StaceyL in Canada Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 A few years ago, I taught a gr 5-8 co-op class on ancient history, using just that portion of The Pageant of World History (Prentice Hall) as our spine. I wanted to have one text everyone was using so that we would literally all be "on the same page" regarding concepts, vocabulary, etc, although the students also referred to many other books for presentations, notebooking,etc. . I'll be teaching the same course again this fall and had thought I would simply re-use POWH, not only because I am already familiar with it, but also because we can carry on with it next year for medieval history should we decide to continue with the co-op. However, I also have sitting on my shelf A Message of Ancient Days (Houghton Mifflin), which is used by the Calvert School for their grade 5 course. This text is more up to date in style, more visually appealing, and somewhat more detailed, given that the entire text is on only ancient history. My dilemma: which to use? Both textbooks are available online, used, for a range of prices. POWH has more of a "textbook" tone to it, although it is written by a single author; AMOAD has more of a "narrative" feel (more story-like details given re historical events and personages; student is often addressed by the text) even though it is written by a team of writers. Has anyone used either of these, or at least AMOAD? If so, could you give me some feedback re what you did or did not like about it? Would you recommend it as a spine for a class? Also, is anyone familiar with the next textbook in HM's series, Across the Centuries? If so, what time period does it cover--middle ages only ? or Renaissance as well? Thanks for any input. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StaceyL in Canada Posted July 19, 2009 Author Share Posted July 19, 2009 ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted July 20, 2009 Share Posted July 20, 2009 Bumping for you in the hope that you'll get more feedback. When my recent graduate was in 7th grade, we used A Message of Ancient Days as one book amongst many to add in some variety. It was her first year homeschooling, and I bombarded her with books. My preference was for fiction and stand alone non-fiction books; however, I did think that AMOAD was nicely done for a textbook. Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abbeyej Posted July 20, 2009 Share Posted July 20, 2009 Sorry. I have AMOAD sitting here on my shelf too, and I liked what I saw, but ended up using so many other things that we just didn't get around to it. Oddly, I ended up using (and loving) Calvert's *old* 6th grade text, "Builders of the Old World" a great deal. (AMOAD is their new 6th book -- 5th is American history, not that that's important...) Anyway, I guess my impressions were much like yours. AMOAD seems very engaging and thorough. I love all the illustrations and photographs of places and of artifacts to round out a child's mental picture what they're studying. But I just didn't use it enough to feel like I could offer a great critique. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StaceyL in Canada Posted July 20, 2009 Author Share Posted July 20, 2009 Thanks for the input. I may have the class as a whole use POWH, but have my son also read AMOAD as a more "narrative" appraoch. I had been thinking of using SOTW as his "narrative supplement", which we never used in earlier grades because we focused on world geography and Canadian history for those years. However, I'm wondering if SOTW might be too "young" for him now (he'll be grade 5). Do you think AMOAD would be a decent substitute, even though it is a textbook? Meanwhile, in doing a google search about AMOAD, I cam across some virulently negative reviews on a Christian website, objecting to what the website author sees as the textbook's support/ endorsement of anti-Christian/ pro-Muslim views--eg, assignments that have a child "imagine" being on a pilgrimage to Mecca. The website author stated that his/ her child is "forbidden" to imagine such things. Whew!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiana Posted July 20, 2009 Share Posted July 20, 2009 There are some virulently negative reviews on Amazon as well, all but one of them complaining of pro-Islam as far as I can see. Most of those seemed to be complaining of insufficiently negative treatment of Islam. The other one said that the reading level was too high for the stated grade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted July 20, 2009 Share Posted July 20, 2009 ... However, I'm wondering if SOTW might be too "young" for him now (he'll be grade 5). ... I had my daughter read some SOTW volumes as a review at mid-year and at the end of the school year. She was in 7th and 8th grades at the time. She found them to be young; however, I still feel they were a valuable and quick method of reviewing the whole year. Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beezus Posted July 20, 2009 Share Posted July 20, 2009 I used AMOAD with my 6th grader after I took her out of an online charter school. I thought the reading level was appropriate for the grade level. The text had a bit more detail and depth than the Glencoe history book she had been using at her other school, which seemed like "history lite." I chose AMOAD because it seemed to have a little more meat to it. I read the Amazon review that someone mentioned before. It just seemed to me that someone had a particular ax to grind on a particular issue. I personally didn't find AMOAD to be more biased than any other text book we had used. You can always find things to pick at if you are so inclined, and there is probably some sort of bias in every history textbook. For us, those are just things to discuss as we come across them in the reading. As a basic text, I thought AMOAD suited our purpose just fine. This next year we will be using the following book from that Houghton Mifflin series, Across the Centuries. It picks up after the fall of the Roman Empire and goes up through about the time of the French Revolution. The publisher does have a website for A Message of Ancient Days, containing some outlines and other resources at: http://www.eduplace.com/ss/hmss/6/index.html And for Across the Centuries it is: http://www.eduplace.com/ss/hmss/7/index.html We will do some extra reading too, as I have picked out some literature books relating to the medieval time period for this year. I was going to have my 7th grader go back and read some sections from SOTW. She didn't really care for SOTW too much the first time we went through it, and we didn't finish the series completely. I thought I would try and pick out a few sections that tie in with our other text and see if SOTW is any more meaningful for her the second time around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StaceyL in Canada Posted July 23, 2009 Author Share Posted July 23, 2009 Thanks.... Could you tell me where you have purchased these texts? Do you buy directly from Houghton Mifflin, or find them used somewhere? I do have AMOAD, but I can't recall where I bought it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beezus Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 I think I bought mine at half.com or from one of the used book sellers at Amazon. Also, I have found used textbooks at betterworldbooks. Their prices are good and shipping is free within the US. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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