yvonne Posted August 7, 2017 Share Posted August 7, 2017 (edited) Many colleges list "World History" as a "required" (vs "recommended") course for college applicants. My sons will have to cover that this year. They're not thrilled about it, but want to check the box if they have to. I'm not thrilled about them taking a course solely to check a box. My boys took VP's online Omni/Great Books I (ancients) & II (medieval-Renaissance) courses in 7th and 8th. We'd expected to continue that through high school, but didn't. They're considered "high school level" and I'd love to use those, but it might be a little dicey to rely on those filling the requirement since they were taken before 9th.... I considered having them do a sort of overview/review of Omni 1-3, mostly reading, and call it good, but... we have not been at all diligent about completing home-based courses. They're always put on the back burner when there's some other big paper/test/deadline & there is _always_ one of those going on. They could potentially do WHA's GC 6 course, but would "Great Conversations: Modern World" satisfy a "world history" requirement? The boys STILL do not know what college they want to attend (will definitely apply to Hillsdale), so I can't contact colleges and ask. How did your student fulfill that "world history" requirement? How far outside the box did anyone go? (ETA: I wish I could just hibernate until this college app stuff is all OVER. :( ) Edited August 7, 2017 by yvonne 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yvonne Posted August 7, 2017 Author Share Posted August 7, 2017 And if anyone has any suggestions for great "world history" courses, please post them! They're likely already full, but sometimes there are auditing options..... Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie of KY Posted August 7, 2017 Share Posted August 7, 2017 You could certainly do an outside online course, but you could do something simpler at home. We did Mystery of History with discussion. You could simply get some teaching company lectures and watch them and discuss. You could do writing as part of your history or incorporate it as part of other subjects. Hillsdale has some online courses that are free. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8filltheheart Posted August 7, 2017 Share Posted August 7, 2017 I have built a course around these books: https://www.amazon.com/Time-Life-Frame-25/dp/B000LTUVTK/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8 and the Great Courses' Foundations of Western Civ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yvonne Posted August 7, 2017 Author Share Posted August 7, 2017 Oh, thank you, Julie! Did you call yours "world history" on the transcript? How much writing did you require? We're great at the reading, ok at the discussing, but lousy at the writing. Didn't even occur to me to look at Hillsdale! They have two, 11-week "Great Books" courses, one ancient-medieval and one Renaissance-modern. That might be perfect. Do you think colleges would have an issue w/ counting "Great Books" towards their history requirement? I guess I could call it what I want, but there might be some risk to that? Do colleges even care, though, about what "history" course a student takes?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loesje22000 Posted August 7, 2017 Share Posted August 7, 2017 Might this be an option: https://www.amazon.com/IB-20th-Century-World-History/dp/0198389981/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1502120472&sr=8-6&keywords=ib+world+history ? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yvonne Posted August 7, 2017 Author Share Posted August 7, 2017 Oh, 8, if I could do courses for my kids like you do for yours, I'd have fulfilled my home schooling dreams. We are just so not good about following through on home-based courses. Maybe because we've outsourced so much (almost everything?!) in high school. It's a chicken-and-egg problem for me..... Do I outsource bec I'm afraid we won't get our own stuff done? Or do we not get our own stuff done bec we outsource and those are hard deadlines? A home-based world history study would be ideal for us, but it might just.not.happen if we try to do one. This is a tangent, but HOW do you keep your kids on track w/ the courses you've put together?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted August 7, 2017 Share Posted August 7, 2017 (edited) Do colleges even care, though, about what "history" course a student takes?!For UC a-g requirements, the SAT subject test would already check that box for world history. They have a US history requirement as well. "World History: Score of 540 satisfies one year. U.S. History: Score of 550 satisfies one year." http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/freshman/requirements/a-g-requirements/index.html ETA: My bookworm older does know most of the content for sat world history and ap European history because he enjoys ancient history. So testing out is easier for him than a year long course. Edited August 7, 2017 by Arcadia 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yvonne Posted August 7, 2017 Author Share Posted August 7, 2017 (edited) For UC a-g requirements, the SAT subject test would already check that box for world history. They have a US history requirement as well. "World History: Score of 540 satisfies one year. U.S. History: Score of 550 satisfies one year." http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/freshman/requirements/a-g-requirements/index.html We're not really looking at UCs, but I wonder if a decent subject test score (though to me "decent" is a lot higher than what UC requires) would be sufficient for most SLACs? Edited August 7, 2017 by yvonne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted August 7, 2017 Share Posted August 7, 2017 We're not really looking at UCs, but I wonder if a decent subject test score (though to me "decent" is a lot higher than what UC requires) would be sufficient for most SLACs? None of my boys want to major or minor in history so I assume they would be safe if they score above 700 for the sat subject tests. I know local B&M kids who got into selective colleges with just the history classes in school and no AP or SAT for history, all majoring in the sciences. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted August 7, 2017 Share Posted August 7, 2017 My oldest did a year of ancients and a year of medieval, similar to WTM or VP Omni with loads of Great Books and a history textbook filling the holes. We added GC lectures. I put them on his transcript as Ancient World History and Medieval World History. My 12 grader did Oak Meadow's World History with a Glencoe textbook and the OM student guide. It was lighter and ticked the box. She really enjoyed it! My 9th grader is doing history of aviation this year. It's a homegrown course. I haven't thought about how it'll go on the transcript. World History through Aviation? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yvonne Posted August 7, 2017 Author Share Posted August 7, 2017 (edited) Dreaming.... A course built around the Great Courses' "Turning Points in Modern History" would be fun! Not enough time to put something like that together for my boys, but maybe I'll try something like that for my daughter. Edited August 7, 2017 by yvonne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted August 7, 2017 Share Posted August 7, 2017 (edited) My kids had: Ancient History Medieval and Renaissance History 20th century history (DS) US History in World Context That should be plenty to fulfill a "World history" requirement. We used lots of Great Courses lectures. Edited August 7, 2017 by regentrude 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted August 7, 2017 Share Posted August 7, 2017 Dreaming.... A course built around the Great Courses' "Turning Points in Modern History" would be fun! Not enough time to put something like that together for my boys, but maybe I'll try something like that for my daughter. I am keeping this one in mind for my 9th grader! It was a contender this year. Airplanes always win though. lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootAnn Posted August 7, 2017 Share Posted August 7, 2017 I have a contemporary world history text, but I see dd wanting to put together a history of country music class for senior year. We'll see! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie of KY Posted August 7, 2017 Share Posted August 7, 2017 Oh, thank you, Julie! Did you call yours "world history" on the transcript? How much writing did you require? We're great at the reading, ok at the discussing, but lousy at the writing. Didn't even occur to me to look at Hillsdale! They have two, 11-week "Great Books" courses, one ancient-medieval and one Renaissance-modern. That might be perfect. Do you think colleges would have an issue w/ counting "Great Books" towards their history requirement? I guess I could call it what I want, but there might be some risk to that? Do colleges even care, though, about what "history" course a student takes?! I wouldn't worry about calling the course whatever you want. If you want to call it World History and then list in your course description what you actually did. We tended to do writing across the curriculum so it wasn't specifically for one course. As long as my kids did enough writing to satisfy me, I didn't worry about adding more just to round out a course. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted August 7, 2017 Share Posted August 7, 2017 Many colleges list "World History" as a "required" (vs "recommended") course for college applicants. My sons will have to cover that this year. They're not thrilled about it, but want to check the box if they have to. I'm not thrilled about them taking a course solely to check a box. My boys took VP's online Omni/Great Books I (ancients) & II (medieval-Renaissance) courses in 7th and 8th. We'd expected to continue that through high school, but didn't. They're considered "high school level" and I'd love to use those, but it might be a little dicey to rely on those filling the requirement since they were taken before 9th.... I considered having them do a sort of overview/review of Omni 1-3, mostly reading, and call it good, but... we have not been at all diligent about completing home-based courses. They're always put on the back burner when there's some other big paper/test/deadline & there is _always_ one of those going on. They could potentially do WHA's GC 6 course, but would "Great Conversations: Modern World" satisfy a "world history" requirement? The boys STILL do not know what college they want to attend (will definitely apply to Hillsdale), so I can't contact colleges and ask. How did your student fulfill that "world history" requirement? How far outside the box did anyone go? (ETA: I wish I could just hibernate until this college app stuff is all OVER. :( ) My oldest had a course titled Modern World and US History that covered from the Civil War through the Cold War. He also had AP European History and AP Comparative Government. My middle son had AP European History, AP Comparative Government and several courses that focused on Japanese, Korean or Chinese history. Neither had a traditional survey course that covered world history from ancients to the modern era. I don't recall any of the colleges they applied to specifying that they needed a world history survey course. But their transcripts did demonstrate that they had studied history broadly and done more than US focused courses. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted August 7, 2017 Share Posted August 7, 2017 I have a contemporary world history text, but I see dd wanting to put together a history of country music class for senior year. We'll see! The collegeboard has ap art history but no ap music history :P we would have used that for the fine arts requirement anyway. There is a History of Country Music course at a community college in North Carolina. "MUS 211 - History of Country Music This course introduces the varied origins of country music and the commercialization of this art form. Emphasis is placed on historical, sociocultural, and stylistic factors related to country music and musicians. Upon completion, students should be able to identify specific styles and explain the influence of pop culture on the development of country music. This course has been approved for transfer under the CAA and ICAA as a General Education course in Humanities/Fine Arts. (F, SP)" http://www.clevelandcc.edu/uploads/catalog/mus-211---history-of-country-music.htm 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8filltheheart Posted August 7, 2017 Share Posted August 7, 2017 US history is the main course that I think you will find universities wanting to see listed specifically. Some of the schools my kids have applied to have had other courses named such as either a Western Civ or European history. US gov't is another course that I recall being named. But, for the most part, other than those, my kids history classes have been wide open to different topics. My college freshman had Russian history, French history, history of communism, etc. How do I keep them accountable? I write lesson plans telling them exactly what has to be done every day. I list pages to be read, videos to watch, list out essay topics, etc. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yvonne Posted August 7, 2017 Author Share Posted August 7, 2017 How do I keep them accountable? I write lesson plans telling them exactly what has to be done every day. I list pages to be read, videos to watch, list out essay topics, etc. If you have these electronically, would you be willing to share a three-week section of your plans for the world history course you did with the books you linked above and the GC courses. I completely understand if you don't have time to look them up or if you don't have an electronic version of them that you can share! Just have to ask bec seeing an actual example, that someone was actually able to implement, might put this within the realm of possibility for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roadrunner Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 What about Big History with online G3 if you want to outsource? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yvonne Posted August 8, 2017 Author Share Posted August 8, 2017 Thanks, roadrunner! I didn't know of that option. Will look it up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janeway Posted August 9, 2017 Share Posted August 9, 2017 I don't know about the state you are in, but where I live, if a child takes an actual high school course prior to high school, it is counted on the transcript. Transcripts don't give dates classes were taken. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yvonne Posted August 10, 2017 Author Share Posted August 10, 2017 I don't know about the state you are in, but where I live, if a child takes an actual high school course prior to high school, it is counted on the transcript. Transcripts don't give dates classes were taken. I'm in CA. In CA public schools, only high school level math and foreign languages taken in middle school are included on the transcript. I churned over whether to include math & FL since we have two years of high school math, 3 years of high school French (same textbook as local public school uses in high school, 2 years of high school Latin (using Wheelock's, a high school & college text), and 1 year of high school Greek (also using a college text.) Ultimately, I decided not to include them because it's obvious from their 9th grade classes that they had all the prior courses. It seems like the public schools include credits from middle school, but private schools don't. I'd rather compare ourselves to a private school than to the public school. But, yes, it is soooo tempting to put those Omni courses on the transcript! I just don't feel I can do it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted August 10, 2017 Share Posted August 10, 2017 My 15yo son has had a ton of history. When he was in 8th grade, we cycled back around to the ancients and he informed me that he already knew everything there was to know about world history, and he didn't want to go through it again. I told him if he took the (practice) SAT subject test in world history and got over a 700, I would give him credit for world history on his transcript and we could do other things for history for the rest of high school. He got a 730. (He ended up deciding to go to the public high school where, ironically, he will be taking world history again next year.) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yvonne Posted August 10, 2017 Author Share Posted August 10, 2017 What a great idea about having the student take the practice SAT subject test to determine whether he knows world history at a high school level. I might just try that. So ironic about him taking world history again at the public school! Could he take the real World History SAT subject test before he has to take the class & place out of it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted August 10, 2017 Share Posted August 10, 2017 So ironic about him taking world history again at the public school! Could he take the real World History SAT subject test before he has to take the class & place out of it? That's a good question. I doubt it--they're pretty set in their ways. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosika Posted August 10, 2017 Share Posted August 10, 2017 My 15yo son has had a ton of history. When he was in 8th grade, we cycled back around to the ancients and he informed me that he already knew everything there was to know about world history, and he didn't want to go through it again. I told him if he took the (practice) SAT subject test in world history and got over a 700, I would give him credit for world history on his transcript and we could do other things for history for the rest of high school. He got a 730. (He ended up deciding to go to the public high school where, ironically, he will be taking world history again next year.) I just had this conversation with one of my kids. He's cycled through twice, plus as an avid reader who loved history he has consumed SO MUCH HISTORY over his little lifetime. He'd like to move on to something more challenging, like digging more deeply into an area of interest. I've been researching what all I could get away with calling "world history" in order to meet him where he is. Your idea is perfect. I can legitimately give him credit where due, and not feel locked into the need to tailor a course to "read" as world history on his transcript. Thank you! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8filltheheart Posted August 13, 2017 Share Posted August 13, 2017 If you have these electronically, would you be willing to share a three-week section of your plans for the world history course you did with the books you linked above and the GC courses. I completely understand if you don't have time to look them up or if you don't have an electronic version of them that you can share! Just have to ask bec seeing an actual example, that someone was actually able to implement, might put this within the realm of possibility for me. I write all our plans out in pencil in paper planners. It really isn't difficult, though. You define your subject matter, locate the books and the lectures that you want to use, find their general overlaps, and sequence them appropriately. I guess about how long it will take to read x number of pages and watch a lectures in order for a subject to be around 1 hr/day's worth of work. The TC lectures have suggested questions to consider that are often good starting points for more research and essays. I assign essays for the topics I consider most important and want them to remember/research more. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yvonne Posted August 13, 2017 Author Share Posted August 13, 2017 I write all our plans out in pencil in paper planners. It really isn't difficult, though. You define your subject matter, locate the books and the lectures that you want to use, find their general overlaps, and sequence them appropriately. I guess about how long it will take to read x number of pages and watch a lectures in order for a subject to be around 1 hr/day's worth of work. The TC lectures have suggested questions to consider that are often good starting points for more research and essays. I assign essays for the topics I consider most important and want them to remember/research more. Thanks, 8! It always sounds so easy when you say it! (Not "easy" easy, but doable easy. :) ) My biggest difficulties are 1) paring down to a manageable amount of reading and number of topics, and 2) determining how much writing to do. I know, intellectually, that one can only do so much in a year. I also think that less, done better, is preferable to more done halfway. But when I get started planning out a course, I just.can't.stop. The more I read about a topic in preparation for planning out a study, the more bits and pieces I want to throw in. Halfway through, I get overwhelmed and start looking for some outside course to make all the paring down decisions for me. Just as well since, if I handed my plan to the student, he would be completely overwhelmed as well. I think I could deal w/ the writing at this point. There are some excellent discussion questions at the end of the GC lectures that would make for good essay topics. I think one good essay every four weeks would be sufficient. Thanks, again, 8. Your posts w/ practical suggestions tend to bring me back to earth and put things w/in the realm of possibility. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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