Curriculum Recs: 8th grade Ancients and then beyond

[sweetpea3829]

I'm gathering some info, suggestions, and advice for teaching Ancients to my 8th grade students (13 yr old DD and 12 yr old DS).  We have completed all of the Story of the World volumes throughout elementary.  We had a year of history research...I provided a list of historical topics, they chose one topic per month, researched and presented their findings.  Last year, we did a survey of US Geography.  

My plan is this...

8th: Ancients
9th: Middle Ages
10th: US History I (through Civil War) and Civics
11th: Early Modern
12th: Modern/Current and US History II

I wanted them to have Civics in 10th grade, in the event any of them wind up graduating early, or taking DE classes at our local community college.  

Thoughts on that sequence?  Suggestions for a good Ancients curriculum?  Bonus if it's part of a series that I can continue into Middle Ages.  

Any and all suggestions are much appreciated.  ❤️ 

 

[Farrar]

Have you considered using SWB's History of the Ancient World then Medieval World? There are guides now, right?

Or OUP's The World in Ancient Times and then The World in Medieval Times?

I don't think there are any programs that follow this sequence for high school, so you're going to have to mix and match resources at least a little.

[Momto6inIN]

We really love Great Courses for World and US History (History of the Ancient World A Global Perspective, Foundations of Western Civilization, and History of the US).

For a textbook approach we like K12's Our Human Story and American Odyssey.

We have done both, depending on how much time and energy they want to put into history. Either way, we break up the videos or textbook to just cover the time period we are focusing on, we don't do the whole thing in one year, to leave time for writing projects and what not. So you could easily do that.

[Lori D.]

On 8/28/2019 at 8:52 AM, sweetpea3829 said:

... advice for teaching Ancients to my 8th grade students (13 yr old DD and 12 yr old DS)...
... We had a year of history research...I provided a list of historical topics, they chose one topic per month, researched and presented their findings...
... Last year, we did a survey of US Geography.  

... and and all suggestions are appreciated...

Sometimes it helps to plan the middle school Social Studies sequence by looking at credits that will be required in high school, and working backwards. Here's a list of credits typically required in high school to be "college prep" (i.e., meet eligibility requirements of most non-selective/competitive and non-top tier colleges):

4 credits = English
3-4 credits = Math (Alg. 1, Geometry, Alg. 2 -- + many colleges require a 4th math above Alg. 2)
3-4 credits = Science, with labs (some colleges want Biology & Chemistry; most are flexible; if heading into into a STEM field you'll want 4 credits)
3-4 credits = Social Studies (most colleges want 1 year Amer. Hist.; some want 1 year World Hist. or Geogr.; a few want 0.5 credit each Gov't (Civics) & Econ)
2-4 credits = Foreign Language, same language
1 credit = Fine Arts
4-8+ credits = Electives (examples: Logic, Computer, Health, PE, Vocational-Tech, credits in personal interests, "Academic Electives" (additional credits in the first 5 subjects above beyond the required amount; additional credits in Fine Arts; etc.)
22-28+ credits = total
 

On 8/28/2019 at 8:52 AM, sweetpea3829 said:

...My plan is this...
8th: Ancients
9th: Middle Ages
10th: US History I (through Civil War) and Civics
11th: Early Modern
12th: Modern/Current and US History II

... I wanted them to have Civics in 10th grade, in the event any of them wind up graduating early, or taking DE classes at our local community college.  
... Thoughts on that sequence?...

1. If thinking there may be early graduation then you'll want to make sure to complete a full year (1.0 credit) of American History earlier in your sequence rather than splitting that credit over 10th and 12th grades. American History is the one Social Studies credit most frequently required to have been done in high school to meet admission eligibility requirements for many colleges.

2. Make your plans in pencil and hold on to them lightly. Student interests and needs change SO much in high school, as they start to develop interests in new areas, or sometimes find a career area they are want to head towards, and you want to be able to flex and change your plan -- possibly dropping the idea of another full 4 year cycle of World History -- to be able to provide the ability for your students to pursue more credits in the high interest or possible career field area.

3. Just a thought, but looking at your signature, it doesn't look like History is the big passion of your older 2 students. That would be another reason I would be flexible about the idea of doing another full 4 years of World History in high school, and possibly consider doing a lighter/less in-depth 2-year sweep through all of World History + 1 year of American History.

4. If early graduation is a possibility and you also want to complete another run through of the entirety of World History, then consider planning on getting all your required and most desired Social Studies credits in by 11th grade, and shorten up your next World History cycle from 4 years to 2 years. Examples: 

8th = Ancient + Medieval .  .  .  . 8th = Ancient + Medieval .  .  .  .  .  .  8th = World Geography
9th = Early Mod. + Modern .  .  . 9th = Early Mod. + Amer. Hist. 1 .  .  . 9th = Ancient + Medieval
10th = Amer. Hist. + Civics .  .  .  .10th = Modern + Amer. Hist. 2 .  .  .  10th = Amer. Hist. + Civics (Gov't)
11th = possible DE .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  11th = Econ + Civics (Gov't) .  .  .  .  .  11th = Early Mod. + Modern

5. Just a random thought: Sounds like you've done a lot of History throughout grades 1-6 and US Geography in 7th. Perhaps do a matching year of World Geography in 8th grade? Perhaps do some other Social Studies subject such as Current Events or Philosophy or World Geography + Comparative Religions, as fantastic prep in 8th grade for understanding why nations make/made the choices they did and how that creates the events of History? (But, perhaps your History research year did that for you already... 😉 )
 

On 8/28/2019 at 8:52 AM, sweetpea3829 said:

...Suggestions for a good Ancients curriculum?  Bonus if it's part of a series that I can continue into Middle Ages.

Listed at a middle school/early high school level is the secular Oxford University Press series: The World in Ancient Times. There are also a few titles that go into Medieval/Early Modern times. Each book is around 170-190 pages. There is also a teacher guide to go with each, so you can add "output" of discussion, writing, or activities. Mostly the ancient world, but enough titles that it would transition you into Medieval and up into the 1700s.

Ancients:
The Early Human World (pre-history)
The Ancient Near Eastern World (Mesopotamia, Sumer, Assyria)
The Ancient South Asian World (India)
The Ancient Chinese World
The Ancient American World
The Ancient Egyptian World
The Ancient Greek World
The Ancient Roman World

Medieval & Early Modern World:
The European World, 400-1450
The African and Middle Eastern World, 600-1500
An Age of Voyages, 1350-1600
An Age of Empires, 1200-1750
An Age of Science and Revolutions, 1600-1800

A better fit if wanting something that will take you all the way through history and from middle school to high school: these programs (below) are multi-level, so you could start in 8th grade with the lower level, and as you move into high school, bump up a level. The last 2 suggestions here would also allow you to fold in your younger 2 (from your signature) with studying the same time period but with materials at their level:

- Pandia Press: History Odyssey (secular)
- Tapestry of Grace (Christian)
- Biblioplan (Christian)

Wishing you all the BEST in finding what's a good fit for you all for 8th grade, AND in planning ahead for high school! Warmest regards, Lori D.

 

Edited September 1, 2019 by Lori D.

[NataliaMusk]

I'm not there yet so I can't give you feedback based on experience. I'm still doing Story of the World with my kids. But I plan to follow up with A Story Of US (We love the audio book story format SOTW offers, so I think this will be a good fit) and then probably move on to History Odyssey. I second that Pandia Press is a publisher you should look into since they have Ancients and Middle Ages Curriculum in both middle school and high school level for you to choose from. These are secular.

[goldenecho]

So, I've never gotten a chance to use this one, but there is a free curriculum for high school and middle school age kids that I think would be great for a child who had been through an overview of history (like your kids have).   It is NOT an overview, but more of a way to teach critical thinking about the world through history, and it uses  original source material (translated of course to English).   It's meant for a classroom but could be easily adapted to a homeschool setting, especially since you have two kids near the same age who could discuss things and work on projects together.    It has both American and World History and the World History.

https://www.marionbrady.com/

If I was using that, along with it I might use something like Crash Course World History (on YouTube) to summarize and remind them of what they had previously learned about history. 

And, where I could fit it in, I'd use Extra Credits History (also on YouTube...not a broad overview like Crash Course) just because it's my favorite and it's fun.  I'd also supplement with some literature books from and about the period.

 

 

[Clemsondana]

I have an 8th grader and am looking at high school plans, too.  I second Lori's thought that  you need to see how much American history you need and whether you need an econ class.  We used the K-12 Human Odyssey series as our spine in 6-8, so we we'll have done a basic pass through Ancients-Modern in middle school.  In our state, we need a semester each of econ and government, a year of US, and a year of world (I think the content is unspecified).  I'm debating whether to self-study for AP US history.  The civics/econ we may do at home or as a co-op class if friends are taking it but we'll probably do it in 9th because we are definitely not doing AP for that content and we're not ready to write an AP-level essay, so it makes sense for us to do that in 9th.  I haven't decided what to do for world history - if we really have no requirements on content, kiddo may pick and era, or do military history or do something homebrewed with studying and comparing foundational documents for different societies.  We debate what to do for the 4th year - another year of world history from another place or era?  A geography course (AP or otherwise)?  Dig deeper and do another economics course (macro or micro, AP or not)?  

[sweetpea3829]

Thanks for all of the suggestions everyone!  And Lori, mucho thanks to you for your extra effort.  ❤️