travel lesson thoughts（旅行经验的想法）.docVIP

Indian Ocean Travelers in the Medieval Era: Networks of Exchange Across the Hemisphere Author: Joan Brodsky Schur Overview and Purpose of the Lesson: Most students are acquainted with the importance of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in world history, but know little of the world’s third largest ocean, the Indian Ocean, which for centuries provided a medium of exchange among the world’s great civilizations. In this lesson students focus on famous travelers in the Indian Ocean during the Medieval Era (300-1450 CE). For much of this time China was a stable and technologically advanced society, eager to trade via land and sea with other places in the world. On the opposite side of the Indian Ocean, Muslim societies flourished in Southwest Asia under the Umayyad and Abbasid empires. Like their Chinese counterparts, Muslim mariners ventured forth on the Indian Ocean, eager to trade with and learn from other societies rimming the ocean’s coastlines. India was the hinge of this trading system, developing a system of trading ports that became cosmopolitan centers of commerce. In Part I of this lesson students become acquainted with the geography of the Indian Ocean and how it affected trading patterns. In Part II students work in pairs as they focus on one traveler, or part of one traveler’s journey. By filling out Handout A. pairs assess what can be learned from the primary sources many travelers bequeathed to history, and how their explorations and accounts furthered trade, travel, and learning across the region. Student pairs share what they have learned in Part III as they appear before the class in the role of traveler and interviewer. As classmates listen to the interviews they fill in Handout B, integrating each traveler’s story into the big picture of trade and commerce during this time period. In the extension activities offered in Part IV students create an imaginary account of a traveler using the Indian Ocean in World History Website as a resource