NYCDOE: Passport to Social Studies – Grade 9 Unit 2 Guide

Note to Teachers: To help with remote learning, student graphic organizers for this unit are available on the NYCDOE TeachHub in a Google Drive folder along with Passport to Social Studies lessons that have been adjusted for remote learning. Access these materials by following these instructions.

This Passport to Social Studies teacher’s guide is for the second unit of the Global History and Geography I course, titled: Expanding Interregional Networks: Exchange and Encounter (c. 500- c. 1500 CE). This curriculum was developed by a team of NYCDOE staff and teachers, in collaboration with scholars of global history and history education. Students immerse themselves in the topic by discussing historical questions, reading and analyzing a rich collection of diverse primary and secondary sources, examining artifacts, and interpreting images, such as paintings, photographs, and maps.

This guide explores a time in history that saw new power arrangements emerging across classical civilizations in Afro-Eurasia and Mesoamerica between c. 500 and c. 1500 CE, when a variety of methods were used - belief systems, systems of law, forms of government, military forces, and social hierarchies - to expand and maintain control over vast territories. Throughout the unit students will compare and contrast these classical and postclassical empires by evaluating competing claims in primary and secondary source texts. They will also gain understandings and develop evidence to write about the internal and external forces that led to the eventual decline of these empires.

This guide includes multiple components:
• Overview
• Day-by-Day Planner
• Model Lesson
• Unit Assessment (and rubric)
• Historical Thinking Tools and Analysis Strategies
• Key Standards
• Connections to the Regents Exam in Global History and Geography II

To evaluate student mastery of content knowledge, cognitive processes, and critical thinking skills, this unit includes opportunities for formative assessments and a performance-based unit assessment.Please note that the NYCDOE 9-12: Passport to Social Studies materials also include a separate student Text Set for each unit.