Lesson 7: Interaction in Era 2 – Conflict and Cooperation
Big Ideas of the Lesson· Era 2 was characterized by the rise and fall of kingdoms with strong monarchs, powerful militaries, rigid social hierarchies, and growing cities.
· Era 2 was also characterized by steady growth in population.
· Finally, Era 2 was also a time of increasing interaction at different levels. This interaction occurred as both cooperation and conflict within farming societies, across farming societies, and also between farming societies and pastoral nomads.
· Across farming societies, and between farming societies and nomads, conflict tended to involve war, conquest, and competition for land and resources, whereas cooperation focused on trade.
Lesson Abstract:
In this lesson students explore important trends and patterns of development during Era 2.
Through discussion activities around information presented in a PowerPoint presentation, students begin the lesson by considering the rise and fall of kingdoms in this period and analyze the common features of these kingdoms.
Students then connect the previous lesson on technology and cultural diffusion to the steady growth of the human population in this era.
Finally, students engage in an inquiry activity around learning stations to explore the different types of interactions – both conflict and cooperation – that took place within farming societies, across farming societies, and between farming societies and pastoral nomads.
The lesson ends with a group analysis of patterns across the stations and an exit slip asking students to make larger generalizations about conflict and cooperation in Era 2.
key Concepts: conflict and cooperation
cultural diffusion social hierarchy
specialization evidence
technology power and authority
Lesson Sequence
1. Lesson 7 PowerPoint, “Interaction in Era 2, Conflict and Cooperation.” After presenting the title slide (Slide 1), predict why the lesson has this title and follow up with the questions below:
· What kinds of conflict and cooperation would there have been during in Era 2?
· Who might have been cooperating, or in conflict, with whom?
Move to Slide 2, Turn and Talk briefly to think about these questions and then a few pairs of students share their ideas.
THE FOLLOWING questions, “Who was in conflict, who was cooperating, and why?” will drive your inquiry during this lesson.
I will re-visit these predictions over the course of the lesson.
2. Slide 3: show the World History Timeline.
The Zoom in Approach to Study History:
We focus on big pictures across time and space and then “zoom” in on a
specific place during a particular time to see how the big patterns are playing
out.
This approach allows us to see different details as we look at the same
picture -- the timeline on Slide 3 uses this approach.
The top of the timeline shows the big picture of human history, and the
bottom part zooms in on Era 2 to show the big picture of change only
during that era.
You will zoom in even more on the idea of conflict and cooperation, focusing your historical lens on examples of conflict and cooperation in Afroeurasia to answer the questions of who was in conflict, who was cooperating, and why.
Think about the ideas in the diamond shapes at the bottom of the timeline (use the bulleted questions below to do this) on Slide 3.
These diamonds represent big patterns over the whole era, and do NOT represent the order in which these changes took place.
Informal Discussion:
Volunteers- talk about each of the first three diamonds, providing one idea about each. This provides the teacher with an opportunity to activate and assess students’ prior knowledge on important ideas in this lesson:
· Who were the nomads and where did they live?
· What is a kingdom, and how did civilizations form and become kingdoms?
· Why might the number of people living have changed greatly during Era 2?
Remember: nomads were the people who lived by herding animals and moving from place to place; a kingdom has a strong ruler, maybe who took power through force; there was more food available during Era 2, and that it made it possible to support more people.
This lesson will focus more on the last diamond and will explore the patterns of conflict and cooperation during this era.
3. Proceed to Slide 4: Focus in on kingdoms, then move to Slide 5: show the map, “Ancient Civilizations of the Old World.”
Volunteers - come up to the map and use the map legend to point out which civilizations were present during Era 2, the time span currently being studied, 4000 BCE to 1000 BCE.
Identify which parts of the world are missing from the map.
Ask one or two students to make a conjecture as to why other parts of the world are not on this map, “Ancient Civilizations of the Old World.” Don’t spend much time on this, but do tell students they will explore this question in the next lesson.
If students are able to identify the Era 2 civilizations without any help, ask them to explain their reasoning to the class. How did they know which civilization corresponded with Era 2? What clues did they use on the map? If they need help, use prompts and questions to help them use the clues on the map, and be sure that students understand how to use the map key to interpret the map.
4. Explain to students that there were a few different kingdoms in the area of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and that this area was not always under the control of just one group. Display Slide 6. Explain to the students that Era 2 was a time in which several kingdoms, or civilizations ruled by a strong king-type leader (not always called a king) rose and then later fell. The kingdoms listed on this slide are the main ones from this time. Point out on the map above the list where each of these kingdoms was located so that students associate their names with the other place names (Shang Dynasty and the Yellow River area, for example).
Important to remember: kingdoms rose and fell during this time period as they competed with each other and with nomads for power and resources Furthermore, in the next unit, the rise and fall of early empires will be an important focus and students will explore these ideas in greater depth.
5. Recall past lessons on the geography of this region.
What do they notice about where these kingdoms are?
Kingdoms are in the same places where the first civilizations developed, and
that they are located at similar latitudes around river valleys, or near important
coastal areas.
Now proceed to Slide 7. Student volunteer to read the information on the
slide. Across this huge region, all of the developing kingdoms shared these
features.
Turn and Talk about the question on Slide 7: Make conjectures about why
these commonalities emerged.
This is a complex question: Students think and talk about it is a first step. To help think about it, remember what you learned about the development of agriculture.
Remember that agriculture began to create surpluses of food and more specialization, and this allowed some people to gain more control over larger amounts of resources.
How might this pattern help explain the common features of these kingdoms. These types of global patterns helps us understand the larger story of human history.
Take few minutes to develop ideas and then pairs to share.
6. Display Slide 8: Think about population change... a change in how many people were living on the planet, then move on to Slide 9, which is a graph of world population growth over time.
These numbers apply to the whole world, not just Afroeurasia, although the
large majority of humans at this time did live in Afroeurasia.
Silently study the graph for a minute.
Answer questions below about the graph, then Turn and Talk for 20 seconds or so with each question. Different pairs will share answers.
What does the graph show? What is the title?
· What does the horizontal axis represent?
· What does the vertical axis represent?
· At what point in time did the biggest change in population take place?
· How can you summarize the trends shown by this graph?
When time, comes to the board to explain their answers while pointing at the graph.
Further discuss the graph using these additional questions (they are not on the slide):
· What was the trend during Era 1?
· What was the trend during Era 2?
· Why do you think the population didn’t grow much until Era 2? What changed?
7. Slide 10. Technologies you studied during Lesson 6 are reviewed in the list on the slide. Turn and Talk as directed about the following questions:
· What is the connection between more technology and more people?
· How does more technology allow for more people, and how do more people create a need for new technology?
Now develop the thinking you began in Step 6 above
For example, think about the plow and its impact on population growth with the following series of questions:
· How did the plow affect the amount of food people could grow?
· What would be the impact of having more food?
· So, how might the development of the plow have helped the population to grow?
8. Look at Slide 11 and see the “Technology Feedback Loop” from Lesson 6.
Think about where in the cycle you would put a new box for Population
Growth (using question and Population Growth box on the slide as prompts).
Volunteers: explain where you would put population growth and why.
Be sure to linking technology to the increase of more production and storage
of food to food surpluses. With more food, societies could support more
people, which in turn led to the need to produce even more food as the
population continued to grow.
9. Advance to Slide 12 entitled, “Focusing in on Interactions.”
Interactions between different groups of people during Era 2 will be the focus
of the rest of the lesson.
In a station-based inquiry activity: you will figure out who was interacting
with whom, what their interactions were like, and why they interacted (goals
and purposes).
I will be focusing on two main types of interaction: conflict and cooperation. Proceed to Slide 13:Study the images on the slide.
Turn and Talk quickly to decide which ones represent conflict and which ones represent cooperation.
A few pairs share their thoughts and their reasoning.
Some of the images might be related to both conflict and cooperation, such as the drawing of the German and Japanese soldier shaking hands. They were cooperating, but doing so in the context of a global conflict
(if students don’t know, briefly explain that these two nations were on the same side during World War II).
Volunteers give their best definition for both terms (conflict and cooperation).
Slide 14: This slide presents an overview of conflict and cooperation at different levels during Era 2.
In the station activity, your job will be to add examples and evidence to these ideas.
1. Review the table. People in farming societies had conflict and cooperation within their societies: they followed rules and contributed to society, but sometimes rules were broken and conflict happened.
2. Farming, or agricultural, societies also interacted with each other, sometimes through war, and sometimes through trade. Finally, people in farming societies also interacted with nomadic peoples, also through war and trade.
10. Students will rotate through five different stations and will need to complete a reading activity as they read and analyze images.
Divide into groups of no larger than four (having set up the appropriate
number of stations in advance).
11. Take out “Student Handout 1 – Conflict and Cooperation Station Activities,” located in the Supplemental Materials (Unit 3, Lesson 7): the activity sheets for each of the stations.
a. At each station, four sets of the station document packet
will be ready so that each student can read independently.
· Display Slide 15: students rotate through stations 1-5, reading,
analyzing, talking, and engaging in the activities.
Students work independently.
Teacher Note: It is important to set a time limit for each station and to keep students moving through the activities. Some of the stations have more text than others and will take longer, and the time limits teachers set will vary based upon the reading levels and skills of their students.
Once students have had time to rotate through the first five stations, distribute a copy of the “Small Group Analysis Chart,” located in the Supplemental Materials (Unit 3, Lesson 7) to each student.
The chart asks students to look across all five stations.
For each station, discuss and analyze whether the examples dealt with people within a farming society, with people across different farming societies (or kingdoms), or with people from farming societies interacting with nomadic peoples.
Analyze what evidence there was in each station for conflict and cooperation and they need to briefly provide exam