Grade 7 Lesson at a Glance: Chapter 12, Lesson 3

Houghton Mifflin Social Studies
Across the Centuries

Lesson at a Glance
Chapter 12, Lesson 3: Renaissance Life (pp. 325-328)

The Big Idea
Framework Concept: Culture The daily life of the people of Renaissance Italy depended largely on class and gender, although people from the lower or middle classes might move up in society.

Create a chart on the board to compare the daily life of people under feudalism and the life of people living in Renaissance Italy. Write "feudalism" at the top of one column and "Renaissance" at the top of the other. Then on the left, write in a person's profession or social class. Ask students how this person might have fared -- what his or her life would have been like -- under feudalism or during the Renaissance. For instance, if you choose "knight," students might suggest that under feudalism, a knight would typically train during the day. During the Renaissance, there were no knights. Or, if you chose "farmer," students might suggest that under feudalism, farmers were peasants, tied to the land, but during the Renaissance, they might have enough freedom to move to the city and do something else.

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 write a one-page story about life in the Italian Renaissance, using the Key Terms patrician, patron, and dowry.
Have students create a drawing that shows the social classes of the Italian Renaissance and the kinds of work each class might do.

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