Agenda: Week of November 26 - 30, 2012

World History Advanced Placement 
Unit 3 - AN AGE OF ACCELERATING CONNECTIONS 500–1500
CHAPTER 13 The Worlds of the Fifteenth Century
WEEK AT A GLANCE:
MON: Reading Check Quiz 13, Aztec/Inca Comparison
TUE: Ming China/Renaissance Europe Comparison
WED/THU: America Before Columbus Video Study, The Renaissance
FRI: TEST Chapter 13
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Monday, November 26, 2012
Quote of the Day“To be successful you don’t need to do extraordinary things, you just need to do ordinary things extraordinarily well.” – Jim Rohn
Aztec art: Double-Headed Serpent
Learning Targets:
• Consider the variety of human experience in the fifteenth century and compare those experiences across cultures.
• Contrast the political and cultural conditions in China’s Ming Dynasty and Europe’s “Renaissance Period” on the cusp of the modern world and analyze why Europe came to dominate the world in the modern era.
• Determine the factors that bring about change in the Islamic world (Middle East and West Africa) in the fifteenth century and analyze the differences between the four Muslim Empires.
• Contrast Aztec and Inca thinking about political administration and culture.

Essential Questions:
1. How does this chapter distinguish among the various kinds of societies that comprised the world of the fifteenth century? What other ways of categorizing the world’s peoples might work as well or better?
2. What distinguished the Aztec and Inca empires from each other? 
3. How did Aztec religious thinking support the empire? 
4. In what ways did Inca authorities seek to integrate their vast domains?
5. In what different ways did the peoples of the fifteenth century interact with one another?

Agenda:
1. Reading Check Quiz - Chapter 13 - Worlds of the 15th Century
2. Do Now Question (After the Quiz): What distinguished the Aztec and Inca empires from each other?
3. Notes/Discussion/Video - Aztecs & Inca Compared
How did Aztec religious thinking support the empire? & How did the Aztec Empire feed their vast population (possibly 15 million)?
What political and cultural differences stand out in the histories of fifteenth-century China and Western Europe? What similarities are apparent?
Video: Engineering an Empire: Aztecs
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The Great Zheng He, Chinese Mariner.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Quote of the Day“We are what we repeatedly do; excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” —Aristotle


Learning Targets:
• Consider the variety of human experience in the fifteenth century and compare those experiences across cultures.
• Contrast the political and cultural conditions in China’s Ming Dynasty and Europe’s “Renaissance Period” on the cusp of the modern world and analyze why Europe came to dominate the world in the modern era.
• Determine the factors that bring about change in the Islamic world (Middle East and West Africa) in the fifteenth century and analyze the differences between the four Muslim Empires.
• Contrast Aztec and Inca thinking about political administration and culture.

Essential Questions
1. Assume for the moment that the Chinese had not ended their maritime voyages in 1433. How might the subsequent development of world history have been different? What value is there in asking this kind of “what if ” or counter-factual question?
2. How would you define the major achievements of Ming dynasty China?
3. What political and cultural differences stand out in the histories of fifteenth-century China and Western Europe? What similarities are apparent?
4. In what ways did European maritime voyaging in the fifteenth century differ from that of China? What accounts for these differences?
5. What differences can you identify among the four major empires in the Islamic world of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries?
Florence, Italy. The heart of the Renaissance.
Agenda:
1. DO NOW Question: What political and cultural differences stand out in the histories of fifteenth-century China and Western Europe? What similarities are apparent?
2. Notes, Video, & Discussion: Ming China and Renaissance Europe compared.
Video, Engineering an Empire: China. We'll see how Zheng He and the Ming Dynasty created an amazing naval power only to have the emperor destroy it all. While students watch the video, they will answer this question:
In what ways did European maritime voyaging in the fifteenth century differ from that of China? What accounts for these differences? 
Video, Engineering an Empire: Da Vinci's World. Students will watch the video and answer this question: 
What energy and inspiration gave rise to the Renaissance? Consider why Europe came to dominate the world in the modern era, and how well this could have been predicted in 1500.
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Wednesday, November 28, 2012 & Thursday, November 29, 2012
Quote of the Day: “We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all of the power we need inside ourselves already.” - J.K. Rowling


Learning Targets:
• Consider the variety of human experience in the fifteenth century and compare those experiences across cultures.
• Contrast the political and cultural conditions in China’s Ming Dynasty and Europe’s “Renaissance Period” on the cusp of the modern world and analyze why Europe came to dominate the world in the modern era.
• Determine the factors that bring about change in the Islamic world (Middle East and West Africa) in the fifteenth century and analyze the differences between the four Muslim Empires.
• Contrast Aztec and Inca thinking about political administration and culture.

Essential Questions:
1. How does Europe compare to The Americas before Columbus?
2. What technologies are used and developed by each? How do they compare?
3. What motivates Europeans to explore?
4. What domesticated animals and agriculture do the Europeans have? Contrast that with the Americas.
5. How do the nation-states and city-states of Europe drive competition, exploration, and propel Europe into world power?

Agenda:

1. Video Study: America Before Columbus, Part I. The video is 50 minutes. Students will watch the video and take notes to answer the following questions:
How does Europe compare to The Americas before Columbus?
What technologies are used and developed by each? How do they compare?
What motivates Europeans to explore?
What domesticated animals and agriculture do the Europeans have? Contrast that with the Americas.
2. Notes, Discussion, & Video: The Renaissance.
How do the nation-states and city-states of Europe drive competition, exploration, and propel Europe into world power?
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Friday, November 30, 2012
Quote of the Day: “The person who says something is impossible should not interrupt the person who is doing it.” – Chinese proverb


Learning Targets:
• Consider the variety of human experience in the fifteenth century and compare those experiences across cultures.
• Contrast the political and cultural conditions in China’s Ming Dynasty and Europe’s “Renaissance Period” on the cusp of the modern world and analyze why Europe came to dominate the world in the modern era.
• Determine the factors that bring about change in the Islamic world (Middle East and West Africa) in the fifteenth century and analyze the differences between the four Muslim Empires.
• Contrast Aztec and Inca thinking about political administration and culture.

Agenda:
1. Test Chapter 13
2. Pick up DBQ Handout in class. Read and prepare for Monday - What is a DBQ? How does it compare to the CCOT and the Comparison Essay?