AAS
PERFORMANCE TASK (Spring)
Social Studies
GRADE 9
FOCUS
QUESTION
CULMINATING
TASK:
TEXTS:
TEXT
DEPENDENT
QUESTIONS
Should the Medieval Era be defined as the “Dark Ages”?
Should the Medieval Era, commonly referred to as the Middle Ages, be defined as the
“Dark Ages”? The debate on this historical time period has been around for over a
thousand years. Many scholars are divided over the concept of the Dark Ages, which
originated in the 1330s by historians. Both sides of the debate have stated their points of
view and now it is up to you to advocate for or against labeling the Medieval Era as a
dark point in history. If you believe the label does not fit, is there a label better fitting for
the Middle Ages?
Write an argumentative essay on the topic outlined in the task. First, explain what the
debate is over. Next, analyze and evaluate the opposite points of view, and then explain
your point of view using text-based evidence.
Illuminating the The ‘Dark Ages’ The Middle
Christianity In
Black Death by
Middle Ages by
were a lot
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the Middle
Giovanni
Richard Swan
Brighter than
Edward James Ages
Boccaccio
we give them
Credit for by
Richard Swan
1. What
1. What
1. Why does 1. What role
1. What caused
evidence
evidence
the author
did the
the Black
does the
does the
label this
church take
Death?
author give to
author give
period the
during the
maintain his
to maintain
Dark Ages?
Middle
2. How does
argument?
his
Ages?
Boccaccio
argument?
2. What
describe life
2. How was the
evidence
2. Why was
during the
Middle Ages
2. How does
does the
Christianity
Black Death?
“illuminated”
the Middle
author
so
?
Ages
give to
important?
3. Why is this an
influence us
support
important
3. What classics
today?
his claims? 3. Why was
primary
were created
hope
source?
during the
3. Is this
something
Middle Ages?
period
the people
similar to
needed
4. How does
any other
during this
literature
we have
time?
illuminate the
studied?
Middle Ages?
GR 9, Performance Task (Spring)
UNIT STANDARDS
CCS &
CCS
HISTORY STATE R1. Cite strong and thorough
STANDARDS
textual evidence to support
analysis of what the text says
explicitly as well as inferences
drawn from the text.
R2. Determine the central ideas or
conclusions of a text. Trace the
text’s explanation or depiction of
a complex process, phenomenon
or concept; provide an accurate
summary of the text.
RH.11-12.6 Evaluate authors’
differing points of view on the
same historical event or issue by
assessing the authors’ claims,
reasoning, and evidence.
RH.11-12.8 Evaluate an author’s
premises, claims, and evidence by
corroborating or challenging them
with other information.
WHST.11-12.1 Write arguments
focused on discipline-specific
content.
TASK DIRECTIONS
Write an argumentative essay in which you:
1. Introduce precise, knowledgeable claim(s),
distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing
claims, and create an organization that logically
sequences the claim(s), counterclaims, reasons,
and evidence.
2. Develop claim(s) and counterclaims fairly and
thoroughly, supplying the most relevant data and
evidence for each while pointing out the strengths
and limitations of both claim(s) and counterclaims
discipline-appropriate form that anticipates the
audience’s knowledge level, concerns, values, and
possible biases.
3. Use words, phrases, and clauses as well as
varied syntax to link the major sections of the text,
create cohesion, and clarify the relationships
between claim(s) and reasons, between reasons
and evidence, and between claim(s) and
counterclaims.Appropriate to purpose, audience,
and a range of formal and informal tasks.
4. Establish and maintain a formal style and
objective tone while attending to the norms and
conventions of the discipline in which you are
writing.
5. Provide a concluding statement or section that
follows from or supports the argument presented.
GR 9, Performance Task (Spring)
Performance Task: Spring Midterm Exam
Background:
The Middle Ages or Medieval period is a stretch of European history that lasted from the 5th century
until the 15th century. It began with the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, and was followed by the
Renaissance and the Age of Discovery. The Middles Ages is the middle period of the traditional division of
Western history into Classical, Medieval, and Modern periods. The period is subdivided into the Early Middle
Ages, the High Middle Ages, and the Late Middle Ages.
In the Early Middle Ages, depopulation, deurbanization, and barbarian invasions, which began in Late
Antiquity, continued. The barbarian invaders formed new kingdoms in the remains of the Western Roman
Empire. In the 7th century North Africa and the Middle East, once part of the Eastern Roman Empire (the
Byzantine Empire), became an Islamic Empire after conquest by Muhammad's successors. Although there were
substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with Antiquity was not complete. The still
sizeable Byzantine Empire survived and remained a major power. The empire's law code, the Code of Justinian,
was widely admired. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated [existing] Roman institutions, while monasteries
were founded as Christianity expanded in western Europe. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty,
established an empire covering much of western Europe; the Carolingian Empire endured until the 9th century,
when it succumbed to the pressures of invasion — the Vikings from the north; the Magyars from the east, and
the Saracens from the south.
During the High Middle Ages, which began after AD 1000, the population of Europe increased greatly as
technological and agricultural innovations allowed trade to flourish and crop yields to increase. Manorialism —
the organization of peasants into villages that owed rent and labor services to the nobles; and feudalism — the
political structure whereby knights and lower-status nobles owed military service to their overlords, in return for
the right to rent from lands and manors - were two of the ways society was organized in the High Middle Ages.
The Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts, by western European Christians, to regain control
of the Middle Eastern Holy Land from the Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralized nation states,
reducing crime and violence but making the ideal of a unified Christendom more distant. Intellectual life was
marked by scholasticism, a philosophy which emphasized joining faith to reason, and by the founding of
universities. The philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, the paintings of Giotto, the poetry of Dante and Chaucer, the
travels of Marco Polo, and the architecture of Gothic cathedrals such as Chartres are among the outstanding
achievements of this period.
The Late Middle Ages were marked by difficulties and calamities, such as famine, plague, and war, which
much diminished the population of western Europe; in the four years from 1347 through 1350, the Black Death
killed approximately a third of the European population. Controversy, heresy, and schism within the Church
paralleled the warfare between states, the civil war, and peasant revolts occurring in the kingdoms. Cultural and
technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages and beginning the
Early Modern period.
Task:
Should the Medieval Era, commonly referred to as the Middle Ages, be defined as the “Dark Ages”? The debate
on this historical time period has been around for over a thousand years. Many scholars are divided over the
concept of the Dark Ages, which originated in the 1330s by historians. Both sides of the debate have stated their
points of view and now it is up to you to advocate for or against labeling the Medieval Era as a dark point in
history. If you believe the label does not fit, is there a label better fitting for the Middle Ages?
Write an argumentative essay on the topic outlined in the task. First, explain what the debate is over. Next,
analyze and evaluate the opposite points of view, and then explain your point of view using text-based evidence.
GR 9, Performance Task (Spring)
Illuminating the Middle Ages
By Richard Swan
Sunday 21 October, Garden Room Under the Spotlight
Historically, our understanding of the Middle Ages has tended to be colored by the ‘Dark Age’ label,
which casts this as a time of cultural famine and stagnation in contrast to the Renaissance and our
Classical heritage. Even the dates of the period – roughly between the end of the Roman Empire and
the beginning of the early modern period – are obscure and disputed. Medieval studies are seen by
many as irrelevant, and are under increasingly threat as a university discipline, while the undoubted
appeal of a Dark Age-inspired drama like Game of Thrones has more to do with its exotic barbarism
than any real insight into our history.
Yet medievalists insist the era has a wealth of thought, art and culture to rival that of any period in
history, to such an extent that scholars now talk of the Carolingian, Ottonian and twelfth-century
renaissances, emphasizing the richness of an era once considered barren. Poetry from ‘The Wanderer’
to ‘Piers Plowman’, visual art, castles and cathedrals that still dominate the landscape, philosophy,
religious and political writing, the foundations of modern science – all these are accessible to us. And
there are signs that we are beginning to look more carefully at what is there. Thoughtful TV series on
the Crusades and medieval manuscripts, the brilliant British Library exhibition of illuminated
manuscripts from the royal collection, versions of Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by
leading modern poets, all attest to a thirst to know more about what this period has to offer.
So what lies beyond King Arthur and the Round Table, and some bawdy poems by Chaucer? Is this a
period that deserves to be better understood? Might medieval beliefs and attitudes to society, to
mankind, to culture and literature offer insights into issues – from the relationship between church and
state to the place of man in the universe – that still concern us today?
GR 9, Performance Task (Spring)
The ‘Dark Ages’ Were A Lot Brighter Than
We Give Them Credit For
By Richard Swan
We still view European history as taking off with the Renaissance and Enlightenment,
but this position gets more out-of-date the more we learn
We tend to have a very blinkered view of the past, and the nature of those blinkers is often signaled by
the terms we use: Dark Ages, Renaissance, Enlightenment.
A moment’s reflection is all that is needed to see the fallacy of the simplifying mindset underlying the
introduction of such expressions, but they are surprisingly persistent.
We still tend to view European history and culture as ‘taking off’ with the Renaissance and
Enlightenment, after a thousand-year period of stagnation following the fall of the Roman Empire. Our
view is molded by a long-standing reverence for the Classical period, and the populist image of this
being swept away by hordes of barbarians whose names still resonate: Huns, Vandals, Visigoths.
There is no excuse for this. We’ve known better since Victorian times, and the Victorians would be
appalled by our continuing ignorance.
The 19th century was a great age of rediscovery, when huge numbers of documents and manuscripts
were published and medieval history and culture became widely respected and celebrated. The Dark
Ages – dark only because of our ignorance of them – were dark no more.
The Houses of Parliament and Tennyson’s Morte D’Arthur remain eloquent testimony to that. The
process has continued unabated, and both scholarly and popular attention has given us an increasing
understanding of the whole medieval period.
In the 21 century events like the Royal Library’s exhibition of royal manuscripts, and recent TV series
about manuscripts and the Vikings, mean that everybody is offered the chance to appreciate this often
overlooked richness.
And yet the dismissive mindset can still be found amongst people who should know better. At a
conference I attended recently, for example, a lecturer claimed that there had been no intellectual
challenge to the authority of the Church before the Reformation, an assertion immediately corrected
by several members of the audience.
So what’s in the Middle Ages? Why should we be paying more attention? Firstly, and obviously,
because there’s great stuff in there. Literature like Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,
architecture like the great cathedrals and castles, art like the medieval manuscripts and stained glass
are all rivals to that produced in any age, Classical or modern.
But there is much more than this, as we are beginning, at last, to realize. There never was a sudden and
unprecedented ‘renewal’ in the Renaissance. Science and philosophy did not begin in the
Enlightenment. The processes involved had been present throughout history. The channels may have
changed following the fall of Rome, but intellectual life, and the processes of historical, political,
GR 9, Performance Task (Spring)
philosophical, cultural and scientific exploration continued in a thousand forms. Far from being a
period of stagnation, it was a period of constant change and development.
Indeed, it is impossible to gain a just perception of what happens in the modern period without giving
full weight to the forces at work in the Middle Ages. The shape and constitution of the United
Kingdom was forged in the politics and history of the early medieval period.
Modern law and parliamentary democracy depend on Magna Carta and the development of the
parliamentary system in the 13 and 14 centuries. Modern philosophy builds on the work on many great
medieval thinkers, such as Augustine, Boethius, and Aquinas. Universities are a medieval creation, and
scientific and technological innovations were numerous. Such is the continuity of change that
historians now identify at least three medieval ‘renaissances’: the Carolingian, the Ottonian and one in
the 12 century. The world is constantly being renewed.
Many medieval topics are of immediate and crucial relevance to us all. Scottish devolution is a real
prospect, and it requires a full historical perspective to understand it properly. The nature of Europe,
and our place in it, has been a potent battleground for decades, and it would be well to examine the
medieval past, when Britain was a European rather than an island nation. We might have a more
balanced and rational discussion of the issues if we lose our relatively recent insistence on Britain’s
insular status. Our very sense of identity is derived from a multicultural medieval mix.
We are probably never going to re-label all the eras of the past, although thankfully the epithet
[nickname] ‘Dark Ages’ has gradually been dropped, and the term ‘Modern Age’ is looking increasingly
stretched as the years pass. But we need to go beyond labels altogether and look for what is really
there. If we dismiss the significance of the Middle Ages, we miss a lot. It is time for us to open our eyes,
and minds.
Richard Swan is a medievalist by training and a writer and teacher by profession. He is producing the
session Illuminating the Middle Ages at this year’s Battle of Ideas, held at the Barbican in London on
October 20-21.
GR 9, Performance Task (Spring)
When Were the Dark Ages?
By Daniel Mallia
The Dark Ages is a popular label traditionally applied to the experience of Western Europe
between the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the Renaissance. Whether an exact date can be
established for the fall of the Empire is debatable, but many suggest 476 AD, when the last (nominal)
Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus, was removed from the throne. Establishing a beginning for the
Renaissance is even more difficult, but most agree that, at the latest, the Renaissance was developing
in the fourteenth century.
The term "Dark Ages" became a popular title in the eighteenth century, when many classical
historians, notably Edward Gibbon, looked back to the glories of the Roman Empire, and despaired the
violence, brutality and apparent lack of intellectual activity, which characterized the post-collapse era.
The period was thus "dark" for its lack of the lights of civilization and intellectuals, which had been
replaced by feudalism and religious dominance.
In AD 476, warriors attacked the city of Rome and ended more than 800 years of glory for the
"Eternal City." Historians mark the fall of Rome as the end of ancient history. The next one thousand
years were called the Middle Ages. The Latin term for Middle Ages is "medieval."
The beginning of the Middle Ages is often called the "Dark Ages" because the great
civilizations of Greece and Rome had fallen. Life in Western Europe during the Middle Ages was very
hard. Very few people could read or write and nobody expected conditions to improve. The only hope
for most people during the Middle Ages was their strong belief in Christianity, and the hope that life in
heaven would be better than life on earth.
The Dark Ages were anything but dark in other parts of the world. The Muslims in the Middle
East and North Africa studied and improved on the works of the ancient Greeks while civilization
flourished in sub-Saharan Africa, China, India, and the Americas.
Europe began to experience great change by about 1450. Within one hundred years, Columbus
had sailed to America, literacy spread, scientists made great discoveries, and artists created work that
still inspires us today. Historians call the next period of European history the "Renaissance," or the
"rebirth." The Renaissance is the beginning of modern history.
GR 9, Performance Task (Spring)
Spring Semester Argumentative Essay Outline:
Introduction
What is this topic about?
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Why is this topic important to history?
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Thesis (Your argument)
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The 2 Reasons why you’re making your Argument
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Body 1 – Your First Reason
Reason # 1 _________________________________________
State Your Reason in full sentence form.
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Outside Information from Class and Work
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GR 9, Performance Task (Spring)
Text Based Evidence (from articles)
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Body 2 – Your Second Reason
Reason # 2 _________________________________________
State Your Reason in full sentence form.
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Outside Information from Class and Work
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Text Based Evidence (from articles)
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Body 3 - Opposing Point of View
What is the opposite point of view? Why do people make this argument?
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How is this point out-of-date or not well informed?
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GR 9, Performance Task (Spring)
Conclusion
Restate the topic
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Restate your argument
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Review the main points of your Essay
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Leave the reader with an interesting thought on this topic
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*Academic Vocabulary – Every time I see one of these words used in your essay I will add bonus
points to your paper. Check them off or cross them out as you write!
Capitalism
Caste System
Civilization
Crusade
Culture
Cultural Diffusion
Dark Ages
Economy
GR 9, Performance Task (Spring)
Empire
Epidemic
Feudalism
Fief
Government
Hierarchy
Manorialism
Middle Ages
Middle Class
Medieval
Monastic
Monotheistic
Plague
Revolution
Serf
Trade