West Africa DBQ-Style Essay: Did Geography or Islam Build Mali into a Power?
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Description:This two-week unit will have your students fully engaged in a challenging yet fun unit on the history of Ancient West Africa.Recommendation:This unit bundle is activity-based. It works best with any standard textbook unit on the history of Ancient West Africa, especially Ghana and Mali.Price $10.00Original Price $15.00Save $5.00
Description
Synopsis of activity:
This three-day activity serves as a great assessment introduction to document-based essays. This could be appropriate for middle school and high school students. This essay is an effective way to check for understanding and build writing skills in a World History or African History course. Through an examination of resources, the students will take a stand and construct an essay response supported by evidence.
Role of the teacher:
After introducing the assignment and setting the expectations for the students, the teacher’s role is to guide the students through understanding the question, to help the student process and sort the documents, and to give feedback during the writing process.
Time required: 3 one-hour class periods (including in-class writing time).
Learning Objectives:
The students will examine documents and draw conclusions.
The students will use evidence to support their thesis.
Grading/Assessment:
The student responses to the documents could be graded as a formative assessment.
The finished essay is the summative assessment.
Materials included:
*A Curriculum connections and content standards page
*A Student Packet of Documents and Instructions
*A “Pre-Writing Page” to organize student writing
*A Teacher Copy of the Student Packet with answers and suggestions
*A grading rubric for the finished essay
