Elements of PERSIA

BETA Summer Institute

April 29, 2026

Course	BETA Summer Institute
Global History	Mr. Ott

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Aim: How do you analyze historical primary & secondary sources such as print, video, film, photos, cartoons, charts, and graphs?

Do Now:

Lesson Overview:

Item	Approx Time
Do Now	3-5 Min
Activity	30 Min
Discussion	10 Min

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P.E.R.S.I.A.

Today’s tip focuses on helping Students to organize basic information about a specific topic, country or period of history. An acronym called PERSIA, this simple graphic organizer breaks down general knowledge into six broad human concerns and over-arching questions:

• Political: Who is in charge?
• Economic: How do we make a living?
• Religion: What do we believe?
• Social: How do we relate to one another?
• Intellectual / Arts: How do we learn? How do we express ourselves?
• Area / Geography: How does where we live impact how we live?

When students are asked to study a time period in history, they sometimes have difficulty organizing all the seemingly unconnected facts about different people, dates, events, and issues related to that time period. The PERSIA approach is one way to organize how the people lived in a society at a certain time in history and so help students to understand that culture.

By considering in turn different dimensions of a historical period or event, students probe deeply into the many facets and implications of the past. Because of the depth of resources available online and in print, students can easily find evidence to support their investigations into all six of these areas by using this acronym.

You can also help students break each broad category down by providing the following specifics:

Political	Economic	Religion
Structure of Government War Treaties Courts/Laws Leaders Popular participation (Sovereignty, Nationalism) Loyalty to leader (Patriotism)	Trade / Systems of Trade Industrialization Agriculture Labor systems Factors/Means of Production Interdependence/Globalization Child, Gender, and Slave Labor Money System	Belief Systems Effects Upon People/Society Effects Upon Government Theocracy Fundamentalism Orthodox
Social	Intellectual/Arts	Area/Geography
Culture /Tradition / Society Family Order – patriarchal, matriarchal Gender Relations – role of women, children Social Classes Slavery Entertainment Tradition / Life Styles Natural Rights/Human Rights	Art and Music Writing/Literature Philosophy Math/Science Education Technology/Inventions Infrastructure (Railroads, Ports, Hospitals, Roads, Telegraph/Telephone, etc)	Location Physical - Mountains, Deserts, Oceans, Peninsulas, Archipelagos Movement - Migration/Diaspora Human/Environment Interaction

Classwork & Homework

Lesson PowerPoint: PERSIA Acronym

Lesson Activity:

• PERSIA Worksheet

Global History / Global Themes

• [http://www.classroomexplorations.org

/wiki/index.php?title=Primary_Document_Quiz Global History Documents]

AP European History

• PERSIA Docs for AP Euro

Homework: Assignments

Special Education Modifications

• Teaching Model: Co-Teaching
• Special Education Teacher will work with All students General Ed and Special Ed.
  • Special Ed Students:
    • Teacher will read-aloud to students when necessary.
    • Teachers will break down assignments into smaller tasks.
    • Teachers will work with students on vocabulary acquisition by breaking down words into prefixes/suffixes and etymology.
    • Teachers will group students according to learning style inventory as a homogeneous group.
    • Teachers will keep students on-task by managing distractions and on-task behavior.
    • Teachers will modify note-taking by modeling notes from PowerPoint to chalkboard/whiteboard.
    • Teachers will differentiate lessons by using; verbal cues for auditory learners, graphic organizers for visual learners, and hands-on cues for tactile learners.