Alabama Social Studies SS24.7.14a
The Standard
- SS24.7.14
- Summarize cultural contributions and legacies of Classical Greece, including architecture, arts, intellectual life, literature, politics, and science.
Explain the development of the polis and analyze how geography affected the process, including Athens and Sparta.
2024 Alabama Course of Study: Social Studies
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students explain how Greek settlements grew into independent city-states with their own farmland and governments. They use a map to show how mountains separated communities and how location shaped Athens and Sparta differently.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can point to mountains between Greek communities and explain why travel and shared rule were difficult. They can connect Athens to its nearby port and Sparta to farmland in the Eurotas valley.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think a polis was only a city, not the surrounding farmland and community. They may also think mountains made travel impossible or that Sparta had no access to the sea.
How to Assess It
- Give students a map marking Athens, Sparta, mountains, and the coast. Ask: Why did separate city-states develop, and how did location give Athens and Sparta different options?
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Build a clay map of Greece, mark Athens and Sparta with flags, and trace routes around mountains to the coast.
Give students a map and ask them to write two sentences explaining why Athens and Sparta did not grow in the same way.
Hand out terrain and city cards; have pairs match Athens with its nearby port and Sparta with the Eurotas valley, then explain each match.
Compare a map of Seattle's waterways and hills with a Greece map, then trace routes people could use to move goods.
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Printable SS24.7.14a Worksheet
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Related Standards
- SS24.7.14b
Trace the development of Greek city-states' political systems, including democracy, that influenced the governments of modern nations.
- SS24.7.8
Explain the geographic and cultural development of ancient Israel.
- SS24.7.14d
Analyze the internal and external conflicts that played a role in Classical Greek society.
- SS24.7.14c
Explain the influence of philosophers on Greek society, culture, and politics as well as their influence on modern thought.
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