Submitted by: Molly Lynde
School: Mills E. Godwin High School
Summary
People might be surprised to find out that in the Middle Ages, people didn’t think the world was flat. An American journalist named Washington Irving invented that phrase. He wrote a biography of Christopher Columbus, and [wrote] this scene in which Columbus faces the church fathers and tells them that the world is round. He’s accused of heresy for saying that the world is round when everyone knows the world is flat. Irving totally made this up. (from Terry Jones of Medieval History) Thomas Friedman, author of The World is Flat, speaks of the technologies that have made today’s modern world flat. Using these two paradigms, students will analyze an extensive collection of primary and secondary sources in order to examine in what ways and to what degree the European explorations of the 1450s – 1700 did impact or “flatten” the world contributing to the “first” globalization.
TIPC Ratings
This is an example of a Developing lesson for Research and Information Fluency. Modeling by teacher/librarian then students get extensive practice assembling information and applying varied research and evaluation skills to use primary and secondary resource material for historical analysis.
This is an example of an Approaching lesson for Communication and Collaboration. Students teams (zigsaw groups) analyzed and communicated ideas and information. They used a common document that was uploaded to a class binder on Google Docs making all information available to all students.
This is an example of an Approaching lesson for Critical Thinking and Problem Solving. Students identified, interpreted and analyzed historical documents and the bias inherent in any primary and secondary source and then drew conclusions about the ways the Age of Exploration changed the world.
This is an example of an Approaching lesson for Creativity and Innovation. Students were required to find their own choice of primary resource material as a component of the class binder, and then to use critical and innovative thinking to analyze that document. They then posted a OneNote analysis to Google Docs so that all students could view and use them to complete their final essays.
Student Artifact
