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Curriculum and Instructional Guide
Curriculum and Instructional Guide
Course Description: In World History, students investigate significant events, individuals, developments, and processes from 1200 to the present. Students develop and use the same skills, practices, and methods employed by historians: analyzing primary and secondary sources; developing historical arguments; making historical connections; and utilizing reasoning about comparison, causation, and continuity and change over time. The course provides six themes that students explore throughout the course in order to make connections among historical developments in different times and places: humans and the environment, cultural developments and interactions, governance, economic systems, social interactions and organization, and technology and innovation.
The goal of this course is for students to become literate in the major events and themes of world history since the Middle Ages, engage with primary and secondary sources to develop understanding of historical developments, and be more informed about the historical process of inquiry. They will develop skills in approaching historical questions through argumentative reasoning, research, critical thinking, and interpretation of sources. Students will see history as a discipline relevant to the world in which they live; as a source of ideas for identifying, clarifying, and solving problems at various scales; and as a key component of building knowledge about the world, multicultural awareness, and global awareness.
Key Ideas include things such as vocabulary, essential knowledge, places, historical figures
Course Concepts - The content and performance Social Studies standards are organized around the following guidelines:
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.
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.
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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.
Unit 1
The Medieval world was one that was dominated by the Catholic Church, but many of the Church’s practices led to rebellions and schism. How did the Church address shortcomings in its daily practice and how have these changes come down to the modern day?
How did Medieval expressions of piety come to influence the Church even down to today? Why are Saints like Francis of Assisi and Catherine of Siena so important to the Church?
Unit 2
What was the Council of Trent and why is it so important both as a historical event but also as a major stage in the development of the Church?
The Church was often targeted by intellectuals and philosophes from France and other countries who stereotype it as backwards and superstitious. How is superstition different from religion? How did the Church cultivate knowledge, beauty, and truth?
Why were saints like Ignatius of Loyola and Thomas More important to this time period? How did their defense of the Church influence the course of world history?
Unit 3
The ideas of solidarity and that man has dignity may seem evident to us and practiced widely by the Church today, but looking at history, what are examples and how are these concepts missing? Why did the Church take steps to curb the abuses of colonization, the slave trade, and other atrocities?
How did Catholic figures like Father Manuel Hidalgo y Costilla engage with the revolutionary ideas that spread around the world in this time? What can we learn from their example?
The Catholic Church was often targeted by the French Revolutionaries until Napoleon came to power. Why did the Church resist the new movement that was sweeping France, and were they right to do so?
Unit 4
How does the Church see the role of mankind in an industrializing world?
What are the important messages from Rerum Novarum that influence how people should engage with the economy, capitalism, socialism, and other political/economic institutions?
What is the history of May Day and why did the Church dedicate May 1st to St. Joseph the Worker in 1955? How does this relate to other movements that the Church was also engaging with?
Unit 5
Utilitarianism is when we see people as objects.How is utilitarianism evident in the Scramble for Africa and other colonial struggles? Discuss how we can see utilitarianism today.
Is the idea of the “Civilizing Mission” compatible with Church teaching? Why or why not?
How did the new scientific ideas such as the theory of evolution interact with the Catholic Church? Why are these sorts of scientific investigations held up as evidence against God, and why are they actually compatible with Church belief and teachings?
Unit 6
During World War One the Church attempted to broker peace between the belligerents. How has the Church acted as a peacemaker in other conflicts?
Emperor Karl of Austria is now known as “The Blessed”. How did his actions during the war reflect Catholic ideas? What can be learned from his example and attempts to end the Great War?
Unit 7
During the interwar years, the Catholic Church staunchly resisted the spread of Communism and during World War Two many German and Polish priests, bishops, and other figures resisted Nazi atrocities. What principles of Catholic social justice were they animated by? What can we learn from their example of defiance and faith in the face of totalitarian political ideologies?
Was World War Two a “just war” according to Catholic Social Teachings? Why or why not?
Unit 8
What was the Church’s role in anti-Communist activism in the Cold War? Why were religious figures like John Paul II so important to the ideological conflict of these decades?
How did the Church respond to the changing world of the Cold War? Why was the Second Vatican Council called, and what are some of its long standing effects on the Church?
Unit 9
In a globalized world, what is the place of the Catholic Church as religious affiliation in many areas declines, as the Church receives converts in places like Africa?
How has the Church reacted to the social and environmental issues of the past several decades? Why is Pope Francis’s name significant in regards to these issues?
What are the major issues facing the Church in today’s world? How can historical examples provide guidance for these problems?
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