History for a History Lover

[Mom2boys]

If your child loved history, and was college-bound as a possible history major, which resources would you use for his high school history classes?

 

Edited to add: My son knows quite a bit of history already. I am looking for something fairly rigorous and challenging for him, but that won't be too time-consuming for me to plan/teach/grade.

Edited January 11, 2011 by Mom2boys

[Guest Cheryl in SoCal]

If your child loved history, and was college-bound as a possible history major, which resources would you use for his high school history classes?

 

I would use TRISMS. It is research based and can be as in-depth as you want depending on the resources you use with it. It also covers an incredibly wide range of topics. I'm on my phone so I can't type much but if you do a search you should be able to find some good info. I'll try to come back later today when I'm home to explain more.

[HollyDay]

I have a minor in history. Have you looked at BF? It is only a 2 year course and does not go too far into modern history. If I recall correctly, it does not have too much past the early 80s. You would have to supplement with something else to bring it into the 90s through current though

[HS Mom in NC]

Books by Charles C. Coffin:

 

The Story of Liberty

The Sweet Land of Liberty

Boys '76

[Guest]

Whatever main textbook, spine, or set of lectures you use, I'd try to make sure to include plenty of exposure to primary documents of all kinds, from paintings to political documents to political cartoons (which have an incredibly long history dating back to the middle ages or earlier) to letters and other informal sources of first-person information.

 

I think it would be great to also include competing versions of the same set of events. This doesn't have to mean the accounts are in opposition to one another; it can be merely seeing the same set of events from different vantage points.

 

For instance, dd and I were watching a Teaching Company lecture last night in which Francis Drake's seizing of Spanish ships and gold was one of the elements of discussion. The lecturer went into a brief aside about how to characterize Drake's acts, depending on where the viewer sat. Piracy? State-sponsored terrorism? Heroic acts on the part of the underdog? What would an account look like from the point of view of the British, the Spanish, a "neutral" observer, an African slave carried on an English ship? This is the type of thing I mean: have your student become accustomed to thinking of the fact that events can be viewed from multiple perspectives, both at the time of their occurrence and in historical writings much later.

[Mom2boys]

I would use TRISMS. It is research based and can be as in-depth as you want depending on the resources you use with it. It also covers an incredibly wide range of topics. I'm on my phone so I can't type much but if you do a search you should be able to find some good info. I'll try to come back later today when I'm home to explain more.

 

Hi Cheryl

 

Thanks for your response. I did look at TRISMS at our local convention, and thought it would not be a good fit for my ds. I don't think he would care for all the questionnaires. And it seemed to use excerpts of literature, rather than complete works. But those were just my initial impressions. Maybe there is more to TRISMS than I realize?

[Mom2boys]

Whatever main textbook, spine, or set of lectures you use, I'd try to make sure to include plenty of exposure to primary documents of all kinds, from paintings to political documents to political cartoons (which have an incredibly long history dating back to the middle ages or earlier) to letters and other informal sources of first-person information.

 

I think it would be great to also include competing versions of the same set of events. This doesn't have to mean the accounts are in opposition to one another; it can be merely seeing the same set of events from different vantage points.

 

For instance, dd and I were watching a Teaching Company lecture last night in which Francis Drake's seizing of Spanish ships and gold was one of the elements of discussion. The lecturer went into a brief aside about how to characterize Drake's acts, depending on where the viewer sat. Piracy? State-sponsored terrorism? Heroic acts on the part of the underdog? What would an account look like from the point of view of the British, the Spanish, a "neutral" observer, an African slave carried on an English ship? This is the type of thing I mean: have your student become accustomed to thinking of the fact that events can be viewed from multiple perspectives, both at the time of their occurrence and in historical writings much later.

 

Thank you KarenAnne. I think you make some excellent points.

[Guest Cheryl in SoCal]

Hi Cheryl

 

Thanks for your response. I did look at TRISMS at our local convention, and thought it would not be a good fit for my ds. I don't think he would care for all the questionnaires. And it seemed to use excerpts of literature, rather than complete works. But those were just my initial impressions. Maybe there is more to TRISMS than I realize?

 

Do you know what volume you looked at? There are excerpts for some literature but also entire books that aren't included in the curriculum. isince you are studying literature from the time period being studied there earlier levels do have a lot less literature available, especially ancients. Even if the literature assigned is an excerpt you can opt to have the student read the entire work. I like the option because one of my children would not do well with a heavy literature load. The student is also to read a book every month in addition to the literature assigned. It should be something relating to one of the units studied during that month. They provide lists but as long as it meets the requirements it can be any book you choose. If a student wants/needs more literature you could assign a book for every unit (2 weeks).

 

You can use the questionairres any way you wish. They are to get the students familiar with what to look for while researching.

 

I'll write more later when I get home.

[Rosie_0801]

Make sure he gets a good working knowledge of databases and lots of practice in forming his own essay questions.

 

Rosie

[Leanna Tomlinson]

As the mom of a current college history major, I would recommend TOG.

 

I know many talk about the work of planning TOG, but I really think there isn't that much planning to do at the Rhetoric level. You will need to decide which threads to include (ie - Fine Arts, Church History, Philosophy and Government) in addition to History. After choosing your threads (and I don't recommend doing all of them in the 9th grade), the Student Activity Pages are there to direct your student. The Teacher's notes enable you to have a meaningful interactive discussion each week. The writing assignments truly help your student analyze the material with rhetoric level thinking skills.

 

Even if your dc decides not to major in history, the rhetoric level skills developed using TOG will enable him to excel in any liberal arts major.

[Hannah C.]

I don't know about curricula, but I'm a recent college graduate with a history BA! :) I would say, whatever curriculum you use, go further than that. Find primary documents, read extra books, etc -- in other words, all the things your ds is probably already doing on his own!

[Jamee]

Read, read, read! My degree is in history and I really didn't do anything special through high school to prepare--did have AP one year, but not a big deal. Primary sources would be a plus. Foreign languages, depending on the area he wants to go into. I was Medieval Europe, so Latin was a must for those going further and we also dabbled in Old English.

 

Personally, I would start researching jobs that he could do after graduation. Find a direction that he'd like to take. I'd say most history majors go into teaching, I went that direction even though I didn't want to teach.:glare: I wish I had spent more time finding out what else I could do in the world with my degree. If I could do it over, I'd have double majored in history and art history and minored in archeology. I think that would have suited me better--and been MUCH more enjoyable.

[Guest Cheryl in SoCal]

I don't have time to post more right now but can copy/paste something I posted somewhere else. I agree with those that say to use source documents, which I do with TRISMS.

 

TRISMS is an in-depth, chronological, research based curriculum. However, I think of it as more of a syllabus as it provides the framework and the student uses resources to research. It also covers more than just history because the student studies everything about the civilization they are studying (literature, art, architecture, music, geography, etc). It also uses IEW for composition. The list of credits possible can be quite large, especially in the latter volumes. They aren't expected to do them all, though if they worked really hard I suppose they could. Basically it gives your student a lot to choose from so the focus can be tailored to their needs/likes/etc. Here are the lists of possible credits for each high school volume. Age of Revolution is often done over two years instead of one (1 semester/year) because there is so much in it.

 

Cheryl :-)

Discovering the Ancient World

 

Beginning of recorded history — 500 B.C. -Ancient History (1 credit)

-Literature & Composition or English I (1 credit)

-World or Ancient Geography (1/2 credit)

-Cartography (1/2 credit)

-Survey of Science History (1/4 credit)

-Humanities (1 credit)

-Writing Structure & Style

(if IEW is included with Literature assignments) (1/2 credit)

-Speech (1/4 credit)

-Biblical History (1/2 credit)

-Multi-cultural studies (1/4 credit)

-Anthropology (1/4 credit)

-Economics (1/4 credit)

-Advanced Critical Thinking I (1/2 credit)

-Research Writing (1/2 credit)

-Special Interest (student selected topic) ½ credit

or more depending on the student.

 

Expansion of Civilization

 

500 B.C. – A.D. 1500 -English or Literature & Composition (1 credit)

-Classical & Medieval History (1 credit)

-Historical Science (1 credit)

-World Geography (1 credit)

-Research Writing ( ½ credit)

-Advanced Critical Thinking( ½ credit)

-Economics( ¼ credit)

-Intro. to Philosophy ( ¼ credit)

-Intro. to Rhetoric ( ¼ credit)

-Cartography ( ½ credit)

-Humanities (1 credit)

-Writing Structure & Style (if IEW is included with Literature assignments) ( ¼ credit)

-Special Interest (student selected topic) ( ½ credit)

IEW-- Institute for Excellence in Writing Structure & Style assignments

are integrated into the Literature.

Students may earn partial credits or even more than one credit in each subject, depending on number of hours spent working in each area.

 

 

Rise of Nations

 

1440 – 1860 A.D.

-English (1 credit)

-Government (1 credit)

-European History (1 credit)

-Multicultural Literature (1 credit)

-World Geography (1 credit)

-Research Writing (1/2 credit)

-Critical Thinking

-National Economics

-Architecture

or more depending on the student.

-Art Appreciation

-Music Appreciation

-Cartography (1/2 credit)

-Humanities

-Intro. to Renaissance Philosophy

-Writing Structure & Style

(if IEW is included with Literature assignments) ¼ credit

-Special Interest (student selected topic) ½ credit

 

*IEW-- Institute for Excellence Teaching Writing Structure and Style

are integrated into the Literature.

 

Age of Revolution

 

First and Second Semester

 

HIGH SCHOOL

1850 A.D.– Roaring 20's / 1930 – 2005 Through the use of resources (books, historical documents, periodicals, newspapers, Internet, interviews, films) and research the student will produce their own textbooks. Timelines and maps will provide the visual aids needed to round out their study. Research, writing as well as speaking will be emphasized in the curriculum.

 

Fully accredited for high school by the North Atlantic Regional School.

Full Credits

 

-Modern World History

-English or Literature & Composition

-Political Science

-Modern American History

with a government component

-Modern Humanities

 

Electives

 

-Research Writing (1/2 credit)

-Advanced Critical Thinking (1/2 credit)

-Rhetoric (1/2 credit)

-Economics (1/4 credit)

-Women's studies (1/2 credit)

-Revolution paper (full credit)

-*IEW Writing Structure and Style (1/4 credit)

(if IEW is included with Literature assignments) (1/4 credit)

-Special Interest (student selected topic) (1/2 credit) or more depending on the student.

 

 

*IEW--All 9 units of the Institute for Excellence in Writing Teaching Writing Structure & Style are integrated into the Literature.

[Rosie_0801]

Personally, I would start researching jobs that he could do after graduation. Find a direction that he'd like to take. I'd say most history majors go into teaching, I went that direction even though I didn't want to teach.:glare: I wish I had spent more time finding out what else I could do in the world with my degree.

 

Now for that, I recommend this book: You Majored in What?

 

Rosie

[Kim in SouthGa]

My son loves history also, and we are using SWB's History of the Ancient World, Josephus: the Essential Works, DK History of the World, Timetables of History, Map Trek-Ancient World, and I have others listed for fun reading if he wants. He is taking a coop class using SMARR Ancient Lit and Writing. He does the reading and map work, then fills out a notebook page using the History Scholar pages or just writes a short summary. Very easy, after I came up with the syllabus. Not having tests bothers me a little, but he is happy so I am dealing with it. We plan to do the same next year with Middle Ages volumes and a church history book in place of the Josephus book.

[Denise in PA]

Hi,

 

I second the TOG recommendation! Tapestry of Grace prepared my son well for college in terms of reading primary history books, researching, writing and preparing for oral discussion with mom once a week. He is NOT a history major, pursuing engineering. But he learned a lot of wonderful, enriching history!

 

My sixteen year-old daughter loves to study history (TOG rhetoric stage) and excels at it. For now she plans to pursue a history degree in college. I suggest TOG - all four years. It is a very flexible study program. Read it over and tweak it to your children's learning styles. This past fall my daughter and I sat down with a college professor (college visit) to discuss the history program. You should have seen the prof's eyes open wide when she rattled off the history books she read, many were primary sources. They had a wonderful conversation. Learning how to read and research are very important skills for any major, but especially history. TOG fit our needs perfectly.

 

You may also want to encourage your child to compete in the National History Day program. This is a wonderful, national venue available to home school students as well as public school ones. Check the web site out: http://www.nhd.org/

 

As your child progresses I also suggest CLEP testing. There are four CLEP tests available (US History I, II and Civilization I and II). Your child can pass a CLEP test in history and receive college credit.

 

Blessings,

 

Denise

[Guest]

There was a thread a couple of days ago linking to the website of the Concord National Review, which publishes a handful of exceptional history research papers by high schoolers each year. Your student might want to take a look.

 

http://tcr.org/nwb/index.htm

[Mom2boys]

My son loves history also, and we are using SWB's History of the Ancient World, Josephus: the Essential Works, DK History of the World, Timetables of History, Map Trek-Ancient World, and I have others listed for fun reading if he wants. He is taking a coop class using SMARR Ancient Lit and Writing. He does the reading and map work, then fills out a notebook page using the History Scholar pages or just writes a short summary. Very easy, after I came up with the syllabus. Not having tests bothers me a little, but he is happy so I am dealing with it. We plan to do the same next year with Middle Ages volumes and a church history book in place of the Josephus book.

 

Thanks Kim. I found the link to your Scribd syllabus on another thread. This would definitely be an option for us. And I already own several of these resources, which is always a plus.:D

[Mom2boys]

As the mom of a current college history major, I would recommend TOG.

 

I know many talk about the work of planning TOG, but I really think there isn't that much planning to do at the Rhetoric level. You will need to decide which threads to include (ie - Fine Arts, Church History, Philosophy and Government) in addition to History. After choosing your threads (and I don't recommend doing all of them in the 9th grade), the Student Activity Pages are there to direct your student. The Teacher's notes enable you to have a meaningful interactive discussion each week. The writing assignments truly help your student analyze the material with rhetoric level thinking skills.

 

Even if your dc decides not to major in history, the rhetoric level skills developed using TOG will enable him to excel in any liberal arts major.

 

I actually have TOG year 1, unit 1, sitting on my shelf right now. A friend loaned it to me to preview. I'm still debating if I want to stick with teaching history chronologically, or if we should switch to a more traditional approach, so that ds can take AP classes.

[Mom2boys]

Hi,

 

I second the TOG recommendation! Tapestry of Grace prepared my son well for college in terms of reading primary history books, researching, writing and preparing for oral discussion with mom once a week. He is NOT a history major, pursuing engineering. But he learned a lot of wonderful, enriching history!

 

My sixteen year-old daughter loves to study history (TOG rhetoric stage) and excels at it. For now she plans to pursue a history degree in college. I suggest TOG - all four years. It is a very flexible study program. Read it over and tweak it to your children's learning styles. This past fall my daughter and I sat down with a college professor (college visit) to discuss the history program. You should have seen the prof's eyes open wide when she rattled off the history books she read, many were primary sources. They had a wonderful conversation. Learning how to read and research are very important skills for any major, but especially history. TOG fit our needs perfectly.

 

You may also want to encourage your child to compete in the National History Day program. This is a wonderful, national venue available to home school students as well as public school ones. Check the web site out: http://www.nhd.org/

 

As your child progresses I also suggest CLEP testing. There are four CLEP tests available (US History I, II and Civilization I and II). Your child can pass a CLEP test in history and receive college credit.

 

Blessings,

 

Denise

 

Thanks for the information about the National History Day program. I had not heard of it before. It seems similar to the Living History project my ds did through 4-H. But NHD offers more options for sharing your research.

[choirfarm]

Tapestry of Grace hands down. However, it will take some prep on your part. For rhetoric level, you will need to at least read the teacher's notes which are hefty. But each week there are tons of maps, if you get evaluations then tests each week with essays, great discussions, etc. To be honest, year 1 is probably my least favorite. We are finishing up our 4 year cycle. My oldest did years 1 and 2 at dialectic and 3 and 4 as a rhetoric. He is 10th and I plan to have him do the SAT II American History. IF he were better at writing and IF he had done rhetoric at least 3 years, then I think it would be easy to just add in AP prep by writing more essays from the practice book. I'm also considering CLEP. He knows tons of history.

 

My 13yr 8th grader LOVES history and I went ahead and moved him up to rhetoric level for history this year. He LOVES it and LOVES the books. He read all of the Civil War Rhetoric books last year in 7th because he had already read all the dialectic resources before for fun. My son LOVES Jeff Shaara books and has read them all. So you might get those for fun reading ( though you learn a lot and there is tons of scholarship). I do like TOG because of its primary sources.

Edited January 12, 2011 by choirfarm

[Denise in PA]

I just found an interesting web site that may be helpful:

 

http://www.historians.org/pubs/free/careers/index.htm

 

It is the American Historical Association, the Professional Assoc. for All Historians.

[April in CA]

Another TOG lover here! My older ds is an engineering major, rather than a history major, but he really enjoyed TOG R level history and it prepared him extremely well for college level reading, thinking, and writing. While many of his engineering classmates were groaning in Comp 1, he sailed through. Also, since he is not likely to take lots of history classes given his major, I really wanted him to be well-rounded in history - and he is! My younger son is also doing TOG history (yr 1 this year, as a junior) as part of an on-line virtual co-op. The co-op makes my life much easier - we have to stay on schedule, but I only have to facilitate about 10 weeks out of the school year.

All that to say, TOG done well will require your child to read extensively, think deeply, and write (hopefully clearly!) about world and American history - and will prepare your child to do the same in college, regardless of major!

Blessings,

April

[Storm Bay]

I would include SWB's books (History of the Ancient World, the next one, and any more that come out between now and graduation) along with whatever else you do. I middle one loves history, and I am planning to incorporate those. My eldest read the first one last year for her history (she says she likes history) along with a few, but not nearly enough for a budding history major, great books.

[Mom2boys]

My younger son is also doing TOG history (yr 1 this year, as a junior) as part of an on-line virtual co-op. The co-op makes my life much easier - we have to stay on schedule, but I only have to facilitate about 10 weeks out of the school year.

Blessings,

April

 

Hi April

 

Would you mind sharing some information about the TOG virtual co-op? Is that through Tapestry of Grace, or another organization?

[Mom2boys]

I would include SWB's books (History of the Ancient World, the next one, and any more that come out between now and graduation) along with whatever else you do. I middle one loves history, and I am planning to incorporate those. My eldest read the first one last year for her history (she says she likes history) along with a few, but not nearly enough for a budding history major, great books.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. We already own HOAW, signed by Susan herself, and HOMW. If we don't use them as part of a history course, I'm sure ds will read them for fun. :001_smile: