Medieval History

[NewIma]

Have you done a year of Medieval History for High School? What did you use?  I'd ideally like to do something literature/living book based with a spine, but am open to textbooks too.

We prefer non religious materials but are willing to adapt some materials.

Thanks!

[regentrude]

We did a year Medieval & Renaissance. I integrated history and literature. Here is my long-form course description (for my own records, not what I submitted to college app), including all materials used. Our main material were the Great Courses lectures.

Course Description: English 10/ Medieval and Renaissance History
262 hours, 1 credit English, 1 credit History
Textbook: Short History of Western Civilizations by John Harrison- Ch. 14-30
Major works of Literature studied:
Beowulf
Chaucer Canterbury Tales
Song of Roland
Nibelungenlied
Dante Inferno
Shakespeare: Sonnets, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, Much Ado about Nothing

Supplementary reading:
Umberto Eco The Name of the Rose
The Monster and the critics (JRR Tolkien)

Performances:
Taming of the Shrew (live)
Midsummer Night’s Dream (live)
Hamlet (video)
Romeo and Juliet (dramatized reading)

Audio lectures by the Teaching Company:
Each college level lecture is 30 minutes in length.
The Early Middle Ages (24 lectures, Prof. Philip Daileader )
The High Middle Ages (24 lectures, Prof. Philip Daileader)
The Late Middle Ages (24 lectures, Prof. Philip Daileader)
The Italian Renaissance (36 lectures a 30 minutes, Prof. Kenneth Bartlett)
Dante’s Divine Comedy (Lectures 1-15, Profs. William Cook and Ronald Herzman)
Shakespeare: The Word and the Action (24 lectures a 45 minutes, Prof. Peter Saccio)

other kid used The Vikings (36 lectures, Prof. Kenneth Harl) 

Writing assignments:
The Symbolism of Gold in Beowulf
The Great Papal Schism
Odysseus: From Homer to Dante
Sonnet
Verse Form in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Hamlet
Lady MacBeth
Geography and city development (research paper)

Edited July 20, 2021 by regentrude

[cintinative]

Sort of? 

We used History of Western Society as a spine, and a variety of primary source texts. Unfortunately our lists will not meet your criteria because we did study church history and reformation related texts

ETA: My child studied Medieval Lit separately, as an outsourced course.

 

This thread might be helpful! 

 

Edited July 20, 2021 by cintinative

[Lori D.]

Usually in high school Literature is what is done for the English credit (because the lit. is usually discussed/analyzed) -- while nonfiction (textbook or "living book"), along with lectures, documentaries, field trips, etc. is used for the History credit. Many families do an integrated Literature and History, awarding 2 credits at the end of the year -- 1 each for English and History.

@regentrude's great History + Lit and list of resources is an integrated approach, yielding 2 credits -- 1 each for English and History. Her history materials were the  first 4 Teaching Company series of lectures, and 2 of the writing assignments were History-based (Papal Schism & Geography/City development). So instead of reading History texts, they listed to college intro level lectures on History. The rest of her materials would typically be found in the Literature portion of an English credit.

At the high school level, I would be careful about relying on historical fiction for much of your History (if that is what is meant by "literature/living book based"), as historical fiction is frequently inaccurate, and does not typically provide the depth nor breadth needed for high school level. Historical fiction can be a fun supplement, however, in the same way feature films set in the time period can be a fun supplement to "bring the time period to life." 

Similarly, I would not rely on Literature (such as the works listed by @regentrude) to be the bulk of what is used for the History studies, as Literature is just not designed to instruct in that way. Again, similar to historical fiction, Literature (esp. works written during the historical era being studied) can be great as part integrated study with the History, as it can provide a window into the mindset and worldview and thinking of a segment of the population living at that time.

 

All that to say, I guess I'm not quite clear what you mean by "literature/living book based." 😉 I do think @regentrude has a great line-up if you are interested in doing your History and Literature as integrated credits, and her lecture series are a great alternative to a textbook. 😄 

 

ETA
Wait -- maybe you mean something like one of these secular options:
- Pandia Press - Advanced History Odyssey: Medieval (gr. 9-12)
- Build Your Library - World History, part 1 (grade 10)

Edited July 20, 2021 by Lori D.

[NewIma]

7 hours ago, regentrude said:

We did a year Medieval & Renaissance. I integrated history and literature. Here is my long-form course description (for my own records, not what I submitted to college app), including all materials used. Our main material were the Great Courses lectures.

Course Description: English 10/ Medieval and Renaissance History
262 hours, 1 credit English, 1 credit History
Textbook: Short History of Western Civilizations by John Harrison- Ch. 14-30
Major works of Literature studied:
Beowulf
Chaucer Canterbury Tales
Song of Roland
Nibelungenlied
Dante Inferno
Shakespeare: Sonnets, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, Much Ado about Nothing

Supplementary reading:
Umberto Eco The Name of the Rose
The Monster and the critics (JRR Tolkien)

Performances:
Taming of the Shrew (live)
Midsummer Night’s Dream (live)
Hamlet (video)
Romeo and Juliet (dramatized reading)

Audio lectures by the Teaching Company:
Each college level lecture is 30 minutes in length.
The Early Middle Ages (24 lectures, Prof. Philip Daileader )
The High Middle Ages (24 lectures, Prof. Philip Daileader)
The Late Middle Ages (24 lectures, Prof. Philip Daileader)
The Italian Renaissance (36 lectures a 30 minutes, Prof. Kenneth Bartlett)
Dante’s Divine Comedy (Lectures 1-15, Profs. William Cook and Ronald Herzman)
Shakespeare: The Word and the Action (24 lectures a 45 minutes, Prof. Peter Saccio)

other kid used The Vikings (36 lectures, Prof. Kenneth Harl) 

Writing assignments:
The Symbolism of Gold in Beowulf
The Great Papal Schism
Odysseus: From Homer to Dante
Sonnet
Verse Form in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Hamlet
Lady MacBeth
Geography and city development (research paper)

This is AMAZING! Thank you!

[NewIma]

5 hours ago, cintinative said:

Sort of? 

We used History of Western Society as a spine, and a variety of primary source texts. Unfortunately our lists will not meet your criteria because we did study church history and reformation related texts

ETA: My child studied Medieval Lit separately, as an outsourced course.

 

This thread might be helpful! 

 

I would be very curious to see your list anyway if it is convenient!

[NewIma]

4 hours ago, Lori D. said:

Usually in high school Literature is what is done for the English credit (because the lit. is usually discussed/analyzed) -- while nonfiction (textbook or "living book"), along with lectures, documentaries, field trips, etc. is used for the History credit. Many families do an integrated Literature and History, awarding 2 credits at the end of the year -- 1 each for English and History.

@regentrude's great History + Lit and list of resources is an integrated approach, yielding 2 credits -- 1 each for English and History. Her history materials were the  first 4 Teaching Company series of lectures, and 2 of the writing assignments were History-based (Papal Schism & Geography/City development). So instead of reading History texts, they listed to college intro level lectures on History. The rest of her materials would typically be found in the Literature portion of an English credit.

At the high school level, I would be careful about relying on historical fiction for much of your History (if that is what is meant by "literature/living book based"), as historical fiction is frequently inaccurate, and does not typically provide the depth nor breadth needed for high school level. Historical fiction can be a fun supplement, however, in the same way feature films set in the time period can be a fun supplement to "bring the time period to life." 

Similarly, I would not rely on Literature (such as the works listed by @regentrude) to be the bulk of what is used for the History studies, as Literature is just not designed to instruct in that way. Again, similar to historical fiction, Literature (esp. works written during the historical era being studied) can be great as part integrated study with the History, as it can provide a window into the mindset and worldview and thinking of a segment of the population living at that time.

 

All that to say, I guess I'm not quite clear what you mean by "literature/living book based." 😉 I do think @regentrude has a great line-up if you are interested in doing your History and Literature as integrated credits, and her lecture series are a great alternative to a textbook. 😄 

 

ETA
Wait -- maybe you mean something like one of these secular options:
- Pandia Press - Advanced History Odyssey: Medieval (gr. 9-12)
- Build Your Library - World History, part 1 (grade 10)

Thank you so much for taking the time to process. I am hoping to do the equivalent of two credits-one history and one literature. Ideally I would use something like beautiful feet, but their religious perspective doesn't work for us so I'm trying to find another option. I will check these out! The History of the Medieval World is another option I'm considering, but I think my 14 year old might be a little resistant to such an large volume. I'm going to order a copy though and give it a closer look. Maybe a textbook with illustrations and maps would be another option? Making history interesting has been one of my favorite parts of homeschooling and I want to keep that going.

[cintinative]

10 hours ago, NewIma said:

I would be very curious to see your list anyway if it is convenient!

we ended up covering all of this. I was shocked he made it through it all. 

History of Western Society volume 1 (seven chapters only) plus Sources for Western Society (for those chapters)  [11th edition] plus Online document assignments for those chapters (I downloaded them during a free trial of LaunchPad). 

Great Books Academy study guides (2nd semester Roman year and 1st Semester Middle Ages Year)--only partially used these, to provide questions and a sort of framework for study. (Books listed are not in the order read)

• Augustine--Confessions (most), we used Sarah Ruden's translation
• Two Lives of Charlemagne--Einhard and Notker the Stammerer
• Bede's History of the English People (partial)
• Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion (partial)
• Memoirs of the Crusades, Al-Makrisi
• Chronicle of the Fourth Crusade and The Conquest of Constantinople by Villehardouin
• Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologica (we used Kreft's Summa of the Summa, and only portions)
• Machiavelli The Prince
• Sir Thomas Moore Utopia
• Copernicus, Of the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres
• Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy

We also used this course from TGC: The History of the Middle Ages  https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/course/history-of-the-middle-ages/#overview

Also Historical Atlas of the Medieval World

I added at the end Medieval Lives by Terry Jones and he wrote a research paper on the Crusades.

 

In his outsourced lit class they covered:

Beowulf

Sir Orfeo

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

MacBeth

Faerie Queene Book 1

Canterbury Tales (selections)

 

The other thread I linked will be helpful. We all sort of did our own thing, and it was really cool to see all the different approaches!

 

Edited July 21, 2021 by cintinative