Objectives
This unit is designed to meet established History-Social Science content standards for California public schools for seventh grade students. The overarching standard applicable for this unit calls for students to analyze the causes and effects of the vast expansion and ultimate disintegration of the Roman Empire. The main substandard that this unit addresses requires students to understand the ultimate internal weaknesses (e.g., rise of autonomous military powers within the empire, undermining of citizenship by the growth of corruption and slavery, lack of education, and distribution of news). The following are specific objectives within this unit that will help students learn the required information and beyond. Students will be able to:
Understand and Explain Problems that Contributed to the Decline of the Roman Empire
Students will learn popular theories for the fall of the Roman Empire. The emphasis will be on conveying that the ten we study in class, as popular as they are, are merely theories, which means that they have not or cannot be proven. In this way, students gain an understanding of the complexities for why Rome fell, which can extend to why civilizations end in general.
Identify Democratic Practices in Rome and the United States
Rome aspired to mold their government to follow democratic principles. The United States is essentially an experiment, entrenching ourselves in democratic beliefs as well, especially those from the Roman Republic. By being able to identify democratic ideals within both societies, they can then better judge whether or not these ideals were achieved or merely aimed for.
Compare and Contrast Reasons for the Fall of Rome to the Possible Fall of the United States
After students are grounded in popular theories for the fall of Rome and can clearly decipher between ideological ideals and ideological practices, in this case democracy, students will then be well-equipped to take an educated stance on the fate of the United States. Since the United States has long been compared to Rome since our inception, students can now look for similarities and differences between these two great powers, ultimately deciding for themselves if the United States reign is doomed to end like our predecessor or if we have distinguished ourselves enough to decide our own fate.
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