The Middle Ages/Americas: Regional and Transregional Interactions
Broberg – Syllabus
Unit Description:
This semester long unit investigates the history of Europe and the Near East from the breakup of the Roman Empire to
the dawn of the Renaissance (600 CE to 1450). Additionally, our study crosses the Atlantic to include an exploration of
the Americas: the Mayan, Aztec and Inca cultures and Mesoamerican life. This historical period is marked by a
predominant theme: regional and transregional interactions. This theme is revealed in the political, economic, social,
and cultural development of the three successor civilizations of classical Greece and Rome, along with the establishment
of the Americas. A specific emphasis is given to Western Christendom – looking at how these societies arose and
interacted in both peace and war. This unit is part of overall curricula that is structured for students who are planning
to take Advanced Placement or Honors History coursework in later middle and high school grades.
The following five design principles for instruction support student learning:
1. Students learn core concepts and habits of thinking within each discipline as defined by standards.
 All students are expected to inquire, investigate, read, write, reason, and speak as historians. Students
experience curricula characterized by depth and consistency.
2. Learning activities, curricula, tasks, text, and talk apprentice students within the discipline of History/Social Science.
 Students learn by doing history, engaging in rigorous ongoing investigations into the essential issues of
humanity, culture and civilization. All lessons, assignments, materials, and discussions serve as scaffolding for
students' emerging mastery of History/Social Science content knowledge and habits of thinking.
3. Teachers apprentice students by providing opportunities to engage in rigorous disciplinary activity and by providing
scaffolding through inquiry, direct instruction, modeling and observation.
4. Intelligence is socialized through community, class-learning culture, and instructional routines.
 Students are encouraged to take risks, to seek and offer help when appropriate, to ask questions and insist on
understanding the answers, to analyze and solve problems to reflect on their learning, and to learn from one
another. Teachers arrange environments, use tools, and establish norms and routines and communicate to all
students how to become better thinkers in History/Social Science.
5. Instruction is assessment-driven.
 Teachers use multiple forms of formal and informal assessment, formative and summative assessment, and data
to guide instruction. Throughout the year, teachers assess students' grasp of History/Social Science concepts,
their habits of inquiring, investigating, problem-solving, and communicating. Teachers use these assessments
to tailor instructional opportunities to the needs of their learners. Students are engaged in self-assessment to
develop metacognitive development and the ability to manage their own learning.
The following chart illustrates the skills that students are expected to exhibit as they think, read, write and speak as
historians:
Thinking/Reading/Writing/Speaking as a Historian
Thinking
Reading
Historians . . .
 Understand and appreciate universal and cultural
historical themes and dilemmas.
 Distinguish the important from the irrelevant.
 Recognize vital connections between the past and
present.
 Speculate by making predictions about their world and
the future.
 Effectively analyze and interpret evidence, both
primary and secondary.
 Identify relationships between cause and effect.
 Distinguish main events from secondary events.
 Research history (documents, artifacts, etc.) to gather
evidence.
 Interpret evidence to construct an account or portrayal
of the past.
 Consider all the evidence and interpretations and
formulate hypotheses about what is happening and
why.
 Verify hypotheses through research.
Historians . . .
 Seek to discover context.
 Ask what the purpose of the text is.
 Assume bias in text.
 Consider word choice and tone.
 Read slowly, simulating a social exchange between
two readers, one who enters into the text
wholeheartedly and reads it like a believer, and the
other who then stands back and critically questions
the text.
 Compare texts to gather different, perhaps
divergent, accounts of the same event or topic.
 Get interested in contradictions and ambiguity.
 Check sources of documents.
 Read like witnesses to living, evolving events.
 Read like lawyers, who make cases.
Writing
Speaking
Historians . . .
 Use historical narrative to summarize and explain the
past.
 Write with purpose, targeting specific audiences.
 Construct historical arguments presenting their version
of events based on evidence and record.
 Use a variety of formats, including: scholarly articles,
textbooks, biographies, scripts for documentaries,
descriptions for museum exhibits.
 Write in varying styles.
Historians . . .
 Present their findings in a variety of formats,
including: lectures, scholarly debates, film
documentary narration or commentary.
 Presentations of scholarly articles.
 Giving commentary on museum exhibits.
Historians also . . .
 Hold interviews.
 Advise politicians.
 Comment on current events.
Essential Questions: The following essential questions guide
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Why do we call the earliest part of the Middle Ages (i.e. the Dark Ages) and why is there so little written
evidence available from this time period?
Why did feudalism develop and who benefited from it?
What was the purpose of a castle and how did castles change over time to accomplish this purpose? What is
manorialism and how is manorialism connected to feudalism?
What was the role of a knight in feudal society and how is the idea of chivalry connected to knights?
How was the Medieval Christian Church structured and how did the Church influence medieval life?
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How is the government of England in the Middle Ages similar to and different from the government of the
United States in the present?
How has the Magna Carta influenced important documents in the history of our own country like the
Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights?
What were the Crusades and how did they influence medieval life?
How was the establishment of the country of France different from the establishment of the Holy Roman
Empire?
What does the spread of the Black Death tell us about the everyday common people during the Middle Ages?
Why were the Olmec, Mayan, Aztec and Inca able to develop one of the earliest civilizations in the Americas?
What are the relationships between European and Mesoamerica culture?
Why did certain Mesoamerican did cultures fail? What aspects survived? To what extent did Mesoamerican
culture transition into aspects of American life? What contributions are seen in today’s life?
Course Text(s): This unit is built on an interdisciplinary approach that considers music, art, math/science and social
sciences. The following core set of materials will be used within this unit.
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World History: Medieval and Early Modern Times (2006) – Published by McDougal Littell Inc.
Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! : Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz (2007).
Various works by Shakespeare
Primary source documents and materials
Unit Overview:
Topic
Introduction – Rome: Final Expansion and Fall
Objective: Analyze the rise and fall of the Roman Empire and the Romans’ lasting
contributions to civilization.
Duration
3 Weeks
Islam, African and Asian Civilizations
Objective: Examine how geography, government, and belief systems affected the
development of early Islam, Africa and Asia.
2 Weeks
Medieval Europe
Objective: Examine the rise of feudalism in Europe and analyze the religious, political, and
social institutions of the later medieval period and the circumstances that led to the
emergence of modern states in Europe and the Ottoman Empire.
5 Weeks
Mayan, Aztec, Inca – Civilization of Americas
Objective: Analyze how geography and culture influenced civilization in Mesoamerica.
4 Weeks
Wrapping Up – Assessments and Presentations
2 Weeks
Assessment Overview:
Students will be evaluated on their knowledge of world history and their ability to think historically. Students will be
assessed four ways:
Multiple Choice
Frequency: Weekly (formative)
Overview: Students complete short, multiple choice assessments.
These assessments are intended to provide opportunities for
students to reflect on weekly learning goals.
Short Answer – Argumentative Essay
Frequency: Twice – During Unit
Overview: Students will be given a particular issue that requires an
argumentative response.
Document-based Essay Question
Frequency: Once – During Unit
Overview: Students are presented with primary source materials and
are asked to examine and respond to a specific focus question.
Research Paper
Frequency: Once – During Unit – Due at End of Unit
Overview: Students complete a short, research project and
presentation of their choice related the Middle Ages. Some possible
topics include:
 Feudalism
 Black Plague
 Charlemagne
 The Manor System
 Monarchs versus Papacy
 The Crusades
 Inquisition
 Hundred Years’ War
 Magna Carta