Starting with the use of clay tokens to keep track of trading goods, this lesson traces the evolution of writing through the stages of simple pictographs and ideographs to the phonetic alphabet. It also looks at the political and social impact of writing and increased literacy.
This is a self-contained PowerPoint that develops slide by slide while other notes for the students scroll down the side. It can be run as a timed presentation on its own, presented slide by slide for discussion, or integrated into your other lectures. There are also extensive pictures with captions mixed in to illustrate the lesson and capture students’ interest. This packet also contains a student reading, flowchart, and the author’s own research notes which contain lots of details and interesting trivia to spice up your class.
NOTE: I’m in the process of converting all the Powerpoints to a new color scheme over the next year. If I haven’t converted this Powerpoint to the new color scheme, I’ve included the whole flowchart in the newer color scheme on the second slide, so you can convert the other slides. Also, if you buy the old version now, you can e-mail.me so I can give you the updated version when it’s ready, free of charge.
For more information on my flowcharts and approach to teaching history, please view my profile or visit my website at www.flowofhistory.com
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.
Report Copyright InfringementNo Feedback for this product yet
Help
For the last 27 years, I have taught at University High School, in Urbana, Illinois. During this time I have created a 4-year world history curriculum that breaks down as follows: Subfreshmen (7th and 8th grades combined): Prehistory and ancient civilizations, including India, China, and Japan. Freshmen: Western civilization and the Islamic world to 1500 Sophomores: World history from 1500 to 1945 Seniors: the world since 1945. All of these, except the senior course are required. The elective senior course is consistently filled to capacity of 30, usually with a waiting list.
