Discussion Lesson

What Caused the Plague?

Overview:​ (​ One Class Period of 50 Minutes)
As we move into the lessons on the formation of the nation-states of Europe, we will be
talking about the effect the Plague had on Europe. Before we can talk about the effects of the
Plague, we need to talk about what caused the Plague. There is some debate within the academic
community about what exactly caused the Plague. Students will be discussing various causes of
the Bubonic Plague in this lesson, using two academic sources and class notes as evidence. They
will discuss in the style of a Socratic Seminar. They will read the academic texts the day and
night before and then answer some questions about the text. They will then talk about their
answers with the teacher acting as the discussion leader.

Objectives: Students will be able to...

● Use primary and secondary sources to explain the causes of the Plague (WHG 4.2.3)
● Analyze the demographic, economic, social, and political consequences of the Plague
(4.2.3)
● Participate in a Socratic Seminar and use evidence to support their answers

Anticipated Student Conceptions or Challenges:

Students will have their own ideas about what caused the Plague due to popular misconceptions.
They will also be using a new type of discussion format. They may not have had a Socratic
Seminar discussion before. They will be given the opportunity to look over the expectations for
them the day before, and they will have the texts to read a few days in advance, so that they can
read them and answer the questions in their own time.

Materials:
● Academic texts
● Socratic Seminar Overview
● Question Worksheet

Assessment:
Student worksheets and texts will be collected at the end of class for a completion grade and for
the teacher to look over in order to gauge student knowledge. This will be the more formal
assessment of their knowledge. Throughout the discussion, the teacher will be sitting off to the
side of the room, listening to student discussion and asking questions. Both of these will act as an
informal assessment of student knowledge.
Instructional Sequence (50 Minutes):
1. Teacher takes attendance and divides the students into two large groups, which then make
circles. One circle should be in the middle of the other circle.
2. One student is assigned to take notes on the discussion on the board.
3. Teacher starts off discussion with the first question from the worksheet. Teacher should
take notes, recording who speaks, what they say, and what evidence they use.
4. Students discuss, moving from question to question as the conversation dries up.
5. Halfway through, the two circles need to switch. The inner circle should now be the outer
circle and visa versa.
6. Teacher calls an end to discussion 10 minutes before the end of class. Teacher reviews
what they discussed, using the board notes and their own notes as a guide.
7. Class is dismissed and the teacher collects the texts and worksheets for a grade.

Teacher Introduction

Before Instruction: ​Teacher takes attendance. Students should be sitting in their assigned seats
and the student in each seat should match their picture. Divide students by counting off by twos.
Group One is the first in the inner circle. The outer circle, Group Two, starts with taking notes.
Ask for volunteers to follow the discussion on the board. Only one student should be selected.

Read: ​Today you will be working as historians. You’ve had the chance over the past few days to
read through these two texts. One is from the 1300s, when the Plague was going on, and one is
from a modern day scholar. You can also use any notes you’ve taken from class. We’re going to
discuss possible causes for the Plague, following the questions that you received with the texts. I
expect everyone to participate.

During Instruction:​ Start students off with one of the questions from the list. Students should
begin to discuss. They have about 25 to 30 minutes to discuss. Move them onto the next question
whenever it seems like the conversation is dying. Halfway through class, switch the circles.
Students can go back to previous questions if they have new thoughts on them. Keep an open ear
and note who speaks, what they say, and what evidence they use to support their answer.

After Instruction:​ 10 minutes before the end of class, obtain student attention and begin review
of the material and evidence covered in class. Collect texts and worksheets for feedback and a
grade and dismiss class.
 Name:_________________________

Date:____________

Hour:____________

What Caused the Plague?

Socratic Seminar

We are going to be discussing possible causes of the Bubonic Plague. We will be using a
Socratic Seminar structure to discuss. You will be divided into two circles, one inside of the
other. If you are in the inner circle, you will be sharing your answers to the questions about the
texts, using evidence from the texts as support. If you are in the outer circle, you will be taking
notes on what is being said by the inner circle and what evidence they use. Halfway through
class, the two circles will switch.

You will need to read the following texts before the Socratic Seminar and prepare answers to the
questions after the texts. You should use evidence from the texts to support your answers.
Remember to use SOAPSTone to help you break down the texts.

Role 1:________________
Notes:

Role 2:_________________
Notes:
Text One: Boccaccio and the Black Death [Translated by Richard Hooker, 1993]
[Modified]
Lexile: 1100-1200
This is a primary source from an Italian author who lived during the Bubonic Plague. He wrote
this shortly after the Plague occurred, around the 1350s. It was part of Boccaccio’s larger book,
The Decameron.
Vocabulary
Incarnation:​ a person who is a Pestilence:​ a fatal epidemic Orient:​ an older term for the
manifestation of a deity. disease. countries of Asia.

Iniquitous:​ grossly unfair and Manifest:​ clear or obvious to Inevitable: ​certain to happen,
morally wrong. the eye or mind; to display or unavoidable.
show by one’s acts or
appearance
Thirteen hundred and forty-eight years had passed since the fruitful Incarnation of the Son of

God, when there came into the noble city of Florence, the most beautiful of all Italian cities, a

deadly pestilence. Either because of the operations of the heavenly bodies, or because of the just

wrath of God mandating punishment for our iniquitous ways, several years earlier it had

originated in the Orient, where it destroyed countless lives. It scarcely rested in one place before

it moved to the next. When it turned westward, its strength grew monstrously. It did not behave

as it did in the Orient. There, blood rushing out of the nose was a manifest sign of inevitable

death. Here, it began with swellings in the groin and armpit, in both men and women. Some of

the swellings were as big as apples and some of which were shaped like eggs, some were small

and others were large.

Text Two: John Aberth, ​Plagues in World History​ (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2011)
[Modified] Lexile: 1400-1500
This is an excerpt from a book on different Plagues throughout world history. Aberth is a
respected modern historian and has written dozens of articles about the Plague.
Vocabulary
Regurgitate:​ to bring food up Susceptible: ​likely to be Bacterium:​ a single bacteria.
again in the mouth, throw up. influenced or harmed by a
particular thing.

Notion:​ a conception or belief Reservoir:​ a large natural Insurmountable:​ to great to be

about something. supply of something, usually overcome.
water.
Plague is a specific disease. It is caused by a bacterium known as ​Yersinia pestis.​ Bubonic plague

is the most common and widely known form of this disease. Infected fleas are responsible for

infecting hosts when they bite and attempt to feed on their host’s blood. They are unable to feed

because their stomachs are already “blocked” by a mass of bacteria. They must then regurgitate

the blood meal and some of the bacteria back into the bloodstream of their victims. The rat flea

typically spreads plague among fur-bearing rodents, such as the black rat, which are highly

susceptible to the disease. Once the rats are dead, the fleas will then jump onto any nearby hosts

available, including humans. The Second Pandemic, more commonly referred to as the “Black

Death,” struck Europe and the Middle East beginning in 1347-1348 and persisted periodically

into the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Flight was a perfectly acceptable response for Europeans, even if they were churchmen,

by the time of the Black Death. They still believe that the plague ultimately came from God’s

design, a widely held notion even among late medieval doctors. Our most informed

contemporary source, the Muslim author Ibn al-Wardi, writing in 1348, states that the plague

“began in the land of darkness” fifteen years earlier and then spread eastward from there to
China and Indian and the westward. Modern-day research has confirmed that the Central Asian

steppes are an ancient reservoir of plague, containing perhaps the oldest strains of ​Yersinia

pestis​. Some scholars, however, propose southern Russia as an alternative origin to the Second

Pandemic in place of Central Asia, arguing that references to “pestilence” and “land of darkness”

are too vague to indicate a specific disease or geographical location, that the overland trade route

across Central Asia presented insurmountable obstacles and would have taken too long to spread

the plague.

Questions:

What did people living during the 1300s think caused the Plague?

What are the symptoms of the Plague?

What are other possible causes of the Plague?

Why is there disagreement about where the Plague started from?

Why would the origin point of the Plague matter?