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Curriculum and Instructional Guide
Curriculum and Instructional Guide
Course Description: Students will examine the beginnings of early civilizations through the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Students will analyze the cultural, economic, geographical, historical, and political foundations for early civilizations, including Mesopotamia, Egypt, Israel, India, China, Greece, Rome, Byzantine, Southwest Asia, African, and Mesoamerican Empires. Students will understand how our present and future are built upon the accomplishments and mistakes of the past. Emphasis will be given to the development of critical thinking and reading skills in the content area, analyzing primary sources, writing, researching skills, geographical understanding through map skills, and problem solving. Technology will be used to enhance lessons and develop these skills.
Key Ideas to Consider - Key ideas teachers may want to consider include things such as vocabulary, essential knowledge, places, and historical figures. The list provided is not all inclusive but provides a basis for teachers to build upon with additional resources.
Course Concepts - The content and performance Social Studies standards are organized around the following guidelines:
CIV - Civics & Government – Citizenship entails an understanding of the nature of government and the unique qualities of a democracy including fundamental rights, structure, and the role of the citizen. Students will apply justice, equality, responsibility, and freedom to life. Students will understand and be able to describe various forms of government and analyze rights and responsibilities within each.
CUL - Cultures & Societies – Culture is the way of life shared by a group of people. Culture includes ideas, religion, traditions, philosophy, social rules and institutions. Students will analyze human behavior based on the major components of culture. Students will interact and work cooperatively with diverse groups throughout the world based on their knowledge of culture. Students will understand that culture relates directly to the environment, economy, religion, education, family, and government.
ECO - Economics – Economics includes the study of production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Students will understand how their economic decisions affect themselves, others, the nation, and the world as a whole. Students will be able to reconcile unlimited wants with limited resources. Students will understand the effects of economic decisions in daily living.
GEO - Geography – Geography includes the study of location, place, regions, movement and human interaction with the environment. Understanding the world and its delicate balance are essential to human survival. A geographic perspective allows better understanding of the past and preparation for the future.
HIS - History – History is an interpretation of events, people, ideas, and their interaction over time. In order for students to understand the present and make plans for the future, they must understand the past. Students will be able to understand, analyze, and interpret historical events, conditions, trends, and issues to develop historical perspectives.
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Ways to Infuse the Catholic Faith:
Catholic Social Teaching Themes:
Life and Dignity of the Human Person – The Catholic Church proclaims that human life is sacred and that the dignity of the human person is the foundation of a moral vision for society. The Church believes that every person is precious, that people are more important than things and the measure of every institution is whether it threatens or enhances the life and dignity of the human person.
Call to Family, Community and Participation – The Catholic Church tradition proclaims that the person is not only sacred but also social. Marriage and the family is the central social institution that must be supported and strengthened, not undermined. Our Church teaches that the role of government and other institutions is to protect human life and human dignity and promote the common good.
Rights and Responsibilities – Catholic tradition teaches that human dignity can be protected and a healthy community can be achieved only if human rights are protected and responsibilities are met.
Option for the Poor and Vulnerable – Catholic teaching proclaims that a basic moral test is how our most vulnerable members are faring. We are instructed in Matthew 25: 31-46 to put the needs of the poor and vulnerable first.
The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers – The Catholic Church believes that the economy must serve people, not the other way around. Work is more than a way to make a living; it is a form of continuing participation in God’s creation.
Solidarity – Catholic social teaching proclaims that we are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers, wherever they live. We are one human family whatever our national, racial, ethnic, economic, and ideological differences. Learning to practice the virtue of solidarity means learning that “loving our neighbor” has global dimensions in an interdependent world.
Care for God’s Creation –The Catholic tradition insists that we show our respect for the Creator by our stewardship of creation. We are called to protect people and the planet, living our faith in relationship with all of God’s creation.
Catholic Social Teaching Questions:
Unit 1 (Pre-History and the Foundations of Human Civilization) Catholic Social Teaching Questions:
Find on the map where Jesus walked on earth.
Rome is in ‘the West’. Why is it not in the Middle East where Jesus walked? St. Peter was the first pope and he died in Rome and so this is where his successor lived, etc.
Currently there are about 27 Catholic Rites. Most western Catholics belong to the Roman Rite. What are similarities and differences between eastern and western Catholic rites? If you were to attend an Eastern Catholic Mass, it would look different in many places. The liturgies vary in ceremony and language, but Eastern Catholics believe in the same doctrine. It is said the Church breathes with two lungs – the western and eastern hemispheres.
Unit 2 (Ancient Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent) Catholic Social Teaching Questions:
Should Catholics take the creation story in Genesis literally? Catechism of the Catholic Church 282-289
What do we mean by “Man is a Religious Being”? God gave man the ability to know His existence through reason. Since the beginning, cultures have created systems of worship and sacrifice. God made us to search for Him and a free will to choose Him. Catechism of the Catholic Church 27-35
God made us the way He did on purpose. What does mankind have in common and why did God make us this way? God gave us a desire for happiness to search for him, reason to know Him, free will to choose Him, a survival instinct to want to live forever, an interdependence and family to desire a relationship with him, etc.
The Ten Commandments are common and remind us of the natural law. They are the “minimum” of what is expected. Jesus gave us the beatitudes. How do Jesus’ ‘laws’ call us to go deeper? What does “beatitude mean”? What is the beatific vision?
What does it mean that man was made in the image and likeness of God? Catechism of the Catholic Church 355-384
Units 3 and 4 (Ancient Egypt and Ancient Israel) Catholic Social Teaching Questions:
What do we mean when we say Catholics are fulfilled Jews? Jesus fulfilled the law and the prophets. Even everything we do at Mass has Jewish origins Jesus fulfilled. The apostles and early Christians considered themselves to be Jewish until the Jewish religion said followers of Jesus as Messiah were no longer Jewish.
What is Nostra Aetate?
The Catholic Church (especially as fulfilled Jews) has survived unchanged in every culture and political system. How can this be? Truth, beauty, and goodness are transcendent. Truth does not change. Similarly, Jesus promised the gates of Hell will never prevail against the Church.
God can bring good out of anything. If Joseph was not sold into slavery by his brothers what would have happened to the Egyptians at that time? What lesson can we learn from this?
Leaders should work for the common good and respect the dignity of each person. History shows that judgments can be clouded by fear or desire for control or power. What are examples of choices that are clouded by fear or disordered desire?
Units 5 and 6 (Ancient India and Ancient China) Catholic Social Teaching Questions:
Jesus became a man in a culture that thought (and many still think) vengeance is a virtue. His messages of loving enemies and “blessed are the peacemakers” were radical. People, we know, can disagree and still be at peace. What attitudes help and hinder peace? See Catechism of the Catholic Church 1716, 1909, 1938, 1941, 2015, 2315, 2317, 2442.
Is it okay to disagree with others? Yes, but one must always be kind and respectful.
What did Jesus mean when He said “Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division”? Taken in context, He was preparing that many would not like Him or His teaching. In some matters, it is better to stand by what is right than to avoid conflict. Look at all the martyrs that would rather die than deny Jesus or sin.
Catholic Social Teaching puts Jesus’ teaching into modern words. Compare/contrast Catholic Social Teaching beliefs against other religions. Do all religions believe that every person has dignity? That we should work for peace? That we should love our enemies?
Unit 7 and 8 (Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome) Catholic Social Teaching Questions:
What aspects of Hellenistic culture influenced Judaism/Christianity?
Why is philosophy so important in Catholic tradition and a requirement in the training of all priests? (Fides et Ratio and Veritatis Splendor)
Who is Saint Justin (Martyr)? How is his approach at conflict resolution applicable today? Reading him, how has the Mass changed in 2000 years? See Catechism of the Catholic Church 1345.
Describe the first few centuries (33-313 AD) of Catholicism. What is “The acts of the martyrs”?
How did the following people influence the world today: St. Paul, Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp, Ambrose, Augustine, Anthony of Egypt, Leo the Great? Why are these early martyrs so popular even today? Sebastian, Lawrence, Agnes, Cecilia, Lucy, Anastasia, Perpetua, Felicity?
Some say Constantine founded Christianity in 325. Why would they say this and how do we know it is not so? See Catechism of the Catholic Church 763-766; 830.
Who are the Apostolic Fathers and Fathers of the Church and how did they affect culture and politics?
When Christianity was made the official religion of the empire (313 AD), would you say this helped or hurt the Church and why? · Why is it said that Pope Leo the Great saved Rome from the Huns?
When Christianity was legalized and martyrdom ceased as a way of life, monasticism appeared. What was monasticism then and now? Are there monasteries in Kentucky?
What is the influence of Benedict, Scholastica, and Gregory the Great?
What is Gnosticism then and now? What is Pelagianism then and now? (Placuit Deo).
The first several centuries saw eastern/western political divisions according to adherence to the heresy of the day. What was the governmental and geographical effect of Church conclusions to heretical movements – for example, Arianism.
Why was Rome chosen as the seat of Peter and not Constantinople?
How can it be said persecution of the Church (beginning with Stephen) caused its quick spread through the nations?
Unit 9 (Byzantine Empire) Catholic Social Teaching Questions:
What is the significance of the beginning of the Dominican and Franciscans to the Church and society?
Some Catholic saints are given national significance. What is the national significance of Clotilda? Gregory of Tours? Patrick? Columba? Bede? Augustine of Canterbury? Boniface? Ansgar? Olaf? Cyril and Methodius? Stephen the Great? Vladimir and Olga? Bernard?
What does “catholic” mean? See Catechism of the Catholic Church 830-32.
At different times for different reasons prelates in the Church also held political positions. The Church stopped this practice. Was this a good decision? Why?
How was the Church able to survive when there was widespread internal corruption? See Catechism of the Catholic Church 889-91, 2051, 2298.
Who is Albert the Great and what did he do for science?
Thomas Aquinas demonstrated how the faith is reasonable by combining science and religion. What did this look like? See his Summa Theologica.
Compare and contrast the Catholic Social teaching against the view of other religions.
What is Fides et Ratio? Can faith and reason/science ever contradict each other? No.
Unit 10 (Southwest Asia, North African Empires and the Spread of Islam) Catholic Social Teaching Questions:
Man is a ‘religious being’. How is this evidenced in these times?
Read Nostra Aetate. What are the main points to that document?
What is ecumenical dialogue?
What do Catholics believe about gender roles? Complementary, different, but equal. See Catechism of the Catholic Church #2331-2336.
If there are so many religions, how do I know which one is true? There are many proofs to know this, and you are encouraged to study them and pray about it.
People in all religions do bad things. What is an important distinction to make? What people do may not be what that religion teaches. In history even popes have sinned, but the teachings of the Church have never changed. Some religions do have things that are incompatible with Jesus’ teaching, but it is important to not judge that religion by the choices of individuals. All religions should have some good and common ground on which to begin a healthy relationship.
Do Catholics believe they have the one true Church? Yes. All religions have good in them, but the Catholic Church has the fullness of the faith.
Is Jesus just a myth? No. He is real. No historian denies a man named Jesus made extraordinary claims, performed deeds and that had so many die rather than say they did not witness the Resurrection. God became man at a specific time and place in history.
When was the word “Catholic” first used? Before 100 AD by Ignatius of Antioch.
What were the first three centuries of Christianity like? What is the Acts of the Martyrs?
There was great political turmoil over the Christological heresies. What is a Christological heresy and how did the Church ‘solve’ the turmoil. Through ecumenical councils like Nicea.
Unit 11 (Mesoamerican Empires) Catholic Social Teaching Questions:
Early archeology shows us that early mankind lived to gather in groups and had religion involving worship and sacrifice. What does this tell us about God? God created man as a social person because He is ultimately calling us to be in relationship with Him. He also created us with the ability to know Him by reason alone, a desire to be happy to search for Him and free will to choose Him. See Catechism of the Catholic Church 27, 357,1057,1704,2467.
Why is sacrifice part of most religions? Sacrifice has the instinct of giving up something of one’s own out of reverence for the other. As it comes naturally in loving relationships, so it does when man “realizes’ the greatness of God. Jesus came to sacrifice once and for all to call us to communion with Him. See Catechism of the Catholic Church 602-609.
What is meant by “the universal destination of goods”? Does this mean I can take whatever I want when I want? Why or why not? Catechism of the Catholic Church 2402-2406.
How does virtue (generosity) and vice (greed) affect history? How does it affect personal lives?
Catholic Resources:
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Catechism of the Catholic Church
Suggested Resources:
Population Pyramid for All Countries
My World History, Karpiel and Krull, (Boston, Pearson Publishing, 2012).
Our Catholic Legacy: World History for Young Catholics: Volume 1: Ancient History to the Age of Discovery, Seton Press, (Front Royal, Seton Home Study School, 2015).
Discovery Our Past: A History of the World, McGraw Hill, (McGraw Hill Education, 2018).
Engineering an Empire: History Channel (can be found on Youtube): Greece, Alexander the Great, Aztecs, Carthage, China, Russia, Britain, Persians, Mayans, Napoleon, Byzantines, Da Vinci’s World, Rome, and Egypt
National Council for the Social Studies
Discovery: gives access to free classroom-ready lesson plans and activities for K-12 education, organized by grade level and subject for science, social studies, and literature.
EDSITEment! The Best of the Humanities on the Web: National Endowment for the Humanities website of lessons and other resources.
EdTech Teacher: Aims to provide quick, convenient, and reliable access to the best history-oriented resources online in a wide range of categories and has been designed to benefit history teachers and their students.
Library of Congress Learning Page
National Archives: A collection of U.S. history docs and other resources.
The History Channel: Your must-have site for history resources, including teaching materials, TV shows, videos, games.
Kahoot! Create, share and play fun learning games or trivia quizzes.
Goformative - Choose a premade formative from the library and edit any question to adjust for your students.
Quizizz - Free self-paced quizzes to review, assess, and engage.
IXL- Requires school subscription.
Blooket- Free self-paced games to review and introduce new ideas.
Seterra - More than 400 free map quiz games in more than 40 languages.
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