World History High School Semester 1 of Full Year Modern: Middle Ages to Today

You will learn an entire semester of World History in a flipped classroom-type setting. What that means is that you will spend 90 minutes a week with me, learning about history in a small group setting. Then you will be responsible for learning on your own through a series of videos, documents, and other learning activities. 

The course outline with topics to be covered is below. Classes are 45 minutes in length and meet twice per week. While each class will be varied in the delivery of instruction, the instructor will utilize presentations that are guided by a daily focus, discussion questions/prompts that encourage higher-level thinking and discussion.  

Additionally, there will be video clips, review games, and quizzes implemented during the class meeting to optimize enrichment and feedback.  Learners are strongly encouraged to ask and answer questions, as well as to respond to each others' comments during the class meeting. 

We will begin with the Byzantine Empire and end the first half of the course with the French Revolution. Students will learn the major players, the events, all the while incorporating historical thinking skills. These include understanding cause and effect, placing events into the proper chronology, identifying change and continuity over time, and seeing the contextualization  (the big picture). 
The majority of classes will either consist of presentations with discussion and note-taking or the use of historical documents as evidence to learn about events and decisions that were made in history. Multiple perspectives will be explored. 
Students will be challenged to back up all claims with concrete factual and historical evidence.

Course Outline:
Unit 1 The Middle Ages in Europe and Asia
Objective: Recognize significant events, figures, and contributions of medieval civilizations (Byzantine Empire, Western Europe, Japan).
Examples: Justinian, Theodora, feudalism, serfs, fiefs, manors, The Plague, bushido, samurai, The Crusades

Unit 2 Islamic Empires, Meso & South American Civilizations, Sub Saharan Africa. 
Objective: Recognize significant events, figures, and contributions of Islamic, Meso and South American, and Sub-Saharan African civilizations.
Examples: Islam, the Five Pillars, Caliphates, Mansa Musa, Aztec, Inca, Maya

Unit 3 Increasing Interconnectedness and Change in Europe
Objective: Analyze the causes, events, and effects of the Renaissance, Reformation, Scientific Revolution, and Age of Exploration.
Examples: Protestantism, Martin Luther, King Henry VIII, Leondardo da Vinci, Galileo, heliocentrism, Prince Henry the Navigator, Columbian Exchange

Unit 4 Age of Revolutions
Objective: Analyze the causes, events, and effects of the Enlightenment and its impact on the American, French and other Revolutions.
Examples: mercantilism, colonialism, King Louis XVI, Estates General, human rights