AP Euro 1815 - 1848ish

[Kimberly Johnson]

I am trying to rework my Euro curriculum for the post - Napoleonic through 1848 Revolutions.  In the past, I've had students work in teams to chart one nation's political and cultural shifts, but it comes off as "clunky".  Any ideas?

[Jen Medwid]

I have the same issue.  Too much to do in that particular unit and have always wanted to break it down a little better.  My students get really lost in what is going on in France at that time.  I've only been teaching the course for two years and I've charted that time period as well, and also feels "clunky" and I don't ever seem to get done what I really want to accomplish.  

 

What do you feel that the students need to know from the period?/What is included in this "unit" for your classes?

Do you jump from political to cultural to social changes? 

What resources/textbooks do you use?

 

I'd love to figure this out with you... I think we'd both benefit

[Kimberly Johnson]

Hi Jen,

 

I'd like students to know the struggle between progressivism and conservatism during this time period.  I'd also like students to know how different philosophers/ historians/ statesmen interpreted the time period (John Stuart Mill, Metternich, Hegel, Marx).  Finally, I'd also like students to see the budding nationalism in Prussia/ Austria  during this time.  What do you think?

 

We have Palmer's History of the Modern World (not my favorite textbook, it does mix political and social/ cultural changes, I mix some primary source readings from the people listed above, as well as a few first hand accounts from the 1848 revolutions)

 

Here is how I go through the unit

- Industrial Revolution (focus on Britain) Have used the Manchester DBQ (2002) in this section. I've also used mini debates based on primary source readings (ie; did supply or demand have a greater influence on the Industrial Rev?  Was the Industrial Rev. more positive or negative? etc.)

- "Isms" (Romanticism, Liberalism, Republicanism, Socialism, Feminism, Nationalism (please explain an example from Western Europe and Eastern Europe, Conservatism, Liberalism).  Usually, I have students define each, and give an example from the time period as well as a current example.  I've found it's important to differentiate between what we think of as liberalism and conservatism in the 19th century vs. today.  I've done a comparison reading between Mill and Metternich here. 

- "Dike and the Flood" is a analogy Palmer uses to describe the reaction progressives had to the Congress System.  Students don't usually get the analogy right away, so we make a visual using ideas from their isms and Industrial Rev. discussions as the flood, and the ideas from the Congress system to make the dike.  This illustration becomes the lead - in to the revolution charts.

- I'll attach the assignment I've used for the Revolutions in the past.  I usually have fairly small classes since APEH is an elective.  So, I only have three nations, usually groups of four. 

- We read the Communist Manifesto with some comprehension/ application questions and compare Marx's dialectics to Hegel's dialectic.  We discuss how Marx and Hegel would view the Revs. of 1848 differently. 

- We finish with a DBQ on Chartism.  I got it from a Princeton Review practice book, I don't know if it is available elsewhere.  The question is a good one to finish up on because it asks if the Chartists goals were revolutionary or moderate, so students can use a lot of ideas from the unit in their response. 

- I'll also attach some discussion questions students work on in groups as a review. 

 

The unit just seems to go on forever.  I really want to keep a project in there to keep students interested and in charge of their own learning, and I'd like to keep the Communist Manifesto, because students tend to like reading/ discussing it.  I also feel like I need to keep the Industrial Rev. in there because there is no other place for it, and I don't think it could be it's own unit.  I just wish I had better "connectors" between the different parts of the unit. 

 

Thanks for working on this with me! I'd love to see how you go through it and any ideas you have. 

[Jen Medwid]

Sorry it took me so long to get back to you.  I'm finishing a masters and had to get that out of the way first. 

 

Each time I get to this unit it overwhelms me.  Textbooks handle it differently, and it just seems to be a ton of information that hits at a shaky time of the year for us - it's sandwiched between two week long "breaks" one for testing and one is our winter recess.  

 

I do a separate mini-unit on the industrial revolution.  I do the urban game and a "workers rally" that requires groups of students to research the different reactions to the social ills that the people faced in the 1800s.  Students are assigned a group - chartists, anarchists, marxists, utopians, etc.  I got the idea from the summer institute I attended.  While it's worked well for me as an intro/preview, I'm thinking about making it more of a summary and moving it all around.

 

After my mini industrial revolution unit, I do the isms and as you do, I do a comparison of Mill and Metternich and tend to update a political spectrum chart that I have them keep starting at the beginning of the year.  I like the "Dike and the flood" analogy - hadn't seen that before and I like the visual idea.  As I said before, I also chart the revolutions, but it's never gone very well.  This year though I had some students really excited on a side conversation we were having on our class blog - comparing the Arab spring to the different revolutions in history, esp. 1848.  Great articles out there for students to read and will probably still be relevant this year.  Our discussion continued as we finished the curriculum and could tie in similarities and differences of 1989 too. 

 

I like the chart idea that you had in your country projects.  It condenses a lot of what is in the textbook (I use Spielvogel and these topics are broken up so it's hard to find ways to relate them.  What unit comes next for you?  How do you relate the movements for unity in Italy and Germany?

 

[Jen Medwid]

http://freevideolectures.com/Course/102/History-1C-Modern-Civilizat...

 

Listening tonight to Lynn Hunt's condensed version.  Thought I would share.

 

Also, I'm looking to incorporate some inquiry/open ended questions to frame each of my units.  Any ideas?  these would be questions that can incorporate student opinion and current events with the past historical content. 

 

I'm thinking - is it ever okay to revolt against established governments?  What is the best economic system for all?  How do we come up with a fair social order? - just brainstorms.

Always looking for ways to bring it home for the students.  any other ideas?