Grade 6 World History, Quarter 1, Unit 3 of 3 Domestication and Early Farming. Overview

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1 Grade 6 World History, Quarter 1, Unit 3 of 3 Domestication and Early Farming Overall days: 14 (1 day = minutes) Purpose Overview This unit focuses on how and why humans in several parts of the world began to practice farming, after getting along for 200,000 years without it. Between about 12,000 and 5,000 years ago, agricultural communities arose on all the world s major landmasses except Antarctica. Students investigate climatic, social, and cultural factors that may help explain why, over a period of several thousand years, humans in several regions domesticated plants and animals and took up settled ways of life. Students consider the meaning of domestication, the differences between hunting-gathering and farming ways of life, and how farming radically affected such conditions as the size and complexity of human social organization, the accelerating pace of technological change, the development of trade and cultural exchange over long distances, and the production of art. Content to be learned Understand why humans began the practice of farming. Examine when and where agricultural societies developed in Afroeurasia and the Americas. Investigate the climatic, social, and cultural factors that led to the domestication of plants and animals. Understand the differences between huntinggathering and farming. Explain the ways in which farming radically affected the size and complexity of human social organization. Processes to be used Analyze factors that might explain why humans began to form agricultural communities on all the major world landmasses except Antarctica. Investigate historical and visual data to identify the locations of early agricultural communities around the world. Identify multiple cause-and-effect relationships that led to the domestication of plants and animals. Compare and contrast sets of ideas distinguishing the ways of life in huntinggathering and in farming communities. Draw comparisons across eras and regions to explain the acceleration of change related to technology, trade, and the production of art. Essential questions students should be able to answer by end of unit After living as gatherers and hunters for about 200,000 years, why did humans in a number of parts of the world, and over the span of about 5,000 years, take up farming? How did the change from hunting and gathering to farming affect people s social and economic life? How did farming change people s relationship to the environment? Providence Public Schools, in collaboration with the D-17

2 Grade 6 World History, Quarter 1, Unit 3 Domestication and Early Farming (14 days) Written Curriculum Grade-Span Expectations HP 1: History is an account of human activities that is interpretive in nature. HP 1 (5-6)-1 Students act as historians, using a variety of tools (e.g., artifacts and primary and secondary sources) by c. asking and answering historical questions, organizing information, and evaluating information in terms of relevance HP 2: History is a chronicle of human activities, diverse people, and the societies they form. HP 2 (5-6) 2 Students chronicle events and conditions by b. summarizing key events and explaining the historical contexts of those events National Standards for History (World History, Grades 5 12) Era 1: The Beginnings of Human Society Standard 2: The processes that led to the emergence of agricultural societies around the world. 2A The student understands how and why humans established settled communities and experimented with agriculture. Therefore, the student is able to Infer from archaeological evidence the technology, social organization, and cultural life of settled farming communities in Southwest Asia. [Draw upon visual sources] 2B The student understands how agricultural societies developed around the world. Therefore, the student is able to Analyze differences between hunter-gatherer and agrarian communities in economy, social organization, and quality of living. [Compare and contrast differing behaviors and institutions] Common Core State Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies Writing Production and Distribution of Writing WHST Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. Research to Build and Present Knowledge WHST Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis reflection, and research. Notes, Clarifications, and Prerequisites An important point to make in meeting the expectation for Era 1, Process 2B is the gradual and unconscious way farming spread. Over a period of several thousand years and as a result of countless small decisions, humans learned how to grow crops, domesticate plants, and raise animals; there is not a single point in time that farming appeared in cultures around the globe. D-18 Providence Public Schools, in collaboration with the

3 Domestication and Early Farming (14 days) Grade 6 World History, Quarter 1, Unit 3 New to the grade level is the idea of not only summarizing events, but also placing the events in a historical context. Instruction should include study of the wider context within which events take place. The students begin a chronological sequencing of world history that will be continued in grades 9 and 10, and this unit is important for building students foundational knowledge of ancient societies that they will use in those later grades. Taught Curriculum Learning Objectives Students will be able to Understand the reasons why humans domesticated plants and animals after living as gatherers and hunters for 200,000 years. (5 days) Explain how and where agricultural communities first developed and then spread. (4 days) Analyze the effects farming had on human population and on social and economic life. (5 days) Resources History of Our World, Pearson, 2008 Teacher s Edition (pp , 18-24) Assessment Rubrics, Pearson (p. 8) World History for Us All, Big Era Three, Overview of the Era Big Era Three, Panorama Unit 3.0: Farming and the Emergence of Complex Societies Big Era Three, Landscape Unit 3.1: Domesticating Plants and Animals Big Era Three, Landscape Unit 3.2: Farmers Around the World Step Up to Writing Taking Notes (pp ) Tools 1-17a to 1-17c Instructional Considerations Key Vocabulary agriculture community continent culture diffuse domestication fertile surplus technology Planning and Instructional Delivery Considerations This unit is intended to introduce students to the origins, global spread, and significance of the development of agriculture during the Neolithic period. As an intended outcome, it is expected that students will be able to examine the means by which human environmental interactions shifted in the Providence Public Schools, in collaboration with the D-19

4 Grade 6 World History, Quarter 1, Unit 3 Domestication and Early Farming (14 days) past, and they will also be able to distinguish cause from effect. The strategies listed below represent a menu of choices and possibilities to support each learning objective. The following teaching strategies are aligned to the order of the learning objectives. To ensure that students will be able to understand the reasons why humans domesticated plants and animals after living as gatherers and hunters for 200,000 years (5 days): Show the students the first 27 slides of the World History for Us All PowerPoint Overview presentation from the Landscape Unit (Farming and the Emergence of Complex Societies) for Big Era Three. Have students take notes using a protocol from Step Up to Writing. Discuss the PowerPoint presentation in class, posing the question, Why do you think people in some parts of the world took up farming even though it meant living in crowded villages, working in fields for long hours, taking orders from village chiefs, and being exposed to new illnesses caused by living close to domesticated animals? Standard 5: Historical issues-analysis and decision-making From World History for Us All Big Era 3, teach Lessons 1 (Domestic Heir-Lines: A Lesson in Domestication) and 2 (Farming: Pros and Cons) from the Panorama Unit. Focus student learning around the Essential Question, After living as gatherers and hunters for about 200,000 years, why did humans in a number of parts of the world, and over the span of about 5,000 years, take up farming? To ensure that students will be able to explain how and where agricultural communities first developed and then spread (4 days): From World History for Us All, Big Era Three, teach Lesson 1 (Domesticating Plants and Animals) from the Landscape Teaching Unit 3.2 (Farmers Around the World). To ensure that students will be able to analyze the effects farming had on human population and on social and economic life (5 days): Make a chart comparing the positive and negative effects of agricultural life as compared with those of the hunter-gatherer life. Then hold a class debate on the following questions: Did the emergence of agriculture represent an advance in human social development? What factors would you use to evaluate whether or not it was an advance? Standard 2: Historical comprehension Additional Teaching Strategies Read pages in the Pearson text. Use the note taking protocols from Step Up to Writing. Read pages in the Pearson text. Use the note taking protocols from Step Up to Writing. The following pages contain strategies for the concepts being studied and are listed in the order of the learning objectives: Humans begin the practice of early farming (Pearson, pp ) How and where agricultural communities first developed (Pearson, p. 15) Factors that led to the domestication of plants and animals (Pearson, pp ) Hunter gatherer and farming communities (Pearson, pp ) Effects of farming on human society and population (Pearson, pp ) Lead a class discussion around the Essential Question, How did farming change people s relationship to the environment? Have students discuss the different environments in which early humans lived. Students should first write in their journals about the topic, and then, in pairs or groups, develop a set of D-20 Providence Public Schools, in collaboration with the

5 Domestication and Early Farming (14 days) Grade 6 World History, Quarter 1, Unit 3 criteria for establishing what factors made a particular geographic location an advantageous place for farmers to live. How did farmers alter the environment? Introduce the Essential Question, How did the change from hunting and gathering to farming affect people s social and economic life? Allow students to hypothesize the answer to the Essential Question in their journals. Allow time for a discussion of student responses (Think-Pair-Share). Allow students to hypothesize about where early farming communities would most likely develop and then draw a map of Afroeuerasia, locating the actual sites of early agricultural communities. Lead a class discussion around the Essential Question, How did the change from hunting and gathering to farming affect people s social and economic life? Have students use what they learned in the class discussion on distinguishing the differences and similarities between hunter gatherer and farming communities to construct two T-charts. One T-chart should list three differences between the two communities, and the other should list three similarities. Through guided practice, have students construct a timeline that traces the emergence of agriculture worldwide up to about 4000 B.C. and that identifies on a world map both the major areas of agricultural production and the distribution of human settlements. Have them discuss why it was in these areas that agriculture became a way of life. Standard 1: Chronological thinking From the Landscape Teaching Unit 3.2 in World History for Us All, Big Era Three, teach Lessons 2 (Investigating Archaeological Sites of Early Farming and Herding Around the World), 3 (Understanding Domestication of Wild Plant Species) and 4 (Three Sisters Complete Nutrition from One Field). Formative Assessments Assessed Curriculum Provide feedback to students through daily monitoring of student understanding using a variety of methods. For example, use exit cards. Have students answer questions on paper before they leave the class. Keep the activity prompt specific and brief to check for understanding of the day s concepts. For instance, to check students comprehension of where agricultural communities first developed, ask students to respond to the following prompt: In what kinds of places did agricultural communities first develop? To assess the progress of understanding: how to understand reasons why humans domesticated plants and animals after living as gatherers and hunters for 200,000 years, have students write an advertisement for farming. They must include the benefits of farming as opposed to a hunter-gatherer lifestyle in text boxes and in illustrations. how to explain how and where agricultural communities first developed and then spread, have the students write a newspaper article explaining how and where agricultural communities first developed and then spread. The article should include a map that represents the places of origin and the diffusion of agriculture. how to analyze the effects farming had on human population and on social and economic life, have students write a paragraph describing developments in technology, trade, and art associated with early farming. The paragraph should include two comments for each category: technology, trade, and art. Standard 3: Historical analysis and interpretation Providence Public Schools, in collaboration with the D-21

6 Grade 6 World History, Quarter 1, Unit 3 Domestication and Early Farming (14 days) Summative Assessment One Essential Question is After living as gatherers and hunters for about 200,000 years, why did humans in a number of parts of the world, and over the span of about 5,000 years, take up farming? To address this questions, have students write a three-paragraph response to the following prompt: Did the former hunters and gatherers that we studied in this unit have to switch to farming? Why did they choose farming? What would have happened had they not chosen to farm? Standard 5: Historical issuesanalysis and decision-making Use the Assessment Rubric (Assessment Rubrics, p. 8) to provide a common means to score the paragraphs. When students are working on this summative assessment, this is an opportunity to implement writing standards for literacy in history/social studies WHST and WHST Notes D-22 Providence Public Schools, in collaboration with the