Reflection on Global History Unit 2: Belief Systems and Religious Conflict
In terms of intellectual sophistication, our second unit in Global History was the most ambitious I have tried. I believe we had a modest success. Most students were able to articulate how past events have led to current conflicts, and could use this information to speculate on alternative courses of action moving forward. Throughout the unit, students were engaged, both formally in the classroom and informally outside of it, in high level conversations that were well beyond my past experiences with history students both in terms of depth of thought and engagement. With that said, students did not reach the level of understanding I expect for them around the standard of “marshaling evidence of antecedent circumstances and contemporary factors contributing to problems.” This unit was the first of three that will engage directly with this understanding, and I hope that it laid the foundation for more advanced work later in the year.
Things We Got Right
- Student were engaged in really deep and authentic inquiry-based work, requiring the use the skills of
