Enduring Understandings - important ideas that students should carry with them years beyond the instruction received this year.

• People and events are organized chronologically to increase understanding of historical relationships.
• Primary and secondary sources and processes of historical inquiry allow for interpreting the past and analyzing present day issues.
• Societies are diverse and change over time.
• Technological developments have impacted individuals and societies throughout history.
• Religious beliefs and philosophical ideas change societies.
• Different forms of government have been developed, practiced, and changed throughout history.
• Geographic tools are used to locate and derive information about the past.
• Physical and human characteristics of places define regions.
• Migration and immigration affect the location and distribution of human activity.
• Resources impact interactions between humans and their environment.
• Knowledge of geography increases understanding of past and present.
• Knowledge of government and its purposes builds understanding of citizenship.
• Resources impact the production and distribution of goods and services.
• Trade specialization, and interdependence influence relationships among individuals, groups and societies.

Essential Questions - most important “big picture” questions students should be able to answer after completing learning activities

• How does the chronology lead to the understanding of historical relationships?
• How did the major events affect the development of a civilization?
• What is the difference between primary and secondary document? How can we use them to interpret information about the past?
• Which civilization studied was the most advanced, and why?
• How is the Aborigine lifestyle different from that of other Australians? In what ways is it similar?
• How did technological changes impact each civilization? Which changes had the most impact and in which civilization?
• How were ancient civilizations governed?
• What major religious beliefs and philosophical ideas developed? (Judaism, Christianity, mythology)? What impact did these religious beliefs have on each civilization?
• How do physical and human characteristics define and identify region and place?
• How did the physical characteristics of regions influence human characteristics?
• How do migration and trade routes affect location/distribution of human activity?
• How have the Aborigines interacted with the environment in order to survive? What environmental lessons are proven out by their ability to adapt?
• What role did the English people play in shaping the early British government?
• What economic factors defined commerce in West African trading empires? How did trading benefit society?
• What economic factors defined commerce in East African city-states? How did trading benefit society?
• How did trade and specialization result in interdependence?

Standards and Benchmarks

History 1: Students understand the chronological organization of history and know how to organize events and people into major eras to identify and explain historical relationships.
Benchmark B: Students use chronology to organize historical events and people.
History 2: Students know how to use the processes and resources of historical inquiry.
Benchmark A: Students know how to formulate questions and hypotheses regarding what happened in the past and how to obtain and analyze historical data to answer questions and test hypotheses.
Benchmark B: Students know how to interpret and evaluate primary and secondary sources of historical information (e.g., letters, diaries, literature, text, newspaper, art, music, technology, oral history, interviews).
History S3: Students understand that societies are diverse and change over time.
Benchmark B: Students understand the history of social organization in various societies.
History  5: Students understand political institutions and theories that developed and changed over time.
Benchmark A: Students understand political institutions and theories that developed and changed over time.
History  6: Students know that religious and philosophical ideas have been powerful forces throughout history.
Benchmark A: Students know the historical development of religions and philosophies.
Benchmark  B: Students know how societies have been affected by religions and philosophies.  Geography  Geography1: Students know how to use and construct maps, globes, and other geographic tools to locate and derive information about people, places, and environments.
Benchmark A: Students know how to use maps, globes, and other geographic tools to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective.
Geography 2: Students know the physical and human characteristics of places, and use this knowledge to define and study regions and their patterns of change.
Benchmark A: Students know the physical and human characteristics of places.
Benchmark B: Students know how and why people define regions.
Benchmark C: Students know how culture and experience influence people's perceptions of places and regions.
Geography 4: Students understand how economic, political, cultural and social processes interact to shape patterns of human populations, interdependence, cooperation and conflict.
Benchmark A: Students know the characteristics, location, distribution, and migration of human populations.
Geography 5: Students understand the effects of interactions between human and physical systems and changes in meaning, use, distribution, and importance of resources.
Benchmark A: Students know how human actions modify the physical environment.
Geography  6: Students apply knowledge of people, places, and environments to understand the past and present, and to plan for the future.
Benchmark A: Students know how to apply geography to understand the past.
Civics 1: Students understand the purposes of government, and the basic constitutional principles of the United States republican form of government.
Benchmark C: Students understand the principles of the United States Constitutional Government.
Civics 4: Students understand how citizens exercise the roles, rights, and responsibilities of participation in civic life at all levels.
Benchmark A: Students know what citizenship is.
Benchmark D: Students know how citizens can participate in civic life.
Economics 2: Students understand how different economic systems employ different means to produce, distribute, and exchange goods and services.
Benchmark B: Students understand how a country's monetary system facilitates the exchange of resources.
Economics 3: Students understand the results of trade, exchange, and interdependence among individuals, households, businesses, governments, and societies.
Benchmark A: Students understand that the exchange of goods and services creates economic interdependence and change.

District 11 Diamond Units/Lessons Overview - includes information about the purpose, goals and structure of these sample instructional units: 

Parent Resources