For high school, we combine history and literature WTM style into a great books course which covers the full 4 year cycle. I start with the basic reading list given in the WTM for each year. I then modify this list somewhat to include more world books instead of solely western literature, as well as adding in a few books that I think are valuable. I think anyone could stick strictly to her list and do very well. My son is also a very quick and strong reader, and typically reads a work each week. If your student is a slower reader, you might want to drop some books to allow more time with each piece.
Our typical week looks something like this: Monday-he reads the background reading relating to the time period and culture we are studying. We use a variety of college textbooks for this purpose and chose from them if the subject is US, World, or European focused. My son will write an outline about the chapter he is reading, read further regarding the rest of the world during that period in the Timetables of History, and enter any important dates on his timeline book. He will also read some biographical reading about the author we are reading for the week. He then uses this background reading, as well as the biographical reading, to write a 1-2 page summary about the full background to the piece we are studying. Then he will jump into reading the text.
Tuesday: He will read some relevant primary source material from the time period we are studying. There are great sourcebooks out there and available, as well as easily accessible sourcebooks online, such as this one. He also continues reading the text for the week.
Wednesday: Mostly just reading the text, taking notes.
Thursday: We have a set discussion time on Thursday. We have been blessed to have a close friend follow our reading list along with us and come and discuss the text together with us. We discuss the context, as well as literary aspects of the text including theme, tone, characterization, style, etc. If you want to follow a similar approach, but need help preparing this discussion, I personally love the Stobaugh books which will provide you with discussion questions, etc, for a range of books. You can also find Great Books summaries and commentaries in print and online to do your research and make sure all important aspects are covered in the discussion. Ideally you will have read the text as well, but even if you haven't been able to, it is very possible to lead a solid discussion with some preparation. It is important to let the discussion be Socratic and organic, rather than lecture based. I really enjoy hearing the thoughts these two teenagers have about what they are reading, and our discussion of the literature naturally leads into good historical discussion, as well as interesting comparison and contrasts. At this time, I will typically assign him some kind of relevant essay. Often I draw from AP World History or AP English Literature essay questions to give him good solid practice in those types of essays. I try to sprinkle in AP multiple choice throughout the year as well.
Friday: Friday is spent finishing and polishing his writing and giving feedback on his weekly essay, as well as getting a jump start on the next week's text if it is longer.
That's our basic process. If you would like copies of my plans for high school history and literature years 1, 2, or 3, contact me. I am available to share my plans or to write personalized plans for you for any grade with reading and writing assignments for a donation to my son's exchange student fund. ;)
Showing posts with label history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label history. Show all posts
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Middle School/Logic stage history
In the logic stage, I expect more out of my students than just narration. My 5th-8th graders still participate with us with our Story of the World work and unit study work, but they go beyond that work on their own. For those students we begin the process of outlining.
First of all--the why. Outlining is a very important skill. To be able to read a text and tease out the most important information is very important to comprehension and rentention. It is also a skill they will need in reverse when they start writing essays and longer papers. Practicing by directly observing the struture of other's written work, will make this process of organizing their own work easier and more natural.
To outline, my 5th graders read a corresponding or connected section in our Kingfisher History Encyclopedia. That student will then take the section (1 or 2 pages) a paragraph at a time. The main idea of paragraph 1 goes with the I. in the outline. The main idea of paragraph 2 is roman numeral 2 and so on. The sections in Kingfisher are not so long that the process is overwhelming, but they are meaty enough that the student is learning more details and practicing the art of selection. In 5th grade, this outline will be a one-step outline:
I.
II.
III.
In 6th grade, we begin 2 step outlines. Paragraphs are not just given the roman numeral and the main idea, but the main facts behind the main point will be now labelled.
I.
A.
B.
II.
A.
B.
In 7th and 8th grade, these 2 step outlines become 3 step outlines, and a 1, 2, 3, etc are added below the letters. The WTM does a good job of explaining how to outline and giving specific examples. I highly recommend you read that section before you start outlining with your child.
So basically, logic stage history is grammar stage history with the family, plus independent outlining of Kingfisher. The Story of the World activity book lists out for you already the relevant pages of Kingfisher that match each chapter. All that work is already done for you.
Edited to add: My logic stage students also have a blank timeline book. I like the one Sonlight puts out. They will add important dates to their timeline book, color coded by type of date.
First of all--the why. Outlining is a very important skill. To be able to read a text and tease out the most important information is very important to comprehension and rentention. It is also a skill they will need in reverse when they start writing essays and longer papers. Practicing by directly observing the struture of other's written work, will make this process of organizing their own work easier and more natural.
To outline, my 5th graders read a corresponding or connected section in our Kingfisher History Encyclopedia. That student will then take the section (1 or 2 pages) a paragraph at a time. The main idea of paragraph 1 goes with the I. in the outline. The main idea of paragraph 2 is roman numeral 2 and so on. The sections in Kingfisher are not so long that the process is overwhelming, but they are meaty enough that the student is learning more details and practicing the art of selection. In 5th grade, this outline will be a one-step outline:
I.
II.
III.
In 6th grade, we begin 2 step outlines. Paragraphs are not just given the roman numeral and the main idea, but the main facts behind the main point will be now labelled.
I.
A.
B.
II.
A.
B.
In 7th and 8th grade, these 2 step outlines become 3 step outlines, and a 1, 2, 3, etc are added below the letters. The WTM does a good job of explaining how to outline and giving specific examples. I highly recommend you read that section before you start outlining with your child.
So basically, logic stage history is grammar stage history with the family, plus independent outlining of Kingfisher. The Story of the World activity book lists out for you already the relevant pages of Kingfisher that match each chapter. All that work is already done for you.
Edited to add: My logic stage students also have a blank timeline book. I like the one Sonlight puts out. They will add important dates to their timeline book, color coded by type of date.
SOTW my way
Edited to add: In elementary and middle school, we work on memorizing the lists given in the WTM to go along with each year cycle, and we also work through learning the countries of the world by continent. We also have a blank timeline on the wall and a blank map on the wall and we input the informaton we study from each SOTW chapter on those 2 resources each day we do history. We do history 2 days a week around here.
As I mentioned in my first post on history here, I re-order Story of the World. No, I don't think this is necessary. I think you can use Story of the World straight through and it is fine. It is really excellently written (and I am picky about history). However, it jumps too much for us, and I also want to set it up in a way that is conducive to using unit studies and slowing down to study a topic with more depth. And so I re-order and group Story of the World. Below is our basic structure for each year of the WTM cycle as requested.
(Look for some of my year specific posts soon on some of my favorite resources for each year of the WTM cycle. I also love this link which gives you great ideas for books to go along with SOTW that are included in the Sonlight program.)
Year 1: Intro-what is history-week 1--intro, ch. 1
Egypt--weeks 2-5--ch. 2, 3, 4, 12, 13
Mesopotamia--weeks 6-9--ch. 5, 6, 7, 8, 14, 15, 16, 17
India---weeks 10-12--ch. 9, 30, 31
China--weeks 13-15--ch. 10, 32, 33
Africa--weeks 16-17--ch. 11
Greeks--weeks 18-22--ch. 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24
Persia--weeks 23-24--ch. 21
Hellenistic world--weeks 25, 26--ch. 25
Rome--weeks 27-32--ch. 27, 28, 29, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42
Americas--weeks 33-36--ch. 26
Year 2: Fall of Rome/Germanic Tribes--weeks 1-2--ch. 1, 4
Islamic Empire--weeks 3-5--ch. 6, 7, 12, 24
Europe: Knights, castles, Vikings, Crusades, etc--weeks. 6-13--ch. 2, 3, 15, 16, 11, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 23
India--weeks 14-15--ch. 5, 30
China--weeks 16-17--ch. 8, 21, 22
Japan--weeks 18-19--ch. 9, 10
Americas and africa--weeks 20-21--ch. 29, 32
Fall of the Middle Ages--weeks 22-24--ch. 25, 26, 27
Renaissance--weeks 25-27--ch. 35, 39
Reformation--weeks 28-30--ch. 34, 36
Exploration--weeks 31-36--ch. 28, 31, 33, 37, 38, 40, 41, 42
Year 3: Pre-European North America, colonies--weeks 1-4--ch. 1, 4, 6, 7
Stuarts and Civil War in England--weeks 5-7--ch. 3, 9, 12, 8, 18
Tokugawa Japan, Imperialism--weeks 8-12--ch. 5, 10, 11, 19, 20, 24, 28, 39, 41
Absolutism--weeks 13-15--ch. 13, 14, 15, 21
Englightenment--weeks 16-17--ch. 16, 17, 26
18th century colonial life, Revolution, constitution--weeks 18-26--ch. 22, 23, 36, 37
French Rev, Latin Am Rev, Industrial Rev--weeks 27-32--ch. 25, 29, 33, 30, 34, 35, 27, 31
Westward Migration--weeks 33-36--ch. 32, 38, 40, 42
(We also build our state history studies into Year 4. I have extra reading on our particular state's history that we add into our studies in context. ex. We study the Civil War, and we also read a section on our state's history specifically in the Civil War.)
Years 4: Asia and Africa--weeks 1-4--ch. 1b, 2a, 3, 4b, 8b, 9, 10, 11, 12b
Industrial Revolution and Modernism--weeks 5-8--ch. 8a, 1a, 2a, 12a, 14
Americas: Civil War, Latin America, Mexican Rev.--weeks 9-15--ch. 6, 13, 5, 16
Unification of Germany, WWI, Russian Rev--weeks 16-20--ch. 4a, 7, 18, 15, 20, 21, 23
Post War, Depression, Fascism, WWII, Holocaust, Atom Bomb--weeks 21-29--ch. 26, 24, 27, 19, 28, 29, 31, 22
Cold War, 50s-80s--weeks 30-36--ch. 35, 38, 32, 33, 34, 30, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41, 42
As I mentioned in my first post on history here, I re-order Story of the World. No, I don't think this is necessary. I think you can use Story of the World straight through and it is fine. It is really excellently written (and I am picky about history). However, it jumps too much for us, and I also want to set it up in a way that is conducive to using unit studies and slowing down to study a topic with more depth. And so I re-order and group Story of the World. Below is our basic structure for each year of the WTM cycle as requested.
(Look for some of my year specific posts soon on some of my favorite resources for each year of the WTM cycle. I also love this link which gives you great ideas for books to go along with SOTW that are included in the Sonlight program.)
Year 1: Intro-what is history-week 1--intro, ch. 1
Egypt--weeks 2-5--ch. 2, 3, 4, 12, 13
Mesopotamia--weeks 6-9--ch. 5, 6, 7, 8, 14, 15, 16, 17
India---weeks 10-12--ch. 9, 30, 31
China--weeks 13-15--ch. 10, 32, 33
Africa--weeks 16-17--ch. 11
Greeks--weeks 18-22--ch. 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24
Persia--weeks 23-24--ch. 21
Hellenistic world--weeks 25, 26--ch. 25
Rome--weeks 27-32--ch. 27, 28, 29, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42
Americas--weeks 33-36--ch. 26
Year 2: Fall of Rome/Germanic Tribes--weeks 1-2--ch. 1, 4
Islamic Empire--weeks 3-5--ch. 6, 7, 12, 24
Europe: Knights, castles, Vikings, Crusades, etc--weeks. 6-13--ch. 2, 3, 15, 16, 11, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 23
India--weeks 14-15--ch. 5, 30
China--weeks 16-17--ch. 8, 21, 22
Japan--weeks 18-19--ch. 9, 10
Americas and africa--weeks 20-21--ch. 29, 32
Fall of the Middle Ages--weeks 22-24--ch. 25, 26, 27
Renaissance--weeks 25-27--ch. 35, 39
Reformation--weeks 28-30--ch. 34, 36
Exploration--weeks 31-36--ch. 28, 31, 33, 37, 38, 40, 41, 42
Year 3: Pre-European North America, colonies--weeks 1-4--ch. 1, 4, 6, 7
Stuarts and Civil War in England--weeks 5-7--ch. 3, 9, 12, 8, 18
Tokugawa Japan, Imperialism--weeks 8-12--ch. 5, 10, 11, 19, 20, 24, 28, 39, 41
Absolutism--weeks 13-15--ch. 13, 14, 15, 21
Englightenment--weeks 16-17--ch. 16, 17, 26
18th century colonial life, Revolution, constitution--weeks 18-26--ch. 22, 23, 36, 37
French Rev, Latin Am Rev, Industrial Rev--weeks 27-32--ch. 25, 29, 33, 30, 34, 35, 27, 31
Westward Migration--weeks 33-36--ch. 32, 38, 40, 42
(We also build our state history studies into Year 4. I have extra reading on our particular state's history that we add into our studies in context. ex. We study the Civil War, and we also read a section on our state's history specifically in the Civil War.)
Years 4: Asia and Africa--weeks 1-4--ch. 1b, 2a, 3, 4b, 8b, 9, 10, 11, 12b
Industrial Revolution and Modernism--weeks 5-8--ch. 8a, 1a, 2a, 12a, 14
Americas: Civil War, Latin America, Mexican Rev.--weeks 9-15--ch. 6, 13, 5, 16
Unification of Germany, WWI, Russian Rev--weeks 16-20--ch. 4a, 7, 18, 15, 20, 21, 23
Post War, Depression, Fascism, WWII, Holocaust, Atom Bomb--weeks 21-29--ch. 26, 24, 27, 19, 28, 29, 31, 22
Cold War, 50s-80s--weeks 30-36--ch. 35, 38, 32, 33, 34, 30, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41, 42
Elementary History
I get a lot of questions about how I do history. Since history is my field, I piece together my own history really. I can tell you my approach, and I am happy to send you my lessons plans if you want to see what that looks like. There are also other great curriculum out there that are laid out for you. This post, and the next couple will cover how we approach history here. I will write a post soon with other suggestions for history curriculum that are done very well and would be a great choice if you are looking for something that comes more planned for you.
For the grammar stage (1st-4th grade), I use Story of the World as our core text. I love Story of the World. It is chronological, entertaining, and covers just enough information. I love love love the mapwork and the discussion questions that are already for me in the activity book, as well as the games and crafts we can choose from and the literature suggestions. There are a couple of things I don't love about Story of the World. First of all, I don't love the order of the chapters usually. It jumps too much for me. I have re-ordered and grouped chapters in a way that allows more of a unit study approach. I will give you those details in a 2nd post. Second of all, I have children who don't process orally well. For those kids, reading the chapter isn't going to be enough. It is for those kids especially that I love the hands-on activities. Story of the World can be used just the way it is and done well. Just pick a chapter a read. Add on as much or as little as you want from the activity book. No pre-planning required.
Our basic approach is to read the chapter, answer the questions, and do the mapwork. After we have completed a chapter, my grammar stage kids will narrate what they have just heard. For a 1st grader, that means they will tell me a brief summary, I will write it for them, and then they will draw a picture. A 2nd grader will write a few sentences on their own and draw a picture. A 3rd grader will write a paragraph and and work toward half a page. A 4th grader will be writing a full page by the end of the year.
After we have completed Story of the World work, we will choose from the variety of activities in the activity book. It contains games, crafts, cooking, and larger projects. We do as many or as few of these as we have time and interest. I also usually have other reading and resources to go along with the topic, and we pick and choose from the suggested further reading.
Since I have re-ordered the chapters, it is very easy for me to stop our basic Story of the World work and throw in a unit study if my kids are particularly interested, or if I find the topic very important. For instance, when we cover the modern world, we always do the couple of chapters in Story of the World on the Civil War and then we break off and do much more. We read books, watch movies, visit battlefields, build diaromas, go to re-enactments, and complete literature-based unit studies like those from Teacher-Created Materials. We will take 4-6 weeks to study the Civil War, and do significantly more than Story of the World does on that topic because it is fun.
That's basically our approach--Story of the World as our base, but re-structured, and allowing time for deeper exploration with additional resources, building literature into our history study. Next, I will give you the info on how I re-order SOTW chapters as requested.
Edited to add: In elementary and middle school, we work on memorizing the lists given in the WTM to go along with each year cycle, and we also work through learning the countries of the world by continent. We also have a blank timeline on the wall and a blank map on the wall and we input the informaton we study from each SOTW chapter on those 2 resources each day we do history. We do history 2 days a week around here.
For the grammar stage (1st-4th grade), I use Story of the World as our core text. I love Story of the World. It is chronological, entertaining, and covers just enough information. I love love love the mapwork and the discussion questions that are already for me in the activity book, as well as the games and crafts we can choose from and the literature suggestions. There are a couple of things I don't love about Story of the World. First of all, I don't love the order of the chapters usually. It jumps too much for me. I have re-ordered and grouped chapters in a way that allows more of a unit study approach. I will give you those details in a 2nd post. Second of all, I have children who don't process orally well. For those kids, reading the chapter isn't going to be enough. It is for those kids especially that I love the hands-on activities. Story of the World can be used just the way it is and done well. Just pick a chapter a read. Add on as much or as little as you want from the activity book. No pre-planning required.
Our basic approach is to read the chapter, answer the questions, and do the mapwork. After we have completed a chapter, my grammar stage kids will narrate what they have just heard. For a 1st grader, that means they will tell me a brief summary, I will write it for them, and then they will draw a picture. A 2nd grader will write a few sentences on their own and draw a picture. A 3rd grader will write a paragraph and and work toward half a page. A 4th grader will be writing a full page by the end of the year.
After we have completed Story of the World work, we will choose from the variety of activities in the activity book. It contains games, crafts, cooking, and larger projects. We do as many or as few of these as we have time and interest. I also usually have other reading and resources to go along with the topic, and we pick and choose from the suggested further reading.
Since I have re-ordered the chapters, it is very easy for me to stop our basic Story of the World work and throw in a unit study if my kids are particularly interested, or if I find the topic very important. For instance, when we cover the modern world, we always do the couple of chapters in Story of the World on the Civil War and then we break off and do much more. We read books, watch movies, visit battlefields, build diaromas, go to re-enactments, and complete literature-based unit studies like those from Teacher-Created Materials. We will take 4-6 weeks to study the Civil War, and do significantly more than Story of the World does on that topic because it is fun.
That's basically our approach--Story of the World as our base, but re-structured, and allowing time for deeper exploration with additional resources, building literature into our history study. Next, I will give you the info on how I re-order SOTW chapters as requested.
Edited to add: In elementary and middle school, we work on memorizing the lists given in the WTM to go along with each year cycle, and we also work through learning the countries of the world by continent. We also have a blank timeline on the wall and a blank map on the wall and we input the informaton we study from each SOTW chapter on those 2 resources each day we do history. We do history 2 days a week around here.
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