In this unit on Islam, students will use The CHSSP curriculum with a collaborative model and Common Core Standards in History to produce a website to examine the big question stated above. Students will examine a set of documents and web quest to gather evidence for their Frankenstein Essay. All documents will be examined using close reading techniques.

Time Frame three-four weeks.

Culminating activity: Students will take part in Socratic Seminar answering the question, "Which female ruler did the most to spread Buddhism?"

CALIFORNIA HISTORY CONTENT STANDARDS

7.5 Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the civilizations of Medieval Japan.

7.5.1. Describe the significance of Japan’s proximity to China and Korea and the intellectual, linguistic, religious, and philosophical influence of those countries on Japan.

7.5.4.Trace the development of distinctive forms of Japanese Buddhism.

COMMON CORE READING STANDARDS FOR LITERACY IN HISTORY/SOCIAL STUDIES 6–12

RH 1. Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources.

RH 2. Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.

RH 8. Distinguish among fact, opinion, and reasoned judgment in a text.

WHST 7. Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration.

Students were then given 5 historical documents and a list of websites to analyze. The students used the close reading technique to read and re-read documents to then answer text dependent questions for each document. The students were then given a window of time to fill out a Google Form that contained some of those text dependent questions. The students then used these shared answers to help them with their writing. The answers to this form are below.