Week 5 Late Classical Era. Quiz 2on WW Chapters 7-12.
(Jun 8-12) Due: Module 5, WW Ch 10 (the Worlds of Christendom)
Ch 11 (Pastoral Peoples), Ch 12 (Worlds of 15thC), Quiz 2
Happy Monday, you all. I’ve been enjoying getting to know your various blogging and quiz-taking styles. And now I’m looking forward to reading what I know will be some good, thought-provoking papers on Xinchen, Claudius and leadership. Just a reminder, you will have infinite opportunities to revise your paper for a higher grade if you aren’t happy with the first one, so please don’t worry about making your paper “perfect.” There is no such thing as a perfect paper… just papers with finer points of revision.
This week’s Module will let you slow down and breathe a little bit. Yes, breathe – a most fundamental act and something we all must be free to do. Breathing is not a privilege, but a right of all living beings. So take a moment and enjoy your breath, appreciate your breath, thank your breath, and also, reflect on what you feel should be our common rights and responsibilities relating to breath as members of the only remaining human species. It’s a subject area that pertains to both civil society and pandemics. If this topic resonates for you, you can make an Extra Credit blog exploring it.
Our reading will include a segment on the Plague of 1348 this week… aka the Black Death. We will also make use of your talking points from last week’s chapter on China to debate an assertion comparing Chinese and European experiences. And of course, there will be Quiz 2, which I will post to the class website on Wednesday.
Module 5 assignments:
1) Read chapter 10, which explores Christendom. That’s a term we don’t use very often anymore. After reading this chapter, post a blog entry explaining what is meant by “Christendom,” and describing the rise of Christendom during this late Classical period. Also discuss how other civilizations or empires responded to the rise of Christendom during this period.
2) As you read the chapter on pastoral peoples (Chapter 11), keep notes about talking points you might use to argue for or against the following statement: The Mongols got a bad rap. In fact, they should be respected as a significant civilization that made long-term contributions to the development of the Eurasian world. Post your best 5 talking points for and your best 5 talking points against this statement to your blog.
3) Now that you’ve had more practice developing talking points, go back to the ones you kept about China last week. Doing this online might get a little crazy for a day or two but let’s give it a try. I think you guys are up to it.
Half of you are going to choose one other student in the class and challenge him or her to a debate. Challengers get to decide whether they want to argue FOR or AGAINST the statement to be debated (see below). It’ll be first-come-first-served. There are 16 of you in the class – if you want to be a challenger, you need to be one of the first 8 students who begin this part of the Module. You can also only challenge someone who hasn’t already challenged or been challenged by someone else.
How will you know who can be challenged? Remember, you can see the list of all students’ blogs on the class website, which is located at
You’ll know if someone has put him/herself out there as a challenger because that person will have a post in their blog titled “Debate Challenge.” You’ll know if someone has already been challenged by reading the Debate Challenges as they are posted and seeing who is being challenged in each post. That’s also how you’ll know if you have been challenged… that’s right, you’re really going to have to look at each other’s blogs this week in order to get started with your debate partner.
In short, if you want to be a challenger, post an entry in your blog titled “Debate Challenge.” In that post, name the person you are challenging AND present your first, strongest talking point in support of your position FOR or AGAINST the statement. The person who has been challenged should post a comment on that same blog entry responding to your talking point. The challenger then responds to the response, etc. until the two of you feel that the point has been talked out. At that point, you’ll switch roles and the person who was challenged will present their strongest talking point in support of their position, and the challenger should respond, etc. You should end up with one blog post and maybe 20 or more comments as you make your way through your blog debate.
Clear as mud?
Here’s the statement: “The first half of the 2ndmillennium AD marked a period of rebirth in China that was just as significant as the Renaissance in Europe.” You may argue FOR or AGAINST. (For this debate, assume the first half of the 2ndmillennium AD refers to approximately 1000-1500 AD.)
I’ll keep an eye on your blogs to make sure things don’t get too chaotic.
That’s it for this week. GO!!!!!
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