Alabama Social Studies SS24.HG.7a

Social StudiesGrades 9–12Culture and Geography

The Standard

SS24.HG.7: Describe ways religion influences cultures, citing examples from around the globe.

Identify major religions, their places of origin, and areas of expansion.

2024 Alabama Course of Study: Social Studies · Culture and Geography

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students mark where five major religions began on a world map. They show where each later spread and keep those regions separate from its birthplace.
What Mastery Looks Like: Students place Hinduism and Buddhism in South Asia, Judaism and Christianity in the Levant, and Islam on the Arabian Peninsula. They can name later regions of spread, such as East Asia for Buddhism and North Africa for Islam.
Common Misconceptions: Students may put Christianity's origin in Europe or Buddhism's in China because both spread there. They may confuse a religion's birthplace with where many of its followers live now.
How to Assess It: On a blank world map, mark the birthplaces of Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam. Shade and label one region each reached later.

Lesson moves

Give pairs a blank world map and five religion cards; have them mark each birthplace with a dot and shade one region of spread.
Show a Silk Road map and ask, 'How might these routes have helped Buddhism spread from India to East Asia?'
Play a card match: students pair five religion names with birthplace cards and later spread regions, then check an answer key.
Give students a current world religions map; have them find a region where Christianity or Islam spread beyond its birthplace.

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A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to SS24.HG.7a, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.

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