Jump to content

Menu

Please give suggestions for 8th grade history (1850-present). Also, SOTW question....


Recommended Posts

Posted

A kink has developed in history plans. My brain is overworked and can't think straight, so please help me out.

 

I need some suggestions for 8th grade world history (1850-present). I would love something kin to the rich text of Guerber's Story of... books.

 

Have any of you used SOTW 4 in 8th grade? Is it rigorous enough for kids that age? Compared to textbook material from major publishers like BJUP, it seems a little simplistic, but I may be wrong. Comment?

 

My goal is to lay a solid foundation in logic stage for the student to transition to Spielvogel and Omnibus in 9th grade.

 

Ideas?

 

Thanks!

 

 

Posted

I had similar reservations for my 7th grader. I opted not to use SOTW for JrHigh. It is a difficult choice to make. You could use SOTW but add research projects, additional readings, etc. My rising 7th grader just felt she was being "talked down to". Did you look at MFW? I switched over to BF history and we are going to spend more time on US history next year.

 

I too looked at BJU. I have historically (sorry for the pun) not liked BJU history. It just seems to "chopped up" for my liking. However, I was very impressed with their 7th grade text. I just did a brief glance through 8th grade and was also impressed with it. Honestly, I wouldnt have chosen BF over BJU but dh (who is a history major) absolutely liked BF the best. Since that is his area of expertise, I went with his lead.

Posted

ds used

Texts

History of US vol 7-10 (I think?)

History of US Sourcebook for original documents

The 20th Century from the Connections in World History series by Walch publishing

some chapters from Story of Mankind

Jackdaw Atomic Bomb portfolio

I also had him quickly read sections of the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia for world history topics I thought we were missing with the above texts.

 

Movies

Charge of the Light Brigade 1968

All Quiet on the Western Front 1930 (ds found this so difficult to watch that he stopped about half way)

Joyeaux Noel (dd 10 watched this with us, this very interesting WWI event)

Saving Private Ryan

Fat Man and Little Boy

WindTalkers

Remember the Titans

The Manchurian Candidate (1962 version)

Archives of War 3: Korea and Vietnam

Inherit the Wind

The US v. John Lennon

 

 

He read for English

War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (layers of emotional content, imagine watching a person's soul completely destroyed. This book, written by a German was banned by Hitler because it has an antiwar message)

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

The Art of Keeping Cool by Janet Taylor Lisle (WWII)

Blackduck by Janet Taylor Lisle (rumrunning late 20s)

Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac

Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston (autobiographical account of Japanese internment)

Maus I and II by Art Spiegelman (this is a graphic biography/autobiography of a Jewish survivor and his son. The emotional content is such that I'd consider waiting until 16 to do it, if I had this to do again)

Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich (gambling, made into the movie 21)

 

Hamlet and Bringing Down the House aren't really history related. My ds actually complained that my literature choices and movies choices were too depressing so I tried to move away from depressing after the WWII stuff. DS requested Hamlet. I don't believe these choices would be right for every family--review for appropriate content.

Posted

dd age 10 was doing SOTW 4 at the same time. It helped to be thinking the same time period. Sometimes we'd read aloud and ds would listen in and participate in our discussion of that too.

 

I also have EH Grombrich Little History of the World on Cd and played the applicable sections in the car.

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...