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Rephrasing a question: favorite curricula for Modern World History?


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I did Sonlight 300, but added in readings from Barron's World History, Gilbert's 20th Century volumes (very good, but not analytical), and films of the time period. We didn't read everything, and we added in SparkNotes because about a third of the books don't have any commentary/discussion questions to go with them. We used the book form of the DK 20th Century book, also (now they use a different spine).

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When my now senior was in 9th grade, she studied World History from 1700 to 2000 using World History the Easy Way, American History the Easy Way and a boat load of other resources including books, videos, and music. I assigned some map work and also tied in literature pertaining to the period.

 

I have an Excel spread sheet with the entire plan laid out. If you are interested, I'd be happy to email it to you.

 

Regards,

Kareni

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... Below is what we're using this year as we cover 20th Century World History (basically 1880s to present day). We read most of the Spielvogel text; then dip into the other resources, and the boys will each read about 6-8 historical fiction works on their own. I also have them fill in 20 items per decade as a sort of "time line", and then over the course of the year they'll turn in about 6-8 "Decade Reports" (papers of various lengths) on a person / place / event from different decades (which also counts as writing for English credit!).

 

We also throw in the occasional feature film/TV show/documentary as it fits in -- usually just for fun, in the evening.

 

I don't tend to plan it out too hard; I just set a general guideline for us so we don't spend too long early on and then run out of time at the end. I figured on about 12 decades to cover 20th century (the 10 decades of the 1900s, plus the 1880s-90s as a decade, and 2000-present as a decade). That gives us about 3 weeks per decade. However I wanted extra time for the 2 world wars, so I shortened up the first 3 decades and the very last decade which gives us an extra 4 weeks for the world wars.

 

Also, since we'll be doing US history next year, we can spend more time on the Roaring 20s, the Great Depression, Civil Rights, the Vietnam War, and US social issues of the 1960s-present next year.

 

While it all sounds like a lot, we only spend about 2-4 hours a week all together on history. The time spent on modern literature for The Great Books are counted separately as park on an elective credit, as are the modern literature works used as part of our English credit. Don't know if any of that is of help, but that's what we're doing for 20th century world history! BEST of luck in finding what works for your family! Warmly, Lori D.

 

 

1. Spielvogel's World History: The Human Odyssey

(We're using part of the text as our spine, from 1800 to 1999; chap. 21-34 = 475 pages)

While much of the text covers major political events and people, it does cover the world (Asia, Africa, Europe, the Americas), it has excerpts from various people living in the times, and does cover (in side bars) art movements.

 

2. for art movements from late 1800s to present time, bits and pieces of:

- The Usborne Internet Linked Introduction to Art

- Sister Wendy's The Story of Painting

 

3. bits and pieces of other resources:

- Usborne 20th Century (lots of 2-page spreads, includes arts, technology, medicine, and other topics)

- Story of the World 4 (connections of people/events for pre-WW1 and WW1 very clearly and simply laid out)

- Visual History of the Modern World (photos, headline stories, timeline of world 20th century events)

- Our Century in Pictures for Young People (photos, headline stories, timeline of world 20th century events)

 

4. bits and pieces of books on specific events:

- The Vietnam War: How the U.S. Became Involved (Vietnam War)

- When The Wall Came Down (East/West Germany reunited)

- The Arab-Israeli Conflict (Tony McAleavy)

- The World Today (Henry Brun) -- current world events, 1980 to present

(End of Cold War; European unification; African crises; Middle East crises; Asian economics; Latin American drug politics; nuclear proliferation; human rights; terrorism; global economies)

 

5. historical fiction (many titles from Sonlight 300) -- we'll get to about 6-8 of these:

1900-1910 = The Great Brain -- or -- Little Britches

1910-1920 = Einstein -- or -- The Endurance

WW1 = The Road From Home

1920-1930 = Cheaper by the Dozen

WW2 = Winged Watchman -- or -- Endless Steppe -- or -- Escape From Warsaw

1940-1950 = After The War

1950-1960 = Tramp for the Lord -- or -- I Am David -- or -- The Cay

1960-1970 = God's Smuggler -- or -- I Heard The Owl Call My Name

1970-present = Pushcart War -- or -- View From Saturday

 

 

 

The Great Books (counted as an elective)

A mix of modern & non-modern titles; modern titles listed:

- All Quiet on the Western Front (with Sparknotes guide)

- Diary of Anne Frank (with Portals to Literature guide)

- To Kill a Mockingbird (with Garlic Press guide)

 

Literature (counted as part of English credit)

son #1 = Worldview in Sci-Fi and Gothic Literature (about 2/3 of the works are modern lit.)

son #2 = Lightning Lit. 8 (about 1/2 of the works are modern lit.)

Edited by Lori D.
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as in history of the World, not just America, from 1700s on, starting up just after the Age of Exploration?

 

High school level, please.

 

I'd like something that intertwined artists, musicians, authors/lit, geography, etc, not a "just the facts, ma'am" textbook.

 

TUVM!!!

 

That sounds like the time frame of SL7. You could look at how others have beefed up SL7 for high school.

Also, I think that the last TRISMS volume covers much of what you are looking for.

The Teaching Company has Foundations of Western Civilization 2 the covers Western History from the Renaissance through 2001.

10th grade ds is doing 20th century history, so that is a much smaller time frame than what you are looking at doing. However, he is using WP's S&S and we just considered the additional world history first semester to be fun review.

For 20th century history first semester he used Walch's Power Basics World History Volume 3, 100 Days in Photographs: Pivotal Events that Changed the World, and Our Century in Pictures. We also studied modern art (my selections). We like The Annotated Mona Lisa and anything Sister Wendy. We have many other art books on the shelf.

This semester he is using Flight: 100 Years of Aviation for an in-depth study of the 20th century from the perspective of aviation history. Both semesters he has read both fiction and non-fiction literature selections. Last semester the books/ movies covered some things relevant to WP S&S, so not all of them were relevant to modern history. I don't have last semester handy, but I know he read To Kill a Mockingbird and the Autobiography of Helen Keller. Anyway, here is this semester. I tried to mix in easier books, harder books, and movies, so some of them are out of place historically. Also, for some of the more difficult reads, I may try to find them on audio CD along with sparknotes or another guide. Most of the books are from SL7 and SL300.

 

The Good Master

The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane

The Giver (out ot place, but good book)

Stardust (for fun)

 

All Quiet on the Western Front- DVD

These are completed.

The Road from Home

The Great Gatsby

These he is currently reading.

 

Blue Willow

The Grapes of Wrath- DVD

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Snow Treasure

I Am David- DVD

The Hiding Place

Cry, the Beloved Country

Albert Einstein and the Theory of Relativity

October Sky- DVD

Murder on the Orient Express (out of place, but good book)

American Grafitti- DVD

Fallen Angels

Apollo 13- DVD

Lord of the Flies

The Breadwinner

Forrest Gump- DVD

Animal Farm

The Moves Make the Man

Hotel Rwanda- DVD

Made You Look

George's Secret Key to the Universe

Brave New World

 

HTH-

Mandy

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In case you do want to pull together your own Modern World History, below are more resources to consider. Albert Marrin's books come up a LOT as good resources, for example. Also, check out the book lists, but especially the list of history resources (texts, speeches, essays, etc.) for 11th grade (20th century focus) for Ambleside Online's curriculum: http://amblesideonline.org/11bks.shtml. BEST of luck! Warmly, Lori D.

 

 

Older Threads:

 

List of 20th Century Resources by Decade:

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51039&highlight=history

 

My 11th Grade Modern Literature List

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27648&highlight=history

 

Need Help Planning a Modern History/Modern Lit. Year

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24525&highlight=history

 

SL300 20th Century -- Would Love to Hear Thoughts

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24521&highlight=history

 

Modern History Dilemna and Resources

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15844&highlight=history

 

 

 

Great Books

- The Good Earth (Buck) -- China, 1900-1920s

- A Day of Pleasure (Singer) -- Warsaw Poland Jewish ghetto, pre-WW1

- The Hiding Place (TenBoom) -- Holland/Germany, WW2

- Hiroshima (Hershey) -- Japan 1945, and years after

- Cry The Beloved Country (Paton) -- South Africa, 1950s

- I Heard The Owl Call My Name -- US/Canadian Native Americans and missionary, 1960s

- One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (Solzhenitsyn) -- USSR, 1960s

- Animal Farm (Orwell) -- critique of USSR communist AND western capitalist systems

- Farenheit 451 (Bradbury) -- sci-fi; a future bookless society

Edited by Lori D.
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