Alabama Social Studies SS24.8.18a
The Standard
- SS24.8.18
- Summarize the main ideas of the Enlightenment and describe their emergence in European society.
Trace the origins of Enlightenment ideas to earlier eras and movements, including Classical Greece and Rome, Christianity, the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Scientific Revolution.
2024 Alabama Course of Study: Social Studies
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students trace Enlightenment ideas back to Greece and Rome, Christianity, the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Scientific Revolution. They explain what later thinkers borrowed and what they changed.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can link Greek civic debate and Roman republican government to later arguments about political participation. They can explain how Christian natural law, Renaissance study of ancient texts, Reformation disputes over authority, and scientific testing shaped later ideas.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think Enlightenment thinkers invented rights and reason without drawing on older ideas. They may assume Greek and Roman citizenship included everyone, or that the Reformation immediately brought religious freedom.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: Link one Enlightenment idea about government to an earlier tradition, and one idea about evidence to the Scientific Revolution. Explain each link in one sentence.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Match six origin cards, from Greek assemblies to scientific tests, with Enlightenment claim cards; write a reason for each match.
Ask: How did Reformation disputes about church authority differ from Enlightenment arguments about political authority? Write one similarity and one difference.
Read clues about Roman law, Renaissance humanism, and scientific experiments; teams name the origin and explain its link to an Enlightenment idea.
Place a student council ballot beside a weather forecast; ask how older ideas about civic participation and scientific observation shaped each.
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Related Standards
- SS24.8.18
Summarize the main ideas of the Enlightenment and describe their emergence in European society.
- SS24.WH.1b
Summarize the influence of the Enlightenment on the American Revolution.
- SS24.WH.1
Explain how the Enlightenment influenced societies and inspired revolutions in Europe and the Americas.
- SS24.WH.6a
Trace the origins of late nineteenth century imperialism, imperialist ideology, and colonialism.
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