Unit 2: Middle East:

Essential questions for the unit:
1. What are the roots of conflict?
2. What are my own beliefs about war and conflict?

•  Deconstructing Middle Eastern stereotypes
  • Generalizations vs. stereotypes

•  Monotheistic religions
  •  Notes on the history of the religions
  •  Compare the creation stories using a Venn diagram
  •  Monotheism: Compare and Contrast
     
•  Jerusalem
  •  History of War map
     
•  Theories of War
  •  Pacifism
  •  Political Realism
  •  Just War
  •  Holy war
     
•  Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
  •  Biblical History
  •  Zionism
  •  Balfour Declaration (1917)
  •  Palestine
  •  Jewish Immigration in the 1930s
  •  Partition of 1947
  •  6 Day war (1967)
  •  Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO)
  •  Intifada #1 (1987)
  •  Intifada #2 (2001)
  •  **** You must be able to explain what the Palestinians' argument is and what the Israelis' argument is****
     
•  Iraq (Essential question: Is it possible for the US to establish democracy in a different country? If so what needs to happen in order for it to be successful?)
  •  A fight for Iraq: A Regional Power Play-- This is a link to a lot of information about the conflict in Iraq
  •  Sunnis and Shia/Shites
    •  Belief in rightful successor of faith
    •  Percentage of world population
    •  Areas of Prominence
    •  Tenets (or oral traditions)
  •  Saddam Hussein
  •  1979 Iranian Revolution
    •  Ayatollah Khomeini
    •  Shariah Laws
  •  1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War
    •  US involvement
  •  2003 Iraq War

Unit 1: Introduction to social studies

Essential question for the unit:
In a shrinking world how do we interact with people who are different from us?

•  Culture
  •  8 Cultural universals
    •  1. Social Organization, 2. Customs & Traditions, 3. Language, 4. Arts & Literature, 5. Religion, 6. Forms of Government, 7. Economic Systems, 8. Technology
    •  Ethnocentrism

•  Socio-economic Systems
  • Communism
  • Socialism
  • Capitalism
     
•  Government/Political Systems
  •  Democracy
    •  Direct
  •  Republic
    •  3 Branches
      •  Executive
      •  Judicial
      •  Legislative
        •  Bicameral
        • Unicameral
    • Presidential vs. Parliamentary
    •  Federalism
       
•  Totalitarianism
  • Monarchy
    •  Constitutional
    • Royal
  •  Fascism
  •  Dictatorship
  •  Theocracy
     
•  Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (5th & 6th periods only)
  •  "If the World Were 100 People"