Reflection on Global History Unit 5: Revolutions
This is the first unit we’ve done this year that I’m not happy with overall. There were some really good things that occurred, specifically our work around more advanced documents and historical analysis, but overall, I think we got more wrong than we got right. Most of the small lessons went well, but the meat of the unit around the French Revolution was off. We also didn’t do nearly enough at the end to synthesize all the different strands we had investigated.
Things We Got Right
- We focused our students’ learning on a clearly defined set of skills (those necessary to analyze complex and conflicting documents) that had clear assessments that enabled us to measure student growth and to give students clear feedback.
- Students improved their writing and historical thinking during the unit.
- Students gained a thorough understanding of the causes of the French Revolution.
- The Enlightenment Socratic Seminar was our best one yet.
- I really liked beginning the unit with the Revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia. Students were engaged, and it