Origins U4 Guide
Unit 4 Guide
2Unit 4: Empires and Belief Systems (c. 600 BCE to 700 CE)Agriculture allowed human societies to grow larger and larger, and enabled many innovations in the way people lived. During this period, new empires arose, more powerful than those that came before. At the same time, portable belief systems emerged and spread to new places and communities. These two trends supported each other. As empires conquered territory, they brought belief systems to new places. In turn, empires used belief systems to help them rule over large territories and diverse peoples. This unit explores several ancient empires and belief systems and establishes the comparison of two of the great pillars of the ancient world: the Roman Empire and Han Dynasty China.
Unit 4 Learning Objectives1.Explain the spread of portable belief systems and how these beliefs shaped the formation of societies. 2.Assess the similarities and differences of ancient empires. 3.Evaluate the ways in which empires and belief systems supported each other.For individual lesson learning objectives, please review the lesson teaching guides.
Big Questions In this unit, students will consider this Unit Problem: How did the emergence of portable belief systems change human communities and networks?To help them answer the Unit Problem, students will also consider the following questions:1.Why did belief systems transform as they spread along networks?2.How did empires expand, and how did they maintain control over diverse peoples?3.In what ways were the Roman and Han Empires similar and different?
Lessons OverviewLesson 4.1 Empires and Belief SystemsPortable Belief SystemsLesson 4.2 Comparing Portable Belief SystemsLesson 4.3 How Do Religions Grow and Change?The Growth of EmpiresLesson 4.4 Comparing Ancient EmpiresFollow the links above to explore each lesson in this unit. Look for this symbol to find the lesson guides, which provide teacher guidance, including sample answers.Comparing the Roman Empire and the Han DynastyLesson 4.5 Rome and Han ChinaLesson 4.6 Women in the Ancient World
6Teaching Tips
Openers and ClosersYou’ll find quick opener activities at the start of each lesson. They’ll help students preview the upcoming material and engage their prior knowledge. Although we’ve written them to align with the content of each lesson, feel free to swap in any openers/do-nows/bell-ringers that you already use! You’ll find closer activities at the end of all lessons—they’re meant to give students the opportunity to reflect and show their understanding. While we’ve written them to align with the content of each lesson, feel free to swap in exit tickets or other checks for understanding. For more information, check out Openers and Closers Quick Tips.
Unit NotebookUnit Notebooks are found throughout this course and offer a great opportunity for informal writing and assessing understanding. The aim of these activities is to keep students and teachers connected to the core themes of the unit. The first time students encounter the Unit Notebook (Unit 4 Notebook: Part 1), they’ll be asked to evaluate each of the statements based on what they currently know. The second time they encounter the Unit Notebook (Unit 4 Notebook: Part 2), they’ll be asked to more thoroughly respond to the questions and revise and refine their initial understanding of the unit’s core concepts. The emphasis here is for students to focus on concepts rather than formal writing. Additionally, the Unit Notebook helps both you and your students assess how their thinking is progressing, where they’re gaining mastery, and where they might need additional instruction.Click here for Unit 4 Notebook: Part 1.Click here for Unit 4 Notebook: Part 2.
Historical Thinking SkillsThe integration of skills and content is foundational to OER Project courses. Skills development is just as important—if not more—than content knowledge for student thinking and learning in social studies classes. Throughout this course, students encounter numerous, scaffolded opportunities to practice causation, comparison, continuity and change over time, contextualization, sourcing, and making and testing claims. Practice progressions are made up of three categories: progression activities, thinking tools, and feedback forms. Each step in a progression is more sophisticated than the one before, challenging students along the way but also supporting them as they do this work. You can find the following progression activities in Unit 4:•Comparison: Belief Systems•CCOT: Introduction•CCOT: Agrarian Societies to Empires and Beliefs•Sourcing: Rome and Han Dynasty ChinaLearn more in our Historical Thinking Guideand see where all the progression activities live in the World History Origins Practice Progressions Placement document.
Frames of World HistoryThis course asks you and your students to examine world history through different lenses, or frames. The frames are communities, networks, and production and distribution.The frames help students organize the vast amount of information they will encounter in world history, giving them a framework to help make sense of all the ways in which someone might tell the history of the world. This approach highlights the idea that historical accounts are based on particular perspectives. More important, these frames provide students with big picture, historical “stories,” thus providing a cohesive backdrop against which students can construct their historical understanding. As students move through the course, they will examine how each frame has changed over our long history. Learn more in our Frames Guide.
ReadingsOER Project includes primary sources and articles written by a diverse group of scholars and OER Project staff. Some of the reading involved in OER Project courses can be challenging, but it is vital for engaging with the course content. All texts in the course—other than those that are part of DBQs (document-based questions) or are primary source materials—have been Lexile leveled, and each article has three or four versions to accommodate students of all reading abilities. OER Project provides Guiding Questions alongside each reading. These questions encourage students to approach the text at three levels—first by skimming the text, next by reading to answer Key Idea questions (“While You Read”), and finally by evaluating the text through “After You Read” questions that encourage connection and synthesis. For more information, see our Reading Guide.
ActivitiesActivities are an important part of OER Project lessons and serve to build student understanding and engagement. Activities provide an opportunity to get students moving and “doing” history through exercises like informal writing, group work, simulations, and debates.Progression activities appear in multiple units and are based on historical thinking skills like sourcing and contextualization. Each activity in a progression is meant to be more sophisticated than the one before, challenging students but also supporting them as they do this work.For all activities in OER Project—except for some openers and closers—teachers can find directions and sample answers in the accompanying lesson guides. Click here to learn more about activities.Click here to learn more about historical thinking skills.
VideosWe use videos as a visually engaging approach to course material. While students are often excited to learn that they’ll be watching a video in class, video-watching is a skill, just like reading an article. Here are a couple of quick strategies to get you started:•We suggest students first read the video description and Guiding Questions, or even skim the video transcript. We’ve provided you with timestamps and sample answers, which students will not see. •We recommend chunking the videos using the Key Ideas feature, which pauses the video at the specific times of the corresponding Guiding Questions and provides an opportunity for discussion or note-taking.•You can also play the video twice: once straight through and once with pauses at key ideas.For more information, see our Video Guide.
Graphic BiographiesOER Project’s graphic biographies are one-page histories of people. Whether they’re “important” or “everyday,” each of these individuals has their own story, their own history, and those stories weave in and out of the global themes of their era. Their experiences highlight, and sometimes bring into question, developments on a global scale that students are studying as part of the frame narratives presented in the course. These biographies are one of the best ways for students to zoom in, and doing so helps bring nuance to their understanding of history. In some cases, the biographies will complicate the frame narratives—the experience of an individual will not necessarily fit with the global experience—but they don’t invalidate the frames; they just deepen and enrich them.Click here to learn more about our Graphic Biographies.
WritingAt OER Project, we encourage students to write. A lot. At times, we want them to write informally, in order to express their initial understandings. Other times, we have them write formally, to solidify their thinking and refine their arguments. They will write, review, and refine their work multiple times. This isn’t easy for most students. However, our research has shown that this hard work makes a real difference in the quality of their writing—a terribly unsurprising conclusion. Clear, consistent expectations, frequently revisited, is not a magic formula; it’s just good teaching.In each unit of this course, there are opportunities for students to participate in a formal writing activity that results in an essay. These assessments can take the form of document-based questions (DBQs) or open-ended long-essay questions (LEQs). Each prompt is offered on its own, if you’d like to assign an LEQ, or with an accompanying set of sources, if you’d like to assign a DBQ. Lesson 4.2 offers a writing opportunity on early Chinese philosophies in which students respond to this prompt: Compare the similarities and differences between early Chinese philosophies about how a state should be ruled.Click here to learn more about our writing approach.Click here for informal writing routines.
AssessmentOER Project values a comprehensive approach to assessment. We embed assessments throughout the course—every activity is developed to allow students and teachers to gain insight into their understanding. Our courses give teachers many opportunities to review student work—both formally and informally—and determine areas for improvement and enrichment. However, all assessments are optional and to be used at the teacher’s discretion. We stress the use of rubrics throughout the course. We have a set of rubrics for teachers to use to give consistent feedback to students on their participation in discussions, their presentations, and on their writing. We also provide a standardized set of “thinking tools,” with accompanying feedback forms, to help students understand the goals and targets of each activity.OER Project does not provide guidance on grading. Teachers know their students, instructional context, and routines best, and are without doubt in the best position to assess them fairly. Learn more in our Assessment Guide.