WORLD HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY:
MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN TIMES
Historical and Social Sciences Analysis Skills
In addition to the standards for grades 6-8, students demonstrate the
following intellectual reasoning, reflection
and research skills:
Grades 6-8
Chronological and Spatial Thinking
1.students explain how major
events are related to each other in time
2.students construct various
timelines of key events, people, and periods of the historical era being
studied
3.students use a variety
of maps and documents to identify physical and cultural features of
neighborhoods,
cities, states, and countries and to explain the historical migration of
people, expansion
and disintegration
of empires, and the growth of economic systems
Research, Evidence and Point of View
1.students frame questions
that can be answered by historical study and research
2.students distinguish fact
from opinion in historical narratives and stories
3.students distinguish relevant
from irrelevant information, essential from incidental information, and
verifiable from
unverifiable information in historical narratives and stories
4.students assess the credibility
of primary and secondary sources and draw sound conclusions from them
5.students detect the different
historical points of view on historical events and determine the context
in
which the historical
statements were made (the questions asked, sources used, author's perspectives)
Historical Interpretation
1.students explain the central
issues and problems of the past, placing people and events in a matrix
of
time and place
2.students understand and
distinguish cause, effect, sequence, and correlation in historical events,
including the
long- and short-term causal relations
3.students explain the sources
of historical continuity and how the combination of ideas and events
explains the
emergence of new patterns
4.students recognize the
role of chance, oversight, and error in history
5.students recognize interpretations
of history are subject to change as new information is uncovered
6.students interpret basic
indicators of economic performance and conduct cost/benefit analyses in
order
to analyze economic
and political issues
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Students in grade seven study the social, cultural, and technological
changes that occurred in Europe, Africa, and Asia from 500-1789 AD. After
reviewing the ancient world and the ways in which archaeologists and historians
uncover the past, students study the history and geography of great civilizations
that were developing concurrently throughout the world during medieval
and early modern times. They examine the growing economic interaction among
civilizations as well as the exchange of ideas, beliefs, technologies and
commodities.
7.2 Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of civilizations of Islam in the Middle Ages, in terms of:
1.the physical features and climate of the Arabian peninsula, its relationship to surrounding bodies of land and water and the relationship between nomadic and sedentary ways of life
2.the origins of Islam and the life and teachings of Muhammad, including Islamic teachings on the connection with Judaism and Christianity
3.the significance of the Qur'an and the Sunnah as the primary sources of Islamic beliefs, practice and law, and their influence in Muslims’ daily life
4.the expansion of Muslim rule through military conquests and treaties, emphasizing the cultural blending within Muslim civilization and the spread and acceptance of Islam and the Arabic language
5.the growth of cities and the trade routes created among Asia, Africa and Europe, the products and inventions that traveled along these routes (e.g., spices, textiles, paper, steel, new crops), and the role of merchants in Arab society
6.the intellectual exchanges
among Muslim scholars of Eurasia and Africa and the contributions Muslim
scholars made to later civilizations in the areas of science, geography,
mathematics, philosophy, medicine, art, and literature