Grade 8 · Social Studies · Unit 10 of 10
Worldviews & Historical Sources
Comparing perspectives and judging sources
What your child practises
What a worldview is, how to tell primary from secondary sources, and how to read a source for point of view. Applies to all three Grade 8 case studies: Japan, Renaissance Europe and the Spanish and Mexica.
Alberta Curriculum learning outcome: 8.1; 8.2; 8.3 · comparing worldviews and perspectives, adaptation and isolation, and using primary and secondary sources
Sample questions
A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.
Question 1
What is an artifact?
- an object made by people in the past
- a place name
- a kind of storm
- an animal
Show answer
an object made by people in the past
Hint: A tool, coin or pot can be an artifact.
Question 2
A Spanish chronicler and a Nahua author describe the fall of Tenochtitlan differently. What is a good response?
- Trust only one
- Ignore both
- Compare both accounts and ask who wrote them and why.
- Pick the shorter one
Show answer
Compare both accounts and ask who wrote them and why.
Hint: Looking at several sources gives a fuller picture.
Question 3
What question helps you notice a bias in a source?
- What might the writer gain from telling it this way?
- What colour is the cover?
- How many pages is it?
- Is it in a library?
Show answer
What might the writer gain from telling it this way?
Hint: Motives can shape the story.
Question 4
Which is an example of a secondary source?
- a textbook about the Renaissance
- a letter written in 1520
- a tool from long ago
- a painting made in 1500
Show answer
a textbook about the Renaissance
Hint: Secondary sources are written later by people who study the past.
Question 5
A society that limits contact with others is…
- building a delta
- adapting all the time
- isolating itself
- expanding quickly
Show answer
isolating itself
Hint: Tokugawa Japan limited contact with other countries for about 200 years.
Question 6
How is a map from 1500 different from a map today?
- It is made by satellite
- It shows modern roads
- It can show what people believed and knew at that time, and it may have errors.
- It is always accurate
Show answer
It can show what people believed and knew at that time, and it may have errors.
Hint: Old maps are useful for seeing how people saw the world.