GRADE: AP World History (WHAP)                                          AUTHORS: FLHS AP teachers
UNIT TITLE/FOCUS:  Period 2: Organization and Reorganization of Human Societies (600 BCE-600 CE)
UNIT LENGTH: 3-4 weeks


Essential Question:
To what extent have belief systems impacted the development of states and societies?

Enduring Understanding:  Students understand …

1. The social bond and ethical codes developed by belief systems
   
2. The relationship between government and belief systems
   
3. The conflicts resulting from the intersection of politics and belief systems
   

Guiding Questions: (content, process, metacognitive)

Content:

1. How did the codification of belief systems develop stronger social cohesion? (2.1.I,III)
   
2. How did belief systems diffuse throughout the Classical Period? (2.1.II,IV)
   
3. Why did belief systems often reinforce existing social structures? (2.1 III)
   
4. Why were new states and empires growing dramatically during the Classical Period? (2.2.I)
   
5. How did new states and empires develop from prior political and cultural traditions? (2.2 II,III)
   
6. Which factors contributed to the decline and transformation of Classical empires? (2.2 IV)
   
7. Why did inter-regional trade expand across the Eastern Hemisphere? (2.3 I,II,III)
   

Process:

1. How does understanding the author’s point of view (POV) provide context in analyzing a primary source?
   
2. Why is understanding primary sources useful in answering historical questions?
   
3. To what extent does evaluating a historian’s argument help in the analysis of different interpretations of historical events?
   
4. How does comparing and contrasting events, individuals and processes over time and across time periods help us to construct a better understanding of historic developments?
   
5. Why is chronology and geography essential to contextualizing history?
   
6. To what extent does understanding a historical issue provide insight to events that occurring today?
   
7. Can evaluating causation provide an opportunity for historical contingency?
   
8. How does evaluating the process of continuity and change over time relate to bigger historical questions?
   
9. To what extent can history be organized into discrete periods of time?
   
10. How does a student’s ability to develop an argument demonstrate the application of historical thinking?
    
11. How can relevant evidence help to drive an argument?
    

Metacognitive:

1. How did a debate help you or hurt you in developing your own perspective?
   
2. What are the most important steps in analyzing the document prompt?
   
3. What challenges did you face in searching for the point of view in the DBQ documents?
   
4. How did evaluating primary sources assist your understanding of the time period?
   

Standards:  KEY CONCEPTS
2.1 The Development and Codification of Religious and Cultural Traditions

1. Codifications and further developments of existing religious traditions provided a bond among people and ethical code to live by.
   
2. New belief systems and cultural systems emerged and spread, often asserting universal truths.
   
3. Belief systems generally reinforced existing social structures while also offering new roles and status to some men and women. For example, Confucianism emphasized filial piety, and some Buddhists and Christians practiced a monastic life.
   
4. Other religious and cultural traditions, including shamanism, animism and ancestor veneration, persisted.
   

2.2 The Development of States and Empires

1. The number and size of key states and empires grew dramatically as rulers imposed political unity on areas where previously there had been competing states. Key states include SW Asia (Persian empires), East Asia (Qin and Han empires), South Asia (Maurya and Gupta empires), Mediterranean Region (Phoenicia and its colonies, Greek city-states and colonies, Hellenistic and Roman empires), Mesoamerica (Teotihuaca, Mayan city states), Andean South America (Moche), North America (from Chaco to Cahokia)
   
2. Empires and states developed new techniques of imperial administration based, in part, on the success of earlier political forms.
   
3. Unique social and economic dimensions developed in imperial societies in Afro-Eurasia and the Americas.
   
4. The Roman, Han, Persian, Mauryan and Gupta empires encountered political, cultural, and administrative difficulties that they could not manage, which eventually lead to their decline, collapse and transformation into successor empires or states.
   

2.3 Emergence of Interregional Networks of Communication and Exchange

1. Land and water routes became the basis for interregional trade, communication, and exchange networks in the Eastern Hemisphere.
   
2. New technologies facilitated long-distance communication and exchange.
   
3. Alongside the trade in goods, the exchange of people, technology, religious and cultural beliefs, food crops, domesticated animals, and disease pathogens developed across extensive networks of communication and exchange.
   

ASSESSMENTS



Authentic Performance Task(s):
Students will write a Comparative essay on the political systems of classical civilizations: Analyze similarities and differences in methods of political control in TWO of the following empires in the Classical period. Han China (206 B.C.E.–220 C.E.) Mauryan/Gupta India (320 B.C.E.–550 C.E.) Imperial Rome (31 B.C.E.–476 C.E.)

Students will write a DBQ essay on Roman and Han Chinese attitudes towards technology



Other Assessments (Diagnostic, Formative, Summative):
Formative: Thesis statement writing activity, Document analysis
Summative: Multiple Choice Test and Performance Task




                                   TEACHING AND LEARNING PLAN


Teaching and Learning Activities:
Activities and tasks, Linked to guiding questions and standards, Describe what the students will do and why…
Students will…
1. Write a thesis statement based on essay prompts
2. Compare analyze images of Buddha from the textbook and online resources that follow the diffusion of Buddhism from South Asia to Eastern Asia ­
3. Evaluate the causes and consequences of the decline of the Han, Roman, and Gupta empires by analyzing a series of related documents
4. Complete a document walk comparing the labor systems of Imperial Rome and the Han Dynasty
5. Analyze the relationship between various regions and Silk Road products by analyzing a corresponding map of the Silk Road


Resources and Technologies Needed:
ACORN Book
Analects- Confucius
Rig Veda
Meditations- Marcus Aurelius
Tacitus’s Corruption in Rome
Silk Road Products Map
Crash Course World History