Download pdf - Anthropology Curriculum Outline · Cross curricular connections: biology, geology, geography, biological anthropology, linguistics Key concepts: Topic Learning Outcomes Core Activities

PKUES

Grade 10 Anthropology Curriculum Outline

2016-2017

Introduction

The Grade 10 Anthropology Pre-IB course looks to give students a good foundation in understanding how human life has expressed itself around the world, in the past and today.

Drawing parallels between modern life and what we understand about the ancients, between people living in modern cities and traditional hunter-gatherer

communities; in what ways are we all very different, and how are we all very much the same? Exploring the evidences used in different fields of anthropology, from human remains and artifacts through to observable behaviors and adornments, the course will look to develop critical skills of analysis

and evaluation in how we approach the problem of difference and sameness across human cultures.

Course Content Overview The course will be split into two major components, beginning with a very general overview of life on earth in all of its diversity, with a special focus on

expressions of humanity. Within this overview we will be exploring the different fields within anthropology; archaeology, biological anthropology and social anthropology.

After the new year break the course will shift focus from this very general overview to an introduction to social anthropology in particular, and the

terminology and concepts that will be essential to begin the IB course in grade 11.

Assessment Student knowledge will be assessed internally through homework and end of topic tests. There will be a formal assessment before the new year which will

look at the understanding of the subject which students have built. In the new year students will be internally assessed through assignments aiming to build on their writing skills and analytical thought.

Unit 1 Diversity of life

Cross curricular connections: biology, geology, geography, biological anthropology, linguistics

Key concepts:

Topic Learning Outcomes Core Activities Assessment Resources

1. Pangea Students will develop an understanding of the context in which we consider the world to have formed and developed through scientific theory, geology and biological anthropology.

• Teacher-led presentation

• Group discussion • Class discussion • Community of

enquiry • Think-Pair-Share • Group presentation • Written assignments • Independent and

group research tasks

• Video/film • Analysis of

images/photographs and drawings

• Silent debates • Reading and

critique of articles or documents

• Field trips to places of interest

• Class quiz • Independent

research tasks • Homework

assignments • Journaling

reflections /reactions

• Written tasks • Verbal tasks • End of topic test

• Primary texts in the form of articles and accounts

• Maps • Museums and

galleries • Photographs

and artist’s renderings

• Video • Internet links to

online galleries and collections

• Computers /internet for research

• Linguistic samples

2. Evolution and natural selection

Students will encounter contemporary theories of how the continents were formed, the influence this has on our understanding of the evolution of particular species in geographically distant locations, natural selection and diversification of the natural world.

3. Diaspora and other encounters

Students will then consider the human diaspora out of Africa 60,000 years ago and the migration routes that these modern humans may have taken. Using DNA evidence, examining remains found in various places around the world and considering the differences in sea levels at the time students will look at the journey and encounters that these ancient humans may have faced and the impact this may have had on the creation of distinct human groups.

4 .Diversity of human life

Finally, students will look at the diversity of human life on earth and explore the contemporary expressions of difference between these groups in different geographical locations, especially with an interest in diverse expressions of language.

Unit 2 Human expression

Cross curricular connections: social anthropology, art, architecture, history, archaeology, biological anthropology.

Key concepts:

Topic Learning Outcomes:

Students will be asked to relate these ideas to their own experiences and culture.

Core Activities Assessment Resources

1. Altering the environment

Students will follow the theme of how humans have altered their environment and what we can learn about human culture by looking at the physical ways humans have expressed themselves. Examining cave paintings through to modern graffiti, amongst other artifacts from the past and their modern expressions, students will consider what is being expressed? Also what similarities are there between past human expressions and what people are creating today?




group research tasks

• Video/film • Analysis of


• Silent debates • Reading and

critique of articles or documents



research tasks

• Homework assignments

• Journaling reflections /reactions

• Written tasks • Verbal tasks • End of topic

test


• Maps • Museums

and galleries • Photographs

and artist’s renderings

• Video • Internet links

to online galleries and collections


2. Altering the body

Students will develop their thinking from the previous topic and consider how humans have expressed themselves with adornments and alterations to their bodies, often with the intention to mark themselves as being part of a group and/or different from others within it. Students will look at different expressions of this characteristic human behavior both through historical documents and archaeological evidence, as well as in contemporary societies around the world.

3. Connecting with the group

Students will explore in greater depth the theme of group membership through an investigation of initiation rites and ritual practices; in what ways do humans mark birth, coming of age and marriages which make membership of the group a certainty? With a particular focus on contemporary practices around the world in both traditional communities and developed society, as well as a look at accounts or translated ancient texts describing such practices.

4. Connecting with nature

Students will look at death rites in different cultures and explore the ways humans relate to nature and each other through the way we treat the dead. Using archaeological evidence to look at ancient practices such as mummification, human sacrifice and ritual burial sites as well as contemporary practices around the world.

Unit 3 Centers of Exchange

Cross curricular connections: history, economics, politics, geography, archaeology

Key concepts:

Topic Learning Outcomes

Students will be asked to relate these ideas to their own experiences and culture.

Core Activities Assessment Resources

1. Construction of maps

Students will investigate a range of maps both ancient and modern to consider how they represent different world views or what is considered important in a particular culture at a particular time.




group research tasks • Video/film • Analysis of


• Silent debates • Reading and critique

of articles or documents



research tasks • Homework

assignments • Journaling

reflections /reactions

• Written tasks • Verbal tasks • End of topic test


• Maps • Museums and

galleries • Photographs and

artist’s renderings • Video • Internet links to

online galleries and collections


2. Construction of Empires

Considering how people saw the world at different times and themselves in it, students will look at a selection of great empires in history before the European colonial empires, and work towards tracing lines of influence between geographical areas in the ancient world.

3. Trade routes Students will learn about ancient trade routes and connections between distant groups which have led to lines of cultural exchange throughout human history. Students will understand that humans have not lived in isolation from one another but through shared knowledge, goods and services have created change and diversity within communities.

4. Global centers

Students will look at the contemporary world system by looking at the colonial empires of Europe in C18th through to the centers of trade around the world today. Looking at multi-cultural and multi-ethnic cities such as London, Paris, New York, students will consider contemporary movement of ideas and objects and draw parallels with other areas of the course so far.