Discovering the Ancient World: Part 2

In this 16 week course, students will learn about the rich history of Ancient Rome, Byzantium, North Africa, Feudal Europe, and Feudal Japan! Each week students will learn about a new topic to help them stay focused and maximize their learning during the 50-minute class session. Students will be provided with assignments outside of class to help reinforce what they learned in class. We will follow the schedule below, and a syllabus will be provided to help students keep track of which assignments to complete. 

****There must be at least three students enrolled in the course for it to proceed****

Unit 1: Ancient Rome
Week 1: The Founding of Rome and the Early Republic (geography, laws, military, senate)
Week 2: The Rise of Julius Caesar  (Punic Wars, Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, Roman Civil War) 
Week 3: Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire (Emperor Augustus, Roman Golden Age, Birth of Christianity, Roman achievements)  
Week 4: Ancient Rome Kahoot Review 

Unit 2: The Kingdoms of North Africa and the Byzantines 

Week 5:  Geography of North Africa, Djenne-Djeno, Aksum, Ghana
Week 6: Mali, Mansa Musa, Songhai, Great Zimbabwe 
Week 7: Byzantine Empire, Constantinople, Justinian and Theodora, Justinian Code, Hagia Sophia, Great Schism
Week 8: Unit 2 Kahoot Assessment 

Unit 3: The European Middle Ages 

Week 9: How Did We Get Here? (fall of Rome, the Germanic kingdoms, Clovis and Charlemagne, the Viking invasions, Norse myth)
Week 10: European Feudalism, Rise of the Church, and the Crusades (manor system, social class structure, the rise of the Catholic church, Catholic hierarchy, The Crusades)
Week 11: Rise of the Cities and the Black Plague (The Black Death, the Magna Carta, end of the manor system, rise of guilds, return of science) 
Week 12: Unit 3 Kahoot Assessment 

Unit 4: The Japanese Middle Ages

Week 13: Japanese Geography and Early History (Yamato Dynasty, Chinese influences)
Week 14: Feudal Japan (Samurai and Ninjas!)
Week 15: Medieval Japanese Culture (art, food, martial arts, sumo wrestling)
Week 16: Unit 6 Kahoot Assessment 

This course is designed to be mostly a PowerPoint presentation with some videos that are relevant to the topic.  Students will review what they learned in the previous lesson, then transition to the new content, and the class will end with a comprehension check to ensure students understand the new material. All students will need to have a functional camera and microphone as class discussions are an essential component of the course. Students will be provided with a guided note worksheet to meet each student’s needs. During the final class of each unit, students will review what they have learned by completing an interactive game of Kahoot.   

Students do not need any prior knowledge about any of these civilizations to get the most out of this class!