8th grade US-focused history

[The Governess]

We will finish history through the Middle Ages this year in 7th, but I would like to start dd in a great books program in 9th, so her 8th grade year will be a sort of transition/wrap up sort of year. With that in mind, what do you think of the following plan?

 

1. Read SOTW Vol 3 and 4 - approximately 2 chapters per week. Read related pages in the Kingfisher encyclopedia. Add dates to timeline. Complete mapwork. Complete assigned outlining.

2. Complete selections from US History Detective Books by CTC for additional US History content.

3. Complete selections from Critical Thinking in US History books by CTC for primary source reading and historical analysis.

4. Write six 2-3 page papers on selected events/historical figures (topics chosen from a list of options selected by me, applying skills working on in WWS) and one longer 8-10 page research project (topic chosen by student). These will require reading and note taking from 3-4 sources each.

5. Watch several documentaries as a family during the year and discuss.

[mschickie]

That seems like it might be a bit heavy.  I think you could probably drop SotW and just go with both volumes of History Detectives.  I had checked that out at convention this year and thought about doing it as my history spine but they could not tell me when the 2nd book would come out.  I ended up going with BJU for my spine.

 

As for papers assigning either 1 short one a quarter or 1 big one per semester would be good for this age. That would still be more than most 8th graders do.  Even in college 6 2-3 papers would be considered a little much especially with a major  8-10 paper.  As a History major in both undergraduate and graduate school I do not remember doing that many papers for one course.  If you were going to do that type of work load I would suggest it more for an 11th grader than an 8th grader even if they are advanced.

[The Governess]

That seems like it might be a bit heavy. I think you could probably drop SotW and just go with both volumes of History Detectives. I had checked that out at convention this year and thought about doing it as my history spine but they could not tell me when the 2nd book would come out. I ended up going with BJU for my spine.

 

As for papers assigning either 1 short one a quarter or 1 big one per semester would be good for this age. That would still be more than most 8th graders do. Even in college 6 2-3 papers would be considered a little much especially with a major 8-10 paper. As a History major in both undergraduate and graduate school I do not remember doing that many papers for one course. If you were going to do that type of work load I would suggest it more for an 11th grader than an 8th grader even if they are advanced.

Thanks for your feedback! The reason I have SOTW in there is that I would like her history to include more than just a US perspective. SOTW seems like it could give her a nice overall narrative but it's light enough to not consume too much time.

 

I would not use every lesson in the CTC books. I'm thinking about spreading this course out over 40 weeks and completing an average of 2 lessons per week from each (so roughly 1/2 to 2/3 of each program would be used). I would pick topics that are not covered in depth in SOTW or that I want to emphasize.

 

Thank you for chiming in on the writing. This is easy to scale back. I just want to be sure she is interacting with varied sources and going deeper on a few topics. She is a strong writer, and my guess is that a two-page double spaced expository paper would take her about 6 hours total.... so somewhere around 50 hours (including the larger project) over the year for writing projects. Maybe that is too much considering she will also be writing essays for literature and a taking separate writing class (although some of her writing for class will likely be on self selected science and history topics, so there could be some overlap). But I will definitely take her overall writing load into account when I plan this out in more detail.

[Mrs Twain]

My 8th grader is doing the CTC History Detective workbooks (1 lesson per day), reading A Patriot's History of the United States, doing map drawing, and will watch The Century: America's Time documentaries on YouTube. 

 

His writing is focused on a composition course and speech club, but other than that he is doing about the same as your plan.  I think your plan sounds good.

 

By the way, he is really enjoying the CTC workbooks.

[Lori D.]

One other thing you may wish to keep in mind is timing of U.S. History with your overall middle school and high school schedule. Typically, 1 credit of American History is done in the high school years because many many colleges have that as one of the specific credits required for admission, and colleges very frequently only count the last 4 years of credits before admission towards requirements. (So, no "bringing up" of an American History credit at high school level done in 8th grade.)

 

Lots of classical homeschoolers do a Great Books 4-year History cycle in high school, but have to do some sort of work-around in order to get that 1 credit of American History in there:

- in years 3 and 4 (early modern and modern), focus heavily on American history and less emphasis on World

- or, in years 3 and 4 do enough additional work specifically on American history to accrue 1 credit over those 2 years

- or, do an additional separate credit of American History somewhere in high school

 

Or, some feel that doing American History in 7th or 8th grade is too close to having to do it again at high school level in just a few years, so they wait and do American History during high school, and either:

- start the 4-year rotation in 8th grade with Ancients, leaving 1 year in high school for American History

- or, drop the classical 4-year History cycle in favor of the Social Science credits typically required for high school graduation and/or college admissions (1 credit American History, 1 credit World History and/or World Geography, 0.5 credit each Economics and Government)

 

At the middle school level, it's really helpful to start thinking about what your overall goals and needs for high school will be, so you can "work backwards" and see how to handle 8th grade:

- what best prepares the student for high school

- what fun or special interest subject to enjoy in that last little "window of opportunity"

- how to schedule the progression of courses in a subject area so there's not too much repeating too close together

- what won't you be able to get to in high school that you really DO want to make sure you do before the student graduates

 

Just throwing this out there to help you think of what works best not only for next year with 8th grade, but also how you want to handle the Social Science credits of high school while doing a Great Books study. :) Warmly, Lori D.

Edited October 18, 2016 by Lori D.

[The Governess]

My 8th grader is doing the CTC History Detective workbooks (1 lesson per day), reading A Patriot's History of the United States, doing map drawing, and will watch The Century: America's Time documentaries on YouTube.

 

His writing is focused on a composition course and speech club, but other than that he is doing about the same as your plan. I think your plan sounds good.

 

By the way, he is really enjoying the CTC workbooks.

Thank you! I actually think you were one of the posters in a us history thread that turned me on to the CTC books in the first place. :). Glad to hear they have been a hit!

[The Governess]

One other thing you may wish to keep in mind is timing of U.S. History with your overall middle school and high school schedule. Typically, 1 credit of American History is done in the high school years because many many colleges have that as one of the specific credits required for admission, and colleges very frequently only count the last 4 years of credits before admission towards requirements. (So, no "bringing up" of an American History credit at high school level done in 8th grade.)

 

Lots of classical homeschoolers do a Great Books 4-year History cycle in high school, but have to do some sort of work-around in order to get that 1 credit of American History in there:

- in years 3 and 4 (early modern and modern), focus heavily on American history and less emphasis on World

- or, in years 3 and 4 do enough additional work specifically on American history to accrue 1 credit over those 2 years

- or, do an additional separate credit of American History somewhere in high school

 

Or, some feel that doing American History in 7th or 8th grade is too close to having to do it again at high school level in just a few years, so they wait and do American History during high school, and either:

- start the 4-year rotation in 8th grade with Ancients, leaving 1 year in high school for American History

- or, drop the classical 4-year History cycle in favor of the Social Science credits typically required for high school graduation and/or college admissions (1 credit American History, 1 credit World History and/or World Geography, 0.5 credit each Economics and Government)

 

At the middle school level, it's really helpful to start thinking about what your overall goals and needs for high school will be, so you can "work backwards" and see how to handle 8th grade:

- what best prepares the student for high school

- what fun or special interest subject to enjoy in that last little "window of opportunity"

- how to schedule the progression of courses in a subject area so there's not too much repeating too close together

- what won't you be able to get to in high school that you really DO want to make sure you do before the student graduates

 

Just throwing this out there to help you think of what works best not only for next year with 8th grade, but also how you want to handle the Social Science credits of high school while doing a Great Books study. :) Warmly, Lori D.

Thank you, Lori. Yes, these are all questions that I am contemplating as I attempt to plan out the next five years. There are so many options! Right now I am considering having her do DE US History in 11th... possibly in addition to a great books sequence. We are in CA so we may need to satisfy a-g requirements. But, she has not had a super thorough overview of that time period yet, so I don't want her to finish middle school without covering it. And I'd like to give her another year to mature before tackling the Odyssey, rather than starting in 8th. But I'm sure I will be coming back to this list a few times over the next year as I question my plans... 😉

 

Thanks again!

Edited October 18, 2016 by lovelearnandlive

[2_girls_mommy]

We did a heavy history year in 8th. We did American history (using SOTW quite often, as AM. History really needs that centering with the rest of the world to fully understand it,) and we did a full State history too. It was the most history we have ever done in one year. My plan is that we will do the 4 yr WTM Great Books, but cover enough Am. and State history along the way to give the appropriate credits there. For one thing we started a state history notebook and I plan to have her continue to add to it as we go on trips and cover topics in our Great Books studies that fit. That way we have this big project started in 8th grade that goes through all of high school to give her the half credit needed.

 

With the Am. History and or Government I will just keep track of projects along the way and assign papers and research on the topics alongside our Great Books where appropriate starting with the election this year. It is a perfect opportunity to learn the election process, watch the debates, do some historical research for a bit even though we are officially in Ancients. I am not sure on how our total credits will end up.  This year I am giving an English and World History Ancients credit, but honestly, she is doing enough work to have at least another half credit in there for literature IMO, so I will just keep watching this. Eventually her writing and lit will be the majority of her English credit, but right now she is still doing vocabulary, spelling, writing, and grammar on top of reading the Great Books and writing about and  researching them plus the history work and reading. Honestly, the LA is a full 2 credits plus history right now IMO. 

[...................]

I would also look at History of Us.  It is so complete that you could scrap almost your entire plan and just read and discuss it, and look stuff up when you're in the mood.  It is extremely detailed, with lots of sidebars for more research.  There are plenty of pictures and the light hearted approach makes even the gory stuff not too scary for the age range.  She doesn't gloss over anything, but she also walks a fine line - she doesn't dwell on or go into great detail about many of the horrid things that have happened.  We have been extremely happy and impressed.  Although her overall bias/bent is clearly not conservative, we have nonetheless found her surprisingly fair and respectful.  

 

We could not be happier, and it's so easy.  My dd just reads it and we talk about it.  We are using SL Core 100 and the history readers that come with it are for the most part enlightening and useful as well.  But instead of buying the whole Core I would just pick out your favorite readers/literature and get them at the library.  

 

I absolutely highly recommend History of Us.  !!

[...................]

Oh our favorite US History Docmentary so far has been Ken Burns Lewis and Clark.  Beautiful.

[The Governess]

We did a heavy history year in 8th. We did American history (using SOTW quite often, as AM. History really needs that centering with the rest of the world to fully understand it,) and we did a full State history too. It was the most history we have ever done in one year. My plan is that we will do the 4 yr WTM Great Books, but cover enough Am. and State history along the way to give the appropriate credits there. For one thing we started a state history notebook and I plan to have her continue to add to it as we go on trips and cover topics in our Great Books studies that fit. That way we have this big project started in 8th grade that goes through all of high school to give her the half credit needed.

 

With the Am. History and or Government I will just keep track of projects along the way and assign papers and research on the topics alongside our Great Books where appropriate starting with the election this year. It is a perfect opportunity to learn the election process, watch the debates, do some historical research for a bit even though we are officially in Ancients. I am not sure on how our total credits will end up.  This year I am giving an English and World History Ancients credit, but honestly, she is doing enough work to have at least another half credit in there for literature IMO, so I will just keep watching this. Eventually her writing and lit will be the majority of her English credit, but right now she is still doing vocabulary, spelling, writing, and grammar on top of reading the Great Books and writing about and  researching them plus the history work and reading. Honestly, the LA is a full 2 credits plus history right now IMO. 

 

Thanks so much.  I really like the idea for high school US and state history of just adding a little bit each year and earning the credits over the four years.  That might work for us. 

[The Governess]

I would also look at History of Us.  It is so complete that you could scrap almost your entire plan and just read and discuss it, and look stuff up when you're in the mood.  It is extremely detailed, with lots of sidebars for more research.  There are plenty of pictures and the light hearted approach makes even the gory stuff not too scary for the age range.  She doesn't gloss over anything, but she also walks a fine line - she doesn't dwell on or go into great detail about many of the horrid things that have happened.  We have been extremely happy and impressed.  Although her overall bias/bent is clearly not conservative, we have nonetheless found her surprisingly fair and respectful.  

 

We could not be happier, and it's so easy.  My dd just reads it and we talk about it.  We are using SL Core 100 and the history readers that come with it are for the most part enlightening and useful as well.  But instead of buying the whole Core I would just pick out your favorite readers/literature and get them at the library.  

 

I absolutely highly recommend History of Us.  !!

 

Thanks for chiming in! We actually have History of Us, but I am shying away from using it because it feels like too much info, and it's too specifically US History (I want that to be our focus, but I'd also like to have a world context to place it in).  I do think it is a well done series.  And I wish just reading and talking about it would work for us... but this kid specifically really needs to interact with the text in order to retain info.  That's one of the reasons the workbooks appealed to me, and why I've added in various other written work.  She doesn't really do well with just reading and discussing... I'm pretty sure she gets that from me.  There has to be some form of written output about what I have read in order for me to fully process it and get it to stick.