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Has anyone used the Oxford University Press guides to Hakims's History of US?


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I found these on amazon while looking at the Hakim series. The assessment book is just a whole bunch (over 70) of multiple choice tests about the chapters, separated by section. The teaching guides supposedly have writing assignments, but I didn't find anything specific in the sample pages provided. Just general instructions such as, "Have the class write a personal history book". Whatever that means! They seem pretty classroom focused and not necessarily useful for homeschoolers. ie "Have students use an opaque projector to make a large map..." I haven't seen these discussed and just wondered if anyone has used them (or seen them in person).

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195153510/ref=pd_luc_0000101951534800195153510

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I've not used the assessment book so I can't speak to that, but the guides are excellent. Each chapter gets a page or two, including "understand" questions and "check understanding" questions.... The "understand" questions are meant to be discussed (I generally have DS read the chapter, read the questions, and then re-read the chapter taking notes directed to those questions before we discuss). The "check understanding" questions include a writing prompt and usually a discussion prompt that could be made into another writing prompt.

 

The book is divided into parts (I have the guide to Book Six on my lap right now, and its 31 chapters are divided into six parts), so that each part has a summary and a "checkup" that could serve as an essay test, or just further discussion.

 

There are some teacher helps like a chapter summary, and vocabulary list for each chapter, and some teaching hints like recommendations for outside reading or reading from the Sourcebook, and there are extra "resource pages" like maps and charts and things like that.

 

I really think they add quite a lot to the textbooks. More than I think we could ever do! LOL... And it really helps me come up with writing assignments, which was specifically what I wanted it for.

 

Hope this helps!

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Thanks, Erica. I couldn't get a good picture of what they would add from the amazon samples. I'm glad you find them useful. I would definitely use the maps and writing assignments. I was hoping to find something more like the "understanding questions" and essay test/writing prompts in the assessment book, but it is strictly multiple choice. Are you doing the whole series in one school year?

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Have you looked at Hewitt's guide? http://www.hewitthomeschooling.com/book/bsingle.asp?i=2852

 

It has a schedule to do all ten books in a year, along with research paper and project guidelines. There is a test for each book, most are short answer, with a couple of multiple choice and matching questions, and also an essay question. Best of all, it was only $9.

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It just so happens that I've got the teaching guide for book 1 sitting here with me. So, I'll do my best to tell you how it works.

 

It has the basic "How this guide works and how to use it" information.

 

This introduction is then broken down into the following:

~TEACHING WITH BIG IDEAS

~CREATING TEACHING UNITS~The textbook is divided up into seven teaching units.

~SPECIAL FEATURES~

*Literacy and A History of US

*About the Johns Hopkins Team Learning

activities~One of these activities is a part of

each unit. These are Team/Group activities.

*Assessment and A History of US

*Historical Overview

~TEACHING STRATEGIES

~SYNTHESIZING THE BIG IDEA

~RESOURCE PAGES

 

The first teaching unit for book one covers chapters 1-4. It begins with introducing a framework for understanding the chapters and reading strategies.

 

The guide is then is broken down by chapters.

A sample from Chapter 1:

~Chapter summary

~Key vocabulary

1. Connect~Discussion of the books title, how the student think they are apart of American history, and a discussion on how the "US constitution is based on the idea that was unique for its time, that government belongs to the people."

2. Understand~Again more discussion prompts with possible responses in parenthesis.

3. Check understanding~A brief writing assignment. For chapter one the prompt is "What is you opinion of the importance of history?"

Also a part of this section is a discussion that is broad, covering such skills a analysis, generalizations, summarizing and evaluating.

 

Each chapter follows this format.

 

At the end of the unit is the Team Learning project and summarizing the unit, which includes assessments and alternative assessments some of which require writing, debate or speech making, ethical judgment, and more creative projects such as song writing.

 

My opinion:

 

I think that if you are going to read all 10 volumes of A history of US it's going to take two years. With this guide you can adjust the level of expectation to meet the needs of a middle school student or a high school student. The key is having greater expectation from the high school student when they take on a writing assignment, engage in discussion, or produce more creative projects.

 

The Johns Hopkins Learning Team project is definitely geared toward the classroom, but the rest of the guide can be modified to suit a home schooler.

 

HTH,

Wildiris

 

 

 

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Have you looked at Hewitt's guide? http://www.hewitthomeschooling.com/book/bsingle.asp?i=2852

 

It has a schedule to do all ten books in a year, along with research paper and project guidelines. There is a test for each book, most are short answer, with a couple of multiple choice and matching questions, and also an essay question. Best of all, it was only $9.

 

I've always wanted to use the Hakim series, and I thought about using it for high school. This study guide is for 7-8, but Hakim looks so much better than what they have for high school.

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My opinion:

 

I think that if you are going to read all 10 volumes of A history of US it's going to take two years. With this guide you can adjust the level of expectation to meet the needs of a middle school student or a high school student. The key is having greater expectation from the high school student when they take on a writing assignment, engage in discussion, or produce more creative projects.

 

 

I will have an 8th and 10th grader, and I would love to cover all ten volumes in one year by cutting out a bit here and there.

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The Hewitt guide is for junior high. I wouldn't use it for HS. I will be using it next year for my sixth grader. He's doing the first six volumes this year in fifth grade through a K12 virtual school. I'm pulling him out of that at the end of this year, but want to continue the US History. I figure it will take us half a year to do volumes 7-10, and then we'll do half a year of geography b/c ds is a geography nut.

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Thanks, Erica. I couldn't get a good picture of what they would add from the amazon samples. I'm glad you find them useful. I would definitely use the maps and writing assignments. I was hoping to find something more like the "understanding questions" and essay test/writing prompts in the assessment book, but it is strictly multiple choice. Are you doing the whole series in one school year?

We're taking our time with it... I think it could be done in a year but it would be really quite a bit of work unless you cut out some stuff. We generally take a day per chapter, and at something like 30 chapters per book, that would be around 300 school days (~60 weeks) And we're not doing it every day -- we add in Critical Thinking in US History, take rabbit trails for literature and field trips, and some other things... So I expect about two years out of it when all is said and done.

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I haven’t used the guides, but have used and wanted to let you know about free on-line lesson plans, ideas and print-outs from the companion website for Freedom: A History of US, based on Hakim’s History of US series. Johns Hopkins also developed the on-line site and teaching guides.

 

Here’s the teacher page:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/historyofus/teachers/

 

And the free teaching guides, by subject:

 

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/historyofus/...rs/guides.html

 

We've also supplemented with map work (using blackline maps), activity books from the library, history pockets (Evan Moor), hand-on history books (Scholastic), United Streaming and library videos, historical fiction, etc. I find that the questions in the text itself lead to good discussions. We generally read the texts together and discuss, but are making the transition to more formal written work.

 

We’re completing the series in two years (this year we'll complete through the Civil War; I printed the k12 course objectives). At this point, we plan that both boys will do “Advanced US History†work later in high school, covering the topic in one year.

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You are welcome. I just popped over to the site and couldn't watch the intro. video. Apparently I don't have RealPlayer, which is downloadable free (click on the Katie Curic video in Section 1 of Webisode 1 and the link to the download will pop up).

 

I'm not getting the audio clips (quotations, etc.) in the text, either. Perhaps the download will allow the audio-only to play as well.

 

As an aside, isn't it a cool site? I really like the links to document and image pop-ups that are right in the text.

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