The History Blueprint Approach to the Teaching about the Medieval World in a Seventh-Grade Class

To go beyond learning about discrete regions of the medieval world, or studying the period from the vantage point of western civilization, this unit centers around the ways in which Afro-Eurasia was interconnected in the period between 1000 and 1492.  Collaboratively designed by historians and 7^th-grade teachers, the Sites of Encounter in the Medieval World unit uses primary sources to teach students how to investigate historical questions, analyze primary sources, and formulate arguments.  The unit is built around an engaging and historically significant question: “How did exchanges at sites of encounter in the medieval world influence the surrounding cultures?”  Use of concrete objects, such as ships and maps, and accessible primary sources, centered on the specific commercial entrepôts of Cairo, Quanzhou and Calicut, helps young students to grasp sophisticated, cutting-edge conceptualizations of the shared networks and practices of the medieval Afro-Eurasian world.   This unit is part of the California History-Social Science Project’s History Blueprint initiative, which seeks to support teachers’ efforts to increase student achievement and engagement and improve students’ historical knowledge, academic literacy, and critical thinking skills. The goal of the History Blueprint is to create comprehensive curriculum for history-social science in grades 4-12, including units, lesson plans, primary sources, activities for students, literacy support, development of historical thinking, and multimedia for the entire scope of U.S. and World History, to be freely available online.