Putting it all together

Identifying causes and effects is one thing. Keeping track of newfound knowledge is another. “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 (Wiebe, 2009, par. 2). One way to make this task simpler is by using an acronym: PERSIA.

P – Political (rulers or leaders, laws and treaties, form of government, military)

E – Economic (labor systems, currency, technologies, trade)

R– Religion (beliefs, teachings, gods)

S – Social (family structure, social classes, customs)

I – Intellectual (art and music, education, inventions)

A– Area and geography (location, migrations, environment)