NROC/Hippocampus Courses- especially US history: Please share how you have used these courses

[Sweet Home Alabama]

Dd will need American history for 11th grade, and I'm interested in the US History from NROC's Hippocampus- probably just the regular version. If you use Hippocampus courses, how do you grade/evaluate the assignments? For history, there are maps and papers. Only the chapter test has a key.

 

It looks like Oak Meadow uses one of the texts from Hippocampus: The American Vision by Glencoe. How does this book compare with others? If we used OakMeadow, they offer answers in their TM. Yet, I think this curriculum is expensive.

 

Brown's book: America: A Narrative History seems popular. If we followed TWTM suggestions with this book, dd could just read the text and answer the questions at the end of each chapter.

 

I've read that The American Pageant is quite wordy. I would want to stay clear of that.

 

Which of the texts offered is the clearest (least wordy) most understandable text for high school?

 

Finally, what I would like to do is the first part of American history followed by a government course in 11th grade (not sure yet which one). In 12th, I would have dd finish American history and an economics course. Is there any reason this plan would not work with Hippocampus?

[bobbeym]

:bigear:

[kangato3]

We are using this course currently. The Hippocampus regular US History is the same course as the AP course, just without the exam practice assignments. I don't see the Glencoe book you mentioned on Hippocampus's syllabus. I believe that all the Hippocampus books are college level, while Oak Meadow's are high school level textbooks.

 

To choose a textbook, over the summer, I checked out from the library the different texts recommended and had dd compare them side-by-side. Dd ultimately chose The American Pageant because she preferred the style of writing, which I can best describe as narrative with tones of sarcasm here and there. While I found the book interesting to read, I don't think I would choose this text again for a regular high school course. Often, my dd didn't pick up on pertinent details because the narrative sometimes assumes the reader has a lot of background knowledge and mentions things without fully explaining.

 

Although none of the writing assignments are lengthy, I find them to be useful and evaluate them based on how well dd uses supporting text and/or given passages to support her thesis. The map activities are simplistic, IMO, and didn't add much to the studies.

 

I don't think there would be any problem with you splitting the course up into 2 years. In fact, Hippocampus splits them up into U.S. History 1 and U.S. History 2.

[Sweet Home Alabama]

We are using this course currently. The Hippocampus regular US History is the same course as the AP course, just without the exam practice assignments. I don't see the Glencoe book you mentioned on Hippocampus's syllabus. I believe that all the Hippocampus books are college level, while Oak Meadow's are high school level textbooks.

 

To choose a textbook, over the summer, I checked out from the library the different texts recommended and had dd compare them side-by-side. Dd ultimately chose The American Pageant because she preferred the style of writing, which I can best describe as narrative with tones of sarcasm here and there. While I found the book interesting to read, I don't think I would choose this text again for a regular high school course. Often, my dd didn't pick up on pertinent details because the narrative sometimes assumes the reader has a lot of background knowledge and mentions things without fully explaining.

 

Although none of the writing assignments are lengthy, I find them to be useful and evaluate them based on how well dd uses supporting text and/or given passages to support her thesis. The map activities are simplistic, IMO, and didn't add much to the studies.

 

I don't think there would be any problem with you splitting the course up into 2 years. In fact, Hippocampus splits them up into U.S. History 1 and U.S. History 2.

 

 

Thank you, Kanga!

The Glencoe book I was referring to is the 12th book down, but I've just looked up the ISBN and found out there is a difference in editions with it and the Oak Meadow book....

 

I emailed NROC yesterday to ask them similar questions. The rep replied that the texts are appropriate for high school students. Now, I would imagine that some may be more appropriate than others for high school students. That is what I would like to find out.

 

Kanga, in order to evaluate your dd's papers, how much research do you do to check her work? If her supporting details as written support her thesis but are not completely accurate, do you pick up on that? I am not a history buff. I wouldn't catch historical inaccuracies in my dd's writing.

 

Also, do you grade your dd's maps since there is not a key?

Since the maps seem simplistic, maybe we should use something else for maps- something for a geography credit.

 

 

Hoping to hear from others! Anyone???

[Mom22ns]

We're doing NROC AP US History 1 this year. We're using America a Narrative History Vol. 1 with it. I agree with the pp assessment. The writing assignments are good, the maps are pitiful but we usually do them. I also have them do the key terms for each chapter. I use their test as reviews then give unit tests that have some of the questions from the chapter tests plus essays.

 

We read the textbook out loud and watch the videos together. I find it easy to grade their work from that. I don't know how easy it would be without it. We add in a lot of extra period literature ala Sonlight style to round things out and slow it down to be 2 years. Government will be another semester the following year.

[kangato3]

 

 

Kanga, in order to evaluate your dd's papers, how much research do you do to check her work? If her supporting details as written support her thesis but are not completely accurate, do you pick up on that? I am not a history buff. I wouldn't catch historical inaccuracies in my dd's writing.

 

Also, do you grade your dd's maps since there is not a key?

Since the maps seem simplistic, maybe we should use something else for maps- something for a geography credit.

 

 

Hoping to hear from others! Anyone???

 

I read the text throughout the course (or at least skim, depending on time) so that I get the background. Watching the videos, as the above poster mentioned, would also provide background information. That's been enough for me to grade the writing assignments. The answers to the maps are either from a map found in the textbook or can easily be found with a quick Google search. Also, like the above poster, we do key terms, and I make up a unit test.

[Sweet Home Alabama]

Thank you both, Kanga and Debbie!

If you had to choose U.S. history over again, would you still use NROC? Or would you supplement/do anything differently?

How much time did your dc take to get reading done and complete assignments?

Could you make recommendations for a map curriculum that will give a credit for geography since NROC maps are not up to appropriate credit worthiness?

 

I prefer a curriculum that is planned out for me and easy do implement with answer keys to take guess work out of the evaluation process. The answer keys seem to be the biggest thing missing from NROC. It looks fairly good- makes me wonder why it isn't more popular than it seems.

 

I've got a year to research U.S. history.

 

Would love to hear more about NROC, but also open to suggestions for out-of-the-box U.S. history options.

 

 

Thanks again!

[kangato3]

Thank you both, Kanga and Debbie!

If you had to choose U.S. history over again, would you still use NROC? Or would you supplement/do anything differently?

How much time did your dc take to get reading done and complete assignments?

 

 

For my dd, who is a motivated history student, I would use the Hippocampus again, but probably with a different textbook that had a more direct writing style. The only reason that my dd didn't do the AP course is because she wanted to enter the National History Day competition, and didn't think she could handle that and study for the AP exam. Each week, depending on how many chapters were being covered, she spent from 5 to 7 hours. (She considers herself a slow reader).

 

However, when I do U.S. History with my ds, who does not have a love affair with history, the textbook reading with Hippocampus would bog him down. I will use a more traditional high school book, probably American Odyssey (K12). There are no support materials for this book unless you take the class with K12, so I will be designing the course myself. However, is very clearly written, and I think that ds will enjoy it better than the other high school texts that I have seen. I will probably borrow some elements from the Hippocampus course, especially some of the writing assignments.

[klmama]

Although none of the writing assignments are lengthy, I find them to be useful and evaluate them based on how well dd uses supporting text and/or given passages to support her thesis. The map activities are simplistic, IMO, and didn't add much to the studies.

 

 

 

I must not be looking in the right place. Where do you find the writing assignments?

[kangato3]

I must not be looking in the right place. Where do you find the writing assignments?

 

You have to click on a particular chapter of the course to see the assignments. Try this link for ch. 1 assignments: http://www.montereyinstitute.org/courses/US%20History%20I/nroc%20prototype%20files/coursestartc.html

[TheApprentice]

I'm considering this course for my ds this fall. For those using the course, did you purchase any of the supplemental materials? Are they over much, or really helpful?

[bobbeym]

For those that use this, what do you use for literature? The PP guides don't work well for us and I don't want to use a lit text unless I have no other option.

[kangato3]

For those that use this, what do you use for literature? The PP guides don't work well for us and I don't want to use a lit text unless I have no other option.

 

 

We used an old Scott Foresman text, The United States in Literature, as a spine. It provides information about the different eras of American literature with a great selection of short stories, essays, poems, etc representative of each kind of literature. We also read or plan on reading The Scarlett Letter, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Great Gatsby, The Grapes of Wrath, The Crucible. Literature has nicely complemented history.

[Sweet Home Alabama]

I've never used NROC, but I am researching for American history when my oldest will be in 11th grade. NROC looks promising. The current plan is that we will outsource English with our local homeschool covering; it will be an American lit/comp class.

 

I know of these programs: WTM history/lit where you read lit and write about it, IEW American lit, The Great Courses: Books that shaped America, and Beautiful Feet US and World History parts 1-4. There are more choices for lit, no doubt, but maybe this short list will give you something to research.

 

We have been using and loving My Father's World. Dd is finishing up AHL this year and will do WHL next year. We're changing only because I want her to take this outsourced English class. I love the way MFW integrates Bible, history, and lit. It has been hard to walk away from using MFW. Trying to put together something equivalent isn't easy.

[Sisyphus]

We are using it this year, the ap version because I wanted ap test style writing assignments, though Ds will not take the test.

 

I own several of the spines, but Ds also has Hakims history of us books, and loves those, so we used those with the multiple choice quizzes for a spine. Its easy to match them to NROC chapters. He normally does one writing assignment, e maps, and watches the videos each week. We don't do the vocabulary, and the discussion questions may be a writing assignment, or we don't do them.

 

I have sonlights us core (100?) but hate it. We've used some of the literature but most wasn't what we were looking for. I found a list of literature for ap us history somewhere on the Internet and he reads some off that list, some so light, some I found and liked.

 

As a non traditional learner, Ds finds the videos very helpful. I wish they offered more in this style, like world history!

[Sweet Home Alabama]

We are using it this year, the ap version because I wanted ap test style writing assignments, though Ds will not take the test.

 

I own several of the spines, but Ds also has Hakims history of us books, and loves those, so we used those with the multiple choice quizzes for a spine. Its easy to match them to NROC chapters. He normally does one writing assignment, e maps, and watches the videos each week. We don't do the vocabulary, and the discussion questions may be a writing assignment, or we don't do them.

 

I have sonlights us core (100?) but hate it. We've used some of the literature but most wasn't what we were looking for. I found a list of literature for ap us history somewhere on the Internet and he reads some off that list, some so light, some I found and liked.

 

As a non traditional learner, Ds finds the videos very helpful. I wish they offered more in this style, like world history!

 

Thanks, Sisyphus! A few clarifying questions:

What other spines do you have? Could you explain pros/cons of them?

You use Hakim's history of US with the multiple choice on NROC....right?

Are the e-maps the ones on NROC?

Have you had any trouble evaluating assignments?

 

I appreciate your reply!