Welcome to the website of Mr. Binette and Mr. Carlucci, 8th Grade Social Studies teachers at the Ipswich Middle School. This year you will be studying what most historians agree is THE BEST PERIOD IN HISTORY the years 500-1700. Below is an overview of the units we will be studying this year. You can also use Today's Lesson for detailed overviews of daily lessons as well as any handouts or rubrics.
We will be studying many different cultures and time periods around the world, though we will spend a majority of the time discussing Europe in its varied stages. This is a time period that features many storied individuals as well as many of the ideas, inventions and institutions that influenced the development of our modern world. While it may seem that none of these people or events have any thing to do with our everyday lives, the truth is that they do, BUT you just need to know where and how to look. Our goal is that by the end of the year you will have the skills and tools you need to do just that.
Social Studies will use a few recurrent themes throughout the year that tie into the overall 8th grade theme of CHOOSING TO PARTICIPATE. These themes are: IDENTITY, MEMBERSHIP, OBLIGATION, and CHOICE. The first few weeks of school we will be exploring what makes up your personal identity and your membership into different groups. You will be exploring these themes in social studies class as well as in LLM. After we finish unit one we will turn to understanding your obligations and choices by looking at the American system of government and providing definitions to many of the freedoms you enjoy. When we go on to study actual historical periods our hope is that you will be able to use what you have learned about, identity, membership, obligation and choice to put history in a more personal context. REMEMBER: You don’t need to love history but you should be able to appreciate it!!
Units of Study
1. Choosing to Participate: Identity
and Membership
2. Choosing to Participate: Understanding your
Choices and Obligations
3. The Dark Ages and Feudalism
4.
The Islamic World
5. Christianity and Crusade
6. The
Renaissance
7. The Reformation
8. The Age of Discovery
9. Aztecs Incas and Mayas
10. Early America
11. The Age of
Reason and Enlightenment
12. The French Revolution
