Shawnee Mission School District

High School Course Syllabus

Course Modern World History Teacher: Haley Lukes (Stojak)
Email: haleystojak@smsd.org
Number 3372 School: Shawnee Mission Northwest High School

Department Social Studies Year: 2014-2015

Course
Description
Modern world History is a survey course that gives students the opportunity to explore recurring
themes of human experience common to civilizations around the globe. After a review of early
world history, the focus of study will be from the Renaissance to contemporary times and will
include a study of the historical roots and events of Asia and Africa. Students will broaden their
historical thinking, examine significant events, ideas, and movements. Additionally students will
explore how world societies have dealt with continuity and change as well as war and peace.
Internal stability and strife, and the contributions culmination in modern civilization.

Primary
Objectives






















Theme: Connecting Themes and Historical Thinking Skills
3372.100 BIG IDEA 1. The learner will recognize, use and evaluate the methods and tools
valued by historians, compare the views of historians and trace the themes, trends and
movements of history.

1. Analyze and interpret a variety of primary and secondary sources to compare multiple
perspectives, trace themes, and detect bias about events and eras of modern world history.
2. Relate geography, anthropology, political science, sociology, archaeology and economics to
the study of history.
3. Demonstrate an understanding of the concepts of cause and effect, time, continuity, and
perspective.
4. Examine multiple cause and effect relationships that have shaped modern world history.
5. Demonstrate the ability to use appropriate analysis strategies to interpret information from
various sources and graphic representations.
6. Participate in document based analysis and essay writing by incorporating Document Based
Question (DBQ) strategies.
7. Use maps, globes, artifacts, documents and pictures to analyze the physical and cultural
landscapes of the world as well as the geographic features important to the study of world
history.
8. Apply current events and contemporary issues by relating them to events and eras in modern
world history.
9. Evaluate the relationship between religion and war.

Essential Questions:
How and why does history influence human kind?
What skills, process and sciences help us to uncover the past?
Theme: Bridging Early World History to Big Eras IV and V.
3372.200 BIG IDEA 2. The learner will investigate the significant events, people, and
conditions involved in the growth of monarchial and imperial systems of government in the
world.

1. Trace the political and social development of monarchies and empires, including but not
limited to the Ming and Manchu dynasties, the Mongol Empire, the Ottoman Empire and
the Moghul (Mughal) Empire.
2. Analyze the significance of the beginning and the end of the great sea voyages of the
Ming Dynasty of China
3. Analyze the rise and achievements of African civilizations as well as the reasons for their
decline.
4. Evaluate the achievements of the major civilizations of the Americas in the pre-Columbian
era (include Aztec, Incas, and Mayas).
5. Describe events in Western Europe from the fall of the Roman Empire, the spread of
Christianity and to the emergence of nation states in order to analyze the events on aspects
of life in medieval Europe.
6. Analyze the social, economic, political and cultural effects of the Black Death on Europe.
7. Analyze the common reasons for the fall of empires and civilizations throughout the
world.
Essential Questions:
How and why do civilizations change overtime?
What aspects of civilizations are common across time and location?
What led to the rise of monarchial and imperial systems of government in various parts of
the world?
Theme: Reformation, Renaissance, Revolution and Nationalism
3372.300 BIG IDEA 3 The learner will analyze the cause and effects of movements seeking
change and will evaluate the sources and consequences of nationalism.

1. Understand the changes in European thought and culture resulting from the establishment
of Protestant faiths, the Counter-Reformation, the Gutenberg Press, and the Catholic vs.
Protestant religious wars.
2. Identify the conflicts that challenged the authority of the Roman Catholic Church which
led to the Protestant Reformation.
3. Explain the effects of the theological, political and economic differences that emerged,
including the views and actions of Martin Luther, John Calvin, Henry VIII, and Elizabeth
I.
4. Describe the regional trade patterns that developed by 1500 and their importance in
linking Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Europe.
5. Trace social, political, economic and cultural changes associated with the Renaissance,
Reformation, the rise of nation-states and absolutism.
6. Evaluate the economic and social consequences of early European expansion through
the study of emerging European power, the rise of mercantilism, the Columbian Exchange
and its impact on the indigenous people in the Western hemisphere as well as Africa.
7. Analyze the essential concepts of the Scientific Revolution found in: heliocentric theory,
natural law and the scientific method.
8. Using the ideas of Hobbes, Locke, Voltaire, Montesquieu, Wollstonecraft and Rousseau
as well as the ideas found in enlightened despotism and the salons, demonstrate an
understanding of the essential concepts from this period that represent a turning point in
intellectual history.
9. Analyze the causes and assess the influence of seventeenth to nineteenth century political
revolutions in England, North America, and France on individuals, governing bodies,
church-state relations, and diplomacy.
10. Evaluate the growth of nationalism as a contributor to 19
th
century European revolutions
(e.g., in the Balkans, France, German and Italy).
11. Evaluate the causes and effectiveness of nineteenth and twentieth century nationalistic
and anti-colonial movements that challenged European domination in Africa, Asia and
Latin America. Including but not limited to the Boxer Rebellion, Zulu Uprising, Haitan
Revolution, Tai Ping Rebellion, Sepoy Rebellion.
12. German unification see theme: Social Order Power and Change part of Big Idea 6
13. Japanese Meiji Reformation- see theme: Social Order Power and Change part of Big
Idea 6

Essential Questions:
What causes people to seek economic, political, social or religious change?
What philosophies have supported the rise of revolutions and nationalism over time?
Mini DBQ: District Document Based Question Activity: Estimated time 3 class periods
Exploration or Reformation: Consequences of the Printing Press.

Theme: Global Wars and Conflict

3372.500 BIG IDEA 4 The learner will analyze the causes, results and effects of twentieth
century conflicts among nations.

1. Analyze the causes and course of World War I and assess its consequences.
2. Examine the causes and effects of the Russian (Bolshevik) Revolution and its effect on
Russia and the world.
3. Assess the significance of World War I on global foreign and domestic policies of the
1920s and 1930s.
4. Analyze the causes and course of World War II and assess its consequences.
5. Evaluate WWII as the end of one era and the beginning of another.
6. Trace the course of the Cold War and judge its impact on the global community
(including but not limited to the Korean War, Eastern European satellite nations and the
Vietnam War).

Essential Questions:
Why were there global conflicts in the twentieth century and how were these conflicts
resolved?
What factors seem to be constant in global war?

Mini DBQ: District Document Based Question Activity: Estimated time 3 class periods
TBD
Impact of Technology
3372.600 BIG IDEA 5 The learner will analyze the short and long term consequences of the
development of new technology throughout modern world history.

1. Assess the degree to which discoveries, innovations and technologies have caused change.
2. Demonstrate an understanding of the major technological and scientific exchanges in the
Eastern Hemisphere about 1500 C.E.
3. Examine the causes and effects of scientific revolutions and cite their major costs and
benefits.
4. Examine the causes and effects of industrialization and cite its major costs and benefits.

Theme: Social Order, Power and Change
3372.700 BIG IDEA 6 The learner will investigate social and economic organization in
various societies throughout time in order to understand the change in power that has
occurred.
1. Compare the conditions, racial composition and status of social classes, castes, and slaves
in world societies and analyze changes in those elements.
2. Evaluate the effects of colonialism on Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe.
3. Trace the development of internal conflicts due to difference in religion, race, culture and
group loyalties in various areas of the world.
4. Analyze the nature of totalitarianism in fascist Germany and Communist Soviet Union.
5. Compare and contrast the German, Italian and Japanese drives for empire in the 1930s.
6. . Examine the causes and effects of the Holocaust.
7. Examine the governmental policies and the role of organizations established to maintain
peace and pledge their continuing effectiveness. (Including but not limited to Kellogg-
Briand Pact, the League of Nations, and the United Nations).
8. Analyze the emergence of the Middle East as an influential region and a region of
continuing conflict.
1. Include the creation of the state of Israel
2. Post War Middle East
3. Nationalism
4. The Suez Crisis
5. Petroleum based interdependence
6. Historical Palestinian and Jewish conflict
Essential Questions:
What has led to the changing nature of social order over time?
What are the social order issues of the twenty-first century?

2014-2015

Textbook Used

WORLD HISTORY by Spielvogel, published by Glencoe, 2005


Major Topics
Covered by
This Course:
A Projected
Schedule
TOPIC QUARTER

Unit 1: Review Ancient Civilizations 1st
Unit 2: Middle Ages
Unit 3: Renaissance
Unit 4: Global Overview

Unit 5: Exploration 2
nd

Unit 6: Reformation, Scientific Revolution
Printing Press DBQ
Unit 7: Absolutism
Unit 8: Enlightenment

Unit 9: French Revolution 3
rd

Unit 10: The Isms
Communism, Socialism, Capitalism
Nationalism, Industrialism, Imperialism
Unit 11: WWI

Unit 12: Between the Wars 4
th

Unit 13: WWII
Unit 14: Cold War
Unit 15: The Modern Age


Method of
Evaluation
Quarter Grade
Total points accumulated from homework, quizzes, tests, projects, presentations, in-class
activities, notebooks, and participation will determine student quarter grade.

Student points earned/ Total Points = Quarter Grade
Semester Grade
An accumulation of both quarter grades and a final exam will determine a semester
grade.
42.5% = First/third quarter grade
42.5% = Second/fourth quarter grade = Semester Grade
15% Final Exam

Grading policy: District Grading Scale
A: 90-100% B: 80-89% C: 70-79% D: 60-69% F: 59% and below


Student
Expectations/
Responsibilities

Students will
Respect others in the classroom by using positive language and following directions
Arrive to class prepared and on time every day (pencils, textbooks, binders,
homework must be in the classroom before the bell rings)
Turn in homework the day it is due (late homework will be deducted by 10% each
day that it is late)
Request missing work if absent. District policy states you have two days for every
missed day to make-up assignments.
Keep graded work to help study for tests
Turn off and put away all electronic devices (unless permitted by teacher for class
use)
Maintain a safe and respectful classroom environment