Message from zarooum

[Anonymous]

As a final assessment for my 6th grade unit on ancient China, I had my students create accordion books to answer the question: What factors promoted unity and what factors discouraged unity in ancient China and why.

First I had them brainstorm using the topics and factors under each topic below:

Two examples were already done for them:

CULTURAL ACHIEVEMENTS
Shang tombs
Building the Great Wall--promoted unity because it protected China from foreign invaders
Development of Silk Road
Standardization of writing and weights and measures
Tai chi

GEOGRAPHY
Elevation--promoted disunity because it kept the settlements separated from each other
Temperature
Rainfall
Types of vegetation

GOVERNMENT
Legendary emperors
Shang dynasty
Zhou dynasty
Qin Shi Huang Di
Han Dynasty

PHILOSOPHIES
Ancestor veneration
Confucianism
Daoism
Legalism
Buddhism

TRADE
Exchange of goods during Shang dynasty
Merchants during Han dynasty
Silk Road routes

SOCIAL GROUPS
Artisans
Imperial family
Merchants
Nobles
Officials
Peasants
Slaves
Soldiers

After they chose four factors that promoted unity and four that discouraged unity they illustrated the factors and wrote summaries of each on the pages of their books. They turned out beautifully.

Attached are some picutres of the final result.
Linda