Take A Stand! Reading, Discussing, and Writing

by John De Gree

Take A Stand! Publications

This is one of the most unusual but practical resources I’ve seen lately. Written by a homeschooling dad who is also a public school teacher, this is a series of books designed to be used as supplements for both world and U.S. history for students in junior and senior high. While history textbooks, biographies, and other “fact books” provide the “information,” Take A Stand! books guide students in their reading as well as through discussions and extensive writing activities, using elements of classical education in the process.

The books assume that students have a basic history textbook plus access to other sources of information. (The author makes his own recommendations of resources for different grade levels.) Students are presented with very brief statements about a key event in their Take A Stand! book then challenged to research and write in response to questions such as, “Which government of ancient Greece was the best?” They must also defend their conclusion(s) after completing their research. Students might use their core history text or any other resources for their research. (The more research they do, the more well-developed their information is likely to be.)

Written for classroom settings, lessons also direct students to compare their own conclusions with those of classmates, and reconsider whether or not they want to change their own conclusions before writing their papers. (For classical educators, these are methods of both the dialectic and rhetoric stages.) Students begin by writing one-paragraph responses and progress through five-paragraph essay to multi-page essays.

Students are given plenty of assistance with skill development and prewriting activities in their Take A Stand! books. The last section of each student book consists of “skills assignments.” These can be used prior to or integrated between the topical essay lessons. (The author assumes that students already have basic writing skills.) Teachers must use the skill assignments as needed for their own students—skipping those that are unnecessary. The types of skills addressed in these sections are distinguishing fact and opinion, finding supporting evidence, taking notes, paraphrasing, using quotations, writing a thesis statement, writing a conclusion, outlining the essay, writing a rough draft, documenting sources, and creating a works cited page. Rough draft and outline forms are included for the various essays.

In addition, there are other forms in the student books that help students direct and organize their research. For example, the first lesson in the second book has to do with the fall of the Roman Empire. The “take a stand” question is “Based on the evidence you researched, what were the two most important reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire?” Three prewriting forms follow. One is headed “Reasons for the Fall of the Roman Empire.” A first reason is given as a “freebie” followed by six more blank lines for students to add six more reasons they discover in their reading and research. The second prewriting activity is headed “Explain your reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire.” Here, students use a brief statement to explain each of the reasons they came up with in the first activity. Again, one explanation is supplied then there are lines for the student to add six more explanations. The third activity is a more complicated chart that has the student rate the reasons, ranking them as to relative importance. All of this helps them arrive at their two most important reasons.

“Classroom discussion” is a vital component of each lesson. In a homeschool setting this will be more challenging to accomplish because it really requires at least two students or family members comparing their research and ideas. The more students the better. If you are working with only one student at this level—and even if you have more than one student—these questions would be great to use for a discussion involving dad, mom, and appropriate-age children after dinner.

Here are the primary reasons why I think the Take A Stand! approach works so well. When students read and research with the questions in mind, they pay much closer attention than when reading simply to cover the material. When they have to analyze information, thinking about cause and effect and relative importance, they’ve moved to a much deeper level of thinking. Discussing their research and ideas with others forces them to think logically and critically.

After students have worked through these steps, they are ready to write their essay where they pull it all together. The instructions for each of the essays says, “In your essay, include a thesis, evidence, and explain how your evidence supports your thesis.”

Assignments each have a chart for recording due dates for various assignments. In addition, grading rubric forms are included for the different essays. These can be used by both student and teacher.

All of this sounds like fairly high level work for high school students, but this series was originally written for grades 6, 7, and 8. (The books are aligned with the California State Standards for Social Studies for those grade levels.) As I was reviewing these books I was concerned that students in middle school might not have enough historical knowledge to use this approach. So I talked with the author, John De Gree, who assured me that he has used these very successfully with his students, many of whom are ESL students with very weak knowledge of history. Mr. De Gree says that the format motivates students to read and think more than they would with just a textbook. Arguments and essays from some students might be shallow or poorly informed, but the learning experience itself still takes them beyond where they would be with only a textbook. Students with a better knowledge base are able to form more complex arguments. If you use these books with high schoolers, you should expect more depth of research and argumentation than you would from a sixth or seventh grader. It’s also important to note that assignments gradually become more challenging, eventually requiring the use of at least three sources, then five sources.

Another concern of mine was that a few of the assignments are simply too broad. For example, the eighth grade book on U.S. history has one assignment on westward expansion that seems like it should it should be broken down into a number of separate topics. The question is “… did the 1800’s expansion of the U.S. bring about more accomplishment or tragedy?” Then it instructs students to include in their essays thirteen specific people and “terms” among which are “manifest destiny, Mexican-American War, Trail of Tears, California Gold Rush, Northwest Ordinance, and Laura Ingalls Wilder. Any of these terms could be the focus on a complete essay on westward expansion. Trying to put them altogether in one sounds overwhelming to me. However, Mr. De Gree tells me that younger students take more of a general overview of these events rather than going into detail on all of them. On the other hand, high school students would do well to apply the same question to each topic individually. You can decide for yourself how to use lessons such as this.

Recall that the curriculum is aligned with state standards. It actually succeeds quite well in meeting the standards without being anti-Christian or exhibiting other biases because it uses a historical inquiry method. For example, state standards include study about religions, so the curriculum includes questions that relate to religions, albeit without expressing belief or unbelief. For instance, the final lesson in the sixth grade book is on the rise of Christianity and poses the question: “What made the relationship between the Roman Empire and Christianity change so much from the death of Jesus to the year A.D. 395?” Students might come up with a wide range of answers and opinions depending upon their research resources and parental or teacher direction. Also, remember that the parent/teacher can always add other ideas to those presented in the book.

There are five books in the series, but they need not be used in order. Titles and coverage are as follows:

Ancient Civilizations: covers ancient civilizations up through the Roman Republic and Christianity

Medieval Civilizations: begins with the Fall of the Roman Empire and goes through the Age of Exploration

Modern World History: opens with a review of Western political thought, then covers the “Age of Revolution” beginning in the 1600s and continues through the Cold War.

American History From the American Revolution to 1914: covers the American Revolution through Industrialization and the U.S. as a World Power

Modern American History: begins with Reconstruction and covers selected topics up through “Nixon and Watergate” and “Technology as a Cause for Change.”

The Modern history books both include a “Create Your Own Assignment” lesson since students might well come up with another topic of great interest they wish to pursue.

There are 11 to 13 lessons per book. Each of these should take at least a month to complete as students work through the various stages of researching, outlining, writing a rough draft, and writing a final draft. That means you are unlikely to use every lesson every year—unless your children never get a break from school! Mr. De Gree tells me his students write six essays per school year.

As I was reviewing these books, I realized that this is the perfect adjunct for those wishing to use either a classical or a “real books” approach to history. You might forego use of a core textbook if students are already familiar with the key events of history. They can then focus more deeply on particular events rather than covering everything. However, if they do not yet have enough general knowledge, you will still want to use a core book.

I also can see how this approach could be the basis of your entire high school history curriculum. I would add a few more topics, possibly breaking down some of the present topics into a number of separate assignments as I mentioned with the westward expansion question. I would also get into more current events and issues with U.S. history if it were for high school level. To make this work in the limited time available, I might require reading, research, and discussion on some questions with very short summary papers. Then I would integrate some of the lengthier assignments in these books, requiring perhaps six lengthy papers per school year. This might sound time consuming, but you will be fulfilling requirements for English instruction along with history.

Each book comes with its own Teacher’s Edition on a CD that's both PC and Mac compatible. These are very helpful. Teacher’s Editions include students pages with overprinted, suggested answers when appropriate. Probably even more valuable are the instructions, sample essays, and extensive help for grading.