Need another History course

[Night Elf]

My son is using an accredited online program so his high school plan looks similar to a traditional high school plan. He's taken both American History and World History. He loved them and did very well in them. He'll be taking their American Government class next school year. However, his current course load is not going well because he only likes one of the classes and the other 3 are a major chore. (yes, he's taking 4 classes right now. He has Aspergers and it's taking us a while to get up to speed, hence my desire to add in a 5th class right now.) Because he loves History, I was thinking I could add something more specific than the two courses he's taken, so Keystone won't have a problem adding it to his transcript as an elective. His particular preference is World War 1, then World War II. How could I build either a .5 or preferably a 1.0 credit class around these wars without duplication what was covered in the two classes he's taken already. Is it possible?

[Candid]

In history once you've done a survey, there's going to be some duplication. So I wouldn't worry about that.

 

How much does the online program expect from this course? There are whole college courses on each of the wars so there is plenty of material and depth out there. It's more a matter of what he wants and what they want.

[Night Elf]

In history once you've done a survey, there's going to be some duplication. So I wouldn't worry about that.

 

How much does the online program expect from this course? There are whole college courses on each of the wars so there is plenty of material and depth out there. It's more a matter of what he wants and what they want.

 

Yeah, I can get pre-approval before we begin, I just don't know what course description to send. I actually did look at my old college's history course list and found one about U.S. Military Experience but I don't know what texts they use. I think I'll write to Keystone, our current school, and ask if they can help me. I know that in order to get credit, I need to submit work from the beginning, middle, and end of the course. They want things like exams and writing assignments. I think I'll play around a bit more and see what I can find. I suppose I should start with a text(s) and work from there. I am not really good at pulling together a course completely from scratch, but I'm willing to give it a go.

[elegantlion]

You could look at some of these options.

 

Cicero History, you can get a trial of a free unit, one is on WWII - It's very classroom-y but it's laid out. I used the trial and saved all the information to use later.

 

Check Ken Burns' specials. The Civil War one has lesson plans online. I haven't looked at the other ones.

 

I've also started looking at these, Cambridge Perspectives in History. I just got the one on the Origins of the First and Second world war, but haven't read through it.

 

I started on a plan for a semester study of WWI - WWII before life distracted me and we've opted to go another way with history next year. Let me pull out my file and see what else I had marked down. We have a lot of misc books on WWII lying around. One is a volume from "The Military history of World War II" series. Again, I haven't read it, but they're fairly easy reading with black and white pictures.

 

Let me see what else I have in my file....

[elegantlion]

For some holocaust studies. You can get access to their resources for educators. It took just a few days for my approval. I think there are other centers around the country, I picked this one because it's closest to us.

 

This is from Notre Dame: Hell in the 20th century. Definitely preview this, probably not for the sensitive.

 

Books we planned on reading:

All Quiet on the Western Front

No Promises in the Wind (depression era)

Night

Animal Farm

Diary of Anne Frank

 

Roku has a military channel with documentaries from the wars. I have not previewed them.

 

The original Godzilla in Japanese has an interesting commentary in the "extras". The director talks about the influence of post-WWII into the Godzilla monster.

 

Another thing I planned to find was the Orson Welles recording of "War of the Worlds"

 

movies we planned to watch:

Gallipoli

Defiance

Schindler's List

Tora! Tora! Tora!

The Longest Day

 

Maybe: Flyboys

Memphis Belle

 

I didn't get passed the gathering stage, so I don't have it more organized. HTH.

[Kristin in Hawaii]

The IB programme has a book available on Amazon called "Causes, Practices and Effects of War" that I feel would be very valuable for that kind of study. It covers both world wars and several others. It includes writing activities.

 

Good luck!

[Candid]

If you want to earn a full credit, you might consider a series of books written about WWII by Churchill himself. The first one is here: http://www.amazon.com/Second-World-War-Gathering-Storm/dp/039541055X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1366118134&sr=1-2

[Night Elf]

Thank you for all the great information!