Grade 7 Lesson at a Glance: Chapter 1, Lesson 2

Houghton Mifflin Social Studies
Across the Centuries

Lesson at a Glance
Chapter 1, Lesson 2: The Expanding Horizon (pp. 10-15)

The Big Idea
Framework Concepts: Change and Technology The ways people traveled and learned about the world changed greatly between A.D. 150 and 1500.

Brainstorm a list of inventions that have changed the ways we travel and communicate. Encourage students to think about related inventions, such as combustion engines and steel. Then build a cause and effect chart showing how each invention caused changes in people's everyday lives.

Lesson Outline
Use the Lesson Outline to preview the content of the lesson. You may wish to print it for your students as a guide during reading.

Check for Understanding

Have students research the adventures and findings of some early explorers, such as Ibn Battuta, Magellan, or Zheng Ho. Then have them write a report on the technologies that made the voyages possible and how the knowledge the explorers gathered might have helped mapmakers.
Have students watch or listen to a variety of news broadcasts about an event far away, such as a civil war. Then have them work together to create two posters. The first poster should show what impressions of the country or place they received from the broadcasts. The second poster should show what they learned about the country or place after researching it. Encourage volunteers to tell how the impressions and facts are the same or different.

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