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Engaging 9th Grade World History Curriculum


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I'm having a hard time finding many options for 9th grade World History.

First, I'd like non-secular, which means either neutral or christian, just not beat me over the head christian, please (which I think rules out Holt and Pearson, and other public school textbooks). I also know I don't want a teacher's manual, I want things written directly to the student (which rules out BJU and Abeka, and I think Diane Waring). I would also prefer something with minimal writing as that's his weakness. I don't mind adding living books into it, I just don't want each day to be 4 pages of this book, and 5 pages of this other book, and 2 pages from this 3rd book, etc (like it appears Biblioplan, Pandia Press and Tapestry of Grace do). It doesn't have to be all in one year, either, but I don't really want a 4 year cycle like they do in the younger grades. I also think I would prefer a chronological approach, rather than a biographical (Gruber Series or Famous Men series). And I don't want the authors opinions. I know I'll get some, but the Master Books Stobaugh are heavily authors "observations and assessments"-not what I'm looking for. 

Notgrass seems the most promising at this point, but I'm still not sure.

Does what I'm looking for even exist? Thanks!

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K12's textbook Our Human Story is really good. It's secular but as a conservative Christian I haven't had a problem with it. I've had my non history buff kids just read and write a short chapter summary - very to the point.

Or for my more history minded kids I've had them watch Great Courses videos (Foundations of Western Civilization and History of the Ancient World) and take notes from the videos and write a couple of term papers. Again, it's secular but I haven't had a problem with any of it.

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I like Notgrass but I'm not sure I would call it "engaging", at least not for typical teens. I really like history so I find it interesting, but both my teen sons who've used it say it's just OK. There are pretty good sample lessons on their website. Perhaps looking through that would help you decide if it's your style. It does meet all your other requirements (doesn't beat over the head, you can skip the writing assignments). You could do it over two years instead of one if you like. Most lessons you have to read the textbook, the original source book, and then something from the Bible, so I'm not sure if that's too many books for you. You can, of course, skip some of that.

I don't think Diana Waring requires the teacher book. Everything you read is in the student book, but you do have to have her audio CD's. The one thing with her program is that it is so full that you really have to pick and choose what to cover, and there is definitely some research involved on the part of the student.

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I don’t think Diana Waring is very teacher intensive. It has a variety of ways for a student to demonstrate learning so it *could be writing heavy but it could also be light on writing. There are a lot of options for students to choose from to suit different learning styles and interests. My mom used it with my youngest sister (who hates reading and writing and likes to be active and creative) and it worked quite well for her. You used to be able to get a free sample unit (one month) to try out. I don’t know if they still offer that. 

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  • 4 months later...
On 7/25/2019 at 3:42 PM, alisha said:

I'm having a hard time finding many options for 9th grade World History.

First, I'd like non-secular, which means either neutral or christian, just not beat me over the head christian, please (which I think rules out Holt and Pearson, and other public school textbooks). I also know I don't want a teacher's manual, I want things written directly to the student (which rules out BJU and Abeka, and I think Diane Waring). I would also prefer something with minimal writing as that's his weakness. I don't mind adding living books into it, I just don't want each day to be 4 pages of this book, and 5 pages of this other book, and 2 pages from this 3rd book, etc (like it appears Biblioplan, Pandia Press and Tapestry of Grace do). It doesn't have to be all in one year, either, but I don't really want a 4 year cycle like they do in the younger grades. I also think I would prefer a chronological approach, rather than a biographical (Gruber Series or Famous Men series). And I don't want the authors opinions. I know I'll get some, but the Master Books Stobaugh are heavily authors "observations and assessments"-not what I'm looking for. 

Notgrass seems the most promising at this point, but I'm still not sure.

Does what I'm looking for even exist? Thanks!

What did you go with? I could have written this haha. 

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On 7/26/2019 at 10:09 PM, Æthelthryth the Texan said:

I haven't used Notgrass World History, but have their US Hist and US Gov. To my dd16, it was "beat you over the head" level of Christianity. I didn't find it as bad as she did, but I think at 16 maybe one is more sensitive to feeling something is being foisted on them. 

 

I struggle(d) as well. I am teaching government using the Notgrass US Govt. text.  I was not given the option to pick curriculum for the class I am teaching.  I would say it is *very overtly* conservatively biased, and I am an evangelical Christian. Perhaps I have been "spoiled" by years of using the K12 Human Odyssey texts and the OUP texts that tend to be more balanced but I am not used to it.  I get that kids this age are still maturing but I also believe in presenting both points of view and having a discussion of the possible problems and merits.  I am replacing multiple chapters of the Econ book which are not actually Econ but studies on the Bible relating to personal finance.  Personal finance is important too, but IMO those chapters should be in a separate text dedicated to personal finance.  

I guess it all depends on what you are used to and what you want, but I am definitely going to echo the recommendation by this poster that you preview the curriculum.

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