Unit 1: The Development of Civilizations

Essential Questions

Enduring Understandings

Students understand that...

 The development of agriculture enabled the rise of the first civilizations, located primarily along river valleys; these complex societies were influenced by geographic conditions, and shared a number of defining political, social, and economic characteristics

• How did the development of agriculture enable the rise of civilizations?

• How did these civilizations adapt to and alter their environments?

• What were the similarities and differences in the development of their political, social, and economic systems, as well as their technological achievements?

Knowledge 

Students know that...

9.1a The Paleolithic Era was characterized by non-sedentary hunting and gathering lifestyles, whereas the Neolithic Era was characterized by a turn to agriculture, herding, and semi sedentary lifestyles.

9.1b Complex societies and civilizations adapted to and modified their environment to meet the needs of their population

9.1c Complex societies and civilizations shared common characteristics of religion, job specialization, cities, government, language/writing systems, technology, and social hierarchy, and they made unique contributions.

Skills

Students will be able to...

• Students will analyze the political, social, and economic differences in human lives before and after the Neolithic Revolution, including the shift in roles of men and women

• Students will explore how the Mesopotamian, Shang, and Indus River valley civilizations adapted to and modified their environments to meet their need for food, clothing, and shelter.

• Students will explore the Mesopotamian, Shang, and Indus River valley civilizations by examining archaeological and historical evidence to compare and contrast characteristics and note their unique contributions.

Key Vocabulary

• archaeology

• artifact

• Neolithic Revolution

• nomads

• civilization

• irrigation

• monarchy

• theocracy

• cuneiform

• artisan

• scribe

• hierarchy

• ziggurat

• barter

• monsoon

• traditional

Summative Tasks

 Formative Tasks

Comparison Life in Mesopotamia to Today

Create a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting the achievements of Mesopotamia and Egypt

•   T-chart of the pros and cons of the development of civilization

•  Summarize the various ways the Chinese adapted to flooding on the South China Plain in a short written response.

• "I Think" pgs. 22-24: Compare four different systems of writing with short readings and a graphic organizer

• Specialization of Labor pg. 21: shows diagram of specialization of wool into clothing, asks students to complete similar slow chart for another occupation

• Archaeologist Inference pg. 22: Asks students to infer about a civilization based on artifacts found

• Epic of Gilgamesh Constructed Response

Videos, Documents, and Resources

• Prehistory to Civilization Flowchart

• Code of Hammurabi (document; page 4)

• Aryans society in ancient India: Graphic organizer activity 

• Examining Evidence at Stonehenge

• Mandate of Heaven explanation (primary source from Shang Dynasty; pages 14-16, with questions)

• Ancient Civilization DBQ (page 1)

• Interpreting a Graph: Climate and Agriculture in India

• Neolithic DBQ 

• Hammurabis Code de 

Egypt: Engineering an Empire Questions and Activities