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The Silk Road DBQ cover
★ Inquiry DBQ Series · Grade 6 · #6

The Silk Road DBQ

Was trade on the Silk Road worth the cost?

Was Silk Road trade worth the cost? Students weigh Faxian, Pliny, Seneca, and a Chinese history of Rome, then argue from evidence.

Grade 6Development of Civilizations 3500 BCE–600 CEGoogle Slides3 class periods

License: one teacher and their own students.

Buy now · $6.00

Secure checkout through Teachers Pay Teachers. You'll get the Google Drive folder with your "Make a copy" Google Slides files right away.

What's included

  • Student DBQ packet: hook, background reading, Documents A–F with analysis questions, evidence organizer, bucketing and outline pages, C-E-R essay and 4-point rubric
  • Scaffolded version with shorter excerpts, plain-words versions and sentence starters
  • Teacher presentation with speaker notes, plus a teacher guide with standards, pacing, answer key and a sample essay

The documents

  • Document A: Faxian crosses the desert
  • Document B: Pliny: Romans puzzle over silk
  • Document C: Seneca disapproves of silk
  • Document D: Pliny: where Rome's money went
  • Document E: A Chinese history of Rome
  • Document F: What traveled the Silk Road (chart)

Document A: Faxian, A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms, trans. James Legge (1886), public domain. Documents B and D: Pliny the Elder, Natural History, trans. John Bostock and H. T. Riley (1855), public domain. Document C: Seneca, On Benefits, trans. Aubrey Stewart (1887), public domain. Document E: Hou Hanshu, trans. Friedrich Hirth, China and the Roman Orient (1885), public domain; obvious scanning errors corrected. Document F: teacher-made chart.

Good to know

Class time
3 class periods
Format
Editable Google Slides
Answer key
Included

Standards: KAS Grade 6: 6.H.CO.2, 6.E.MI.1, 6.G.MM.1, 6.I.UE.1, 6.I.UE.2, 6.I.CC.1

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