This is a unit designed for 7th or 8th grade students of mixed ability levels.
However, it could easily be adapted to older students since much of the material is adult reading level. It will appeal to the students' interests and challenge their perceptions of religions and other cultures. It meets many standards of both the Language Arts and Social Studies Curriculums. The unit examines four civilizations in the world within a brief time period, 1325 to 1350. It is set up like a travel adventure, complete with maps, itineraries, pirates, and hardships. It will begin with the travels of Ibn Battuta, the Muslim scholar from Tangiers, and then it will explore other areas of the world that he did not visit. I have designed it for a Language Arts class, heavy on writing requirements, but it could easily be used in Social Studies. The major travel stops are as follows:
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- Ibn Battuta at Mecca in 1326.
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- Ibn Battuta in Guangzhou, China, in 1346.
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- His confrontation with the Black Death in Damascus. We will then move with the plague bacillus to London, in 1349, where it was wreaking havoc.
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- The Aztec founding of Tenochtitlan, 1350, in present day Mexico City.
Since I teach in an arts magnet school, there will also be an Arts Connection to each of the four locations. Students will examine various artifacts from the period. These sections could be omitted, but I'm sure they'll increase student interest in the unit.
Along the journey, students will keep a journal; create maps and illustrations; deal with the travel problems of the period; learn about religions, governments, and social structures of the time; learn what food and accommodations were available; and deal with the hygiene and difficulties of life during this period. Both essential and optional resources are included. For each of the four major stops, I will connect our imaginary destinations to the present, discussing the following issues:
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1 The politics of modern Mecca and crowd control disasters.
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2 The problems created by an occupying government.
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3 The possibilities of plague today, including the AIDS crisis and Ebola.
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4 The remnants of Tenochtitlan which poke out of Mexico City, and how the building of the city on landfill contributed to the devastating earthquake of 1985.
The entire unit will take eighteen days to complete, but it can easily be broken into three shorter units: Ibn Battuta in Mecca and China, days 2 through 8; the plague in London, days 9 through 11; and the founding of Tenochtitlan, days 12 through 14. One of the unit segments could be incorporated into a larger history unit on England, for example.
Students will gain insight into a life without conveniences or good medical care, as well as increase their knowledge of geography and world cultures while improving their reading, writing, and analytical skills.
