exhibit has four chapters: the Sogdians at Home: Believers, Proselytizers & Translators; the Sogdians Abroad; and the Rediscovery of the Sogdians.

The Sogdians were an Iranian people whose homeland, Sogdiana, was between present-day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, right on the Silk Road. They rose to prominence between the 4th and 5th centuries, capitalizing on their location. 

They developed a merchant society and made money on the trade between China and other parts of Asia. According to Judith Lerner  and Thomas Wide, writing for the National Museum of Asian Art, "mobile, multilingual, and highly skilled, the Sogdians were able to connect disparate regions, transfer goods and ideas across long distances, and oil the wheels of global trade and exchange."

Decolonization in Ghana & Kenya: Two Short Documentaries

Studying decolonization?  Here are two terrific short (25 to 30 minutes) documentaries about two independence movements in Africa--in Ghana and Kenya.

Both are from CCTV News, a 24-hour English news channel, of China Central Television, based in Beijing.

You can find questions for both videos in the New Visions Global Curriculum for 10th grade. Look for the unit on decolonization and nationalism. You'll find links to both videos with questions and other short activities

. 

Manchurian Crisis & Rape of Nanking

Here are two video clips about Japanese imperialism during the interwar period.

The first reviews the Manchurian crisis and the failure of the League of Nations while the second, from CCTV News, speaks to eyewitnesses about the Nanking Massacre.

Cold War Stations Activity

Here is a Cold War Stations activity that I use with my AP World students when we cover the Cold War.

One of my colleagues developed it years ago. It includes seven stations, each with cartoons, documents, or photographs for students to process. I printed it out for seven different stations, but students could also work on it online.

Here's a google link to the handout that students complete. If that does not work, try this dropbox link to the student worksheet. And here is a link to the activity on google slides. You can simply print out all the material for the different stations.

Here is a Dropbox link to the slideshow.

Online Archive for WWII

Here is a cool new online archive of 20th-century resources surrounding Winston Churchill.

The archive includes primary sources such as images, cartoons, and documents.

One of the most interesting parts of the archives is the investigations of significant issues designed for high school students.

Find out what went wrong at Gallipoli or if Britain could have done more for the Jews during WWII. The website gives you an overview of each issue along with a chart of primary sources to help students come to a conclusion.

The database is divided into four themes:

Key developments in world history

Key development in modern British empire history

Anglo-American relations in the 20th century

Churchill: Discussion, debate, and controversy

I might assign different key questions about World War II to students and have them create a short presentation. Some of the key questions and topics connect to the AP World curriculum. For example, questions about Yalta, the Jews, and Pearl Harbor, and Churchill's Iron Curtain Speech all connect to 7.7 and 8.2. Each topic has background information, sources for student research.

A Global Guide to WWI

The Guardian has a terrific interactive site about the global nature of World War I.  It has interactive maps, original news reports, and videos exploring the war and its effects from many perspectives. 

Ten historians give a brief history of the war through global lenses in a video that takes the viewer through the war.

My colleague and I put together a hyperdoc that takes students through the site and helps them understand the global nature of the war.  

The 4 Main Causes of WWI- Six Minute Overview

Here's a great six minute review of the MAIN causes of WWI from "Made from History."

 

Using Images to Understand the Interwar Period

Atlantic Magazine published 45 black and white stunning black-and-white photographs of the interwar period around the world.

Among the 45 images are Hitler and Mussolini shaking hands in Germany, Japanese aircraft carrying out air raids over China, Chinese General Chiang Kai-shek sitting with the chairman of the Yunan provincial government, and four Italian soldiers taking aim in Ethiopia in 1935.

Together, the images offer a terrific overview of the rise of fascism and authoritarianism around the world in the 1920s and 30's.

Classroom Connection:  Last year, I gave students the link to the images and had them sort them at least four different ways. Then I asked them to log into a common Google Doc, which I posted on Google Classroom,  and create a descriptive title for each group. Students could easily see what others were posting with the common Google Doc.

The lesson took about 25 minutes and allowed students to analyze interesting images and manipulate them in ways that might help them better understand the interwar period.

Here is a link to the lesson.

Thanks to my colleague, Jeff Feinstein, who gave me the sorting idea for this lesson and Brenda Liz Garcia‎ who posted the link to the Atlantic story on Facebook.

World War I: China & Africa Participate

Show your students the extent to which World War 1 was global with this excellent Twitter thread from Eileen Cheng-yin Chow, Director of the Shewo Institute of Chinese Journalism. 

She notes that China contributed much to the war effort and outlines the untold story of over 140,000 Chinese laborers who fought on the European frontlines beside French, Russian, and British troops. The thread includes excellent images and a trailer for a movie from Yellow Earth Productions called "Forgotten" about China during the war.

After students review the Twitter thread,  they can analyze charts and graphs showing the number of Chinese laborers recruited by Europeans and a map showing their route from China to Europe from the South China Morning Post.

World War I was also fought in Africa.  Michelle Moyd, Associate Professor of History at Indiana University Bloomington, discusses in a podcast the participation of African colonial troops in the war and answers these questions: "What motivated Africans to fight in the armies of their colonial power? How did the war change the relationships between the empires and their colonies? "

Ten Historians: 10 Different Interpretations on Who Started WWI

Ten historians give 10 different interpretations on who started WWI in this BBC story.

Sir Max Hastings - military historian, argues that Germany was most responsible. "It alone had power to halt the descent to disaster at any time in July 1914 by withdrawing its "blank cheque..."

Another historian, Sir Richard J Evans -Regius professor of history, University of Cambridge, argues that Serbia was most responsible. "Serbian nationalism and expansionism were profoundly disruptive forces and Serbian backing for the Black Hand terrorists was extraordinarily irresponsible."

And a number of historians like John Rohl - emeritus professor of history, University of Sussexe, put the blame on Austria Hungary and Germany. He argues that "the war broke out as the result of a conspiracy between the governments of imperial Germany and Austria-Hungary to bring about war." 

These short arguments might be an interesting assignment for students. They could read the ten arguments and make their own assessment of who or what started the war.

Students will also see that historians do not always agree on causes and outcomes of historical events.