Comparing Periodizations Setting the Stage Bill Strickland East Grand Rapids High School, East Grand Rapids, MI [email protected], http://moodle.egrps.org//course/view.php?id=97 Periodization is easily overlooked, as it has all of the natural appeal of watching paint dry. In reality periodization is one of the most important concepts that students should learn. The benefits of studying periodization include: 1. Students will confront the fact that history is an interpretive as much as factual discipline. This perfectly addresses the Habit of Mind “Understand diversity of interpretations through analysis of context, and frame of reference.” It also reflects the “Chronological Reasoning: Periodization1” Historical Thinking Skill that will be part of the redesigned APWH course beginning in 2011-2012. 2. Students will instantly see that there is little consistency among world historians. Teachers could point out that all these textbook sources are printed in English, imagine how historians from Kenya, Japan, or Peru might organize history? Even more, if professionals in the same discipline can’t agree, how might a biologist, linguist, physicist, or musician organize the study of time? This reflects the Habits of Mind “Consider human commonalities and differences,” and “Explore claims of universal standards in relation to culturally diverse ideas,” as well as the Historical Thinking Skill of Comparison2 3. Periodizations give students a conceptual “skeleton” that helps them organize all of the factual information they learn throughout the course. This reflects the Habit of Mind “See global patterns over time and space while also connecting local developments to global ones” as well as the Historical Thinking Skill of Contextualization.3 Simply stated, periodization gives students the “big picture” that they need to make sense of the rest of the course. Ignoring periodization is to unwittingly encourage students to approach history as a task of memorizing “one darn thing after another” without reflection or interpretation. Please note that the tables are NOT individual chapters from textbooks, but “units” that the authors have used to organize their text. Teachers are encouraged to edit the questions on p. 2-3 to fit their students’ needs. Bill Strickland 1 Historical thinking involves the ability to describe, analyze, evaluate, and construct models of historical periodization that historians use to categorize events into discrete blocks and to identify turning points, recognizing that the choice of specific dates privileges one narrative, region, or group over another narrative, region, or group; therefore, changing the periodization can change a historical narrative. Moreover, the particular circumstances and contexts in which individual historians themselves work and write shape their interpretation and modeling of past events. 2 Comparison is “the ability to identify, compare and evaluate multiple perspectives on a given historical experience.” 3 Contextualization is “The ability to connect historical developments to specific circumstances of time and place, and to broader regional, national, or global processes.” Comparing Periodizations Name ______________________ Discussion Questions Score / H our ____ November 1, 2011 Beginning of Course Questions 1. Which periodizations structure history “unfairly” by organizing time in a way that emphasizes one world civilization/region at the expense of other(s), and how do they do this? _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ 2. Why isn’t there a single “right” periodization consistent across the various sources? _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ 3. Why do you think most periodizations give eras names, while the AP World History course hasn’t? (until recently) _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ 4. Why do you think some periodizations have only a few eras, while others have more? Even though you haven’t taken this course yet, which do you think will be the most “accurate” in reflecting the reality of world history? Why? _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ Comparing Periodization Name ______________________ Discussion Questions Score / Hour ____ November 1, 2011 End of Course Questions 1. Now that you’ve studied world history, what do you think of the names various periodizations give to their eras? Are there any periodizations that you agree or disagree with? [which? and why?] _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ 2. Some periodizations have significantly more/fewer eras than others. Which periodization(s) do think more accurately reflects world history? Why? _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ 3. Which periodizations structure history “unfairly” by organizing time in a way that emphasizes one world civilization/region at the expense of other(s), and how do they do this? (e.g. are there any periods that are appropriate for only South Asia, but the beginning and ending dates really don’t make sense for Latin America or East Asia?) Which periodizations do this, and how do they favor one region’s history” unfairly?” _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ 4. AP World History’s periodization has changed more than once since the course began in 2001-2002. Why do you think this is? Make an educated guess as to why the College Board changed their own organization of history. _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ 5. Extra Credit! Create a periodization of your own that you think is the best for studying, understand- ing, & analyzing world history on the back of this sheet of paper. It must have at least 5 periods/eras, and a short (1-2 sentence) description of each “turning point” that distinguishes the end of one period from the beginning of the next period. Comparing Periodizations Timeline Source 1,000 BCE 500 0 500 CE 1000 1500 1750 1900 2000 Felipe Foragers Farmers and The Axial Age, Fitful Transitions, Contacts The Convergence Global The Chaos & Complexity: Fernández- and Farmers Builders, 5000 to from 500 BCE to from about the 3rd- and Crucible: and Divergence Enlight- Frustrations The World in the 20th Conflicts The Eur- Armesto to 5000 BCE 500 BCE 200 CE 10th Centuries to c. 1700 enments, of Progress, Century 1000 to asian Crises 1700-1800 The World: 1200 CE of the 13th & 1800-1900 A History 14th Centuries Bentley & Early Complex Societies Formation of Classical Post- An Age of Cross- Origins of Global Age of Revolution, Contemporary Global Ziegler, 3500-500 BCE Societies Classical Era Cultural Interaction Interdependence Industry, and Realignments 1914- Traditions & 500