Studio Aletheia · World Builders Academy
6.3.CCSC 6th Grade World Civilizations
Rediscovering the Individual
Lesson 5.9 · The Renaissance, Humanism Puts People at the Center
Medieval Europe mostly asked what God intended for the world. Starting in Renaissance Italy, thinkers began asking a very different question: what could a single human being achieve?
Learning Targets and Success Criteria
Build the vocabulary and evidence needed to meet standard 6.3.CC.
What I will learn
- I can define Humanism and explain how it differed from medieval thinking.
- I can describe the contributions of Leonardo da Vinci and the Medici family to the Renaissance.
- I can explain how the printing press changed the spread of ideas.
- I can identify Humanism as an early step toward the idea of individual rights.
What success looks like
- I define Humanism using the words individual and potential.
- I describe at least one contribution each from da Vinci and the Medici.
- I explain at least one way the printing press changed how ideas spread.
- My exit ticket connects Humanism to the beginning of the idea of individual rights.
Analyze the intellectual, political, and social changes in relation to the idea of individual rights from Humanism to the Enlightenment.
Pulling twenty-four lessons into one argument.
These terms will be used throughout the mini-lesson, evidence lab, hands-on activity, journal, and exit challenge.
Humanism
A Renaissance philosophy emphasizing human potential, individual achievement, and the study of classical Greek and Roman texts.
Renaissance
A period of renewed interest in art, learning, and individual achievement in Europe, beginning in Italy in the 1300s.
Patron
A wealthy individual or family, such as the Medici, who financially supported artists and thinkers.
Printing Press
A machine, perfected by Johannes Gutenberg, that allowed books and ideas to be copied and spread far faster and more cheaply than by hand.
Where this shows up in the real world.
History is not just something that happened. It is training for how you will read evidence, weigh sources, and make decisions in a career.
Preserving Human Achievement
Art historians and curators study Renaissance works, like da Vinci's, as evidence of a broader shift toward valuing individual human achievement.
Spreading Ideas at Scale
Modern publishers and media companies trace their entire industry back to Gutenberg's printing press, the first technology built purely to spread ideas quickly.
From God's Plan to Human Potential
Medieval Europe mostly asked what God intended for the world. Renaissance thinkers began asking what a single human being could achieve.
Beginning in the 1300s in Italy, Renaissance thinkers renewed their interest in classical Greek and Roman texts and developed Humanism, a philosophy valuing individual reason, achievement, and potential rather than only religious duty.
Leonardo da Vinci embodied this new ideal, working as a painter, inventor, engineer, and scientist all at once, proof that a single person could master many fields. The wealthy Medici family of Florence funded artists and thinkers like him as patrons, allowing this flourishing of new ideas to spread.
Around the same time, Johannes Gutenberg perfected the printing press, allowing books that once took monks months to copy by hand to be reproduced quickly and cheaply. Humanist ideas could now spread across Europe faster than ever before, setting the stage for even larger challenges to old authority still to come.
Adapted from Studio Aletheia's World Builders Academy curriculum library, synthesizing Renaissance history resources on Humanism, patronage, and the printing press.
Materials for the continuity and change lab.
- A. Your start the intellectual revolution timeline materials, provided
- B. Highlighters, 2 colors minimum
- C. Notebook or chart paper
- D. A pencil for annotating
- E. Your Evidence Log for this unit
Every session this unit: identify the evidence, cite where it came from, connect it to the day's vocabulary, write a one-paragraph explanation.
Trace the Shift
Practice identifying evidence of Humanism's new focus on individual potential.
Start the Intellectual Revolution Timeline
Begin a timeline you will keep building across this section of the unit.
Evidence Log
Accountability Checklist
Exit Challenge
In two to three sentences, explain what Humanism valued and cite one specific piece of evidence from today's lesson.
Updated: —
- —
| Item | Type | Qty | Cost | Status | Fulfilled |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No purchases yet. | |||||