HISTORY OF AFRICAN AMERICAN PEOPLE: BEGINNINGS TO PRESENT
PRE-LEARNING Description (First Week) / ContentWhat to teach / Resources/Learning Activities
How to teach & with what / Student Performance Expectations
What students should be able to do with mastery
Student prior knowledge about the geography of Africa and level of writing will be assessed using lesson to target those skills. / AAL 9pg. 227 , Excerpt from Dream From my Father, Barack Obama
- / SP1.1 Students will be able to infer why it is that people come to the Unites States from African and other foreign lands
UNIT 1 DESCRIPTION: Human Beginnings in Africa
The continent of Africa is the birthplace of early hominids and thereforehuman civilization. It is a land rich with natural resources. Its land masses provide habitats for varied and unique forms of life. The resources of the African continent have historically been coveted by other populations who wished to dominant and control it. / By exploring African geography & anthropological evidence, students will analyze factors and techniques that various individuals used to expand the knowledgebased that encouraged scientist & explorers from all over the world onto the continent. Students will investigate the ancient clues, conditions, actions, interpretations and motivations that helped to shape the modern world. Students will develop the context and skills needed to formulate and defend the African continent as a vital part of the world’s history and economy.
Unit 1 will be investigated through a focus on the following National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies themes:
- Time, Continuity, and Change
- Global Connections
How do location, resources, and cross-cultural diffusion cause tension, as well as lead to positive global connections?
Unit 1 Essential Question(s):
What to think about / NCSS, COMMON CORE STATE & NYS SOCIAL STUDIES STANDARDS / Content / Resources/Learning Activities
How to teach & with what / Student Performance Expectations
What students should be able to do with mastery
EQ1.1: What features make up Africa’s geographic diversity?
EQ1.2 How do physical and human geography affect people, places and regions?
EQ 1.3: What evidence is there that Africa was the birthplace of humanity? / NYSGG #3K1: Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the geography of the interdependent world in which we live - local, national, and global - including the distribution of people, places, and environments over the Earth’s surface.
CCRH6: Compare the point of view of two or moreauthors for how they treat the same or similartopics, including which details they include andemphasize in their respective accounts.
* Identify and analyze reactions to science and technology from the past or present, and predict ongoing effects in economic, geographical, social, political, and cultural areas of life.
CCW1.b - Develop claim(s) and counterclaims fairly,supplying data and evidence for each whilepointing out the strengths and limitationsof both claim(s) and counterclaims in adiscipline-appropriate form and in a mannerthat anticipates the audience’s knowledgelevel and concerns. / C1.1. Physical Geography
•2nd largest continent
•Rivers/lakes, deserts, semi-deserts, mountains savannahs
•Climate zones
- Political names
- Natural resources by region
•the Sahel
- the Sahara
- the coast(s)
- Paleoanthropologist
- Archaeological evidence
- Hominids/homo erectus/homo- sapiens
- Oldest skeletons: Ardi & Dinqinesh (Lucy)
- Hunter/gather; nomadic groups
- Early Migration of human population.
Maps Skills- Teach students to understand how to develop and use maps and other graphic representations to display geographic issues, problems, and questions
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- AAH: pg. 6-8
- LFH: pg. 1
- Articles on Lucy in Ethiopia:
- NPR Story/interview on Ardi:
- Read AAL, p. 5-6
- Read AAH: pg. 7-9
- Read LFH: pg. 2 “Heritage”- Countee Cullen
- Read “First Man”- Naomi Long Madgett, p.9, A & B
- Watch Discovery of skeleton video Ethiopia discovered?videoId=112428
- Examine Kenyan Footprint
- Study Pearson AP ‘From Human Prehistory to the EarlyCivilizations’ & answer online questions
- Glencoe Student Web Activity; Hominids leave Africa for Israel: Chapter 1, Student Web Activities, Glencoe World History: The Human Experience: The Early Ages, Glencoe, 2003
- Read the sections entitled “Background’ at the beginning of each unit of the New Jersey African American History curriculum:
SP1.1 Students will correctly identify 5 major geographic features on the African continent from memory.
SP1.2 Students will demonstrate their knowledge of the vast natural resources offered from Africa by writing a paper on how people from two different regions utilized, adapted and or were affected by the natural resources in their environment .
SP1.3 Students will write an engaging factual news article for a student newspaper about the discovery of Lucy or Ardi.
SP1.3 Students will develop a list of discussion points for a debate with persons who disbelieves that human life could have originated in Africa.
SP1.3 Students will create properly labeled 3D model or display of Ardi or Lucy
Unit 1: Vocabulary Mastery
Unit 1: Quiz
Unit 1: Test
Unit 1: Regents Prep
Unit 1: DBQ
Unit 1: Thematic Essay
UNIT 2 DESCRIPTION: African Kingdoms and Civilizations
Before the African continent was invaded and colonized by Europeans, it was boasted to have populated towns,cities, and kingdoms with fully functional governments; cultural and education centers and well-structured societal systems. / By examining the work of historians and scholars, students will develop a pre-colonial understanding of what life was like on the African continent. Students will develop the context and skills needed to expand their knowledgebase about African life by investigating the interactions that African people have shared with the “Old World” and by studying the development and interactions of social/cultural/political/economic/ religious systems in different regions of the African continent
Unit 2 will be investigated through a focus on the following NYS Standards for Social Studies theme:
World History use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in world history and examine the broad sweep of history from a variety of perspectives.
- Time, Continuity, and Change
What defines a turning point?
Unit 2 Essential Question(s):
What to think about / NCSS, COMMON CORE STATE & NYS SOCIAL STUDIES STANDARDS / Content
What to teach / Resources/Learning Activities
How to teach & with what / Student Performance Expectations
What students should be able to do with mastery
EQ2.1 How were African societies organized?
EQ2.1A To what extent are terms such as “Far East” and “Middle East” a reflection of a European perspective on regions?
EQ2.2 What role does religion play in the organization of societies?
EQ2.2AWhat assumptions have different groups made regarding power, authority, governance,
and law across time and place?
EQ 2.3 In what ways did classical African civilizations contribute to the social, political and economic development of humankind?
2.3A What role did African kingdoms play in overland and maritime trade routes of the era?
EQ2.4 How do the movements of people and ideas (cultural diffusion) affect world history?
2.4A How did traditional art reflect the beliefs of African kingdoms?
EQ2.5 What social hierarchies were in place in African Kingdoms? / NYSS #2 K1 Key Idea 1:The study of world history requires an understanding of world cultures and civilizations, including an analysis of important ideas, social and cultural values, beliefs, and traditions. This study also examines the human condition and the connections and interactions of people across time and space and the ways different people view the same event or issue from a variety of perspectives. / C2.1. Major Kingdoms:
Abyssinia (Ethiopia,) Jolof-Senegal,Mossi (Burkina Faso), Benin (later Togo & Benin then Nigeria), Kilwa (Tanzania), Kush (Nubia), Kemet (Egypt), Axum, Meroe, Mali (Later Songhai)-Mansa Musa, Kanem (Kanem-Bornu to Chad), Angola, Congo, Benin, Senegambia, Zimbabwe. Ghana (Akan),Funj Alwa), Kongo, Bunyoroa, Lunda, Ankole, Rwanda
C2.1. Queens- Cleopatra, Sheba, Hatshepsut, Rweej
C2.1 Stateless Societies- Pastoral & Nomadic, Ibo, BaMubuti, Khoi-San, Masai, Nuer, and Kikuyu.
Dogon, Kru, Tiv, Ibo, BaMubuti, Khoi-San, Masai, Nuer, & KikuyuKemetic
C2.2 Mono & polytheism, African indigenous religious beliefs/worship practices animism, Islam(Sunni, Shite, Sufism) and Christianity
C2.2A Theocracies & Social Hierarchies
C2.2B Causes of decline.
C2.3 Economies
C2.3A Trading economies; Bantu migrations
C2.4 African Cultures- art, architecture, mathematics, astronomy, science, technology, roads and regional agriculture and sustenance. / Vocabulary – See unit 2 vocab. list. Create your own vocabulary activities.
Teach Study Skills: Provide students with an appropriate framework with which they can study two major kingdoms in depth.
Student Reading/Activities:
- Ancient African Kingdoms PP
- Read AAH 10-14
Ancient Civilizations map:
- Stateless societies
- Read AAH: pg. 24-28
- Activities on West African Empires:
SP2.1 Place Kingdoms in their correct geographic locations on a blank map.
SP2.1A Write a modern interpretation of an African scholar’s writing about how they viewed a particular geographic region.
SP2.2.
SP2.3 Create a timeline which demonstrates an understanding of the development and connectedness of African civilization and other civilizations and cultures over time.
SP2.4
African Kingdoms Multiple Choice
Unit 2: Vocabulary Mastery
Unit 2: Quiz
Unit 2: Test
Unit 2: Regents Prep
Unit 2: DBQ
Unit 2: Thematic Essay
C2.5 Freedom and Servitude
- Systems of Slavery & forms of resistance
- indentured servitude, compensated servitude
- Article –Race and Slavery in the Middle East:
- Overiew:
Article & activities on “Religion in Africa”
- This article is great for deeper understanding of slavery in Africa, specifically the Middle East
African Civilizations and the Spread of Islam
Visit : Baobab Art Museum
- Plan a visit to see the “Magnificent Africa” Exhibit
- African Culture Activity
- Ancient Africa writing systems:
Teacher Reading:
- Introduction to African Civilization by John G, Jackson
- The African Origins of Civilization: Myth or Reality by Cheikh Anta Diop
- Nile Valley Contribution to Civilization By Anthony T. Browder
- Destruction of Black Civilization by Chancellor Williams
- Before the Mayflower by Leone Bennett Jr.
- African American Folklore by Stephen Currie
- Scholars on Ancient Africa: Wennofer, Kagemni, Sonchis, Khan-anup.
UNIT 3 DESCRIPTION: TheAfrican Diaspora
Although they made reside in different geographic regions, Africans are said to be living in the Diaspora because while they belong to one particular cultural, share a common ancestry to locales on the African continent.
Both voluntary and involuntary movement of African people throughout the Western Hemisphere and the World has created a “Diaspora” (dispersion of a people from their original homeland). / By comparing and contrasting different as cultural components, students should develop the skills necessaryto identifyand come to understand the development and connectedness of Africanism throughout the World.This investigation should include the characteristics, distributions, and migrationsof African populations on the Earth’s surface.Students should also be prepared to compare and contrast the social, political, and economic dimensions of Afro- Caribbean, Afro-European cultures on the African Diaspora demonstrating that they understand the impact of cultural diffusion.
Unit 3Essential Question(s):
What to think about / NCSS, COMMON CORE STATE & NYS SOCIAL STUDIES STANDARDS / Content
What to teach / Resources/Learning Activities
How to teach & with what / Student Performance Expectations
What students should be able to do with mastery
EQ3.1: What factors contributed to the creation of diverse cultures that have roots in Africa? What are some examples of such African traits?
EQ3.2What impact did the dispersal of African people have on demographic trends in the Americas, Africa, and Europe?
3.2A How did life change as a result of this encounter?
EQ3.3 Where around the globe did African culture take hold?
3.3A How does it manifest itself? /
- Human beings, learn, modify, and adapt to their cultures. Their culture helps themcomprehend and make sense of themselves as individuals and members of variousgroups.
- Cultures predispose individuals to develop perspectives, makeassumptions,create ideas, and behave in particular ways.
- Cultures are similar in how they influenceindividuals but they differ in the specifics of their influence.
- All cultures have systemsof knowledge, values, traditions, and beliefs; yet the specifics of each may vary widely.
- Each cultural system is also unique. Cultures and systems within cultures are dynamic,ever-changing, and highly influential on the thoughts and actions of those who belongto them. Learners should be able to engageindependently in in-depth analysis of any cultural group or subgroup and in-depthcomparison of any two or more cultural groups or subgroups.
- Theyshould be able to connect their comprehension of cultural groups to the realitiesof cultural diversity within multicultural societies and consider how culturallydifferent groups can cooperate to enhance the public good.
C3.2 Polyrhythmic music
C3.2A Exchange of food; disease; political ideologies
C3.3 European Africans- Moors and Jews
In England, Amsterdam, Russia, Africans and Native Americans, Caribbean Africans; Jamaicans, Puerto Ricans, Central and South American Africans, Canadian Africans / Vocabulary – See unit 3 vocab. list. Create your own vocabulary activities.
- Languages and the Diaspora Article,
- Ebonics Timeline
- Article Caribbean Languages as a form of Resistance
- On-Line Visit to Museum of the Africa Diaspora
They Came Before Columbus, Ivan - Van Sertima
Open Letter to African Heads of State / SP3.1 Students prepare a 5-minute PowerPoint on a person in pop culture who has been “Americanized”, but has some roots in an African culture, Idris Albaor Seal for example.
SP 3.2 Students will design and or make an authentic replica of African instrument out of materials found in their environment.
Unit 3: Vocabulary Mastery
Unit 3: Quiz
Unit 3: Test
Unit 3: Regents Prep
Unit 3: DBQ
Unit 3: Thematic Essay
UNIT 4 DESCRIPTION: Invasion, Enslavement & European Colonization
As European countries grew more powerful, so did their desire to acquire human and natural resources from the African continent. Friendship, manipulation, religious zeal and outright aggression toward indigenous African people throughout the continent, led to forceful enculturation of people throughout the world. / By using primary and secondary sources, students should be able to analyze and evaluate conflicting viewpoints regarding European imperialism and its impact on the African continent.
Unit 4 Essential Question(s):
What to think about / NCSS, COMMON CORE STATE & NYS SOCIAL STUDIES STANDARDS / Content
What to teach / Resources/Learning Activities
How to teach & with what / Student Performance Expectations
What students should be able to do with mastery
EQ 4.1 What were the external and internal factors that led to invasion and enslavement of African People?
EQ 4.2 What role did world governments play in the African Holocaust?
4.2A What role did missionaries, traders, and internal strife play in the spread of slavery?
EQ 4.3 To what extent did the Atlantic Slave Trade impact the social, political, and economic conditions of African societies?
4.3A. What goods and services shall be produced and in what quantities?
4.3B. How shall goods and services be produced?
4.3C. For whom shall goods and services be produced?
EQ 4.4 In what ways did European colonization forever change the African continent?
4.4A In what ways was 1492 a turning point in global history?
4.4B What impact did mercantilism have on European colonies in Africa?
EQ4.5 What role did technology play in enslavement?
EQ4.6- What is the relationship between former colonies and the nations that once controlled them? / NYSAnalyze complex aspects of production, distribution, and consumption, and evaluate the market forces and government policies that affect these aspects. /
- Amistad
- Types of slavery (chattel, bondage, forced labor)
- Triangle Trade/Middle Passage
- Coveted Resources of South Africa by the Dutch
-AAH
-Amistad – Teacher selected video excerpts
-Scramble for Africa Station
-Ch. 2; Sect 1, p 37-44
-Lesson plan link:
Cultural Diffusion / SP4.1 Students
SP4.2 Students will
Unit 4: Vocabulary Mastery
Unit 4: Quiz
Unit 4: Test
Unit 4: Regents Prep
Unit 4: DBQ
Unit 4: Thematic Essay
- Roots, Alex Haley (video and text excerpts)
- Copper Sun, Sharon Draper (text excerpts)
- The Trans-Atlantic slave trade
- Roots Excerpt;
- Roots Clip and Roots Clip #2
UNIT 5 DESCRIPTION: African & African Americans in the Colonies
The first generations of “African Americans” grew up during the Colonial Time period. As more Africans were shipped to the Americas, many more native born African American increased the population of Africans living a life of involuntary servitude. A very select number of African Americans were allowed to live their lives in freedom. The larger and wiser the Black population became, the more White Americans sought ways to justify the relegation of African American to less than human roles. / By investigating interdependent economies throughout the world over time and place, students should be able to trace the maritime trading routes that linked the African continent to the “New World” and led to continued aggression toward Blacks in the Diaspora.