Has anyone used "America: The Story of Us" DVDs and book from History Channel?

[Wendi]

I am toying with the idea of using the DVDs and book for American history for my 9th grader. The History.com website has episode guides, with questions and key terms, as well as topics for further study. I thought we could use this for the basis, adding additional reading (the textbook chapters are short), documentaries, etc.

 

Wendi

[beachnut]

Yes, I used the DVDs, but the not book. We read Hakim's 10-volume "The History of US" book series and coordinated the "America: The Story of Us' webisodes & DVD segments. Together, they are a fantastic study of American history. Each webisode also features an online Teacher's Guide. And the DVDs (which I got for free from The History Channel when they had a special offer for educators) are incredible. They tell the story of America with an engaging, visual presentation that truly is just enjoyable to watch, even if you weren't studying American history. We added other books along the way (both nonfiction and historical fiction) and truly LOVED having Hakim's materials (book, website, DVDs) as our spine. Highly recommended.

[Deniseibase]

BTW - the episodes are free on Netflix for those who have that.

[Running the race]

BTW - the episodes are free on Netflix for those who have that.

 

We are watching the episodes on Netflix. My son is also using Sonlight's Core 100 books (Hakim and extra books).

 

We watched the first episode. It was fast-moving, informative, and entertaining.

[galaxy]

The History.com website has episode guides, with questions and key terms, as well as topics for further study.

 

Can you tell me where you found these? Do you have a direct link? I cant seem to find them. We watch the videos, but I had no idea other materials existed. Would love to check it out. Thanks!

[beachnut]

I apologize but I might have confused you with the materials I mentioned previously. Let me clarify what I used.

 

The History Channel recently produced "America: The Story of Us," a 12-episode DVD series. It's fantastic! The home page for this series is here:

http://www.history.com/shows/america-the-story-of-us. On the left side of this page, you'll find links to various guides (teachers, classroom, families, etc.) that coordinate with each episode. The guides include terms to know, discussion questions, primary sources to review, etc. They are helpful but not extensive.

 

Along with watching the History Channel DVDs, we also used Joy Hakim's 10-volume U.S. history books called "A History of US" as our spine. We would coordinate our readings with the appropriate segments on The History Channel DVDs.

 

In addition, we also used some great resources available thru PBS. Several years ago, PBS produced a great U.S. History program based on another of Joy Hakim's book called "Freedom: A History of Us," which seems to be a condensed version of her 10-volume series. I'm not sure if the program is still airing on PBS, but the Freedom series has a website with LOTS of materials here: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/historyofus/index.html.

 

I found the PBS webisodes here: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/historyofus/menu.html.

They do not correspond exactly with the way The History Channel's "America: The Story of Us" series is laid out, but they progress chronologically, so it's easy to match up the topics you're studying.

 

Each PBS webisode has a corresponding teachers guide here: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/historyofus/teachers/index.html. The teachers guides have LOTS of material for each webisode, from discussion questions to writing prompts to group activities and much more. I'm guessing the guides are aimed at middle schoolers, but you can easily use many activities as is and simply adapt other activities for the high school level.

 

Hopefully these links help you pull all the materials together that you need.