World History Curriculum Map
Year-Long Curriculum Map
World History Academic Blueprint
Standard Academic Course NC Essential Standards Alignment
This map aligns standard academic pacing and conceptual focus areas with North Carolina Essential Standards. It combines standard historical thinking with official NC unpacking verbatim standards to ensure comprehensive alignment.
Units 1 - 3: Foundations and Regional Connections
UNIT 1
Geography & Historical Skills Intro
Pacing: 2 Weeks
Standards
WH.H.1.1, WH.H.1.2, WH.H.1.3, WH.H.1.4, WH.H.1.5, WH.H.1.6
Students Will Know
- Five themes of geography (location, place, region, movement, HEI).
- Primary vs. secondary sources and historical credibility.
- NC Unpacking: Chronological reasoning to analyze cause and effect, change and continuity.
Students Will Do
- Analyze thematic maps to draw historical inferences.
- Evaluate accounts for bias, motive, and historical perspective.
- NC Unpacking: Analyze primary and secondary sources to detect bias, point of view, and context.
UNIT 2
The Middle Ages
Pacing: 3 Weeks
Standards
WH.H.2.3, WH.H.2.4, WH.H.3.1, WH.H.3.2
Students Will Know
- Feudal structures, manorialism, and political centralization.
- Socio-political power of the Roman Catholic Church.
- NC Unpacking: How religions and philosophies influenced social and political structures of society.
Students Will Do
- Trace the spread of Black Death along economic trade networks.
- Deconstruct medieval feudal contracts and social hierarchies.
- NC Unpacking: Explain how trade, migration, and invasion facilitated cultural diffusion.
UNIT 3
Renaissance and Reformation
Pacing: 3 Weeks
Standards
WH.H.3.1, WH.H.3.3, WH.H.3.4
Students Will Know
- Humanism, individual agency, and printing press innovations.
- Protestant split, Luther's 95 Theses, and religious wars.
- NC Unpacking: How new ideas, beliefs, and technology influenced society and state authority.
Students Will Do
- Contrast themes in medieval art with humanist Renaissance art.
- Evaluate shifts in secular vs. papal power across Europe.
- NC Unpacking: Analyze how global contact created conflict, cooperation, and economic change.
NC Academic World History Curriculum Blueprint Page 1 of 4
Year-Long Curriculum Map
World History Academic Blueprint
Academic Pacing & Standards Alignment
Units 4 - 6: Global Contact and Political Ideals
UNIT 4
The Age of Exploration
Pacing: 3 Weeks
Standards
WH.H.3.1, WH.H.3.2, WH.H.3.3, WH.H.3.4
Students Will Know
- The 3 Gs (Gold, Glory, God) and maritime technologies.
- Mercantilism, Atlantic Slave Trade, and Triangular Trade.
- NC Unpacking: Biological, demographic, and economic effects of exploration, conquest, and colonization.
Students Will Do
- Trace trade flows and map physical paths of exchange networks.
- Explain economic incentives behind slave labor system development.
- NC Unpacking: Analyze the motives, strategies, and effects of exploration, conquest, and colonization.
UNIT 5
Absolutism, Enlightenment, & Sci-Rev
Pacing: 4 Weeks
Standards
WH.H.4.1, WH.H.4.2, WH.H.4.3
Students Will Know
- Divine Right theory and absolute centralization (Louis XIV).
- Scientific breakthroughs (Copernicus, Galileo, Newton).
- NC Unpacking: How ideas of the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment changed governance and science.
Students Will Do
- Evaluate shift from clerical faith models to scientific observation.
- Trace Enlightenment philosophical models to modern civic rights.
- NC Unpacking: Analyze how political centralization and absolute authority were justified and challenged.
UNIT 6
The Age of Revolutions
Pacing: 3 Weeks
Standards
WH.H.4.1, WH.H.4.2, WH.H.4.3
Students Will Know
- Causes and events of American and French revolutions.
- Latin American Independence and Haitian Slave Revolts.
- NC Unpacking: How declarations of rights and independent actions reflected Enlightenment ideals.
Students Will Do
- Analyze the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen.
- Compare outcomes of democratic reforms in different nations.
- NC Unpacking: Analyze the political, social, and economic causes and effects of revolutions.
NC Academic World History Curriculum Blueprint Page 2 of 4
Year-Long Curriculum Map
World History Academic Blueprint
Academic Pacing & Standards Alignment
Units 7 - 9: Industry, Conflict, and Total War
UNIT 7
Agricultural & Industrial Revolutions
Pacing: 3 Weeks
Standards
WH.H.4.1, WH.H.4.4, WH.H.4.5
Students Will Know
- Enclosure movement, steam engine, and rapid factory growth.
- Capitalism (Adam Smith) vs. Socialism/Marxism (Karl Marx).
- NC Unpacking: How industrialization transformed social structures, work life, and family units.
Students Will Do
- Contrast structural philosophies of free market and command economies.
- Evaluate demographic tables tracking shift from farms to cities.
- NC Unpacking: Analyze social reform movements and legislation targeting industrial abuses.
UNIT 8
Imperialism and WWI
Pacing: 4 Weeks
Standards
WH.H.5.1, WH.H.5.2, WH.H.5.3, WH.H.5.4
Students Will Know
- Scramble for Africa, Berlin Conference, and Social Darwinism.
- M.A.I.N. causes of WWI, trench warfare, and technology.
- NC Unpacking: Explanations for the motives and diverse regional impacts of modern imperialism.
Students Will Do
- Trace causal links of alliances from assassination to global war.
- Analyze visual war propaganda to determine intended bias.
- NC Unpacking: Evaluate post-war treaties, global power shifts, and redrawn maps.
UNIT 9
Interwar Years and WWII
Pacing: 4 Weeks
Standards
WH.H.6.1, WH.H.6.2, WH.H.6.3, WH.H.6.4
Students Will Know
- Great Depression, inflation, rise of Fascist states and Nazism.
- Wartime fronts, genocide/Holocaust, and atomic deployment.
- NC Unpacking: Links between international economic instability and rise of dictators.
Students Will Do
- Identify key features of totalitarian regimes (Italy, Germany, USSR).
- Examine eyewitness testimony of systemic concentration camps.
- NC Unpacking: Evaluate the impact of Holocaust genocide on global human rights standards.
NC Academic World History Curriculum Blueprint Page 3 of 4
Year-Long Curriculum Map
World History Academic Blueprint
Academic Pacing & Standards Alignment
Units 10 - 11: The Bipolar World and Modern Era
UNIT 10
Cold War and Decolonization
Pacing: 4 Weeks
Standards
WH.H.6.1, WH.H.7.1, WH.H.7.2, WH.H.7.3
Students Will Know
- Capitalism vs. Communism and geopolitical containment.
- Decolonization paths (Gandhi in India, Ghana/Algeria in Africa).
- NC Unpacking: Origins, key events, and military consequences of Cold War proxy systems.
Students Will Do
- Map the divided geopolitical alliances (NATO vs. Warsaw Pact).
- Explain systemic factors leading to the fall of the USSR.
- NC Unpacking: Analyze methods, challenges, and long-term socio-political costs of decolonization.
UNIT 11
Globalization and Modern Issues
Pacing: 2 Weeks
Standards
WH.H.8.1, WH.H.8.2, WH.H.8.3, WH.H.8.4
Students Will Know
- Economic interdependence, trade blocs (EU, NAFTA, WTO).
- Modern challenges: climate, scarce resources, cyber conflicts.
- NC Unpacking: How modern scientific and technological advancements impact global quality of life.
Students Will Do
- Analyze flow charts displaying modern global trade dependency.
- Explain social and economic impacts of digital interconnectivity.
- NC Unpacking: Analyze contemporary global issues, transnational crises, and interdependent policies.
North Carolina Essential Standards Guide (Quick Reference)
WH.H.1 Historical Thinking & Context (Causation, Sources, Perspective)
WH.H.5 Imperialism, Global Power Realignments & Major Wars
WH.H.2 Emergence, Expansion & Collapse of Global Classical Empires
WH.H.6 Bipolar Conflict, Modern Wars & Twentieth Century Geopolitics
WH.H.3 Trade Networks, Religious Movements & Cross-Cultural Contact
WH.H.7 Post-War Decolonization, Independence Movements & New Nations
WH.H.4 Political, Industrial, Social & Scientific Revolutions
WH.H.8 Modern Interdependence, Global Globalization & Transnational Crises
NC Academic World History Curriculum Blueprint Page 4 of 4
World History Teacher Guide
Teacher Instruction Guide
Essential Questions & Learning Goals
Academic Pacing Supplement Standard World History Blueprint
How to Use This Teacher Guide
This guide aligns with the Year-Long Curriculum Map to provide both high-leverage essential questions (EQs) and direct verbatim NC Essential Standards unpacking goals for every unit.
Units 1 - 3: Historical Foundations
Unit 1: Geography & Historical Skills Concept-Driven
Unit Essential Questions
- How do spatial tools track human movement?
- Why must we analyze source bias?
NC Unpacking Verbatim Goal
"Analyze primary and secondary sources to detect bias, point of view, and context."
Core Conceptual Understandings
Geography dictates regional development, trade routes, and settlement density; historical sources are subjective constructs.
Unit 2: The Middle Ages Order & Transition
Unit Essential Questions
- How did feudalism establish socio-political order?
- Did the plague accelerate modern shifts?
NC Unpacking Verbatim Goal
"Explain how religion and philosophy influenced social and political structures of society."
Core Conceptual Understandings
Decentralized structures manage security; pandemic events break down rigid medieval economic and social systems.
Unit 3: Renaissance and Reformation Intellectual Shift
Unit Essential Questions
- How did humanism shift individual views?
- Why did theological protest split Europe?
NC Unpacking Verbatim Goal
"Explain how new ideas, beliefs, and technology influenced society and state authority."
Core Conceptual Understandings
Changing cultural values weaken existing religious monopolies; print media accelerates socio-religious rebellion.
World History Classroom Teacher Guide Page 1 of 4
Teacher Instruction Guide
Essential Questions & Learning Goals
Standard World History Blueprint
Units 4 - 6: Global Contact and Reason
Unit 4: The Age of Exploration Global Integration
Unit Essential Questions
- What drove global interconnections?
- What were the impacts of Columbian Exchange?
NC Unpacking Verbatim Goal
"Analyze the motives, strategies, and effects of exploration, conquest, and colonization."
Core Conceptual Understandings
