High School Modern World History Standards and Framework

Overview of Framework 

Modern World History focuses on developing students’ understanding of world history from approximately 1300 to the present. In world history students interpret evidence and identify significant trends in order to understand major developments across the globe. Students will explore how humans have thought, behaved and interacted across the ages in order to develop an understanding of global patterns of change and continuity. Students of world history study specific people, events, and ideas by situating them in global, interregional, and regional contexts. Organizationally, world history requires students to shift between global, interregional, and regional spatial scales in order to emphasize interactions between different scales of historical study and to identify connections across time and geography. The spatial scales incorporated in this framework are: 

  • Global Focus: Concentrates on large-scale patterns occurring in several areas of the globe.
  • Interregional Focus: Concentration on patterns and comparisons linking multiple regions across geography within a particular era. 
  • Regional Focus: Concentration on local, state, national or regional events within a particular era with significance to global and/or interregional events. 

Student investigation of world history is further structured by the use of overarching historical themes that link the four units of the course. While examining content, students are tracing:
Interaction between humans and the environment;
  • Development and interactions of cultures;
  • State building, expansion and conflict;
  • Creation, expansion and interaction of economic systems; and
  • Development and transformation of social structures.

Framework 

High School Modern World History Framework – A detailed framework that supports the teaching of High School Modern World History in high school. The framework uses the inquiry arc to connect the Enduring Understanding and Unit Questions to the essential questions, topics, indicators, objectives, and assessment limits.

Framework Instructional Supports

The following resources are designed to support instruction in High School Modern World History.

Source Work Crosswalks

The crosswalks illustrate the connection between Maryland’s 6.0 Skills and Processes and commonly used source analysis approaches.

​Resource
​Description
​Standard
SHEG Crosswalk
Crosswalk between Maryland’s 6.0 Skills and Processes and the Stanford History Education Group (SHEG) Approach.
​Standard 6.0
APPARTS Crosswalk
Crosswalk with College Board’s Pre-AP APPARTS Document Analysis Method.
Standard 6.0
SOAPSTONE Crosswalk
​Crosswalk with College Board’s Advanced Placement SOAPSTONE Document Analysis Method.
​Standard 6.0