beachnut Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 We plan to do a condensed Great Books approach for the next two years, as follows. 9th grade: Ancient-Medieval World History/Lit 10th grade: Renaissance-Modern World History/Lit 11th grade will be U.S. History (perhaps an AP course) 12 grade will be U.S. Govt. & Economics We'll be using Spielvogel's Western Civilization for history. It's hard to determine what to cover and what to leave out, since we're covering such a large span of time. I'm feeling overwhelmed trying to cram it all in. Has anyone ever combined the 4-year history/lit cycle into 2 years? Any suggestions on curriculum, approach, topics/books to focus on/skip, etc.? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachnut Posted May 7, 2011 Author Share Posted May 7, 2011 Anyone? Anyone? (Feeling like Ferris Bueller here.):confused1: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakblossoms Posted May 7, 2011 Share Posted May 7, 2011 :bigear: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted May 7, 2011 Share Posted May 7, 2011 (edited) We didn't combine, but rather just chose what History time frames DSs most wanted to study, and ::gasp:: dropped the rest of History. At the high school level, rather than do another "overview" of all of history (which is what those elementary/middle school years are), it seemed important to me to go "deep" into a smaller history timeframe to help DS learn the skills of making connections, tracing consequences, and being able to write and discuss, using detailed examples (i.e., the "rhetoric" of the rhetoric stage of the classical education model. To get more "buy in", I had DS choose the order of history periods he most wanted to cover. DS chose #1 = ancient (3000BC - 500AD) history and #2 = 20th century (1850-present) history, so those are the 2 years of world history we did in 9th and 10th grades, and then we did the required American History in 11th grade. We attempted to catch up all the rest of history (LOL! -- time span of 500AD-1800AD) this year in 12th grade, but History just fell by the wayside due to all the senior year stuff and extracurricular activities. While we did mostly match up literature to go with those history time frames, we also did additional Great Books studies each year to get in classic lit. that didn't fit with the history time frame. The amount of extra time we had for that dropped greatly in the last two years of high school, so I would advise getting in your "musts" as far as history AND Great Books into the 9th and 10th grade years (regardless of "chronological order" of a classical education model), because the reality is that the last 2 years of high school are PACKED -- the student is discovering their interests and possible career paths (usually not History/Lit. related), is involved in extracurriculars, is learning to drive, may be working, may be interning, may be doing dual enrollment at a community college... Because I love literature, I approached our high school History/Lit. planning from the point of view of "what Great Books are an absolute MUST for us?" I made giant lists of classic works, based on the 4 general time periods, and then narrowed it down each year to an amount for the Lit. portion of the English credit, and then additional books for a "Great Books Elective" credit. By limiting the history, we were able to explore "bunny trails" of topics of interest along the way. I think making modern or 20th century history one of the years we focused on was very helpful for understanding of current events. And I figured that DSs will probably get the Medieval to Enlightenment history, along with all the art and music in a Western Civ class in college. One thing we found helpful was to do the Government the same year as the American History; they really overlap and expand each other very nicely. In case it helps, below is the overview of what we've done and when for the history/lit. for the past 4 years, and I'd say that, while we missed a lot of material, we really enjoyed what we DID get to, and didn't jam too much in there. BEST of luck in charting your own history/lit. high school journey! Warmest regards, Lori D. 9th - History = 1.0 credit = Ancient World (3000BC to 500AD) - The Great Books = 1.0 credit = ancients - Lit. portion of English credit = Literary Lessons from the Lord of the Rings 10th - History = 1.0 credit = 20th Century World (1850 to present) - Great Books = 0.5 credit = Beowulf; Macbeth; some 20th cent. "must read" Great Books - Lit. portion of English credit = "Worldviews in Classic Sci-Fi Literature" 11th - History = 1 credit = American (1600-present) - Government = 0.5 credit - Great Books = 0.25 credit = works from our "must read" Great Books list - Lit. portion of English credit = American Lit. (selected from our "must read" list) 12th - History = 0.25 credit = Medieval (500-1000AD) -- was attempting 1.0 credit, to go up to 1800AD - Economics = 0.5 credit - Great Books = 0.25 credit = works from our "must read" Great Books list - Lit. portion of English credit = British Lit. (selected from our "must read" list) Edited July 9, 2021 by Lori D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
at the beach Posted May 7, 2011 Share Posted May 7, 2011 I believe Regina Coeli Academy does this. Humanities 2 covers Ancients through the Middle Ages and Humanities 3 covers the rest of World History. You might take a look at their website to see how they approach this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachnut Posted May 9, 2011 Author Share Posted May 9, 2011 Lori, thanks so much for the details of how you condensed history/lit into 2 years. I like the idea of getting more buy-in from DS on particular periods to study more in-depth. I hadn't thought of that. (Duh!) Both my boys (soon-to-be 6th & 9th graders) really love history, so I'm sure they've got some "favorite" historical periods where they'd like to get lost on some bunny trails exploring, for instance, medieval weaponry and battles. Violet, thanks for the website suggestion. I'll check it out to see if I can glean some good info from their course outline. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carol in Cal. Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 Sonlight 6 and 7 do just that--world history and literature in two years total. However, they are written for students in middle school and would have to be beefed up for high school. I wonder whether you could use their schedule but substitute Spielvogel for SOTW, matching up the topics? I have not used these cores, so I don't know whether the literature is advanced or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martha in GA Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 My dd is doing half of Spievogel (through Ch. 16) this year along with the Great Books from Omnibus I. Next year, we will finish Speilvogel and do Middle Ages/Renaissance books (chosen from WTM and Omnibus II list). Then, we will do modern American Lit with American History, and British Lit. her senior year with government/economics. Martha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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