Social Studies 7
Society and Culture: Ancient World Cultures to A.D. 500 (I)

Prescribed Learning Outcomes

It is expected that students will:

• compare how various cultures meet common needs
• demonstrate understanding of events as part of a chronological series
• demonstrate understanding of the concept of civilization

• Brainstorm components that are common to all cultures around the world (e.g., communications, trade, food, clothing, shelter, medicine, education, fine arts, transportation, history, technology, political or legal organization, social organization, religion). Then have small groups create unique cultures with common components (e.g., found on the same island and have limited resources such as no electricity or fossil fuels). Each group explains how its culture meets basic needs of adults and children of both genders.
• Explain the origin of B.C. and A.D. Discuss why these terms reflect a specific cultural perspective, then discuss B.C.E. (Before Common Era) and C.E. (Common Era). Ask students to brainstorm and define related terms (e.g., decade, century, millennium, era, age, period, eon).
• Challenge groups of students to flag, date, and label significant historic and prehistoric events on timelines. Possible scales include:
  • personal timeline (1 cm : 1 year)
  • dawning of ancient civilizations to present (1 cm : 100 years or 2 m : 20 000 years)
  • dawning of human species (1 cm : 10 000 years or 2 m : 2 million years)
  • evolution of invertebrate species (1 cm : 1 million years)
  • earth geologic history (eras and time periods) (1 cm : 1 billion years)
• Have students generate questions to help define civilization. (e.g., Are we civilized because we have technology such as computers?) Ask each student to circulate around the class with one of the questions, obtaining 10 yes and 10 no responses. They use the responses to create a mural highlighting what civilization means.

Suggested Assessment Strategies

• Help students to develop a checklist to assess group work in creating unique cultures. Assessment criteria could include:
  • offers cultural descriptions that are appropriate to the environment chosen
  • clearly and logically outlines how the culture meets the basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter
  • describes differences in how the culture meets basic needs of adults and children of both genders
  • explains the impact of various cultural components on how basic needs are met
• When students work with chronological ordering of events, assess the extent to which they:
  • present thorough and detailed chronologies
  • order events accurately
  • use the chosen scales consistently
  • show understanding of the relationship of events across time
  • speculate about causal relationships among events
• When students contribute to a mural illustrating their understanding of the term civilization, note and encourage their efforts to:
  • synthesize information from various sources
  • consider a variety of components and perspectives
  • develop a logical central idea or theme
  • add to or elaborate on their ideas through discussion and questioning
  • create or select images that illustrate their ideas