For Language Arts and History-Social Studies
Created by Mary B. Reid
BACKGROUND:
The Renaissance was a
time for the “rebirth” of learning. New ideas and inventions
contributed to the Age of Exploration and Discovery. Along with trade in
the Middle East and the increase of political power and wealth among the
European countries, exploration flourished. Early European explorers to
North America were Bjarni
Herjulfsson and Leif Ericsson.
Great explorations funded by the Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, French, and English
occurred during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Explorers
included Marco Polo, Magellan,
Cortes,
Columbus,
Pizarro,
Cabot, Drake,
Hudson, Cartier,
and Joliet.
WRITING ACTIVITY:
Create a Venn Diagram
which compares/contrasts two explorers.
TO ASSIST YOU:
Colonization
BACKGROUND:
Explorers
to the New World brought back to Europe wonderful stories about the potential
wealth which could be taken from their discoveries. These stories, coupled
with social, political, economic, and religious troubles in Europe, made
colonization and the settlement of land in North America attractive enough to
become possible. At first, small groups of Europeans traveled by ship and
started colonies such as Jamestown
in Virginia and Plymouth
in Massachusetts. As the settlements prospered, new waves of immigrants
followed. By 1733, thirteen
British colonies were established along the eastern coast. The French
had settled along the St. Lawrence and Mississippi Rivers and the Spanish in
Central and South America and along the west coast.
WRITING ACTIVITY:
Write a science-fiction
story about colonization.
TO ASSIST YOU:
Bill
of Rights
BACKGROUND:
The United States Constitution, created in 1787, is the fundamental law of the land. It provides the basic framework for government. In 1791, ten changes, or amendments, were added to the Constitution in order to protect the rights of citizens. These specified rights include freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to a fair trial, and the right to bear arms.
WRITING ACTIVITY:
Write a ten-item Bill
of Rights for stuffed animals.
TO ASSIST YOU:
The
Gold Rush
BACKGROUND:
Johann
Sutter, A Swiss immigrant, settled in the Sacramento River Valley in
California and built a cattle ranch and tannery. In 1848, James
Marshall, who was at work building a water-powered sawmill
for Sutter, found gold on the property. By 1849, the California
Trail was crowded with “forty-niners” heading west to “strike
it rich.” Over ninety thousand people traveled the overland
route or came by water around Cape
Horn in hopes of finding gold. The
Gold Rush stimulated the building of clipper ships and contributed to the
rapid settlement of the west.
WRITING ACTIVITY:
Create a series of newspaper
and broadside advertisements
for a competition between “overland”
and “around the Horn”
transportation to the gold fields of California.
TO ASSIST YOU:
Cities
BACKGROUND:
Cities developed when
and where enough food and wealth had accumulated for people to stay in one
place. This wealth made it possible for these people to trade
for or buy the things they needed like food, goods, and services. As more
people gathered and became specialists in a variety of areas, farming around the
new city increased as did trade within and throughout the city. In the
past, cities grew where trade
routes crossed or at or near the mouths of rivers. In more recent
times, cities have been founded where people decided they wanted or needed them.
Technology made it possible to bring food and services to the site. Older
cities like Cairo
in Egypt, Shanghai,
London, and Calcutta
began in the traditional way. Newer cities like Brasilia,
Washington D.C., Los
Angeles, and New Delhi are
located where people decided to place them.
WRITING ACTIVITY:
Write a plan defending
your choice for the site of the new capital of the world.
TO ASSIST YOU:
The
Fertile Crescent
BACKGROUND:
The crescent-shaped
land, located in Asia
from the Mediterranean
Sea to the Persian
Gulf in the valley between the Tigris
and Euphrates Rivers,
is said to be the birthplace of one of the first civilizations. More than
5,000 years ago, the Sumerians
chose to develop this area because of its rich soil, which was suitable for
farming. Later civilizations such as Babylonia,
Assyria, and Phoenicia
began here also.
WRITING ACTIVITY:
Create a brochure to
publicize the availability of “dig” sites in the Fertile Crescent for
professional and advanced amateur archaeologists.
TO ASSIST YOU:
Cleopatra
BACKGROUND:
Cleopatra
(69-30 B.C.) was queen of Egypt
from 51 B.C. until her death. She became queen,
or co-ruler, of Egypt after the death of her father
and her marriage to her brother, Ptolemy
XIII. Ptolemy was deposed by his guardians, and Cleopatra was
banished. She returned as queen after the death of Ptolemy XIII and the
defeat of her enemies by Julius
Caesar and a Roman army. She fell in love with Caesar
and had her younger brother, Ptolemy
XIV, who was now her husband, killed so she and her son by Caesar could rule
Egypt. Caesar was murdered in Rome
while she was there. A few years later Cleopatra fell in love with Mark
Antony. She wanted her children by Caesar or Antony to become the next
in line to rule Rome. When Antony and Octavian
were in a civil war over who should rule Rome, rumors spread that Cleopatra had
committed suicide. Antony stabbed himself in grief. Unable to reach
an agreement with Octavian regarding peace and the future rights of her
children, Cleopatra killed herself by allowing an asp,
a poisonous snake, to bite her.
WRITING ACTIVITY:
As a stand-up comic,
write five jokes or funny riddles about Cleopatra's life.
TO ASSIST YOU:
You are Cleopatra's fool. You must create a limerick or clerihew about Cleopatra which will not get you beheaded.
Alexander
The Great
BACKGROUND:
Alexander
the Great (356-323
B.C.) was one of history's greatest generals. At twenty, he became king of
the Macedonians
after the murder of his father, Philip
II, by one of Philip's bodyguards. Alexander
brought Greece, Asia
Minor, most of the Mediterranean
basin, and even part of India
under Macedonian
control and influence. By doing so, he spread the Hellenistic
culture and created the so-called Golden
Age of Greek
history.
WRITING ACTIVITY:
Create an autobiography
which Alexander had been in the process of writing. This document has been
found in his supposed tomb. In it, he wrote about and commented on his
life and accomplishments. It begins with his earliest memories about home
life and continues until just before his death.
TO ASSIST YOU:
The
Great Wall of China
BACKGROUND:
The Great
Wall of China is the world's longest man-made structure. It was built
by hand over a period of time from the 600's B.C. through the 1400's A.D.
Though it was not built as one piece, its purpose was to protect
China from invasion from the north. Because of this, its several
smaller sections were finally joined into an approximately 4,000-mile-long
structure. The wall crosses mountains, rivers, and valleys following the
contour of the land and is thought by some Chinese to resemble a dragon
protecting their homeland.
Large portions of the
wall consist of a causeway connecting watchtowers every 100 to 200 yards apart.
The causeway is up to 35 feet above the ground and can be as wide as twenty feet
in places where the base of the wall is about 25 feet wide. Over the
Centuries, sections of the wall have fallen into ruin, and an extensive restoration
program has been ongoing since 1949. Today the Great Wall of China does
not keep invaders out, but attracts them as tourists.
WRITING ACTIVITY:
Write a song lyric in which the dragon
is a metaphor for the Great Wall and its role and troubles throughout history.
TO ASSIST YOU:
WRITE A MYTH...
You are a writer of children's books for a major publisher in China.
Sojourner
Truth
BACKGROUND
Sojourner Truth
(1797?-1883) was the name used by the first black woman orator to speak out
publicly against slavery. Her real name was Isabella
Baumfree. Born a slave, she was freed in 1827. By 1843 she
believed that God had given her the charge to speak out against slavery.
She took the name Sojourner
Truth while travelling throughout New England and the Midwest speaking and
lecturing, first about the love of God and concern for her fellow man, and later
in favor of abolishing
slavery. In 1864, she met with President
Lincoln in Washington, D.C., where she stayed to work for the betterment of
blacks. She
also lobbied Congress after the Civil
War to reserve underdeveloped lands in the west for farms for blacks.
This proposal did not get government support.
WRITING ACTIVITY:
As a United States senator who was a friend of Sojourner Truth and who supported
her proposal regarding western lands, write a letter to Sojourner explaining how
and why the idea failed.
TO ASSIST YOU:
WRITE A SPEECH...
You are Sojourner Truth. Write a speech to be given in the Congress of the United States to help lobby support for the cause of your proposal regarding western lands for blacks.
Reconstruction
BACKGROUND:
The period following the American
Civil War, from 1865-1877, is known as Reconstruction.
At that time, the goals
of the government were to reconstitute relations between the Union
and Confederate states,
rebuild the war-torn South, and provide laws protecting the rights of freed
slaves. Many controversies developed during this period. There was
heated debate over the criteria for readmission of Confederate states into the
Union. Southern whites had difficulty accepting black equality.
Southern governments lacked the financial support to recover economically.
Lincoln's assassination occurred one week after the end of the Civil War.
Although Lincoln had established a Reconstruction plan, the new
President, Andrew
Johnson, wanted to use his own program. In both programs, slavery was
to be abolished, but Johnson's allowed for no specific role for blacks.
Efforts were made to eliminate Southern white control. The thirteenth
and fourteenth
Amendments to the U.S.
Constitution were ratified by Congress, the Civil
Rights Act was passed, and the Freedmen's
Bureau was established to build schools, hospitals, and jobs for freed
slaves. Southern whites, however, gained control of state governments.
They developed Black
Codes, which regulated and limited black involvement in business, voting,
and land ownership. Groups like the Ku Klux Klan formed to oppose equality
for blacks, and violent racial attacks became the norm. It wasn't until
the second half of the twentieth century that blacks began to be granted the
rights bequeathed to them during Reconstruction.
WRITING ACTIVITY:
Create a crossword puzzle for an American history class attending school in the
1870's. The crossword puzzle must include as many words related to the
Reconstruction period as possible. The crossword puzzle grid must be
square and no smaller than ten spaces by ten spaces and no longer than twenty
spaces by twenty spaces.
TO ASSIST YOU:
CREATE A CROSSWORD
PUZZLE#2...
It is one hundred and twenty years after Reconstruction. You are to create
a crossword puzzle related to contemporary civil rights. In your puzzle
you are to use current words and include as many words from the Reconstruction
period that are still applicable.
OR...
Use the 1870's crossword puzzle grid. Reword the clues to fit the years 1965 to the present.
Industrial
Revolution
BACKGROUND:
The American
Industrial Revolution took place during the nineteenth
century. Tremendous growth
in business
and technology occurred. Machines replaced hand tools, and factories
hired men, women, and children for six-day work weeks and 18-hour days.
Many worked for $2.00 per week or less. The first
textile mill was built in Pawtucket,
Rhode Island. Steel, created by the Bessemer
process, was being turned out by factories in 1865. Inventions and
improvements in machinery made factory
life the dominant way of living for the poor. The newest immigrants from
Ireland, Wales, and Germany became the labor force.
WRITING ACTIVITY:
The year is 1901. Write a persuasive speech for a banker or investor
to deliver. The speech is intended to support investment in the building
of new factories.
TO ASSIST YOU:
CREATE A RALLYING SONG...
You are an organizer of the opposition to more factory development. Your
opposition is based on overcrowding, poor housing, pollution, etc. You
have heard the speech.
