The Medieval World Grade 7 Welcome parents!! About me: UCB UCLA twins credentialed 7,9,10,12 12 years at MHS These are the units we are studying this year in history: Middle Ages, Islam, Africa, Imperial China and medieval Japan, Civilizations of the Americas, Europe toward the modern age (Ren, Ref, Tudors, Louis, Sci Rev, Enlightenment) My main job is ready your child for high school and citizenship beyond History is wonderful way to build skills—critical thinking, writing and communication My main question to them this year : What is the evidence? What led you to this conclusion?

A bit about Medieval History 6 major units Focus on themes: Geography Government Religion Culture Daily Life Geog’s contribution to settlement, government, culture and daily life Religion: Roman Catholic Church in the Middle Ages, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism Culture: food, art, literature, music and drama Daily Life: Common people, women and children

Skills Reading and interacting with the text Writing, writing, writing Primary sources Using evidence Current events Compare contrast Point of view Bias Document based Proper citation Research paper Evaluating evidence Primary source analysis

The Interactive Notebook One stop place for all work Bring to class everyday Checked often at first Graded 2x per trimester The most important tool we are using this year besides the text Most of the activities we are going to be doing are in this notebook It will help them stay organized, and help them review for tests Show it They need some supplies for it It will be checked almost daily at first until they get the nag of it It will be graded 2x per trimester

Text Interactive student centered Common Core aligned Text stays at school Codes for online access sent home soon Stresses deep learning, curiosity and investigation Spiral progressively from simple recall to high order thinking skills such as analysis and evaluation Each student will have access to the text online where they can zoom in, underline, take challenges

Grading Categories Interactive Notebook Class participation Tests/quizzes Projects— in class! Writing Completion Last trimester: Research writing Homework: @ 2x per week Most of the homework will be reading in the interactive notebook some writing. When we do the research paper in the spring, there will be an increase in homework. My goal is no weekend homework and an average of about 20-25 minutes when they do have it.

How you can help Where is the homework assignment? Check in the planner and on Edlio. Insist that your child uses the planner Check Gradelink at least 1x per week Contact me anytime to discuss concerns alebenzon@stmarkschool.com Subscribe to Edlio! How to contact me—email is best. I will get back to you within 24 hours tops.

Maps! Can you guess the subject of the map? Shows the world’s internet connection in 1969

This map shows the world divided into 7 sections (each with distinct color) each section containing 1 billion people.

11. This map shows (in red) the countries that don't use the metric system

This map shows countries (in white) that England has never invaded  This map shows countries (in white) that England has never invaded.  There are only 22.  (In the WORLD!)

9. This map shows the countries that heavily restricted Internet access in 2013.