The Bubonic Plague
Aim:
How would you have reacted to the plague?
Motivation:
Write a paragraph of 50 to 75
words describing how your life would be different if the following scenario was
to happen.
As
the result of the outbreak of an unknown disease in
The
bubonic plague is believed to have killed 1/3 of
Discovery Procedure:
Have the students write their
paragraphs and read them to the class if they so wish. Our goal here is to see
if the students can come up with 3 or 4 different reactions to the scenario.
Students might have chosen one of the following:
1)They
would have become more religious as they prayed to God for deliverance from the
plague.
2)They
would have become less religious as they could not understand why
a God would have subjected them to such a trial. They
might even question their religious beliefs.
3)They
would live as if each day was their last and pursue pleasure. The idea that one
should eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow you shall die.
4)They
would withdraw with family and friends to a place where everyone is seemingly
healthy and ride out the plague. This is the isolationist reaction.
Each of these reactions is
related by Boccaccio in his book Decameron. A handout with experts
accompanies this lesson plan. This is an excellent way to demonstrate to
students the value of contemporary literary sources in the study of history.
Summary:
Students should come away
from the lessons with the idea that they are not that different from people who
lived nearly seven hundred years ago.
SS 2- World History
Students will use a variety
of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras,
themes, developments, and turning points in world history and examine the broad
sweep of history from a variety of perspectives.
Key idea 1: The study of
world history requires an understanding of world cultures and civilizations,
including an analysis of important ideas, social and cultural values, beliefs,
and traditions. This study also examines the human condition and the connections
and interactions of people across time and space, and the ways different people
view the same event or issue from a variety of perspectives.
Key idea 3: Study of the
major social, political, cultural, and religious developments in world history
involves learning about the important roles and contributions of individuals
and groups.
Key idea 4: The skills of
historical analysis include the ability to investigate differing and competing
interpretations of the theories of history, hypothesize about why interpretations
change over time, explain the importance of historical evidence, and understand
the concepts of change and continuity over time.
Literacy Skills Demonstrated:
Speaking and writing to
acquire and transmit information requires asking probing and clarifying
questions, interpreting information in one's own words, applying information
from one context to another, and presenting the information and interpretation
clearly, concisely, and comprehensibly.
Listening and reading to
analyze and evaluate experiences, ideas, information, and issues require using
evaluative criteria from a variety of perspectives.
Numeracy Skills Demonstrated:
Figuring percentages from
data given, in this case 1/3, and computing the actual numbers of dead from the
figures given.
Supplementary Related
Discovery Activities:
Have students research the
SARS (or AIDS or
Regents Preparation
Activities:
THEMATIC ESSAY QUESTION
Directions: Write a
well-organized essay that includes an introduction, several paragraphs
addressing the task below, and a conclusion.
·
Theme: Change/Turning Points
Political, economic, End social conditions
have often led to turning points that have changed the course of history for
nations and peoples.
·
Task:
Identify
two turning points from your study of global history. Describe the causes and
key events that led to the turning point. Explain how each turning point
changed the course of history for nations and peoples.
History through Literature
A
tragic turning point in the history of medieval Europe was the bubonic plague,
known as the Black Death, which swept over Europe and parts of
Boccacio
imagined that ten young Florentines-seven women and three men-had fled the city
to a villa, where they took turns telling stories-100 in all-to keep themselves
entertained. This excerpt sets the scene. As you read think about the effects
of such a plague on society. Then, on a separate sheet of paper, answer the
questions that follow.
Vocabulary:
Before you begin reading, find the meaning of these words in a dictionary:
ceaselessly, supplication, pious, alleviate, malignancy, fanciful, superfluity,
temperate bestial.
The Decameron
In
the year 1348 after the fruitful incarnation of the Son of God, that most
beautiful of Italian cities, noble
No
doctor's advice, no medicine could overcome or alleviate this disease.
An enormous number of
ignorant men and women set up as doctors in addition to those who were trained.
Either the disease was such that no treatment was possible or the doctors were
so ignorant that they did not know what caused it, and consequently could not
administer the proper remedy. In any case very few recovered: most people died
within about three days of the appearance of the tumors described above, most
of them without any fever or any other symptoms.
The violence of this disease
was such that the sick communicated it to the healthy that Game near them, just
as fire catches anything dry or oily near it. And it even went further. To
speaker to or go near the sick brought infection and a common death to the
living; and moreover to touch the clothes or anything else the sick had touched
or worn gave the disease to the person touching.
What
1 am about to tell now is a marvelous thing to hear; and if I and others had
not seen it with our own eyes I would not dare to write it, however much I was
willing to believe and whatever the good faith of the person from whom i heard it. So violent was the malignancy of this plague
that it was communicated, not only from one man to another, but from the
garments of a sick or dead man to animals of another species, which caught the
disease in that way and very quickly died of it. One day among other occasions
I saw with my own eyes (as I said just now) the rags left lying in the street
of a poor man who had died of the plague; two pigs came along and, as their
habit is, turned the clothes over with their snouts and then munched at them,
with the result that they both fell dead almost at once on the rags, as if they
had been poisoned.
From
these and similar or greater occurrences, such fear and fanciful notions took
possession of the living that almost all of them adopted the same cruel policy,
which was entirely to avoid the sick and everything belonging to them. By so
doing, each one thought he would secure his own safety.
Some
thought that moderate living and the avoidance of all superfluity would
preserve them from the epidemic. They formed small communities, living entirely
separate from everybody else. They shut themselves up in houses where there
were no sick, eating the finest food and drinking the best wine very
temperately, avoiding all excess, allowing no news or discussion of death and
sickness, and passing the time in music and suchlike pleasures. Others thought
just the opposite. They thought the sure cure for the plague was to drink and
to be merry, to go about singing and amusing themselves, satisfying every
appetite they could laughing and jesting at what happened. They put their words
into practice, spent day and night going from tavern to tavern, drinking
immoderately. or went into other people's houses,
doing only those things which pleased them. This they could easily do because
everyone felt doomed and had abandoned his property, so that most houses became
common property and any stranger who went in made use of them as if he had
owned them. And with all this bestial behavior, they avoided the sick as much
as possible.
In
this suffering and misery of our city, the authority of human and divine laws
almost disappeared, for, like other men, the ministers and the executors of the
laws were all dead or sick or shut up with their families, so that no duties
were carried out. Every man was therefore able to do as he pleased.
Many
others adopted a course of life midway between the two just described. They did
not restrict their victuals so much as the former, nor allow themselves to be
drunken and dissolute like the latter but satisfied their appetites moderately.
They did not shut themselves up, but went about, carrying flowers or scented
herbs or perfumes in their hands, in the belief that it was an excellent thing
to comfort the brain with such odors; for the whole air was infected with the
smell of dead bodies, of sick persons and medicines.
Others
again held a still more cruel opinion, which they thought would keep them safe,
They said that the only medicine against the plague- stricken was to go right
away from them. Men and women, convinced of this and
caring about nothing but themselves, abandoned their own city, their own
houses, their dwellings, their relatives. their property, and went abroad or at
least to the country round Florence, as if God's wrath in punishing men's
wickedness with this plague would not follow them but strike only those who
remained within the walls of the city, or as if they thought nobody in the city
would remain alive and that its last hour had come.
Not
everyone who adopted any of these various opinions died, nor did all escape.
Some when they were still healthy had set the example of avoiding the sick,
and, falling ill themselves, died untended.
One
citizen avoided another, hardly any neighbor troubled
about others, relatives never or hardly ever visited each other. Moreover such
terror was struck into the hearts of men and women by this calamity, that
brother abandoned brother and the uncle his nephew, and the sister her brother,
and very often the wife her husband. What is even worse and nearly incredible
is that fathers and mothers refused to see and tend their children as if they
had not been theirs.
Thus
a multitude of sick men and women were left without any care except from the
charity of friends (but these were few), or the greed of servants, though not
many of these could be had even for high wages. Moreover, most of them were
coarse-minded men and women, who did little more than bring the sick what they
asked for or watch over them when they were eying. And very often these
servants lost their lives and their earnings.
In
this way many people died who might have been saved if they had been looked after,
Owing to the lack of attendants for the sick and the violence of the plague,
such a multitude of people in the city died day and night that it was
stupefying to hear of, let alone to see.
From sheer necessity, then, several ancient customs were quite altered
among the survivors.
1.(a)
Where did the plague begin and spread?
(b)
What two possible causes does 8occacio suggest for such a terrible event?
How
did people behave toward those who were sick? Why?
How
did the plague affect city government and laws?
What
aspect at people's behavior seems to shock Boccaccio most?
Identifying
Alternatives
What
ways of living did people adopt in the face of the plague? Did any of them work
better than others? Which, if any, of these alternatives would you choose?
Humanities
Link Consider what the shock of such a plague and the loss of so many people
would do to European culture. Relate the plague to other events taking place in
Commentary on model Social Studies lesson:
How would you have reacted to the plague?
The
Aim would De elicited from the Motivation, which asks students to describe that
reaction to a scenario involving the spread of an infectious and deadly
disease. Students are asked to imagine that they are faced with a situation
similar to the bubonic plague, where they would be placed under quarantine and
would deal win; unimaginable horrors. This motivation allows students to
experience an event that occurred over 500 years ago by relating it to their
own lives.
The
first part of the Discovery Procedure allows student to share their responses
to the opening scenario. Students will
discuss the similarities and differences in their reactions to the spread of a
deadly disease in their community. As a second activity, students will have the
opportunity to read selections from Boccaccio’s Decameron, which tells a story of men and women
living in
As a
Summary activity, students will compare their responses to the responses of
people who lived during the actual event. They may be surprised to discover
their reactions are Similar to people who lived over a half a century ago.
This
lessen requires many different skills. Students will use mathematical formulas
to calculate the percentages of the population affected by the plague,
improving their Numeracy Skills. Students are also demonstrating many Literacy
Skills, including the interpretation and analysis of a work of literature.
Students are also writing an essay of at least 50 words and discussing their
responses with the class.
As a
Supplementary Related Discovery Activity, students will use research skills to
look into the spread of other infectious diseases, such as AIDS, SARS, or West
Nile Virus. This is an excellent activity, which will encourage students to
apply their knowledge of historical events to an issue that faces our world
today.
Tile
Regents Preparation Activity involves the creation of a thematic essay, which
comprises approximately 25% of the Regents Examination in Global History and Geography.
The bubonic plague is definitely a turning point in global history, which gives
students knowledge they can apply to the exam.
Interdisciplinary
Connections:
a) Science: Students will learn how species depend on one
another and on the environment for survival.
b) English: Students will read excerpts from Charles
Darwin's book, Voyage of the Beagle.
c) Math: Students will devise charts and graphs showing
the impact of pollution on the environment.
d) Library: Students will be able to gather and use information
for research purposes.
State Standards Addressed:
SS3: Students will be able to analyze important
environmental questions and issues.
Literacy Skills:
ELA,
2 : Speaking and writing for critical analysis and
evaluation.
Numeracy Skills Demonstrated:
MST
3: Students will use mathematical reasoning to make conjectures.
Other Skills Demonstrated:
Library
research, group work
Supplementary Activities:
Students
will write a letter to a member of an agency or organization responsible for a
particular law or regulation pertaining to the environmental problem that their
group researched, explaining why they think the law should be amended, changed
entirely, or kept the way it is.
Throughout
·
Select an
environmental problem that can be found in the
·
Discuss the role of
the government in trying to control further damage to the environment.
You
may use any environmental problem found in the
You
are not limited to these suggestions.
Commentary on lesson:
Should the
We
are presenting this lesson as an example of developing student centered,
discovery based lessons that incorporate an interdisciplinary approach.
The
Aim is arrived at from the Motivation. Student discussion on environmental
problems and solutions to the problems enables the teacher to arrive at the
aim.
The
Discovery Procedure uses group work that involves student centered inquiry
into environmental problems. The first activity puts students into cooperative
learning groups to research a specific environmental problem. Students would
use the internet to research their specific problem, focusing on questions
given to them to guide their research. The students' research will lead them to
conclusions and enable them to come up with a law or regulations to help ease
their specific environmental problem.
In the second activity
the groups present their findings to the rest of the class. A discussion would
ensue leading to suggestions for laws and regulation to solve their specific
environmental problem.
Interdisciplinary Connections
are addressed to show that environmental problems can be covered in different
disciplines. In science the survival of certain species depends on the
environment. English skills are developed with reading and writing exercises
based on The Voyage of the Beagle. Math skills develop charts and graphs
that show the impact of pollution on animal life.
Supplementary Related
Activities: This lesson suggests an activity that makes use of the students'
research. Students have the necessary information to write to an agency
responsible for their specific environmental problem pertaining to a law to
help solve their environmental problem.
The Regents Practice Question
at the end of the lesson was taken from a previous Regents examination in
social studies. It serves to focus both the teacher's and students' attention
on the importance of the lesson within the prescribed social studies
curriculum.