What is the answer to the forth glyph in florence??

1 ANSWERS

1. Ali Abdullah
   

   Hi, Each year students in the fourth or fifth grade of the New Haven Talented and Gifted Program embark upon a year long study of the Middle Ages. This is what is called the “core curriculum,” and it is the umbrella under which I prepare and teach a wide range of interdisciplinary lessons. The content, however, has been traditional in approach—centering on the events that took place in Europe during the period from 500 to 1500 A.D. Initially when I taught this curriculum, I emphasized the differences between Medieval times and now. I emphasized the notion that this was a time when the technology that we so take for granted today did not exist, and I used that concept to point out the difference in living then and now. What I have realized, however, is that there are many ways in which people then were very much like people today. There are similarities, especially when discussing the human condition. Then, as now, there were wars, governments were corrupt, attempts were made to take over other countries, people got sick, they stole from one another and laws were needed to control human behavior. I present my students with information about the quality of life in the Middle Ages. Obviously without the scientific knowledge we have today, life was difficult and much less pleasant. But many of the concerns my “city kids” have are the concerns of “city people” back then. These concerns are the links between then and now. Recently, through my reading in professional journals, magazines and newspapers, I have become aware of the need to expand my curriculum to include other countries and cultures. This seems completely appropriate to me, as the backgrounds of the children I teach are evenly split between African-American, Hispanic and students of European descent. These are wise children, and although they enjoy the romance of knights in battles and tournaments, and understand the concept that castles were great machines of war, they also want to know what life was like in other parts of the world during that time period. This unit has been prepared for students in the fourth and fifth grade who have been identified as talented and/or gifted as the result of a screening process that takes place each year. These students come to me once a week from their elementary or middle schools. Our day is planned so that larger periods of time (at least 1-1/2 hours) can be put aside for our core curriculum study, and all scheduling is flexible so that additional time can be added if student interest demands. This unit will be a comparative study of three different cities that were thriving during the period 1450 to 1500: Florence, Italy; Tenochtitlan, Mexico; and Timbuktu, Africa. I have chosen to look at these cities for a variety of reasons. In my efforts to create a multicultural study, I have chosen city life as the appropriate vehicle for my students who are city dwellers themselves, and who are embarking on a beginning study of life over 500 years ago. I realize that studying life in the city does exclude some topics that are important to this time period such as castles, crusades, life in villages and on manors. However, I am interested in showing students the links between life then and life now. A study of these three cities will allow students to compare and contrast three different cultures, as well as compare and contrast our modern times with life in the latter half of the fifteenth century. Traditional studies of this time period center on Europe. Thus, I have picked two cities not included in this traditional study that were far away from one another, and very different from the European city. It is important to note that at this time, because of European exploration, people in these parts of the world were just beginning to have contact. As early as 1470, the Florentine Benedetto Dei is reported to have visited Timbuktu (Freeman-Grenville 76). Even in the early fourteenth century, the brother of Mansa Musa, a Muslim leader of Timbuktu, was reported to have sent many ships across the Atlantic to find land (Harris 61). Another reason for choosing these cities was the information that I found available for my students. There are plenty of books that are age appropriate about life in Europe and life in Mexico during the mid to late fifteenth century. I chose to look at these cities during the mid to late fifteenth century because of the information available. Timbuktu poses a more difficult task. There are many books written for children about Africa, yet few present much information about daily life in this city during the mid to late fifteenth century. Therefore, much of the information students will get about this city will be in the form of “lectures” or readings that I write up for them. I will also, when appropriate, use short excerpts from “adult books” that we can read and discuss together.

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