Jump to content

Menu

What order do I teach social studies?


Recommended Posts

Ok--after an afternoon of research, it looks safe to count the following as 4 years of Social Studies in high school:

 

World History

American History

Government/Economics (combined into one year)

Psychology or Sociology

 

Question #1:

Do those sound like valid Social Studies topics?  Please correct me if I'm wrong about what constitutes high school social studies.

 

Question #2:

In what order should they be taught?  Is there some sort of progression that makes the most sense?  And/or are most curriculum for each of those subject geared toward a certain grade?  For example, if everyone teaches economics in 12th and I don't know any better and try to teach economics to my 9th grader, will most curriculum be too advanced for him?

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok--after an afternoon of research, it looks safe to count the following as 4 years of Social Studies in high school:

 

World History

American History

Government/Economics (combined into one year)

Psychology or Sociology

 

Question #1:

Do those sound like valid Social Studies topics?  Please correct me if I'm wrong about what constitutes high school social studies.

 

Question #2:

In what order should they be taught?  Is there some sort of progression that makes the most sense?  And/or are most curriculum for each of those subject geared toward a certain grade?  For example, if everyone teaches economics in 12th and I don't know any better and try to teach economics to my 9th grader, will most curriculum be too advanced for him?

 

I would do World before American, because chronology.  It's typically done in 9th here. 

I would do American before Gov, because American will lay the foundation for Gov.  American is typically done in 10th here.  Gov. is typically done in 11th or 12th.

I would do Psych or Soc last, because they are usually lighter and you'll want a break Senior year to do college applications, etc.  It would also allow you, when the time comes, to swap for another history course, should the interest and opportunity be there, or for a course of some type at a community college, or an AP version of World or American once you've laid a foundation the first time around.  OR, put these in Junior year, so you can do extensive college visits. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The topics are fine, but by no means the only choice.

I would do World before US history. (Actually, I do not teach US history in isolation, but prefer to embed it in the context of world history)

I would normally do Government after US history, but I would try to schedule Government so that it coincides with the year of a presidential election, because that offers rich context and the opportunity for making connections to current events.

Psych can go anywhere.

 

ETA: You have a lot of freedom when it comes to social sciences. FWIW, my kids do four years of history plus a half credit for government; and DS does psych as an elective

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Our district schedules the following:

 

9th: Civics (0.5)

10th: World History (1.0)

11th: US History (1.0)

12th: State History (0.5) and Government (0.5)

 

Electives are only a semester each, including psychology and sociology. I homeschool through a district program which gives me the freedom to teach any subject in their course of study (using materials from a generous list of approved publishers) and they will put it on his transcript. I did get approval to do a full credit of World Geography & Cultures instead of a semester though.

 

9th: World Geography & Cultures (1.0), Civics (0.5) & Psychology (0.5)

10th: World History (1.0) and Comparative World Religions (0.5)

11th: US History (1.0) and Sociology(0.5)

12th: State History (0.5), Govt (0.5), and maybe Mid-East Studies (0.5).

 

That will total up to 6.5 credits.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok--after an afternoon of research, it looks safe to count the following as 4 years of Social Studies in high school:

 

World History

American History

Government/Economics (combined into one year)

Psychology or Sociology

 

Question #1:

Do those sound like valid Social Studies topics?  Please correct me if I'm wrong about what constitutes high school social studies.

 

Question #2:

In what order should they be taught?  Is there some sort of progression that makes the most sense?  And/or are most curriculum for each of those subject geared toward a certain grade?  For example, if everyone teaches economics in 12th and I don't know any better and try to teach economics to my 9th grader, will most curriculum be too advanced for him?

That's pretty much the schedule that was recommended in my H.S. 20 years ago.  I think students usually took Gov/Econ in 12 though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The topics are fine, but by no means the only choice.

 

 

ETA: You have a lot of freedom when it comes to social sciences. FWIW, my kids do four years of history plus a half credit for government; and DS does psych as an elective

 

Hmmm... I love the 4 year history rotation and my son does, too. I might play around a little bit with what I call "social studies" vs what I call "electives" so we can still do our 4 year rotation of history.

 

It's hard to know what to do since I can't know the future. Do I beef up our history because he loves it now? Or do I stick with the traditional SS cycle and leave room for unexpected electives ds might fall in love with in the future? We've done world history for 8 years. Do we really want 4 more, even though he does like it? Or do we stick to the traditional SS cycle so we can do unexpected electives like, "Science fiction in literature" or "Digital photography"? He doesn't know that those things could be options and he may love them more than yet another round of world history.

 

Decisions, decisions! I'll figure out all the options and then ds and I will finalize our plans together.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If he likes history, I would sit down and brain storm with him about how to get in these credits. I agree that World, American, and Gov/Econ should be part of the picture. How you go about those, however, can be flexible. 

 

High school is a good time to dig into more primary sources if he has a good handle on the narrative of history. You could pick one period and study it in greater depth than before. You could break up American history into pre- and post-Civil War to have time to dig into topics. 

 

Psychology and sociology are good subjects, but if he's interested in history, I would put those on the back burner and focus on more specific histories. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's hard to know what to do since I can't know the future. Do I beef up our history because he loves it now? Or do I stick with the traditional SS cycle and leave room for unexpected electives ds might fall in love with in the future? We've done world history for 8 years. Do we really want 4 more, even though he does like it? Or do we stick to the traditional SS cycle so we can do unexpected electives like, "Science fiction in literature" or "Digital photography"? He doesn't know that those things could be options and he may love them more than yet another round of world history.

 

I don't see how your choice of history cycle affects your ability to study science fiction (which would be an English course) or digital photography (which would be a fine arts course).

As a homeschooler, you have so much freedom! If it turns out he wants more history, just do more history. If it turns out he wants to do psychology in addition to history, just do it - after the standard 4x5 (or 4x4+2) requirement, your schedule leaves room for electives.

 

My DS really wanted to study psychology last year in 10th grade, so we added it as an elective. This year, he wants to read Dystopian literature (for English) and learn about WW1+2 (for history; we will flesh it out a bit and call it "20th century History"); he also has an assortment of GC lecture courses on misc topics from psychology and sociology which we will make into an elective credit.

 

You only need a penciled in plan. You can always adjust as you do, depending on what passions your DS develops. Let him have input. I found I get the best results for the courses the kids have chosen themselves; DS was devouring a college text for his psych studies.

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If he likes history, I would sit down and brain storm with him about how to get in these credits. I agree that World, American, and Gov/Econ should be part of the picture. How you go about those, however, can be flexible. 

 

High school is a good time to dig into more primary sources if he has a good handle on the narrative of history. You could pick one period and study it in greater depth than before. You could break up American history into pre- and post-Civil War to have time to dig into topics. 

 

Psychology and sociology are good subjects, but if he's interested in history, I would put those on the back burner and focus on more specific histories. 

 

Ooo! I'm remembering about 8 years ago when a woman I know who was homeschooled said that for her history in high school, they picked 4 big events in history and studied those events for an entire year.  Like, the Civil War was one year.  She said it was amazing.  They could go into so much depth about the subject.  She loved it.

 

Maybe I'll do that, too!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't see how your choice of history cycle affects your ability to study science fiction (which would be an English course) or digital photography (which would be a fine arts course).

As a homeschooler, you have so much freedom! If it turns out he wants more history, just do more history. If it turns out he wants to do psychology in addition to history, just do it - after the standard 4x5 (or 4x4+2) requirement, your schedule leaves room for electives.

 

My DS really wanted to study psychology last year in 10th grade, so we added it as an elective. This year, he wants to read Dystopian literature (for English) and learn about WW1+2 (for history; we will flesh it out a bit and call it "20th century History"); he also has an assortment of GC lecture courses on misc topics from psychology and sociology which we will make into an elective credit.

 

You only need a penciled in plan. You can always adjust as you do, depending on what passions your DS develops. Let him have input. I found I get the best results for the courses the kids have chosen themselves; DS was devouring a college text for his psych studies.

 

Oh wow!  I hadn't even thought about how the sci-fi fiction could be English and photography could be Fine Arts!  That leaves me with 4 spots for electives!  8 if they're only 1/2 year classes!  I'm like a kid in a candy store right now.  There are So Many Options! 

 

Ok, ok.  This will take more time than I'd first thought. And I will certainly be getting my son's input.  I haven't done so in the past because he's been kinda little and didn't care.  But now I think he's finally matured enough to have a lot of fun with this, if I give him some options to work with. Today when I asked him what he wanted to study as an elective he said, "Astronomy and Marine Biology."  That threw me.  I thought he'd say something about art or cooking.  Astronomy and Marine Biology are a bit heavy, but we'll see what we can do.

 

Picking what to study is one of the best parts of homeschooling! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh wow!  I hadn't even thought about how the sci-fi fiction could be English and photography could be Fine Arts!  That leaves me with 4 spots for electives!  8 if they're only 1/2 year classes!  I'm like a kid in a candy store right now.  There are So Many Options! 

 

Ok, ok.  This will take more time than I'd first thought. And I will certainly be getting my son's input.  I haven't done so in the past because he's been kinda little and didn't care.  But now I think he's finally matured enough to have a lot of fun with this, if I give him some options to work with. Today when I asked him what he wanted to study as an elective he said, "Astronomy and Marine Biology."  That threw me.  I thought he'd say something about art or cooking.  Astronomy and Marine Biology are a bit heavy, but we'll see what we can do.

 

Picking what to study is one of the best parts of homeschooling! 

 

Those can be his first high school science courses. Not heavy - those are fun.

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Garga, electives can be whatever is of interest to the student, not just gym or art or music or personal finance etc. All of dd's electives are/will be academic subjects. They are only elective in the sense that they fit outside the basic 4 x 5 (because I require 4 years of foreign language) grid.

 

Dd's transcript is written by subject. I have English, mathematics, social sciences, physical sciences, and foreign language listed. She will have, at minimum, 4 English, 6 mathematics, 7 social sciences, 6 sciences (some university) and 6 foreign languages (some university). I'm not worried about artificially assigning some to serve as electives.

 

I *may* have an "arts" section if the schools she applies to wants that on the transcript (mind you, she dances classical ballet 7-10 hours a week)---I can easily pull out a half-credit of art appreciation from what we've done cumulatiively in history.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Those can be his first high school science courses. Not heavy - those are fun.

 

 

 

I thought about that.  But how do I handle that colleges want to see 3-4 years of science, and some specify that they want them to be biology and chemistry, and that 2 of the sciences need labs. 

 

If I do astronomy then that's not a lab.  And marine biology, while a biology, isn't a full biology course. 

 

Or do we do astronomy in 9th, marine biology in 10th, and then we move to a more full biology and chemistry in 11th and 12th? 

 

I'm new to this.  Meaning, it's just been this afternoon that I sat down to sketch out a high school plan.  I'd love to have astronomy and marine biology count as the science credits, but I don't want to run out of space to do college required courses and be scrambling and doubling up in 11 and 12th.

 

I could do 1/2 year of each of those for 1/2 credit each, skipping physical science, and then head to bio in 10th and chem in 11th and then whatever for 12th. 

 

What do you think?  Is that what you meant?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh my gosh, you can so do astronomy as a lab science! It's taught as a lab science at the university here, w lab from 7-10pm. Of course, some of the topics can involve some serious math, but that can be worked around for a high school student, just like how colleges have different levels based on math required (astronomy for physics majors is different from a mire general astronomu, but both count as a lab science).

 

I personally would do marine bio after a run through regular bio, similar to people who study anatomy & physiology or botany after biology.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I thought about that.  But how do I handle that colleges want to see 3-4 years of science, and some specify that they want them to be biology and chemistry, and that 2 of the sciences need labs. 

 

If I do astronomy then that's not a lab.  And marine biology, while a biology, isn't a full biology course. 

 

Or do we do astronomy in 9th, marine biology in 10th, and then we move to a more full biology and chemistry in 11th and 12th? 

 

I'm new to this.  Meaning, it's just been this afternoon that I sat down to sketch out a high school plan.  I'd love to have astronomy and marine biology count as the science credits, but I don't want to run out of space to do college required courses and be scrambling and doubling up in 11 and 12th.

 

I could do 1/2 year of each of those for 1/2 credit each, skipping physical science, and then head to bio in 10th and chem in 11th and then whatever for 12th. 

 

What do you think?  Is that what you meant?

 

Again, lots of options:

You can do semester courses in astro and marine biology and do this as science for one year.

Or you can do them in addition to, not instead of, the basic sciences.

You also have summers to fit in credits that can't fit during the regular months.

Bio, chem, or physics can be your lab sciences.

Or you can do an astronomy lab. At college, much of astro lab will be computer based, and part of it is observational.

 

Regular bio before marine bio may be beneficial, but maybe you covered a lot of bio in the middle grades.

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...