GIANTS OF THE RENAISSANCE
A Brief Look at People and Accomplishments
14th - 16th Centuries
INTRODUCTION:
The Renaissance was a time of creativity and change in many areas-political, social, economic, and cultural. Perhaps most important, however, were the changes that took place in the way people viewed themselves and their world. Spurred by a reawakened interest in classical learning, especially the culture of ancient Rome, creative Renaissance minds set out to transform their own age. Their era, they felt, was a time of rebirth after the disorder and disunity of the medieval world.A major change ushered in by Renaissance thought was the belief in the worth of the individual and of an active life not necessarily focused on God. This view was to replace the insistent medieval principle that the life of the spirit and of the afterworld was superior to the here and now. It is the rupture of this principle that created the modern world and ended the Middle Ages.
The following secondary activities are designed to aid the student in analyzing, and often celebrating, this emphasis on human achievement.
TIME:
1- 2 class period(s) to complete activities A and BMATERIALS & PREPARATION:
A transparency of "Giants of the Renaissance" pictures.Introduction Sheet
The "Fact Sheet" for ACTIVITY 1 A (pages 1 A - 9 A)
Copies of RENAISSANCE ACTIVITY B pieces cut into rectangles and placed in envelopes
Students will need access to notebook paper or notebooks, color markers/crayons
OBJECTIVE:
To reinforce what students already know about famous Renaissance people and to provide additional information for the students to synthesize.
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