Middle Ages for 7th?

[sangtarah]

I’m tying to wrap my head around what a Middle Ages study for a seventh grader should or needs to look like. 

Here are the resources I have : SOTW Vol. 2 and accompanying activity book, test book, Kingfisher Encyclopedia; Truthquest Middle Ages; Streams of Civilizations Vol. 1; Story of The Middle Ages published by Christian Liberty Press; Famous Men of the Middle Ages and Greenleaf guide to go with it; IEW Middle Ages theme based writing program. 

I have a upcoming 4th grader, and was hoping to study the time period together. I’m kinda lost on what to require for 7th grade work. I know the 4th will be fine doing SOTW as suggested, but I’d like more depth for 7th, I’m just unsure how much. Do I try to align and use all the resources I have or sell some so I don’t feel tempted to add it in? ?

Any suggestions or encouraging comments?

[lmrich]

I have used the Dorothy Mills version for the past four years with my students at a univerity model school.  Several students commented that this was their favorite class, and they now love history.  I think that might have something to do with how I structure the class with lots of skits, etc... The text is challenging but accessible. 

[Lori D.]

No, I wouldn't try and use ALL SEVEN of those resources at once -- way too much, and a lot of overlap, which will cause you headaches for trying to align it all yourself and figure out how to avoid repeating. (:P I do think you can use up to 3 of them, though, and they would fit together pretty well. By going with a pre-laid out program that is designed for middle school ages, that will give you a good idea of how much work an average middle schooler does.

Sounds like what might be useful is an overall schedule to guide you through what to use and when. Perhaps the Biblioplan Family Guide -- it includes scheduling of pages for 4 of the 6 History resources you have on your shelf already, including: Story of the World (which might best fit for your 4th grader), Famous Men of the Middle Ages, Kingfisher Encyclopedia, and Streams of Civilization.
read about the Family Guide
see sample of year 2 Family Guide schedule

OR, if you go with Truthquest, it has you choose a spine text from: SOTW vol. 2 or Greenleaf's Famous Men (or one of about 6 other texts, different from what you currently own -- the Dorothy Mills text suggested by the above poster is one of these 6 other texts). Truthquest schedules 2 of the resources you already have, and all 3 of these resources fit your 2 student's ages (SOTW = gr. 2-7; Greenleaf Famous Men = gr. 4-8; Truthquest = gr. 5-8). If you go with this option, you'd be using Truthquest, which schedules SOTW and Greenleaf for you, and you can add in IEW Middle Ages Writing as excerpts of it fit in with your LA time.

OR, since you have so many resources already, you could pick a spine to use as your weekly schedule and guide for adding in historical fiction, hands-on or activities, videos, and other extras, and then pick one supplement to "flesh out" the "spine":

1. pick one History "spine" program:
- SOTW + activity book
- Truthquest

2. pick one "supplement" text:
- Kingfisher Encyclopedia  (facts, timeline, and short articles of key history events, people, etc.)
- CLP: Story of the Middle Ages  (history of Medieval Europe, with story-like chapters focused on famous people)
- Greenleaf: Famous Men of the Middle Ages  (collection of biographies of famous Medieval European people)

3. use IEW Middle Ages (excerpts, or all) as it fits in with your Language Arts

4. add in historical fiction, activities, videos, etc, suggested by the spine program, that fit with each student and as they are scheduled in the spine program

 

BEST of luck in deciding! Your students are at a great age for exploring, and the Middle Ages is a time period rich with wonderful materials to learn from! Warmest regards, Lori D.

[sangtarah]

On 5/17/2018 at 8:30 PM, Lori D. said:

No, I wouldn't try and use ALL SEVEN of those resources at once -- way too much, and a lot of overlap, which will cause you headaches for trying to align it all yourself and figure out how to avoid repeating. (:P I do think you can use up to 3 of them, though, and they would fit together pretty well. By going with a pre-laid out program that is designed for middle school ages, that will give you a good idea of how much work an average middle schooler does.

Sounds like what might be useful is an overall schedule to guide you through what to use and when. Perhaps the Biblioplan Family Guide -- it includes scheduling of pages for 4 of the 6 History resources you have on your shelf already, including: Story of the World (which might best fit for your 4th grader), Famous Men of the Middle Ages, Kingfisher Encyclopedia, and Streams of Civilization.
read about the Family Guide
see sample of year 2 Family Guide schedule

OR, if you go with Truthquest, it has you choose a spine text from: SOTW vol. 2 or Greenleaf's Famous Men (or one of about 6 other texts, different from what you currently own -- the Dorothy Mills text suggested by the above poster is one of these 6 other texts). Truthquest schedules 2 of the resources you already have, and all 3 of these resources fit your 2 student's ages (SOTW = gr. 2-7; Greenleaf Famous Men = gr. 4-8; Truthquest = gr. 5-8). If you go with this option, you'd be using Truthquest, which schedules SOTW and Greenleaf for you, and you can add in IEW Middle Ages Writing as excerpts of it fit in with your LA time.

OR, since you have so many resources already, you could pick a spine to use as your weekly schedule and guide for adding in historical fiction, hands-on or activities, videos, and other extras, and then pick one supplement to "flesh out" the "spine":

1. pick one History "spine" program:
- SOTW + activity book
- Truthquest

2. pick one "supplement" text:
- Kingfisher Encyclopedia  (facts, timeline, and short articles of key history events, people, etc.)
- CLP: Story of the Middle Ages  (history of Medieval Europe, with story-like chapters focused on famous people)
- Greenleaf: Famous Men of the Middle Ages  (collection of biographies of famous Medieval European people)

3. use IEW Middle Ages (excerpts, or all) as it fits in with your Language Arts

4. add in historical fiction, activities, videos, etc, suggested by the spine program, that fit with each student and as they are scheduled in the spine program

 

BEST of luck in deciding! Your students are at a great age for exploring, and the Middle Ages is a time period rich with wonderful materials to learn from! Warmest regards, Lori D.

 

Thank you, Lori! I love reading your posts; thank you for clarifying the choices so succinctly. I was getting muddled in overthinking the solution, and you cleaned off my choices for me! Given that clarity, I am going to use SOTW + AG as my "spine". I still will have to pick one "supplement", but am leaning towards the Greenleaf Famous Men of the Middle Ages. 

I think we are going to have a lot of fun! 

[Carolinagirl1]

My tried and true is Veritas Press Self Paced Online History. If I want to supplement, I play the SOTW cds in the car. (My girls LOVE to listen to the CDs once they've learned the material from VP! It makes it come alive even more for them)! Veritas Press comes with history cards and an online program that my girls have learned so much from. It is so crazy - we went to an antiques show and one of the vendors had ancient coins from the Byzantine era and my daughter was able to explain to him all of the faces on the coins, who they were related to, and how they were important in history!! It includes the teaching plus games in a format that my girls love. They do the tests online and it keeps the grades for me as well. The program includes level 1 and level 2 literature that can be read along with the lessons if you choose to do that. We do some of the literature. There are also some suggested projects, which we don't usually do. My plan for the next year was to incorporate Medieval Based History writing lessons from IEW along with it, but I found Essentials in Writing so we are going that route instead of IEW. 

So my recommendation for Middle Ages is as follows:

Veritas Press Self Paced Online with suggested literature, SOTW cds to listen to (in the car for us), and Medieval Based History writing lessons from IEW (which also includes literature suggestions, which you can either read or enjoy as audiobooks).