Skills Based Learning Targets (year long)

• Analyze a variety of textual sources, including primary and secondary written sources, tables and graphs, and maps to demonstrate understanding and use information from these sources to understand historical questions (Reading Analysis)
• Synthesize information from a variety of sources and places and use it to come to a broader understanding or form an argument (Synthesis)
• Write a clearly described and detailed argument and defend it using historical evidence (Argumentation)
• Write and speak coherently and clearly in a variety of formats and settings and clearly present information both visually & verbally (Communication)
• Analyze and understand the relationship between causes and effects in history and use it to further their understanding of historical processes and events (Cause & Effect)
• Use compare and contrast methods to analyze historical processes and events (Compare & Contrast)

Thematic Learning Targets (year long)

• Understand the common features of the organization of human societies, including social classes, gender roles, labor systems, and the constructs of race, and how they have changed over time (Social Organization)
• Identify and understand the world’s major religions, philosophies, and belief systems and understand how cultures are formed and spread through the processes of cultural diffusion and cultural syncretism (Culture)
• Understand the organization of political and legal systems while explaining important political ideologies and revolutions (Political Developments)
• Understand the impact of the development of technology while explaining historical examples of how specific technologies have altered human societies (Impact of Technology)
• Understand the ways in which environmental factors have shaped human history and humans evolving relationship with our environments (Humans & the Environment)
• Understand the causes and effects of the interaction of human societies through trade, migration, and warfare and identify specific examples of how those processes have shaped human history (Interaction of Human Societies)
• Organize the history of the world into distinct time periods based on important historical turning points and be able to give a broad description of the processes and events of each historical era (Historical Periodization)

Content Based Learning Targets (by unit)

• Identify the causes and effects of human evolution and migration around the world and can describe the lifestyle and social organization of human societies in our earliest stages (1.1)
• Identify the earliest locations of agriculture around the world and understand the process of domestication that led to farming (1.2)
• Create and defend a historical argument that examines the impact of the Agricultural Revolution by analyzing its positive and negative effects (1.3)
• Compare and contrast the major patterns of early civilizations culturally, socially, politically, and economically and be able to identify early centers of civilization (2.1)
• Identify the usual causes and effects of human migration and specifically the effects of the Indo-European and Bantu migrations in this era (2.2)
• Understand the origin and evolution of writing systems and their impact on human societies (2.3)
• Understand the lifestyle of pastoral nomads and identify the main ways they have interacted with civilizations and impacted history (2.4)
• Outline and understand the broad history of the classical era, including being able to identify the major empires and their overall impact on history (3.1)
• Identify and understand the political challenges of classical era empires and the political organizational strategies they developed to govern their vast empires (3.2)
• Identify common features of daily life in the classical era and compare and contrast regional differences (3.3)
•  Understand the causes and effects of long-distance trade and interaction in the classical era and can identify the main trade routes (3.4)
• Write an analysis of the causes and effects of the fall of classical empires in Rome and China, while also comparing and contrasting those same factors and identifying patterns in both (3.5)
• Understand the origins and beliefs of Hinduism and the Caste System and how they are connected to one another (4.1)
• Understand the origins and beliefs of Buddhism (4.2)
• Understand the doctrines and beliefs of the major Chinese philosophies, including Confucianism, Daoism, and Legalism (4.3)
• Understand the concept of Western Civilization and can identify the ways in which Ancient Greece and Rome contributed to its formation (4.4)
• Understand the historical origins of Christianity, can identify the factors that allowed for it to become widespread, and understand the basic beliefs of the religion (4.5)
• Describe the basic beliefs of Islam and how it shapes the lives of its followers, while using key Islamic terms in the proper context (4.6)
• Create a visual aid that compares and contrasts the origins and beliefs of the major religious & philosophical ideologies of the world (4.7)
• Understand the historical origins of Islam and the factors behind its spread (5.1)
• Understand the impact of the creation of the Islamic Empire and can identify the key traits and features of early Islamic civilization (5.2)
• Understand the key features of early African societies and the impact of the Trans-Saharan, Indian Ocean, and Islamic Slave Trade on its development (5.3)
• Understand the history of the Early Middle Ages in Europe (500-1000 CE) and the changes to society after the fall of the Roman Empire, including the consolidation of Christianity (6.1)
• Understand how Feudalism and the Roman Catholic Church shaped the social, economic, and political structure of Medieval European society (6.2)
• Understand the causes and effects of the economic, political, and social changes in Europe during the later Middle Ages (1000-1350 CE) (6.3)
• Analyze primary sources and synthesize information from multiple viewpoints to construct and defend a historical argument about the causes and motivations of the First Crusade, while comparing and contrasting the source’s message, purpose, audience, or perspective (6.4)
• Identify both continuities and changes in post-classical China in terms of their society, economy, government, and culture (7.1)
• Identify ways in which cultural diffusion from China led to the development of Japanese civilization and understand major features of Medieval Japanese society (7.2)
• Understands the causes and effects of the creation of the Mongol Empire (7.3)
• Understand the political, social, and economic changes in post-classical India and its role and impact on the broader Indian Ocean Trade Basin (7.4)
• Analyze primary sources and synthesize information from multiple viewpoints to construct and defend a historical argument about the reactions to the introduction of Buddhism to China while comparing and contrasting the source’s message, purpose, audience, or perspective (7.5)
• Outline the physical processes of trade and travel in the post-classical era and the areas involved in the major trade systems of the era (8.1)
• Understand the causes of increased long-distance trade and the effects of increased trade and interaction in the post-classical era (8.2)
• Understand the methods that major religions used to become widespread, the main areas of influence for each religion, and the process of religious syncretism (8.3)
• Create a cause & effect flow chart that illustrates the relationships between the major technological, economic,  social, & cultural changes in post-classical societies (8.4)
• Identify specific aspects of the major American civilizations, while comparing and contrasting them to civilizations in Eurasia (9.1)
• Understand the common features of life in pre-Columbian North America and the ways that regions and tribes differed from one another (9.2)
• Summarize the findings of new research on life in Pre-Columbian America, with a focus on the size of populations and their impact on their environment (9.3)
• Understand the motivations, causes, and effects of European exploration and expansion, including their conquest of the Americas (10.1)
• Compare and contrast the economic, political, and social features of the various European colonial systems in the Americas during the colonial era (10.2)
• Understand the historical factors that led to the Atlantic Slave Trade, how the trade system worked, and the effects of the slave trade on African and American societies, including its connection to modern racism (10.3)
• Understand the early system of global trade and be able to define the Columbian Exchange that resulted from it and the major positive and negative effects of both (10.4)
• Perform a role in a mock trial that assesses the long-term consequences of the age of global interaction and their impact on human societies and makes or defends an argument related to either the broader historical period or a specific development within that era (10.5)
• Analyze and describe the reasons why human societies around the world developed at different rates (11.1)
• Analyze and describe the specific environmental factors that can explain why Eurasian civilizations developed at a faster rate than civilizations in the Americas and other parts of the world (11.2)
• Identify the major historical figures and ideas, as well as the causes and effects, of the major cultural shifts of the Renaissance and Protestant Reformation (12.1)
• Understand the major economic and political changes in Europe during the early modern era and their impact on European society (12.2)
• Identify the new ideas and discoveries of the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment and understand how they transformed the worldview of the modern world (12.3)
• Complete a cause and effect chart that connects changes within Europe to one another and to broader historical developments going on worldwide between 1450-1750 (12.4)
• Define the concept of political revolution and outline the typical factors that lead to revolutions and what results from them, while identifying the general causes and effects of the ‘Age of Revolutions’ (13.1)
• Identify the major causes and effects of the French Revolution and understand the basic course of the revolution (13.2)
• Define the new political ideologies in Europe during the ‘Age of Revolution’ and understand the historical factors that helped create and spread the idea of nationalism and the nation-state (13.3)
• Compare and contrast the American and Latin American Revolutions and their post-revolutionary paths (13.4)
• Understand the origins and causes of the Industrial Revolution, including the key technological breakthroughs (14.1)
• Summarize the social, economic, demographic, and environmental impact of the Industrial Revolution (14.2)
• Analyze primary sources and synthesize information from multiple viewpoints to construct and defend a historical argument about the impact of the Industrial Revolution on the lives of workers, while grouping the sources into clear topics through the synthesis of information (14.3)
• Identify the motivations and causes of Western Imperialism, including factors that had led to changes in the traditional global balance of power, and outline the areas of the world that were colonized (15.1)
• Compare and contrast Chinese and Japanese reactions to Western Imperialism and the effects on each as a result (15.2)
• Create an argument that analyzes the effects of Western Imperialism using historical evidence to support that argument while demonstrating an understanding of the positive and negative effects of Western Imperialism (15.3)
• Identify and understand the causes of World War I and World War II (16.1)
• Compare and contrast World War I and World War II in terms of the nature of the fighting, the impact on civilians, and the major nations involved (16.2)
• Identify the causes and effects of the global Great Depression (16.3)
• Identify the features of a Totalitarian State and the ideology of Fascism and the ways that Stalin’s Soviet Union and Nazi Germany were examples in this era (16.4)
• Understand the legacies of the World Wars and their lasting impact on the world today (16.5)
• Create a cause and effect flow chart that connects the major global political developments from 1750-1950 (16.6)
• Define the Cold War and identify the competing ideologies and nation and major events, while also explaining its impact and the factors that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union (17.1)
• Identify the factors that led to the spread of nationalism and decolonization worldwide, while using India as a case study (17.2)
• Define the Green Revolution and understand the causes and effects of it (17.3)
• Analyze a secondary source reading and use it to describe the various factors that cause genocides, the history of them, and the main 20th century examples (17.4)
• Outline the historical factors leading to Middle Eastern conflict and identify and understand the major conflicts and revolutions in the region and America’s role in them (18.1)
• Describe the ideology and common tactics of Islamic Extremism, the historical factors leading to its growth, and analyze the ways that most people are radicalized (18.2)
• Outline the history of China since the Chinese Civil War and identify the positive changes and remaining challenges to modern China (18.3)
• Outline the major patterns of development, including major positive changes and remaining challenges in modern Europe, Latin America, and Africa (18.4)
• Define globalization and outline the historical path and technological change that has led to it (19.1)
• Understand the major effects of modern globalization in terms of the global economy, migration, and politics and categorize the groups that have benefited and been hurt by globalization (19.2)
• Identify the major technologies that have led to the Digital Revolution and outline the major effects of it (19.3)
• Summarize the major trends in global human rights, demographic change, and environmental issues in the modern world (19.4)
• Analyze charts and graphs on the major changes to modern human societies to construct and defend a historical argument, while identifying common trends and patterns using synthesis, and identifying and explaining cause and effect relationships between the data points (19.5)

Note: For all secondary sources, excerpts are used and not entire book or article

Note: This list does not include the exhaustive list of short primary source excerpts used in the class

• Traditions & Encounters, Bentely & Ziegler
• “The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race”, Jared Diamond
• Ghengis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, Jack Weatherford
• Atrocities in History, Matthew White
• Guns, Germs, & Steel, Jared Diamond
• The West & the Rest, Niall Ferguson
• The Great Divergence, Kenneth Pomeranz
• “The Case for Colonialism,”Bruce Gilley
• “Why Great Britain Ruled the World,” Niall Ferguson
• “Colonialism Was a Disaster and the Facts Prove It,” Joseph McQuade
• “A Quick Reminder Why Colonialism Was Bad,” by Nathan Robinson