Alabama Social Studies SS24.8.8b
The Standard
- SS24.8.8
- Analyze the social, political, and economic changes leading up to the Renaissance and Reformation in later medieval Europe and surrounding regions.
Trace the spread of the bubonic plague from Asia to Europe and describe the resulting changes that occurred in Europe, including the rise of the middle class.
2024 Alabama Course of Study: Social Studies
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students trace the plague from Asia through Black Sea ports and into Europe by ship and land routes. They explain how mass deaths left too few workers and pushed wages up. They connect these changes to the growth of a middle class.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can draw and label a route from Asia through the Black Sea and Italy into Europe. They can explain why surviving workers had more bargaining power and how some families gained wealth outside the old landowning class.
Common Misconceptions
- Some students think the plague began in Europe or spread only through armies. Others think every survivor became wealthy, rather than seeing that gains from higher wages and trade were uneven.
How to Assess It
- Give students a blank map of Asia and Europe. Ask them to draw the plague's route through the Black Sea and Italy, then write two sentences linking deaths, worker pay, and the growth of a middle class.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs a blank map and yarn to connect labeled points in Asia, the Black Sea, Italy, and western Europe.
Write a three-line exchange between a surviving farm laborer and a landowner about pay after the plague. Who has more leverage?
Give pairs six cards labeled Asia, Black Sea, Italy, labor shortage, higher wages, and worker bargaining power; have them order the chain.
Compare a medieval trade map with a modern airline map; mark routes that could carry a disease between three connected places.
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Printable SS24.8.8b Worksheet
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Related Standards
- SS24.WH.4c
Describe the effects of urbanization on Europe during the nineteenth century, including the evolution of the middle and working classes.
- SS24.8.7a
Compare and contrast the growth of medieval societies in different geographic regions of Europe.
- SS24.8.7
Outline the social, cultural, economic, and religious developments of early medieval Europe.
- SS24.WH.4
Explain how changes associated with the Industrial Revolution affected the economies, societies, and politics of Europe.
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