MrsWeasley Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 Anyone use this series as a spine for US History in the upper elementary years? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 Are you talking about Howard Zinn's book? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsWeasley Posted March 23, 2015 Author Share Posted March 23, 2015 Yes, but the one for kids: http://www.amazon.com/Peoples-History-United-States-Volume/dp/1583227598 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 Ok, just checking! Yes, we used it in 5th & 6th grades. It's not the only history we read, but we found it an important counterbalance to other history, it included much information not found elsewhere. We read it aloud and discussed. It was great, highly recommended for an expanded viewpoint of history. I wouldn't use it as my sole source for US history, but it was a very important supplement. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VorLady Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 I used the Zinn book in an introductory college course and got my first lesson, at 16, in "writing what the instructor wants to hear". Absolutely mind-blowing to a homeschool graduate that when a professor says she "respects a diversity of opinions" it means she will give you a C if you don't agree with her. Of course that was the professor who threatened to have me removed from her class if I reported the lesbian student who was sexually harassing me... ... anyway, so my opinion of Zinn is biased but I'd rather have my kid just read Marx in the original. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsWeasley Posted March 23, 2015 Author Share Posted March 23, 2015 Ok, just checking! Yes, we used it in 5th & 6th grades. It's not the only history we read, but we found it an important counterbalance to other history, it included much information not found elsewhere. We read it aloud and discussed. It was great, highly recommended for an expanded viewpoint of history. I wouldn't use it as my sole source for US history, but it was a very important supplement. What did you use for your main spine? I've been looking at A Different Mirror for Young People, too, as a spine for US history. I don't want to use any book as a sole source for U.S. history and love supplementing, but using a spine has really helped with moving through world history with my kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsWeasley Posted March 23, 2015 Author Share Posted March 23, 2015 I used the Zinn book in an introductory college course and got my first lesson, at 16, in "writing what the instructor wants to hear". Absolutely mind-blowing to a homeschool graduate that when a professor says she "respects a diversity of opinions" it means she will give you a C if you don't agree with her. Of course that was the professor who threatened to have me removed from her class if I reported the lesbian student who was sexually harassing me... ... anyway, so my opinion of Zinn is biased but I'd rather have my kid just read Marx in the original. I didn't know Marx wrote a children's book on U.S. history, but even if he did, I'm looking for something that goes into the twentieth century, ideally at least up to the cold war. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pen Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 We also used the Zinn book as one thing amongst others. My ds actually liked the adult book better, though we have not gotten through it yet, and the children's book is certainly much easier and faster to read. We had no official spine, sort of a collection of mostly "living books," I guess they'd count as, including different perspectives (Howard Zinn was especially liked, and of Glenn Beck--we really liked Miracles and Massacres a lot, some David McCullogh, several books on Lincoln and a Smithsonian pictorial encyclopedia of the Civil War since my ds got extra interested in Civ War...) ... Also a lot of documentary movies such as 500 Nations and others on Native Americans, America the Story of Us (not related to the Hakim books despite similar title), Oliver Stone/Peter Kuznick's The Untold History of the United States (which also has a book form), and so on. I think the Documentary movies in a sense were the spine giving a sense of the span of time from Native Americans to present, and the books gave more detail, viewpoints and perspectives. We tried a std. textbook, and Hakim for spine, but ds who usually loves history just could not get into them. If your child can deal with the feeling of being talked down to, I think Hakim could make a good spine. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamaraby Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 I don't use it as a spine per se. I just pulled it in when applicable chapters aligned with where we are in our history study. Ds is in 4th and we're in SOTW3 so we've read the first few chapters of vol 1 and will continue on from there. I will end up using the later half of vol 2 as a spine to cover what SOTW4 doesn't get to in addition to other books that are still TBD. At least that's my rough plan. It's part of my overall goal of a broader humane education. So I'm also using things from the Institute for Humane Education (http://humaneeducation.org/blog/category/resources/) which are not necessarily US History related, but there are several that are. You might also find the Zinn Education Project's website helpful (https://zinnedproject.org). 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 We did use an Am Hist text as a spine in 5th grade, alongside SOTW3, and then just did lots and lots of historical fiction reading. And then for 20th century in 6th grade, we studied by topics, so we had chapters from relevant texts, nonfiction books, and historical fiction on the topic under study. The spine we used in 5th was this one: http://www.amazon.com/Making-America-History-United-Present/dp/1426306636/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1427127863&sr=8-2&keywords=the+making+of+america We liked it a lot. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murrayshire Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 We are planning (not set in stone yet) to use Hisory of US the condensed version A-B for my middle schooler and 4th grader may join in too. We will also add in Zinn book, literature, videos, and SOTW 3 audio. http://www.amazon.com/History-US-Concise-Prehistory-1800/dp/B0064RXJ2O/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427416628&sr=8-1-fkmr2&keywords=K-12+History+of+Us+condensed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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