Silk Road Simulation

I'm just about to start dabbling in this (even though my On-Level World course is 1400 to present and I'm using the 1200-present. I'm covering the stuff that comes before anyways in brief)...Mike Burns and I were just doing some discussion about what we wanted to do! Mike lets take a look at this! Thanks Anne Koschmider 

Joe Baginski the activity only took about half an hour. It was a great way to infuse a little Friday Fun! I hope your students enjoy it too!

Hi Ann!

So good to see some familiar faces on the 1200 blog. I am really struggling as this is my first time to use OER materials with my regular classes, who don't want to read! So thank you for all the good posts and ideas AND slides.

I was just thinking as I dive into Unit 2 that the trade routes activity that I do with my AP classes would be fun in this unit... but it is very complicated. Thanks for this easier version. When did you do it? After introducing the unit? After the mapping activity?

Look forward to seeing/hearing more and glad you are a few steps ahead of me!

Roberta

Boulder, CO

Hi Roberta Spray ! Your comments are so relatable - interspersing these kinds of activities is essential for my on-level kids right now! They are definitely feeling challenged by the expectations surrounding skills and literacy, so incorporating a bit of movement and fun has been a great way to spice things up. 

I did this simulation in the middle of Unit 2. We opened the unit with Unit 2 Mapping Part 1. Then, we moved on to the genesis and spread of Islam, Mansa Musa, and Trans-Saharan trade. We followed up the Silk Road simulation with the Zheng He graphic biography, Indian Ocean trade article, and Making Claims activity. 

What kinds of strategies are you using to motivate your reluctant readers?

THANK YOU, Anne Koshmider!

I appreciate your insight as I have brain freeze when it comes to this curriculum with my regular classes (also lots of low readers and ELD students). I have rarely had my regular classes read so many texts (yes, bad powerpoint teacher) so this is a new and frustrating world for me.

My APWH class is full of activities since the students read AT HOME, so taking a whole class up reading a text is taxing. How to make that fun? They definitely like to read the texts in groups instead of individually as another OER teacher pointed out, and I will read the Overview of Unit 2 to them since there is no audio and no leveled readings yet. We will do the 3CR together as they are getting the hang of it, but I want to shorten it up a bit (some students take the whole class just for the SKIM!). I like Erik C's version: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1B0NVXM5Nqh1q2MHbGBZddR7H1eVXhB61dEhIg2do6yQ/edit. Let's keep brainstorming reading activities! I have put that request in to Rachel Phillips as well.

To that point, I appreciate your outline of what you did in this unit. Did you do all the readings too? And I see you skipped Lesson 2.2. I presume you stuck to the trade and spread of belief systems theme and will return to the Americas before going to Lesson 2.4?

Your mentorship is so helpful. I have pulled two new World History teachers into this with me and I feel the pressure of making this curriculum successful - aka engaging for the students and fun for the teachers. I have to admit, it has been hard so far!

Roberta

Roberta Spray in my effort to be brief, I think I was a little misleading. I did teach about the Americas after the trade routes. For me, it just made more sense to follow up the lessons on the Islamic Empire and Mansa Musa with the trade routes. 

To mix things up, I did some notes stations and video clips for the early American empires in addition to the "New World Networks" reading. We did a digital collage highlighting the achievements of these empires...not a terribly difficult task, but students had fun with it!

I definitely do not use every reading on the website. I think my students would check out if I tried to fit them all in! As much as I love the readings, I've learned that not all students get so excited for history texts :) Some of them do appreciate a lecture, so I incorporate a bit of that as well. I think it's helpful for emphasizing critical content and helping students make connections. 

Do you belong to the AP World Facebook group? Catherine Brown shared this incredible activity called Surviving Medival Europe. She is so skilled at designing gamified activities! I shortened it a bit for my on-level kids, and it was a great way to wrap up the week with some fun!

Thank you for these great ideas!

I love the Surviving Medieval Europe game so thank you for sharing. We may never finish this unit as there are so many fun things to do! (I am a member of that FB group but have been too busy to follow anything the last year... guess I should...)

Great idea to switch the order of the Unit 2 lessons. Makes total sense. I have done student poster presentations on the achievements of the American civs in years past. What is a digital collage? Sounds like a fun approach!

I want to be in your classroom!

Roberta

Anne Koschmider Your slide deck is SOOO helpful. Thank you for sharing!

Roberta Spray I love your idea for the poster project! I always struggle with how to make my approaches to teaching the early American civilizations sufficiently different in my AP and on-level classes, so I may try to do something similar. For the digital collage, I just give kids a blank Google slide deck and ask them to design their own layout. The only parameters are that the student includes the five images they think best exemplify the achievements of each civilization (Maya, Aztec, Inca) and one caption per empire with an explanation. I could see it being helpful, though, to give guidance on the use of the SPEC categories like you did. 

Anne Koschmider thank you for the explanation of the digital collage. That sounds like a quicker and easier approach. I am really struggling with how much time everything is taking in this curriculum - a lot due to the fact that the students are not used to rigor after being remote last year.

The Overview article took us a class and a half to get through (i read it with them since not leveled yet and no audio yet) and the mapping activity took a whole block class (70 min). Unit 2 vocab, that I paired down to 10 words since we already did belief systems, will likely take us another whole class (50 min) since I have vocab stations (word list divided up into strips) and then the Quizzizz for Unit 2.

Are you finding the same pacing issues? Our curriculum officially starts at 1450 but I feel we will never get through 1200-1450! But I think this material is so important.

Thanks for your support!

Roberta

PS I feel like it is easier to teach the APWH curriculum, mainly because my students read at home and then I can polish off with short additional materials.