New High School spine for Module 6

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  • Sonya Shafer
    Moderator

    Just wanted to let you know that I have been reviewing the William Bennett books on American history and have enjoyed them very much. His America, The Last Best Hope series is well written and engaging. Volume 3 goes up through 2009. At this point I plan to recommend them for the Modern history module revision for grades 10–12.

    The only drawback is that some swearing is quoted in original citations. (Unfortunately, I’m finding that to be the rule rather than the exception with most books covering modern history.) It is by no means prevalent or sensationalized, but it is sprinkled throughout when quoting original sources at times.

    TailorMade
    Participant

    Do you have a highschool world history spine picked out for this module?

    Blessings and Thanks!

    Becca<><

    Sonya Shafer
    Moderator

    Not for world history. We are eagerly awaiting Greenleaf Press’s Famous Men series to go through present day. The newer books in that series will be geared for the upper grades.

    Misty
    Participant

    Soyna, I would like to know if you feel that following the modules is worth 1 credit in history per year? Not so worried about the geography/bible at this point in my search. Thanks

    Sonya Shafer
    Moderator

    Calculating credits is a subjective thing sometimes, but here is how my mind views the modules.

    Modules 1-3: If you are considering the Bible history as “Bible” and not world history, then I think you would need all three modules to equal 1 history credit. Reading Ancient Egypt only one day per week will not give enough hours for a credit just in one year. If, however, you are counting the Bible history readings toward your history credit, then you would have enough to award 1 credit per year possibly.

    Modules 4-6: Since students read world history four days per week, I do count these modules as 1 history credit per year. If you divide up American History and World History on your transcript, however, keep in mind that Module 5 is only half of each, and the revised Module 6 (coming very soon!) will be only half of each. So if you do both Modules 5 and 6, you will have 1 credit of American History and 1 credit of World History. (And if you add the American Government course we recommend, you will have 1 credit of that as well.)

    Clear as mud?

    SueinMN
    Participant

    What American Government course do you recommend? I’ve missed seeing this earlier.

    Misty
    Participant

    Ok just so I get this: If you do Module 5 & 6 (following for the HS years/family portion) you would say this would be equal to 1 cr American History and 1 cr World History(total for the 2 years). Add the American Gov course and you have 1 more credit. I would also like to know what you suggest for Amer Gov.

    Also is world history the same as US history? They don’t sound the same? Thanks for clarifing. Misty

    suzukimom
    Participant

    My understanding is that Module 5 and 6 have a mixture of World History and US History….  So US History has what is going on in the U.S. – and the World History is what is happening in the rest of the world at the same time.

    I do have a question – I know the guides/modules have the World History seperated out from US History, which is fantastic for those of us from other countries…. but does the World History have kind of a summary of the main happenings in US History – the types of things that Us Canadians might care about….   Like, for instance, I would be interested in a brief summary of Columbus, the US Civil War, Slavery, etc (for example) – but don’t want lots of details…..   So does the World History portion mention those things, or do I need to add it in as well as our Canadian History?  

    Notgrass Government is a wonderful CM friendly course…I think it is the one Sonya uses as well. Linda

    Sonya Shafer
    Moderator

    Right, Linda, we recommend the Notgrass Exploring Government course. It’s not a CM-type course, per se, but can be used in a CM style.

    Misty, the way you described the credit hours is correct, and United States (US) history would be the same as American history.

    suzukimom, the World History spine, Stories of the Nations, does not repeat American history events. It might have a couple of overlaps, but for the most part we kept American History separate since we were not sure what events you would want to include. Feel free to add selected chapters from Stories of America or selected books from the American History listings as desired.

    We used the government course by Notgrass by using narrations and reading, and reading the extra book that comes with it…we did not do any of the tests – it was really interesting and engaging like all of the Notgrass products.

    my3boys
    Participant

    Just curious: What would you need to “beef up” the modules (especially 1-3) to equal a credit if you did not count the Bible as World History. We aren’t quite here, yet, but will be soon and I’d like to know what I should be expecting.

    TIA

    SueinMN
    Participant

    Well, I didn’t think the other Notgrass products were interesting and engaging so I probably wouldn’t like their Government either. I was hoping Sonya was going to recommend something that I didn’t know about.

    Sonya Shafer
    Moderator

    my3boys, a credit hour is usually awarded for about 150-180 hours of work. In modules 1 and 2 the Ancient history study is covered only 1 day per week. It would need to be covered at least 4 days per week to rack up enough hours. So you would need to assign a lot more reading and narrations. Module 3, Ancient Rome, is covered 2 days per week; so it would require twice as much reading to equal the 4 days of work. Another option would be to do only the History portions of all three modules in one year; that would give you 4 days of history reading per week. It wouldn’t correspond to your Bible history, but it would rack up the credit hours.

    Keep in mind, though, that most of the college entrance requirements I’ve seen list only 2 history credits as needed. Some may require more, and some definitely want American history as one of those credits. So check out the big picture and customize as needed.

    Sue, this is a case of “the best I can find.” It’s not my all-time favorite course, but I haven’t seen anything better at this point. If you find something else, please let me know. I’m always keeping my eyes open for that one that makes my heart beat faster, you know? Smile

    All of the Notgrass products have their place I think, though in our opinion they are rather simplistic, but they do make good filler or guide books. They are such an easy read, and then when the meatier books are added, they have their place. We have Notgrass economics as well, but used Hazlitts Economics in One Lesson, along with the readings recommended in HEO – Notgrass was used in conjunction with those things. Simplistic is not always bad, some kids who have no real interest in the subject would find it a good course, others will use them like any spine or guide and have them for additions to other more in depth reading. We also read Race and Culture by by Thomas Sowell and The Road to Serfdom by F. A. Hayek, Evaluating Books: What Would Thomas Jefferson Think About This? by Richard Maybury, The Law (1848) by Frederic Bastiat, Controversial Essays by Thomas Sowell, On Liberty by John Stuart Mill, Graves of Academe by Richard Mitchell among others for government and economics over the years in high school – but these are books that not everyone would enjoy. We have to tailor our readings for the children we have – I have girls who loved these subjects and books and read many more adult books for the history courses….we did US History, Modern History and Government and Economics, and Geography for our highschool courses in the end. By the time I tallied up the reading and hours from my records, that is where it fell…had the girls not loved those subjects though, I would have adapted it to suit their abilities and interests…what is right for one is not for another. I rather liked the fact that Notgrass had put out history courses that were understadable to those who would have little interest. We did not read the books he recommended either because we had already read them, or chose different books….we even used my college modern history textbook at times to contrast some of the history we were reading, so I use whatever will work to enhance our courses.

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