Unit Theme/Focus

Greece and Macedon  (2000 BC­-332 BC)

Grade  Level  

9^th

Duration 

4 weeks after end of Egypt and Mesopotamia unit.

Description

This unit covers ancient Greece from its beginnings among the Ionians until its conquest by Alexander.

Essential Concepts

1. The geographic setting.
2. Crete.
3. Ionians
4. Mycenaeans.
5. Troy.
6. The Dorians.
7. Foundations of Sparta and Athens
8. The Persian Wars (499-479)
9. The Athenian Empire.
10. The Peloponnesian War.
11. Spartan Hegemony.
12. The rise of Thebes.
13. Philip II of Macedon.
14. Alexander the Great.
15. The Hellenistic world.
16. Greek achievements.
17. The Roman conquest.

Learning Objectives

1. Geography as history.
2. The purpose of the city-state.
3. The polis and Greek warfare.
4. Evolution of Athenian democracy.
5. The slave state of Sparta.
6. Persian expansion into Asia Minor.
7. The Ionian Revolt and Athenian intervention.
8. Reasons for Persian defeat.
9. Athenian imperialism.
10. Why war with Sparta?
11. How Athens lost and Sparta won.
12. The end of the city-state.
13. Why Macedon triumphs?
14. Hellenic v. Hellenistic.

Primary Assessments

1. All students must master the elements of historical essay writing.

2. All students must be familiar with the analysis of historical data.

3. All students must be able to view Greek history in general and all of ancient history in particular in their proper time frames. 

Technology Integration

1. All quizzes and exams must have an Internet component; that is, all  essays must show evidence of research done outside of the class and the text.

Interdisciplinary Connections

Literature---Iliad, The Odyssey.

Primary Materials

1. The Pageant of World History.
2. Herodotus.
3. Thucydides.

Teacher Reflections

1. Weekly in-class essay quizzes and exams have proved to be invaluable to improve students’ writing and understanding of the subject. 

2. Having all students show evidence of Internet research improves markedly the quality of information written on in-class essays.