The Lonely Kingdom: Isolationist

China in the Global Period

Lesson Objectives: The goal of this lesson is to show how China was able to stand on its
own and maintain its influence during the Early Global Days. The dynasty covered in this lesson
is the Qing Dynasty. During this unit in the semester, the unit will be focused on the effects of
geographic makeup effecting the development of early kingdoms in the global period. These
kingdoms consist of: Japan, Africa, China, and India. Not only will this unit focus on these
cultures developing individually, it should also focus on these cultures interacting with one
another as they develop.
Lesson Objectives listed in Blooms Taxonomy format:
Students should be able to identify the geographic size and physical
geography of the middle kingdom.
By the end of the lesson, students should be able to give examples of
aspects which made China self-sufficient.
After this lesson; students will be able to explain China during the global
age, as far as geographic features and the cultural factors which shaped
China at this time period.
National and State Standards:

This lesson is meant for ninth grade history class in the state of Alabama.

Explain the relationship between physical geography and cultural development in India,
Africa, Japan, and China in the early Global Age, including trade and travel, natural resources,
and movement and isolation of peoples and ideas.
Depicting the general location of, size of, and distance between regions in the early
Global Age.
Pre Instructional Activities:
The class periods leading up to this should be used to educate on other kingdoms during
the global age. This class day will deal with China during the global age, which is during the late
Ming dynasty and through-out the Qing dynasty. Homework assigned coming into the class
could be to read a chapter in the text book about China during this period. To Begin the class, the
instructor should have an image of china on the projector using google earth. The instructor also
should have a map of China under the Qing Dynasty pulled up to show students the amount of
land owned by china during the Qing dynasty. At this point the class can be opened for a
discussion about the physical geography of China. This discussion will be based on what
students view using google earth compared to the map of the Qing dynasty. This will be a good
transition from the other class periods students have just come from. This is not so much an
academic exercise as a transitional period for students to begin thinking about the topic which
will be taught on this class day. This portion of the class should take about 10 minutes. This
allows 5 minutes for a brief over view of the land mass that the Qing Dynasty covers and 5
minutes for an overview of the physical geography of the area.
Directed Teaching:
After the introduction to class, the instructor will use the information to Segway into the
information for the class period. The information will be given in class describing China and its
physical aspects and following with information about Chinas isolationist policy. The key to this
lesson is to connect the fact that China was self-sufficient and this gave them the ability to
support themselves. This self-sufficiency was what allowed them to carry on in isolation for the
amount of time which they did. Also, a key concept is how many countries traded with China
during this period of time and what was traded. Another key connection to the geography of
China and its culture is the amount of smuggling which occurred due to Chinas strict trade
policy. This concept ties into the geography of China because of the amount of shore line
merchants were able to illegally use for smuggling products. This portion of class should take
roughly 20 minutes.
Guided Practice:
After the lecture portion of the class is over the instructor will hand out a graphic
organizer. The graphic organizer will be separated into multiple categories and will have the
theme of aspects pertaining to China during the Qing Dynasty. The categories will consist of:
natural resources, trade partners, trade policy, modern countries once controlled by China during
the Qing dynasty, problems which occurred during the time period such as foreign conquerors,
war, and common cultural problems (smuggling etc.), and rulers during the Qing dynasty.
Students will be organized into groups and asked to work together combining information from
their notes and the text book to fill in the graphic organizer. Once completed; the graphic
organizer will be a useful resource for the test at the end of the unit. The Instructor will be
available to answer any questions at this time. This time should take up the rest of the class
period. In an ideal setting this plan will be used in a class period consisting of 1 hour to 1 hour
and 10 minutes.
Independent Practice:
At the end of class, students will be given the task of blogging in a class blog about the
question: Do you believe a country like China would remain in isolation considering todays
societal and economic factors? This is a thought which will be carried on throughout the year
and is centered on the idea of, Why has society developed to the point that it is at today. This
question is important to consider for all social studies classes. This theme gives importance to the
concepts taught in the social studies class room and connects it to the life of the students.
Formative Evaluation:
The students defense of their point on the blog will serve as part of the formative
evaluation, the other aspect of the formative evaluation will occur in class. The next class day
students will open class with a debate about the same question which the blog post was over,
Do you believe a country like China would remain in isolation considering todays societal and
economic factors? The students in the class will have an open opportunity to enter into the
discussion. This allows for students who may not be good writers to give their opinion where
they were not able to defend it well on line. After the discussion, the students who succeeded
over the blog will be graded on the blog post and students who succeeded in the discussion will
be graded on their input.
Differentiating Instruction:
Instruction can be differentiated many different ways. An educational video can be used
to give the information in more of a story format if need be. Also, notes can be highlighted
through-out a power point presentation if need be to help students connect the information to the
graphic organizer. For students who have a very strong grasp on the content, they will be put into
groups with students who do not have as strong of a grasp on content matter. This will help
students who do not understand the information. This will also give students who have a strong
understanding of the content reinforcement of the information. This lesson is very easy to
accommodate for students with disabilities. If a student is physically impaired, the group they are
paired with can meet near their seat and they can present the information from their seat in the
class. Depending on the level of disability, students will be paired with other students who will
be able to aid the student with a disability to the best of their ability and the instructor will also
help the student as needed.

Closure:
The class period should be closed with the students working in groups and being told
about the blog post. The lessons closure will take place at the beginning of the next class period
with the discussion.

Resources:
Resources for this class are the text book students are given as well as notes created by
the instructor. Also, Google earth is a resource for the instruction in class on this day. Also, to
show a map of the Qing dynasty a map is necessary. This can be attained nay number of ways,
one website for this is: http://www.edmaps.com/html/china.html
Name:

The Middle Kingdom Graphic

Organizer
Natural Resources: Trade Partners:

Trade Policy: Modern Countries Controlled by the Qing

Dynasty:
Problems: Rulers: