Alabama Social Studies SS24.8.9a
The Standard
- SS24.8.9
- Describe cultural and economic developments in Italy and Northern Europe during the Renaissance, including the influence of the Medici family.
Analyze humanism and the contributions of philosophers and artists during the Renaissance.
2024 Alabama Course of Study: Social Studies
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students explain how Renaissance thinkers used Greek and Roman ideas to study human learning and ability. They connect a thinker's argument and an artist's work to those ideas using details from a text or image.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can explain Pico's claim that people can shape their lives and identify Greek thinkers in Raphael's School of Athens. They use evidence from both sources to explain the interest in human learning.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think humanism meant rejecting religion, though many humanists were religious. They may also equate it only with realistic art and miss its focus on classical ideas and human learning.
How to Assess It
- Show Raphael's School of Athens and write, 'Pico argued that people can shape their own lives.' Ask students to name one detail in the painting and explain how both sources value human ability.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs a ruler and a print of School of Athens; have them trace perspective lines and label Plato and Aristotle using a reference card.
Read a short excerpt from Pico, then ask: 'What does he think people can become, and how does Raphael honor human learning?'
Give groups Pico and Erasmus quotes, plus images of David and School of Athens; match each to its creator and explain one humanist link.
Print a college page about lifelong learning; have students underline a claim about human growth and compare it with Pico's view.
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Printable SS24.8.9a Worksheet
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Related Standards
- SS24.8.9b
Summarize major scientific and technological advancements in the Renaissance, including the printing press, and evaluate their effects on society.
- SS24.8.2b
Evaluate the cultural contributions of the Byzantines to art, religion, and architecture.
- SS24.8.9
Describe cultural and economic developments in Italy and Northern Europe during the Renaissance, including the influence of the Medici family.
- SS24.8.8
Analyze the social, political, and economic changes leading up to the Renaissance and Reformation in later medieval Europe and surrounding regions.
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