a-g honors world history A and B Gorman Learning Center (052344) Basic Course Information Title: a-g honors world history A and B Transcript abbreviations: H World Hist A / H World Hist B Length of course: Full Year Subject area: History / Social Science ("a") / World History / Cultures / Historical Geography UC honors designation? Yes Prerequisites: None Co-requisites: None Integrated (Academics / CTE)? No Grade levels: 10th, 11th, 12th Course learning environment: Classroom Based Course Description Course overview: This full-year course explores the expansive history of the human world. Students will learn many facts, but also the critical thinking skills necessary to analyze historical evidence as presented in primary sources. Five themes will be used as a frame of reference in the chronological study of the world s history; these themes are: Interaction between humans and the environment; development and interaction of cultures; state-building, expansion and conflict; creation, expansion, and interaction of economic systems; and development and transformation of social structures. This world history course begins with a review of the moral and ethical principles in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy. After this review students will examine the rise of democratic ideas and learn about the ideas on which political systems are built. Students then study the major turning points of the modern world from approximately 1750 to the present, including the the Age of Exploration, absolute monarchy, the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, Nationalism, the Industrial Revolution, the Age of Progress, Imperialism, the two World Wars, restructuring in the post-war world, continued struggles for democracy, global interdependence, and unresolved problems of the modern world.
One important skill students will develop throughout the course is the ability to examine change over time, including the causation of events as well as the major effects of historical developments, the interconnectedness of events over time, and the spatial interactions that occur over time that have geographic, political, cultural, and social significance. Each student will develop the ability to connect the local to the global, and vice-versa. Students will also learn how to compare developments in different regions and in different time periods as well as contextualize important changes and continuities throughout world history. They will develop an understanding of the historic as well as contemporary geographic, social, political, and economic consequences of the various areas and problems they examine. Students will write detailed analytical and research papers, including the use of primary and secondary sources, with appropriate annotations. They will have options to create and present digital presentations and videos, and they will complete a cumulative final examination. This course is specifically designed to meet the California standards for World History using a variety of textbook options. Course content: Unit One: The Rise of Democratic Ideas Unit One: The Rise of Democratic Ideas Students completing this unit will comprehend and analyze how ancient Greek and Roman philosophy led to the development of Western political thought. Students completing this unit study the ancient Greek, Roman, and Judeo-Christian traditions and explore the ideological origins of modern democracy. Students analyze the reforms of Solon, Cleisthenes, and Pericles in ancient Athens and learn about the first democratic institutions in world history. They examine the writings of Plato and Aristotle and discuss the vision of political philosophy contained in each work, comparing the aspects of their ideal societies with institutions and characteristics of modern governments. Students examine the structures of the Roman republic and compare and contrast its characteristics with those of the United States government today, connecting ancient examples to modern institutions. Students read excerpts of the Old Testament and evaluate the effects of the ancient Hebrews on modern conceptions of equality. Students will complete a modified Origins of Western Political Thought assignment, including the Extension: Writing Component in which students, using primary source documents, will answer the prompt: Compare and contrast Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian influence on democracy considering the role of the individual, government, and their contributions in a well written essay or approximately 1000 words. Notations and a works cited page will be included. Unit Two: Absolutism to Revolution Unit Two: Absolutism to Revolution
Students completing this unit will compare and contrast the conflicts that existed in Europe and the Americas and the revolutions that resulted (the Glorious Revolution of England, the American Revolution, the French Revolution) and their enduring effects worldwide on the political expectation for self-government and individual liberty. Students trace the rise of Europe s absolute monarchies and the conflicts that ensued. They analyze the events leading up to the English Civil War and establishment of the English Parliament. Students examine the works of Enlightenment philosophers (Locke, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Bolivar, Jefferson, and Madison) and describe the democratic ideals each expressed. Students will analyze the influence these ideas had on the development of the Magna Carta, the English Bill of Rights, the American Declaration of Independence, the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the, and the U.S. Bill of Rights and intern reformed many monarchies. Students will also trace the events of the American Revolution and identify the Enlightenment s influence of American government. Additionally, students will describe the factors that led to the French Revolution and trace its events through all five different stages, culminating in the rise of Napoleon. Students will connect examples of the American and French Revolutions to similar democratic revolutions in Latin America and evaluate the significance of leaders such as Simon Bolivar in bringing democracy to Latin America. Finally, students examine the artistic responses to the changing times in the movements of romanticism, realism, and impressionism. A)In an approximately 3-4 page paper or recorded presentation with a visual aide, students will select and explain excerpts from five documents (Magna Carta, English Bill of Rights, US Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, and Declaration of the Rights of Man the Citizen) and explain the meaning in their own words and relate the ideas presented to various democratic ideals. Notations and a works cited page will be included. Unit Three: Industrialism and the Race for Empire Students completing this unit will study the origins, developments, and effects of the Industrial Revolution. They will note the spread of industrialism to the United States, France, Germany, Japan, and other nations around the world and evaluate the effects, examining the origins of industrialism from the Agricultural Revolution and within textile industries of Britain. They will evaluate the effects of James Watt s improvements to the steam engine on the industrial output of Britain as well as identify other major technological advances of the age and analyze the many social and economic changes caused by those advances. Students will also chart the massive growth of cities caused by the influx of labor from the country to factory jobs in the urban centers as well as trace the evolution of work and labor, including the demise of the slave trade and the effects of immigration, mining and manufacturing, the division of labor, and the union movement. In addition, students will investigate the capitalist market system and laissez-faire philosophy of economy that developed during this time, evaluating the positive and negative effects they had on the human population and environment. They will analyze the rise of economic philosophies to alternate to capitalism, such as communism and socialism, and describe the efforts of peoples to regain some of the human justice and dignity lost to the factory system.
Finally, students will analyze and describe the artistic reactions to industrialism, the emergence of romanticism in art and literature. Students will complete a report (1000 words) explaining the causes of industrialization and evaluating both the short-term and long-term impact of industrialization on societies in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Notations and a works cited page will be included. Unit 4: Industrialism and the Race for Empire, Part II In the second half of this unit, students will study the expansion of European influence and control around the world. Students will examine the links between the Industrial Revolution and the motivations behind imperialism in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Students will analyze the justification strategies behind imperialism, including the missionary impulse, and analyze the arguments behind Social Darwinism and scientific racism and evaluate their effects on the imperialist expansions. Students will map the location of colonial rule of other nations (France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain, Portugal and the United States in addition to England) and compare to modern maps to gain an understanding of the influence of imperialism on modern borders and regional conflicts. Students will examine the relationships developed between the colonizers and the colonized, scrutinizing imperialism from the perspective of the colonized, coming to understand the immediate and long-term responses by the people under colonial rule, and describing the efforts of various resistance leaders and the effects resistance movements have had over time. Students will complete a Imperialism Research Poster Project in which they research a country colonized during this era, identifying motivation and means of colonization, resistance efforts by colonized country, and the lasting impact of imperialism on that country, including linguistic, religious, and cultural. Posters are presented with a written 1-2 page report or oral presentation with note cards. Notations and a works-cited page are required. Unit Five: The World at War Students completing this unit will study events of the early 20th Century. In the first part of this unit, Students will begin the unit by analyzing the causes, course, and effects of the First World War. They will examine the arguments and justifications each side presented for entering the war as well as the role political and economic rivalries, ethnic and ideological conflicts, domestic discontent and disorder, and propaganda and nationalism played in mobilizing the civilian population in support of total war. Students will trace the course of the war on the Western and Eastern Fronts, on the seas, and in the colonies, emphasizing significant battles and turning points, and evaluating the effects geographic features played military strategies and battle outcomes as well as the impact technological innovations. Students
will explain the causes of the Russian Revolution and its effects on the people of Russia and the course of the war as well as America s late entry and contribution to the war effort. Students will come to understand the nature of the war and its human costs on all sides of the conflict, including how colonial peoples contributed to the war effort and the human rights violations and genocide that occurred, including the Ottoman's government s actions against Armenian citizens. In the second part of this unit, students study the effects of World War I. They will analyze the aims and negotiating roles of world leaders, the terms and influence of the Treaty of Versailles and Woodrow Wilson s Fourteen Points, and the causes and effects of the United State s rejection of the League of Nations on world politics. Students will describe the effects of the war and resulting peace treaties on population movement, the international economy, and shifts in the geographic and political borders of Europe and the Middle East. They will understand the widespread disillusionment with pre-war institutions, authorities, and values that resulted in a void that was later filled by totalitarians. They will analyze the impact of this disillusionment on literature, art, and intellectual life in the west. Students will also analyze the rise of totalitarian government after World War I, including the causes and consequences of the Russian Revolution with Lenin s use of totalitarian means to seize and maintain control and Stalin s rise to power in the Soviet Union and the connection between economic policies, political policies, the absence of a free press, and systematic violations of human rights. They will analyze the rise, aggression, and human costs of Fascist and communist totalitarian regimes in Germany, Italy and the Soviet Union, noting especially their common and dissimilar traits. And, in the third part of this unit, students will analyze the causes and consequences of World War II. They will compare the German, Italian, and Japanese drives for empire, including the atrocities committed (the 1937 Rape of Nanking, other atrocities in China, and the Stalin-Hitler Pact of 1939). Students will understand the role appeasement, isolationism, and the domestic distractions in Europe and the United States prior to the outbreak of World War II. As done in studying World War I, students will identify and locate the Allied and Axis powers on a map and discuss the major turning points of World War II, the principal theaters of conflict, key strategic decisions, and the resulting war conferences and political resolutions, with emphasis on the importance of geographic factors. The political, diplomatic, and military leaders during the war (e.g., Winston Churchill, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Emperor Hirohito, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, Douglas MacArthur, Dwight Eisenhower) will be described. Students will also make an analysis of the Nazi policy of pursuing racial purity, its transformation into the Final Solution, and the Holocaust. The human costs of the war, with particular attention to the civilian and military losses in Russia, Germany, Britain, and the United States, China, and Japan will also be examined by students. A)Students will research propaganda posters used to elicit support for entering World War I. They will create a digital graphic organizer (or slide presentation) that analyzes primary source propaganda illustrating the four main causes of WWI: militarism, alliances, imperialism and nationalism. Each of the four sections will include an original propaganda poster that matches one cause, an analysis of the poster (purpose, audience, persuasive technique employed,
symbolism, and message), and more detailed explanation of the cause of WWI being addressed. Additionally, using the persuasive techniques and elements of design studied with the first activity, students will demonstrate their understanding of the methods of persuasion and the causes of the war sketching an original 11 x 17 color propaganda poster that is persuasive in nature and that promotes one of three wartime necessities: enlistment, conservation or workforce/monetary contribution. Students posters will be accompanied by a 1-2 page written explanation of its purpose, audience, persuasive technique employed, symbolism, and relevance to wartime necessity being promoted. Unit Six: Perspectives on the Present Students completing this final unit will examine international developments including the state and relationships between nations following World War II. Students will understand the economics and military power shifts caused by the war, including the development of nuclear weapons, soviet control over Eastern European nations, and the economic recoveries of Germany and Japan. Students will examine the causes of the Cold War and the Communist influence in other countries. Students will examine the objectives and economic and political results of the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan and the purpose of organization such as the United Nation, the Warsaw Pact, NATO and SEATO. Students will analyze the causes and events associated with the Chinese Civil War and communist China under Mao Zedong as well as the uprisings in Eastern European countries seeking freedom from Soviet control including the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War. And, students will understand how the forces of nationalism developed in the Middle East, how the Holocaust affected world opinion regarding the need for a Jewish state, and the significance and effects of the location and establishment of Israel on world affairs. In addition, student will analyze instances of nation-building in the contemporary world by will examining the regions or countries of the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and China. In order to develop an understand the geopolitical, cultural, military, and economic challenges in each, students will research the recent history of the regions, including political divisions and systems, key leaders, religious issues, natural features, resources, and population patterns and identify the important trends in the regions today and evaluate whether they appear to serve the cause of individual freedom and democracy. Finally, students analyze the integration of countries into the world economy and the impact of the information, technological, and communications revolutions. Wars, territorial disputes, ethnic and cultural conflicts, acts of terrorism, advances in technology, expansion of human rights, and changes in the global economy present new challenges. Students will select one new government discussed in this unit and create a presentation that addresses the changes that took place in relation to the themes listed above. The presentation can be a written
essay (1000 words), oral presentation with photographs, maps, and other images or other multimodal production. In all cases, notations and works cited page will be required. FINAL EXAM The final exam will be a comprehensive test based on the key concepts covered in all 6 units of this year-long course. The exam consists of multiple choice, short answer, and essay type questions. A study guide will be made available. Honors Final Exam Details: Using the essay you wrote for World History class and all that you have learned through the process, create a digital presentation to present to your IST at your final LP 10 meeting. Your presentation should last 5-7 minutes. The rubric is attached. The total is out of 20 points (possibly 24 if your IST adds another category at the bottom) Make sure to include the following topics in your presentation Describe and discuss the problem going on in the country you chose Offer possible solutions or outcomes or predict what might happen based on historical or regional responses in the past Connect to larger issues about what you have learned this year (i.e. Nationalism, militarism, causes of revolutions, changing economic systems, etc.) Include the scholarly sources in your presentation ( works cited page, and in text citations where necessary) Include current pictures and explain them in connection to your essay/presentation Course Materials No course materials have been added to this course.