Era 3 Crosswalk — Age of Revolutions¶
Grade 9 · World History Era 3 + ELA 9-10 Span: 1400–1900 · Exploration, Enlightenment, Atlantic Revolutions, Industrialization, Imperialism
Start here — one Demo, two standards
WH.6_12.3 + R.9 + W.4 — Era 3 is the richest crosswalk era. Pick any text from the Reading Library table below — Common Sense, Wollstonecraft, Douglass, or Kipling+Johnson. Analyze the argument (R.9). Write your own position (W.4). Each one already is WH.6_12.3 primary source evidence. Use the WH.6_12.3 Skinny or the Common Sense + W.4 Crosswalk to scaffold.
Project Ideas — Era 3¶
1. "When is rebellion justified?"¶
Essential question: What conditions have to exist before revolution is a legitimate response to injustice? WH Standard: WH.6_12.3 + Era 3 ELA Standard: R.9 + W.4 Source anchors: Common Sense + Declaration of Rights of Man + Haitian Declaration Suggested Demo Mode: Extended Writing or Verbal Conversation Possible deliverables: Argument essay · Structured debate · Comparative analysis The argument: Students compare what Common Sense, the DROM, and the Haitian Declaration each argue justifies revolution. Using R.9, they identify the argumentative structure of at least two. Using W.4, they write their own position on when rebellion is justified. Three revolutions, one essay.
2. "Who gets left out of 'liberty and equality'?"¶
Essential question: Every revolution claims to fight for freedom — so why do some people always end up excluded from it? WH Standard: WH.6_12.3–4 + Era 3 ELA Standard: R.9 + W.4 Source anchors: Wollstonecraft + Haitian Declaration + CrashCourse ep-31 Suggested Demo Mode: Extended Writing or Multimedia Possible deliverables: Essay · Podcast · Documentary The argument: Wollstonecraft asks why the French Revolution's "rights of man" excluded women. The Haitian Revolution asks why the same revolution's rhetoric didn't end slavery. Students read both arguments (R.9) and write their own (W.4): what does the pattern reveal about how political systems treat those they were not built for?
3. "How do you write a nation into existence?"¶
Essential question: Can a document actually create a country — and what makes some documents more powerful than others? WH Standard: WH.6_12.5 + Era 3 ELA Standard: R.9 + W.3 Source anchors: Common Sense + Declaration of Rights of Man Suggested Demo Mode: Extended Writing Possible deliverables: Explanatory essay · Comparative analysis · Documentary The argument: Students analyze Common Sense and the DROM as rhetorical objects — what makes them persuasive? Using R.9 to analyze argument structure and W.3 to explain, they produce a piece on how language creates political legitimacy. See: Common Sense + W.4 Crosswalk.
4. "Who pays the cost of empire?"¶
Essential question: When one group benefits from a global system, who bears the cost — and does the beneficiary know? WH Standard: WH.6_12.4–5 + Era 3 ELA Standard: R.9 + W.4 Source anchors: Kipling + H.T. Johnson + CrashCourse ep-37 (Imperialism) Suggested Demo Mode: Extended Writing or Multimedia Possible deliverables: Comparative essay · Podcast · Photo essay with argument The argument: Students read Kipling's "White Man's Burden" alongside H.T. Johnson's direct rebuttal. They analyze both as arguments (R.9) — what is each writer claiming? who is their audience? what evidence do they use? — then write their own position (W.4) on who is right. WH.6_12.4 content + strongest W.4 model this era.
5. "Why did some people know slavery was wrong and do nothing?"¶
Essential question: What does it take for moral knowledge to become moral action — and what gets in the way? WH Standard: WH.6_12.4–5 + Era 3 ELA Standard: R.9 + W.4 Source anchor: Narrative of Frederick Douglass + CrashCourse ep-23 (Slave Trade) Suggested Demo Mode: Verbal Conversation or Extended Writing Possible deliverables: Essay · Podcast · Debate The argument: Douglass writes explicitly about this — he knows his enslavers know it's wrong. Students use his argument (R.9) alongside Green's structural analysis of the slave trade (ep-23) to write an argument about the gap between moral understanding and political action. Rich W.4 entry point.
Studio Packets Available¶
| Code | Essential Question | Standards |
|---|---|---|
| WH-02 | When people write down their rights, what changes — and what doesn't? | WH.6_12.5 + W.4 |
| WH-03 | When a powerful system is doing harm, what does it take to challenge it? | WH.6_12.4–5 + R.9 + W.4 |
| WH-04 | Can one document change the world — and if so, how? | WH.6_12.5 + W.3 |
| WH-05 | Who pays the cost of war — and who gets to tell the story? | WH.6_12.5 + R.9 + W.4 |
Reading Library — Era 3 Texts¶
| Text | WH Standard | ELA Crosswalk | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thomas Paine — Common Sense (1776) | WH.6_12.4–5 | R.9 + W.4 mentor text — argument for independence | Open |
| Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen (1789) | WH.6_12.3–4 | R.9 — compare to US Declaration; W.4 — rights argument | Open |
| Mary Wollstonecraft — Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) | WH.6_12.4 | R.9 — analyze argument structure; W.4 — rights argument | Open |
| Haitian Declaration of Independence (1804) | WH.6_12.3 | R.9 — compare to other declarations; W.4 — sovereignty argument | Open |
| Marx & Engels — Communist Manifesto selections (1848) | WH.6_12.5 | R.9 — claims and evidence analysis | Open |
| Frederick Douglass — Narrative (1845) | WH.6_12.4–5 | R.9 + W.4 — eyewitness argument against slavery | Open |
| Kipling — "White Man's Burden" + H.T. Johnson — "Black Man's Burden" (1899) | WH.6_12.4–5 | R.9 — compare two arguments; W.4 — rebuttal writing | Open |
| Upton Sinclair — The Jungle selections (1906) | WH.6_12.4 | R.9 — investigative argument; W.4 — argument for reform | Open |
| Wilfred Owen — "Dulce et Decorum Est" (1917) | WH.6_12.5 | R.9 — poetic argument; W.4 — anti-war argument | Open |
| Things Fall Apart — Chinua Achebe (1958) | WH.6_12.5 + WH.6_12.4 + WH.6_12.3 | R.8 — counter-narrative, tragic structure; R.9 — Achebe's argument about representation; W.4 | Open |
Highest-leverage crosswalk texts this era: - Common Sense — Common Sense + W.4 Crosswalk - Kipling + H.T. Johnson — The two poems together are a complete R.9 lesson (argument and counter-argument)
Skinnies to Pull This Era¶
World History Skinnies — Era 3¶
| Standard | Skinny | When to Pull |
|---|---|---|
| WH.6_12.1 | Science & Tech Era 3 | Industrial Revolution, steam power, navigational tech |
| WH.6_12.2 | Religion & Ideology Era 3 | Enlightenment, nationalism, abolitionism |
| WH.6_12.3 | Political Systems Era 3 | Revolution, republic, constitutional government |
| WH.6_12.4 | Social & Economic Era 3 | Slavery, colonialism, industrialization |
| WH.6_12.5 | Causes & Effects Era 3 | Revolution causes, imperialism effects, Columbian Exchange |
| WH.6_12.6 | Past to Present Era 3 | Revolutionary era → present connections |
ELA Skinnies — Strongest Pulls for Era 3¶
| Standard | Skinny | When to Pull |
|---|---|---|
| R.9 | Informational & Argumentative | Analyzing any Era 3 text — they're all arguments |
| W.4 | Argument Writing | Writing your own revolutionary argument |
| W.3 | Explanatory Writing | Explaining causes of revolution or effects of slave trade |
| R.2 | Comprehension & Inference | Reading Wollstonecraft or Douglass closely |
| IR.1–5 | Research Bundle | Every Studio |
CrashCourse Episodes — Era 3¶
| Episode | Topic | Standard | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ep 23 | The Atlantic Slave Trade | WH.6_12.5 | Watch guide |
| Ep 24 | The Columbian Exchange | WH.6_12.4 | Watch guide |
| Ep 25 | The Protestant Reformation | WH.6_12.2 | Watch guide |
| Ep 31 | Haitian Revolutions | WH.6_12.3 | Watch guide |
| Ep 33 | The French Revolution | WH.6_12.3 | Watch guide |
| Ep 37 | Imperialism | WH.6_12.5 | Watch guide |
| Ep 38 | World War I | WH.6_12.5 | Watch guide |
CrashCourse Literature — Era 3¶
| Work | Focus | Standard | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Things Fall Apart | Achebe's counter-narrative to European imperialism — Igbo civilization before, during, and after colonial conquest | WH.6_12.5 + WH.6_12.3 + R.8 | Episode guide |
Standards Active This Era¶
| Subject | Standard | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| World History | WH.6_12.1 | Industrial technology, steam power, scientific revolution |
| World History | WH.6_12.2 | Enlightenment ideologies, nationalism, abolitionism |
| World History | WH.6_12.3 | Revolutions and their effects on political systems |
| World History | WH.6_12.4 | Atlantic slave trade, colonialism, social transformation |
| World History | WH.6_12.5 | Causes and effects — Columbian Exchange, revolutions, imperialism |
| World History | WH.6_12.6 | Revolutionary era connecting to the present |
| ELA — Reading | R.9 | Analyzing Enlightenment and revolutionary arguments |
| ELA — Reading | R.2 | Comprehension and inference in argumentative primary sources |
| ELA — Writing | W.4 | Argument writing — the richest era for W.4 |
| ELA — Writing | W.3 | Explanatory writing — causes of revolution, effects of trade |
Strongest crosswalk pairing this era: Era 3 is the richest crosswalk era — nearly every reading library text here is an argument. WH.6_12.3 + R.9 + W.4 can be satisfied by Common Sense, the Declaration of Rights of Man, Wollstonecraft, Douglass, or Kipling+Johnson — any one of which works as a W.4 mentor text while simultaneously being primary source evidence for the WH standard.
Why This Is Relevant Today?¶
Era 3 is the era when humans decided that individuals had rights governments couldn't take away — and then immediately started arguing about who counted as an individual. The American Revolution, French Revolution, and Haitian Revolution all claimed universal human freedom. All three drew lines around who that freedom actually applied to. Those lines are still being redrawn. Arguments about who deserves citizenship, who the law protects, whether economic inequality can coexist with political equality, and whether revolutionary violence is justified — these are Era 3 arguments. When people today debate immigration, civil rights, labor rights, or the legitimacy of protest, they're using the vocabulary of this era. Thomas Paine, Mary Wollstonecraft, Toussaint Louverture, and Karl Marx were all trying to answer questions that haven't been answered yet. See WH-02: The Rights We Wrote Down or WH-03: Writing Against Empire for studios built around these questions.
Era 3 Crosswalk — SDA Commons Wiki · South High School See also: Era 3 Standards Page · Era 2 Crosswalk · Era 4 Crosswalk