Is this enough for a history credit?

[SilverMoon]

I'm working on a homemade course for my rising 9th grader. :001_unsure: Is there a defined list of expectations for a credit, or do I just go by the rough amount of time required?

 

This is what DS wants to do.

-SWB's History of the Ancient World

-Beowulf, Gilgamesh, Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, Plutarch's Lives, Plato's Republic

-couple Hinges of History books by Thomas Cahill (The Gifts of the Jews, Desire of the Everlasting Hills, maybe Why the Greeks Matter)

-couple mp3 Great Courses

-writing projects (feeling lost here..)

 

Are we getting warm? If not, how would you work with his choices to make a history credit?

 

FWIW, DS will also be using LLLOTR, which will piggyback a couple of those lit choices. His composition course is back to the undecided category.

[regentrude]

Looks pretty good. Depending on what all you include, it may comprise history AND English. Those are weighty literature choices that will require much time and discussion!

We did something similar for 9th grade: history spine + Great books+ supplementary reading + 72 TC lectures.

I copy down below what my DD did for Ancients; it was sufficient for 1 English credit and 1 history credit. I kept track of hours .

 

Textbook: A Short History of Western Civilizations by John Harrison and Richard Sullivan, Ch. 3-13

 

Major works of Literature studied:

The Iliad Homer (translated by Fitzgerald)

The Odyssey Homer (translated by Fitzgerald)

Histories Herodotus

Antigone Sophocles

Oedipus Rex Sophocles

Oedipus on Colonos Sophocles

Electra Euripides

Poetry Sappho

The Aeneid Vergil

Metamorphoses Ovid

Trial and death of Socrates Plato

 

Supplementary reading:

A Day in Old Athens William S. Davis

Aristotle leads the way Joy Hakim

The Greek Treasure Irving Stone

Everyday things in Ancient Greece C. H. Quennell

The King must die Mary Renault

A Day in Old Rome William S. Davis

Famous men of Rome John Haaren

The buildings of Ancient Rome Helen and Richard Leacroft

 

Audio lectures by the Teaching Company:

Each college level lecture is 30 minutes in length and taught by Prof. Elizabeth Vandiver

The Iliad (12 lectures), The Odyssey (12 lectures), The Aeneid (12 lectures)

Greek Tragedy (11 selected lectures (#1-4; 10-16), Classical Mythology (24 lectures)

[SailorMom]

What span of time are you looking at? Beowulf doesn't fit if you're doing ancients....

As far as the amount of work - for us that has had a lot to do with writing and reading. DS probably splits his time for history between writing and reading.

For writing assignments - I've found that "Compare & Contrast" questions along with writing using primary source documents turn out the best result. For example, Compare and contrast the philosophy of Plato and Socrates, or Zoroastrianism and Judaism, et.

I'd say with a lot of writing, and some specific research into each of the main civilizations that existed during the course of history you are studying, you have a sold credit.

[SilverMoon]

I hadn't thought of using history for the English credit. Hm... I need to spend more time with LLLOTR to see how much of it we'll do. The booklist comparison is helpful!

 

History is the ancient period. Beowulf is in there because LLLOTR will reference it, and he wants to read the whole work when it comes up. It's been one of his favorite stories since he first read a kiddie version back in grammar stage. Iliad also gets coverage in there, and Odyssey gets a little bit.

 

More writing. Research projects. Check. :001_smile:

[Candid]

I agree with Regentrude that you might be better served to parcel things out differently both in terms of time period and course credit.

 

For ancient history we read a volume each of Ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian poetry, a book on the Bible as literature, the three big epics and six Greek plays, along with a few smatterings of other short poetry from the period. I do strongly suggest that you read one play from each of the three core Greek tragedians not all from one author; they are markedly different and they can be read to show a trajectory in both stage craft and philosophy/world view underpinning the works.

 

I parceled off folks like Plato into a 1/4 credit of philosophy. I use a text plus some original works over the four year history.

 

Where we did more is on history texts. I don't use one spine but instead a lot of books written about each of the different civilizations. They are more like what you would be assigned in college in a topical history class (vs. the survey classes many students take). We do make interconnections, but we also delve more deeply.

[Nscribe]

If you want to do only Ancient History for the year, then going with the Susan Wise Bauer History of the Ancient World is fine. Keep in mind, it covers not only the Fertile Crescent, Greece and Rome. You will also cover some Asian (especially China) and if I am remembering correctly maybe even some Latin American bits. Paring this up with TC courses could work. (We opted to do Ancients thru Middle Ages one year and then do Renaisance to Modern the next. We made this choice because by the time she cycled back to it, she really had done the ancients so much.)

 

One thing to keep in mind is that depending on your stop date historically you will hit most of the major religions and covering them is a chunk of its own. We actually watched all the TC courses on each of the major religions and it was interesting.

 

I used the opportunity to really secure geography skills. A great deal of the written work was with maps. She wrote a few pieces comparing cultures or explaining how given personalities were instrumental. We used a lot of film (History channel docs on battle tactics of the Greeks, a bit on the development of numbers...all sorts of stuff). It was a fun and interesting year for history. For Literature, our course followed pretty much the same readings as Regentrude's post above and used the lectures like she did.

[Lori D.]

I'm working on a homemade course for my rising 9th grader. :001_unsure: Is there a defined list of expectations for a credit, or do I just go by the rough amount of time required?

 

This is what DS wants to do.

-SWB's History of the Ancient World

-Beowulf, Gilgamesh, Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, Plutarch's Lives, Plato's Republic

-couple Hinges of History books by Thomas Cahill (The Gifts of the Jews, Desire of the Everlasting Hills, maybe Why the Greeks Matter)

-couple mp3 Great Courses

-writing projects (feeling lost here..)

 

Are we getting warm? If not, how would you work with his choices to make a history credit?

 

FWIW, DS will also be using LLLOTR, which will piggyback a couple of those lit choices. His composition course is back to the undecided category.

 

 

We did a very similar thing as you for 9th grade and counted it this way:

 

1 credit = English (LLftLotR, 3 ancient works, separate writing program, grammar review)

1 credit = World History: Ancients (200 pages of Spielvogel textbook, plus additional book and documentary video resources; 2 longer research papers; a few historical fiction works)

1 credit = Elective: The Great Books: Classic Ancient Literature (7 works)

 

It looks to me like you're right on the cusp on being able to count your planned coursework in a very similar way! :) Good work! I have to say, it was a SUPER year, and DSs *really* enjoyed it all. And, while this is not very classical of me to say so, each year, we found it was a GOOD thing to have a few works that were NOT tied to the Literature. We included some classics just because WE wanted to read them, regardless of how they fit "chronologically" or "WTM"-wise.

 

So have fun with your mix of ancients, Beowulf and LLftLotR! It will be a great year! Warmest regards, Lori D.

[SilverMoon]

Awesome. I think I'm getting a handle on this. Picturing it blended with English makes much more sense. :001_smile:

 

I don't see us getting to too many more lecture series. He's most interested in Vandiver's Odyssey, and Classical Mythology. We also have some from Pearce and Kreeft on Tolkien. We'll definitely add some Amazon Prime documentaries on history and mythology.

 

There are already plenty of non-fiction books on several ancient cultures sitting on our shelves. Also some ancient architecture, Classical Ingenuity, Famous Men of ____, and such. I didn't think to list them; we pick them up as needed. We'll sift through and decide which ones ought to be covered intentionally.

 

Thank you! :001_smile: