World History Unit I: Classics to the Renaissance

Click Here for the text of today's review game

Reading Assignments
Here’s how your reading assignments work.You need to read the assigned pages before the date listed. Make sure that you are mastering the listed concepts as you read and add any helpful thoughts & ideas to your notes (you may be able to use your notes in class). When you arrive in class on the date listed you will be expected to have mastered the concepts listed. For example, when you come to class on 9/10 I would expect you to be able to give me a detailed description of the daily life of a peasant and draw up an organizational chart that demonstrates the workings of the manorial system.

The bottom line: I expect you to understand what you have read!

Date Due Pages
Concepts to master

9/6 181-189

The rise of Christianity within Roman society

The ways in which Christianity quickly became an integral part of the Roman Empire

The conditions that led to the fall of the Roman Empire

9/10 379-385
397-403

The daily life of the peasant and the manorial system

The connections between the church and architecture, literature, and the universities

9/13 419-427

The idea of “Renaissance” as it applies to the individual, literature, and politics

The rise of the Italian city states and the thinking of Machiavelli

The basic structure of Italian Renaissance society

9/17 428-434

The basic tenets of Humanism (esp. vs. scholasticism of the Middle Ages)

The characteristics of Italian Renaissance Art vs. the art of the Northern Renaissance

PowerPoint Resources for Unit I

The Greeks and Romans	Reviewing the Middle Ages	Quiz Game on Manorialism and the Church
Humanism	Trade/Exploration	Unit Review Game (will be posted 9/20)

Online Resources for Unit I (Later units will have on-line assignments using these kinds of resources):

The Classical Era	Introduction to Greek Philosophy	Ancient Sources of Law
	Writings of Greek Philosophers	Quotes from Gibbon's "Fall of the Roman Empire"
The Middle Ages	Descriptions of the Black Death	Annenberg Site on Feudal Life
	Jean Froissant describes the Hundred Years War
The Renaissance	The Life and Work of Erasmus	The Web Museum: Raphael

Possible Essay Topics for the Unit Test

The ways that Classical ideas/concepts impacted the Renaissance and our society today
Comparing/contrasting the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (especially art, architecture, and political structure)
Evaluating the role of political and religious authorities in the lives of European people during the Middle Ages and Renaissance
Comparing/contrasting the three philosophical eras that we examined (the Greeks, the Scholastics, & the Humanists)

Back to the World History Page

Date Due	Pages	Concepts to master
9/6	181-189	The rise of Christianity within Roman society The ways in which Christianity quickly became an integral part of the Roman Empire The conditions that led to the fall of the Roman Empire
9/10	379-385 397-403	The daily life of the peasant and the manorial system The connections between the church and architecture, literature, and the universities
9/13	419-427	The idea of “Renaissance” as it applies to the individual, literature, and politics The rise of the Italian city states and the thinking of Machiavelli The basic structure of Italian Renaissance society
9/17	428-434	The basic tenets of Humanism (esp. vs. scholasticism of the Middle Ages) The characteristics of Italian Renaissance Art vs. the art of the Northern Renaissance