TEACHER MATERIALS

UNIT 1 GUIDE

Table of Contents
Unit 1—The Global Tapestry c. 1200 to 1450 CE 2

Learning Objectives 2

Key Concepts 2

Themes 3

Activities: Historical Thinking Skills and Reasoning Processes 3

Teaching Tips 4
 TEACHER MATERIALS

Unit 1—The Global Tapestry c. 1200 to

1450 CE
Unit 1 Problem: How was the process of state formation similar and different in various regions of the world from c.
1200 to 1450 CE?

Learning Objectives
1. Examine how historians have framed history by creating narratives of different scales of time and space.
2. Explain how intellectual, cultural, and religious transformations affected state formation and changes in states.
3. Assess how states developed and changed over time in different regions of the world.
4. Explain the causes and effects of economic and technological innovation on states during this period.
5. Analyze and evaluate historical thinking skills and reasoning processes such as contextualization, claim
testing, sourcing, causation, comparison, and continuity and change over time (CCOT).

Key Concepts
Why start a world history course in 1200 CE? Sure, it’s a nice, round number, but there’s nothing special about that
year. Why not start in 1492, when the two hemispheres connected, creating the first global system? Well, 1492 may
have been an important year for the global system, but there was plenty happening before Columbus stumbled into
the Caribbean. By beginning our story in 1200, we’re able to do something important: we provide students with a
glimpse of the world before everyone began to be tied into one global system. We show them the stunning diversity of
communities and the surprising connections that existed, even across vast distances. We’ll begin with a tour across
Asia, the Americas, Africa, and Europe, and in doing so provide an overview of the ways in which states organized
themselves. In Unit 2, we’ll explore how these diverse societies were connected to one another, and how these
connections forever reshaped the communities they linked.

Narratives in History: When we view history at different scales, we’re rewarded with varied narratives about our
past. Throughout time, people have used many different narratives to tell their history, or their culture’s history, or
even the history of the world. The ability to tell and share narratives is a key element of what makes us human. Yet,
because every story is told from a particular perspective, we must be careful not to put all our trust in one narrative.
The danger of a single narrative is that it offers just one perspective, one lens, for viewing our past. For this reason,
in addition to scale switching, in WHP AP® we will emphasize the importance of multiple narratives. Lesson 1.0 of Unit
1 discusses the concept of “usable history” and outlines the dangers of envisioning a single story, or narrative, for a
continent, nation, or group of people.

Diversity and Commonalities: Lesson 1.2 begins with an overview of the diverse tapestry of human communities in
this period. At the center of Afro-Eurasia, Islamic empires spread new ideas, innovations, and technologies as they
expanded. In South and Southeast Asia, Islamic faiths mixed with Hinduism, Buddhism, and local religions, which
impacted state formation and organization. In East Asia, the Song Dynasty used Confucianism and a large bureaucracy
to maintain control over a vast region. In the Americas, the mighty Aztec and Inca empires reached their peak in this
era. In Africa, a multitude of different types of societies existed, from small chieftaincies to large empires. Finally, in
Europe, a diverse and fragmented collection of kingdoms existed, with many of these states fighting each other for
territory and power. Though each of these states was distinct, commonalities existed, even between societies that
developed completely apart from one another. Focusing on both diversity and commonalities will help prepare your
students to construct a thesis and gather the supporting evidence needed for the unit’s closing assessment—either a
DBQ or an LEQ that centers on a comparison prompt.

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Themes
In WHP AP, your students examine world history through different themes (humans and the environment; cultural
developments and interactions; governance; economic systems; social interactions and organization; and technology
and innovation). These themes are intended to help structure students’ experiences with course content. This
approach helps students group information and sort it so that they can see how human experiences changed or stayed
the same over time. The themes also help students make comparisons and connections between different regions and
time periods.

Each WHP AP unit focuses on a particular set of themes as outlined in the AP® World History: Modern Course and
Exam Description (CED). In Unit 1, students will be introduced to the themes in an activity, article, and a video. These
assets will set the stage for deeper exploration of the themes using the Themes Notebook activities. In addition,
all WHP AP articles and videos have guiding questions that relate to either the topic, learning objective, theme, or
suggested skill in the CED.

While the introductory themes activities ask students to identify all six AP themes, the CED focuses on five of these
themes for Unit 1: cultural developments and interactions (CDI); governance (GOV); economic systems (ECN); social
interaction and organization (SIO); and technology and innovation (TEC). The Themes Notebook activities that students
will complete in the first and last lessons in this unit concentrate on four of these themes (CDI, GOV, SIO, and TEC).
Note that while economic systems are not included in the Themes Notebook activities, students will be asked guiding
and key ideas questions regarding the ways in which different states participated in trade and applied systems
of taxation. The economic systems theme will be central to understanding the networks of exchange that existed
between societies and states during this same era, which will be discussed in more detail in Unit 2.

Activities: Historical Thinking Skills and Reasoning Processes

As Professor Bob Bain says in the opening video for the course, we want to make sure that students learn content
but also how to “do” history. The “doing” of history requires students to learn certain skills. In Lesson 1.1 of WHP AP,
we introduce the AP® historical thinking skills and reasoning processes using real-world examples to which students
can relate. Each of these skills and reasoning processes are further developed in our practice progression activities.
You can find out more about these progressions in the WHP AP Course Guide and the WHP AP Practice Progressions
Placemat. Feel free to introduce each of these skills and reasoning processes at the beginning of the course or use
the introductory activity before the first activity in each of the progressions so that the skills and tools are fresh in
your students’ minds as they move from real-world examples to historical content.

This unit includes introductory activities on the Three Close Reads strategy (including the Three Close Reads for
Graphic Biographies), which is used with all articles and graphic bios in the course. You’ll also notice that we have
two different types of sourcing activities in the course. In Lesson 1.1, the sourcing progression introductory activity
asks students to complete a full analysis of a primary or secondary source using the HAPPY acronym (historical
context, audience, purpose, point of view, and why/significance) while the quick sourcing activities provide students
with a way to source and group excerpts like those found in DBQs. Another introductory activity students will
complete in this unit focuses on techniques for answering short-answer questions (SAQs) including how to parse the
prompt, determine the meaning of task verbs, and analyze textual and visual sources. Finally, this unit culminates with
the first activity in the writing progression that helps students understand the different WHP AP writing rubrics they’ll
encounter in the course. Note that these rubrics were based on the AP® DBQ and LEQ rubrics that those grading the
AP® exams will be using. We scaffolded these rubrics and added nuance to them so that students could assess their
writing skills and determine how to improve their DBQ and LEQ essays.

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Teaching Tips
A Global History: The amount of “stuff” in a world history course can overwhelm both students and teachers. In this
course, we’ve attempted to include content from all continents (apart from Antarctica) and we’ve tried to tell these
stories, or narratives, from many different perspectives. Yet, despite all our differences, human societies also have
a lot in common. We are all members of various local, regional, national, and global communities. We all participate
in some form of economic system as producers or consumers. And we all interact with our environment and share
responsibility for our impact on Earth. Therefore, we want to show students our commonalities without ignoring our
differences, or what makes us unique.

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