Unit Plan on the Renaissance and the Reformation

By: James Capps

TE 436

Special Methods- Social Studies

Dr. Susan Adler

December 1, 2005

Unit Topic:The Renaissance and the Reformation

Class makeup:

This unit will be presented to a sophomore level World History class. The school that I am working in is in a town thirty minutes north of Kansas City. The class is predominantly male, but the ratios for each class vary from period to period. The community is a conservative one that is mostly white. There are a growing proportion of minorities. There is a larger population of black families but also an influx of different ethnicities. In the last ten years, the numbers of Hispanic and Middle Eastern/Asian families have grown. The students of the different ethnicities have had some problems communicating with the teachers. We have had to collectively plan how to accommodate how to teach them so they can learn effectively. The parents of these students have shown to me to have an interest in their student’s success. Some of these parents are both employed but there are still some stay-at-home mothers in the community. The school I am employed in has also accommodated for those that have both parents at work, providing various activities for after school, and I also offer my room for students to have tutoring sessions in.

Goals:

The students will be able to:

1. Create a timeline for a chronology of important events and people in this period

2. Demonstrate research and writing skills

3. Develop skills in reading comprehension through primary sources

4. Demonstrate an understanding of humanism, and analyze its impact on the Reformation

5. Distinguish different forms of Protestantism

6. Analyze why the Reformation happened and its effects on isolating England from the rest of Europe

Key Concepts and Ideas:

The Renaissance, which began in Italy, was a period of time that lasted from 1350 until 1550. The period of the Renaissance saw the world in a state of upheaval. In Italy the city-state as a center of development became increasingly frequent. These city-states became the political, social, and most importantly economic centers of Italian life. This was a time of recuperation for the continent of Europe. The fourteenth century saw the plague kill massive numbers of people, and a waning in the power that the church held over the people. The time of renewal in Europe, which began in Italy looked back towards the cultures that had once dominated the Mediterranean, the ancient Greeks and Romans. The fondness to study these old ideas led to the beliefs in the individual’s worth and what they were capable of. This intellectual movement was called humanism, and these ideas spread to northern Europe where Christian humanism developed. The desire of this group of humanist thinkers was to restructure the Catholic Church. Christian humanist thought believed humans could better themselves by reading Christian writings and in that become more devout Christians. This movement is what sparked the Reformation and the spread of Protestantism throughout Europe. That revolution in religious thought also sparked Henry VIII to change the religion of England, and whether it was by real devotion to God or just a way to gain a divorce, it left England isolated from the rest of the world.

1.Humanism- This is defined as an intellectual movement that began in Italy during the Renaissance, in which thinkers studied classic texts and centered on human potential and achievements. These intellectuals began looking at the writings of the past in ancient Greece and Rome. They were looking for a way to identify with the ancient Greek values, rather than mesh these writings with the Christian teachings that had been done in the medieval period. These humanists were influential to artists and architects of the Renaissance period but they have also carried over into the architecture of our own time (ex: the White House). The humanists of northern Europe had an influence on the Reformation that developed in the early sixteenth century. They studied grammar, rhetoric, poetry, philosophy, and history which are subjects that we still have as building blocks in our education today; known as the humanities.

2. Protestantism- This serves as an extension of Christianity that began in the early sixteenth century as a dissention among people who were dissatisfied with the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church had been a source of corruption since the middle ages, especially in the sale of indulgences that served as a free ticket into Heaven. The Reformation split off into three camps: Lutheranism (Martin Luther), Calvinism (John Calvin), and Anglicanism (Henry VIII). The Calvin and Anglican camps then split into various denominations that are still with us today. These denominations are what we in America are most familiar with such as: Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian.

3. Isolationism- This policy became what the country of England was faced with after the Reformation by Henry VIII. England was a country that had once been in the beds with France and Spain at varying times, whichever country could help them out most at a given time. England was now an island in more ways than just their geographic location. Being a country that was no longer Catholic set them apart and left no other country wanting to trade or have any contact with them. The future of England was uncertain and future monarchs like his daughter Mary who tried to reestablish England with the continent but failed. The failure lead to an eventual attempt to invade England, by the Spanish Armada, in order to reclaim the country for the pope. The leadership of Queen Elizabeth and England’s superior navy thwarted the attack.

The skills that I want to focus on in my class are research and reading comprehension. Throughout the year I will stress the importance of these two skills as it is my hope these students will go on to college with a sense of what awaits them. Both of these skills will be in constant practice in their presentations but also in small groups in which the students analyze primary sources. At the beginning of the year, before we start any of the material, I want to spend a week going over ways to research, how to take good notes from the material and from the lectures, and how to write history papers. I realize that other teachers may or may not put such an emphasis on organization and grammar aside from their English teachers, but I feel the more they are presented with them and practice them, the better off they will be in the future. The school library will be an important source for the students because of the materials and equipment they have, but they will also have the librarians and me to use for any questions they may have. It is also my hope that they will make use of the public libraries in their area or even bookstores such as Barnes and Noble.

National and State standards:

The standards laid out by the National Council for the Social Studies are met in both my project and my daily lesson, as the students will be required to:

-- Apply key concepts such as time, chronology, causality, change, conflict, and complexity to explain, analyze, and show connections among patterns of historical change and continuity (II, c.).

-- Identify and describe significant historical periods and patterns of change within and across cultures, such as the development of ancient cultures and civilizations, the rise of nation-states, and social, economic, and political revolutions (II, c.).

-- Analyze concepts such as role, status, and social class in describing the connections and interactions of individuals, groups and institutions in society (V, c.).

-- Describe and examine belief systems basic to specific traditions and laws in contemporary and historical movements (V, c.).

The Missouri Show Me Standards are met to criteria that they require students to have performance and knowledge skills which, both my research project and daily lessons meet. Students will:

Goal one under performance

1. Develop questions and ideas to initiate and refine research.

4. Use technological tools and other resources to locate, select and organize information.

7. Evaluate the accuracy of information and the reliability of its sources.

9. Identify, analyze and compare the institutions, traditions and art forms of past and present societies.

Goal two under performance

1. Plan and make written, oral and visual presentations for a variety of purposes and audiences.

3. Exchange information, questions and ideas while recognizing the perspectives of others.

Knowledge standards for Social Studies

6. Relationships of the individual and groups to institutions and cultural traditions.

The teaching strategies I use to facilitate a student’s learning are better achieved when the information is meaningful, integrated, and active. This topic in history can be made meaningful to the students because the material in this topic, and also every topic we have studied or yet to study are building towards a greater goal. Each event in history has had an effect on our lives today whether we realize it or not. For example, what if Germany had won World War II, and how that would have affected our lives today. The topic of the Reformation is important in the big picture of history because it shifted humanity’s thoughts on what religion should be and these thoughts have stuck with us to the present. This unit will also integrate art and literature with the history to give the students a broader e students in my class will receive information on a broad spectrum that will carry over into their other classes, like art and English, that I feel will give them a better understanding of the curriculum and help learning in those other classes. The art and literature materials that I will use will also give them an understanding of different themes in history through Machiavelli in politics or Chaucer in religious reforms and societal life, but also in artistic representations of religion and society, such as Michelangelo and Raphael. The last strategy is promoting active learning to the students in a variety of ways. Even though my education may be over in a formal manner, I must always be updating my own knowledge by reading the latest scholarly works to gain new ideas or new approaches to material. I must always shown a passion for the material as if I am learning these things for the first time also, students will be motivated to participate and learn when I am interested. I must also keep a constant and varied flow of materials, in my bell ringer clips of movies, primary source documents and example of the art of the period. The activities I have designed for my students are developed to encourage them to think critically and really get an understanding for these historical figures. These activities are based in both individual and group work, to give the student an opportunity to learn on their own, but also to develop relationships and learning to work with others. The activities are also tied to the key concepts; in humanism through the progression of new ideas and its effects on religious thought, in Protestantism through the restructuring of European religious ideals and its lasting effects of our society today, and lastly in isolationism through the loss of power and influence that England once had on the continent yet somehow overcoming those trials to become a world power.

Aside from teaching strategies, in my opinion, the second most important thing will be to incorporate diversity into my classroom. My students come from different ethnic and culture backgrounds, but will also have different learning styles. The accommodations I have made are in study guides and graphic organizers. The Hispanic students in the school are working with teachers in a joint agreement between the Spanish teacher and me to provide materials they can use to keep up with the English-speaking students as best they can. There are also opportunities for students of different interests to learn effectively. Those who are creative or like to draw will be more interested in the art material of the lectures. Those who are interested in creative writing or their English classes will be more interested in the literature material of the lectures. At the end of each chapter I will provide the students with a study guide for the test that will include key words to study, important events, and possible essay questions that may appear on the test. My door is always open to offer help to students in any way they may need it. This includes tutoring sessions every day before and three days a week after school. The topics that we will cover in this unit can border on taboo, when teaching about religion in schools, so my goal is to present all religions of the world objectively and instill that no religion is better than the other, no matter what my personal opinion is. For students of a Christian background we would have already covered the histories of early Christianity (Judaism), Hinduism and Buddhism, and Islam. These previous units will give the Christian students and the students with a non-Christian background examples to show where other students are coming from in their beliefs.

Students will be assessed in the following ways:

Goal one-Create a timeline for a chronology of important events in this period

This will be assessed through individual notebooks that the students will keep over the course. At the beginning of each unit I will hand out a prepared timeline that they will need to label for key events in the unit from a sheet that I hand out at the beginning of every unit. There will also be a section on the test that will ask them to organize a group of five people and/or events in order.

Goal two and three- Demonstrate research and writing skills and show a development in reading comprehension

These two goals will be assessed first in their research project, which will have a written component that they will be handing in drafts of. There will be at least two drafts that I will go over for competency of the material and grammar. Their daily assignments and group work will show me that they have a comprehension of the material. The test will have short answer questions and an essay question that would show their competency for paragraph structure and grammar.

Goal four through six- Demonstrate an understanding of humanism and analyze its impact on the Reformation. Distinguish different forms of Protestantism. Analyze why this happened and its effects on the future of England and the rest of Europe

These three goals will be assessed through discussions during the lectures and through the work that they have done in groups over lecture material and primary sources. This will also be assessed in the research project and the test. The project will have them give an analysis over a figure’s life and contribution to society. The test will have a few short answer and one longer essay question.

Beginning of the unit, or the first day: Monday

The previous chapter we covered was on the topic of the early American peoples. That served as a break from our study of Europe, to look at another part of the world from the year’s 500-1500. These were the Mesoamericans: Incas, Aztecs, and the Mayans. The chapter before that we studied the Middle Ages, and this new chapter will build on what we had learned in that chapter. We had our test on a Friday and the students have had the weekend to recover from the chapter before we begin our new chapter on Monday, the Renaissance and the Reformation of the church in Europe.

When the students come into the room on Monday they will get into their assigned groups that we have had for the course of the year so far. There are eight groups in all, six groups of four and two groups of three. The groups were selected to accent each type of student in my classroom. After going through my grade book, I will assign groups so that each group will have a top performing student, an average scoring student, and a lower scoring student. It is my goal that these groups are split equally and no one student is doing all of the work, and it is a total group effort. After taking attendance I will pass out the information sheet for the project they will do research for and present at the end of the chapter. After we have gone over the project and assigned topics to the groups, we will have a small discussion over any questions that they may have. When this is finished, we will get back to our original seats and I will pass out a timeline and chronology sheet for the students to fill out and put into their notebooks. We will then spend the rest of the period (about twenty to thirty minutes) discussing as a class what they already know about the Renaissance period.