Need help choosing American History curriculum

[Kassia]

American History was my worst subject in school.  I need a secular curriculum with a teacher guide and lesson plan that my daughter can use pretty independently.  For 8th grade, we used Hakim and the first U.S. History Detective, and liked both a lot.  I'm looking at Oak Meadow now and History Odyssey American History (not much feedback on that one yet since it's new).  

 

ETA:  Dd prefers textbooks.  She doesn't care for movies/documentaries or historical fiction.  I'm the complete opposite - if I could have been taught U.S. History with historical fiction and movies/documentaries, I would have enjoyed it so much more.  

 

Any recommendations?

 

Thank you!

Edited November 27, 2016 by Erica H

[Sweet Home Alabama]

It's not a movie or documentary..... The Teaching Company The History of the United States 2nd edition.  These are lectures.  There is a course book/guide that comes with them (not a textbook though).  This is probably a long shot since your dd prefers a text.  This is what we used, and my dd loved it.  

 

We spread American history over 11th and 12th grade. 

11th grade American history  (beginning to Civil War) was paired with government.

12th grade American history (Civil War through the Clinton years, I think) was paired with economics and personal finance.

 

Hope you get an answer that best suits your dd.  Couldn't help passing on something that really worked for us..... and could possibly be tweaked for your dd.

 

 

[Kassia]

It's not a movie or documentary..... The Teaching Company The History of the United States 2nd edition.  These are lectures.  There is a course book/guide that comes with them (not a textbook though).  This is probably a long shot since your dd prefers a text.  This is what we used, and my dd loved it.  

 

We spread American history over 11th and 12th grade. 

11th grade American history  (beginning to Civil War) was paired with government.

12th grade American history (Civil War through the Clinton years, I think) was paired with economics and personal finance.

 

Hope you get an answer that best suits your dd.  Couldn't help passing on something that really worked for us..... and could possibly be tweaked for your dd.

 

Thanks so much!  I am going to look into it!   :)

 

ETA (hope you see this):  Does the course book/guide come with questions/activities/assessments to go with the lessons?  If so, is there any kind of teacher guide to go along with them? 

Edited November 27, 2016 by Erica H

[Sweet Home Alabama]

It is called a Course Guidebook.  At the beginning of the book, there are brief biographical details for each of the three lecturers. Following that are lecture summaries from each of the 84 lectures. Each lecture summary, on average, is about 2 pages long. Each also includes suggested reading and 2 questions to consider.  Here is an example:

 

Lecture 16 is titled Republicans and Federalists.  There is a 2-page summary followed by these suggested readings: Appleby, Capitalism and a new Social Order; Banning, The Jeffersonian Persuasion; and Jefferson, "Notes on the State of Virginia," in Peterson, The Portable Thomas Jefferson.

 

There are two questions to consider:

1. Why did the constitutional Convention miss so completely the likelihood that political parties would develop in the new republic?

2. Were there any points of shared values between Republicans and Federalists?

 

There are no suggested answers.

 

The coursebook also contains supplemental material including maps, timeline, glossary, biographical notes, and bibliography.  There are no activities or assessments.  

 

You would have to decide how to implement these lectures.  You could correlate the lectures to a text of your choosing  if you wanted. The reading and tests could come from the text you choose.  This isn't necessary, tho. 

 

We used these lectures much differently.  My dd wanted to study history via stories.  For her these lectures were a series of stories.  She would listen to a lecture and take notes. (Improving note-taking skills was one objective of taking this course.) Many times she would be moved to excitement or outrage or amazement about history and would carry on the most opinionated conversations about them with me.  I had no need of assessments because she could easily give me context about a lecture, take a side, and support her opinion.  That was so much better than handing her a test and getting  "one-dimensional" answers.

 

Does that help?

 

ETA: I realize that learning to answer AP type questions (can't remember what they are called) is important to some.  This history course was just history for  us, so answering the AP type questions was not a goal.  She had wonderful English courses where essay writing was primary.  

 

 

Edited November 27, 2016 by Sweet Home Alabama

[Kassia]

 

Does that help?

 

ETA: I realize that learning to answer AP type questions (can't remember what they are called) is important to some.  This history course was just history for  us, so answering the AP type questions was not a goal.  She had wonderful English courses where essay writing was primary.  

 

Yes, very helpful!  Thanks so much.

 

I'm not interested in an AP level course at this time either.  Like your dd, mine will have an English class with essay writing so that's not a big concern of mine for now.  I really want her to have a good base of knowledge and enjoy the subject.  

[Momto6inIN]

K12 American Odyssey is a pretty well done textbook. I've got that slated for my oldest DS for next year, along with some Critical Thinking in US History writing assignments. History is a get 'er done subject for him.

 

My 2nd DS is more of a history buff, and so he will probably do USH over 2 years using American Odyssey/CT in USH and the Great Courses course Sweet Home Alabama recommended.

[Kassia]

Did you have primary documents to read using the Great Courses or the K12/Critical Thinking books?  

 

Thanks!

[Momto6inIN]

Did you have primary documents to read using the Great Courses or the K12/Critical Thinking books?

 

Thanks!

They read some excerpts with their USH in middle school (Hakim) and this year with their government course (Noble Experiment, which I can't recommend but it did have several original sources) and CT has excerpts as well, so I'm calling that good enough.

 

Sent from my Z988 using Tapatalk

[SilverMoon]

We used the free Fundafunda schedule. It schedules the GC lecture set with the Paul Johnson book, and assigns primary documents through portions of Critical Thinking in US History.

[Kassia]

We used the free Fundafunda schedule. It schedules the GC lecture set with the Paul Johnson book, and assigns primary documents through portions of Critical Thinking in US History.

 

Thank you!  Do you remember how long the lessons took using the Fundafunda schedule?  I think it looks great, but don't want American History to be a huge time investment for dd since she has some other time-consuming classes.  

[SilverMoon]

Thank you!  Do you remember how long the lessons took using the Fundafunda schedule?  I think it looks great, but don't want American History to be a huge time investment for dd since she has some other time-consuming classes.  

 

Oof. That was 9th grade and she's 11th now. IIRC there was an average of three lectures a week (each 30-45 min long) and a couple/few days worth of reading. More if you add in the movies. If it looks too heavy you could tweak that syllabus out to 36 weeks fairly easily; it's short so there's two weeks to study for the AP test if desired. We really enjoyed the movies, but we mostly watched them on evenings and weekends with DH and older siblings.

[RootAnn]

I tweaked the FundaFunda schedule almost beyond recognition, but you can choose to do parts of it. (For example, we used the Critical Thinking texts, but I wouldn't buy them (used) again. I would find other sources for primary sources.)

 

Eta: we split US History into two years, so she did 45-60 minutes each day four times per week and 30 min on the fifth day. Sometimes, writing assignments took longer on certain days.

Edited November 30, 2016 by RootAnn

[Kassia]

Oof. That was 9th grade and she's 11th now. IIRC there was an average of three lectures a week (each 30-45 min long) and a couple/few days worth of reading. More if you add in the movies. If it looks too heavy you could tweak that syllabus out to 36 weeks fairly easily; it's short so there's two weeks to study for the AP test if desired. We really enjoyed the movies, but we mostly watched them on evenings and weekends with DH and older siblings.

 

Thanks!  My dd hates movies so we would skip them.  That would save on time, but I wish she liked movies - I think it's a great way to learn and it would be fun to watch them together.  I would definitely stretch out the course to 36 weeks.  

 

I tweaked the FundaFunda schedule almost beyond recognition, but you can choose to do parts of it. (For example, we used the Critical Thinking texts, but I wouldn't buy them (used) again. I would find other sources for primary sources.)

 

Eta: we split US History into two years, so she did 45-60 minutes each day four times per week and 30 min on the fifth day. Sometimes, writing assignments took longer on certain days.

 

Can you tell me why you wouldn't use the Critical Thinking texts?  I'm not familiar with them.  

[RootAnn]

Well, they are hard to use independently, IMO. There is definitely some teaching to use them as intended. They are set up for classroom use, too.

 

You can buy the books used (and to teach them, you would also want the TM) or the CDs New from the Critical Thinking Co. You have to buy 4 or 5 books for the year. Not worth the $ for the work or benefit, IMO.

[Kassia]

Well, they are hard to use independently, IMO. There is definitely some teaching to use them as intended. They are set up for classroom use, too.

 

You can buy the books used (and to teach them, you would also want the TM) or the CDs New from the Critical Thinking Co. You have to buy 4 or 5 books for the year. Not worth the $ for the work or benefit, IMO.

 

Thanks so much!  I am definitely looking for more independent work since I am very weak on history.  

[5Wizards]

We started the year with a tweaked fundafunda schedule (using the teaching company lectures), then tweaked it some more to include part of the Pandia Press stuff, and finally we switched completely to Oak Meadow (an older version).  I am teaching two kids this year, and they both say that they like the Oak Meadow US History much better.  We are all happy now, and I plan to use it with my younger kids as well in the future.

 

Oak Meadow uses a textbook and can be done independently.  We discuss everything and I am including movies, but the movies aren't necessary.  You might be able to find the books on ebay (I did and saved a bundle).

 

Good luck deciding on something.

[Kassia]

We started the year with a tweaked fundafunda schedule (using the teaching company lectures), then tweaked it some more to include part of the Pandia Press stuff, and finally we switched completely to Oak Meadow (an older version).  I am teaching two kids this year, and they both say that they like the Oak Meadow US History much better.  We are all happy now, and I plan to use it with my younger kids as well in the future.

 

Oak Meadow uses a textbook and can be done independently.  We discuss everything and I am including movies, but the movies aren't necessary.  You might be able to find the books on ebay (I did and saved a bundle).

 

Good luck deciding on something.

 

Thank you!  We are using an older version of Oak Meadow World History this year and my dd likes it.  Maybe I should just do the same for American History instead of making myself crazy trying to put something new together for her next year.  

 

For the older version, is there a specific textbook used?  I noticed that the current version doesn't have an assigned textbook.

[happypamama]

I've liked Pandia's stuff so much that we are probably going to use their US next year. DD is really loving the Great Courses lectures on the Middle Ages this year as a supplement to Pandia's History Odyssey, so I'll try to correlate some GC US lectures as well. She's an audio person, though, so ymmv.

[5Wizards]

The older version of Oak meadow uses The American Vision.

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0078745217/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

The textbook we bought was a different year than what was used in the syllabus, but it was very easy to line up all of the chapters - the page numbers are just different from the syllabus. 

 

 

[Kassia]

The older version of Oak meadow uses The American Vision.

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0078745217/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

The textbook we bought was a different year than what was used in the syllabus, but it was very easy to line up all of the chapters - the page numbers are just different from the syllabus. 

 

Thanks!  I wish they had stuck with that format instead of changing it to a syllabus with no designated textbook.  

[5Wizards]

Thanks!  I wish they had stuck with that format instead of changing it to a syllabus with no designated textbook.  

 

I had no idea that they did it that way now - I just went and checked out their bookstore and saw what you mean.  I guess that works well for some people, but I am glad that I have the older version.  :001_smile:

[Kassia]

I had no idea that they did it that way now - I just went and checked out their bookstore and saw what you mean.  I guess that works well for some people, but I am glad that I have the older version.  :001_smile:

 

I am hoping to find an older set (syllabus and teacher manual) to use because I prefer that method to the new one.  

[Garga]

American History was my worst subject in school. I need a secular curriculum with a teacher guide and lesson plan that my daughter can use pretty independently. For 8th grade, we used Hakim and the first U.S. History Detective, and liked both a lot. I'm looking at Oak Meadow now and History Odyssey American History (not much feedback on that one yet since it's new).

 

ETA: Dd prefers textbooks. She doesn't care for movies/documentaries or historical fiction. I'm the complete opposite - if I could have been taught U.S. History with historical fiction and movies/documentaries, I would have enjoyed it so much more.

 

Any recommendations?

 

Thank you!

I know this is an old thread, but I have been meaning to reply to it for weeks, but then Christmas happened and I forgot all about it.

 

OP...you asked about primary documents. This is a website with free lessons around primary documents. There are world history lessons and US history lessons.

 

https://sheg.stanford.edu/us