Bridging History: LEARNING PLAN/UNIT THREE, Structures 9 Nov – 18 Dec
Theme 1, Transmission of Traditions This theme explores the mechanisms by which traditions were
transmitted and preserved in Islamic Spain, Confucian Korea, and West Africa between 500 and 1500 CE.
The identities of peoples on the Iberian and Korean peninsulas were shaped by imported religious
traditions (Islam in Spain and Buddhism in Korea). Institutions such as the Arabic translation school in
Toledo and the Korean “Hall of Assembled Worthies” transmitted traditions— Greek and Arab medicines,
mathematics, science, and philosophy at Toledo, and Chinese learning at the Korean court—across
cultures that had profound impacts on world history. The technologies that supported transmission—
paper and printing, in particular—had themselves been transmitted across cultures. In West Africa, oral
tradition and musical performance were the primary ways that culture was transmitted over time,
especially through specially trained historian/storytellers called “griots. “Whether transmitted through
print or oral tradition, however, all traditions are selectively re-created. Moreover, the transmission of
tradition is linked to the questions each generation asks about the past—questions that are considered
relevant to each generation’s own times.
Big Ideas: 1.When traditions are preserved, retold, and transmitted within cultures over time; they help
integrate peoples through a sense of shared identity.2. When traditions are transmitted across cultural
boundaries, they can contribute to an increased sense of difference by introducing new religions, customs,
and cultures.3. Cultural traditions can be transmitted in many ways over time and across space. Religion,
language, oral tradition, material culture, dance, and music are just some of the ways traditions can be
transmitted. 4. Technologies like writing, printing, and the production of paper can play critical roles in
transmitting traditions to new social groups and cultures. 5. All agents of cultural transmission select and
shape the content of the traditions they transmit.
Questions To Consider: 1. What are the means by which cultures preserve and transmit traditions? 2. In
what ways can technology aid the transmission of tradition? 3. What kinds of historical forces propelled
Islamic, Chinese, and Mande cultures to spread across Eurasia and Africa? 4. How do traditions interact
with cultures into which they are introduced?
Topic
Transmission of
Tradition
Transmitting
Traditions
Islamic Spain
Transmitting
Traditions
China/Korea
Assignment
Watch, study &
take notes on
each of the
three video
segments.
Read and
research the
handout
Read and
research the
handout
Objective(s)
Identify the institutions and other means by which cultures
preserve and transmit traditions.
Recognize the role that the audience plays in the process of
preserving traditions.
Investigate the role that technology plays in the transmission of
traditions.
Analyze (break down) the traditions and the ways they were
transmitted from Islamic culture to Spain.
Analyze (break down) the traditions and the ways they were
transmitted from Chinese culture to Korea.
1
Bridging History: LEARNING PLAN/UNIT THREE, Structures 9 Nov – 18 Dec
Theme 2, Writing Structure: This theme explores the structure and nature of the five paragraph essay.
Understanding academic writing is an integral component of being successful in the classroom.
Big Ideas: The five paragraph essay serves as the launching point for all academic writing.
Questions to Consider: 1. How do we communicate our knowledge and views as professionals?
Topic
Writing Structure
Thesis
Assignment
Watch, study &
take notes on
each of the two
video
segments.
Write a thesis
Creating a Thesis
and Outline
Write a thesis
with an outline
Objective(s)
Describe the rules of three.
Describe the components that go into a thesis statement.
Articulate the purpose of academic writing.
Create a thesis over the following topic: What are the means by
which cultures preserve and transmit traditions?
Create an outline over the following topic: What are the means
by which cultures preserve and transmit traditions?
2
Theme 3, Early Empires This theme seeks to understand the rise, maintenance, and fall of empires by
comparing the empire experience in different parts of the world. We can identify both similarities and
differences among the processes that led to the rise and fall of empires in diverse historical, cultural, and
geographical settings. In most cases, physical environment, charismatic leaders, and a large and strong
military were critical to empire building. While empires generally introduced new political and
administrative institutions, they also frequently adapted to existing institutions and local elites. Finally,
most empires spent much energy and resources in order to control production and trade within their
realms. Ultimately, however, what is most interesting and important about the comparative study of
empires is that peoples widely separated by time and place independently created common forms of
political and social organization.
Big Ideas: 1.Early empires were able to integrate peoples of different religions and cultures under a
common political system. They also provided stability and protection for trading enterprises across vast
territories, and thus helped facilitate connections between distant peoples. 2. Early empires also helped
create differences between peoples by establishing political, social, and ethnic hierarchies within their
realms.
Questions To Consider: 1. What historical and environmental conditions enabled the creation of
centralized empires? 2. How were early empires administered and maintained – politically, economically,
and ideologically? 3. How did early empires connect the peoples of Eurasia, South America, and West
Africa in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries? 4. What was the legacy of early empires in Eurasia, Africa
and the Americas?
Topic
Early Empires
Assignment
Watch, study &
take notes on
each of the
three video
segments.
Peter Winn Quote Read and
research the
handout
Evaluating
Read and
Leadership
research the
handout
Objective(s)
Identify the components of an empire.
Explain the reasons behind the rise and fall of the Mongol, Mali,
and Incan Empires.
Examine the role technology played within each empire.
Examine how an empire can often look different when viewed from
the perspective of its own peoples. Explain how historians can
identify diversity among empires in World History.
Create a 3 column chart outlining the founding, administration, legacy
and end of the Mongol, Mali and Incan Empires.
3
Theme 4, Family and Household: This unit explores how families and households — the most intimate
and basic social organizations — intersected and interacted with ideas, institutions, and communities
from ancient times to about 1750. Too often, historians have ignored the private, daily realm of human
activity in favor of large-scale political affairs and the actions of "great men." Recently, however, world
historians have approached family differently: as evidence for the variety and commonality of world
history, as models for ordering the world, as evidence of the dynamic nature of the past, and as a way to
bring the ordinary and familiar into global perspective. While reconstructing the history of families can
be difficult, historians have learned to mine rich sources that frequently document the ways families and
households functioned in the past, including oral testimony, mythology, genealogies, life histories, legal
codes, archaeological excavations, language, and literature. Historians have found that families and
households are universal in world history, but that their specific form is a product of culture and
historical change. Moreover, the historical record as represented by official documents — such as codes
of law — merely reports the prescribed or dictated ideal behavior; actual historical practices often
differed greatly from ideals. Finally, families interacted with and were influenced by various large
structures — political, economic, and ideological. Indeed, the dynamism of historical change is evident
not only in the rise and fall of rulers, states, and empires but also in the shifting patterns of family and
household over time and across cultures.
Big Ideas: 1. The experience of living in a family or household integrates nearly all humanity. Families
and households provide a nearly universal setting that meets basic human needs – from birth to death –
around the world. 2. At the same time, the exact structure of families and households vary widely, and
reflect the different cultural historical settings in which they occur. In addition, family and household
structures change over time, creating differences between past and present forms.
Questions To Consider: 1. How can we use the study of families and households to explore broad
political, economic, or ideological themes in world history? 2. What kinds of evidence do historians use to
recover family and household histories? 3. What are some ways that family and household structures
have varied across cultures and changed over time? 4. What is the relationship between
family/household and political order? What is the relationship between family/household and religion?
Topic
Family and
Household
Assignment
Watch, study &
take notes on
each of the
three video
segments.
Family vs.
Household
Read and
research the
handout
Three case
studies: Family &
Religion
Read and
research the
handout
Objective(s)
Identify the variety of families and households found around the
world.
Explain how historians can interpret and understand families
and households from the past.
Explain how religions have impacted families and households.
Analyze (break down) the terms ‘family’ and ‘household’. Why
do Historians find it necessary to distinguish the difference
between those two terms. Also, determine what kinds of
challenges historians face in reconstructing and analyzing
history of the family over time.
Analyze (break down) the types of evidence used to explain the
relationship between families/households and religions.
4