Modern American and World History: A Literature Approach for Intermediate Grades (grades 6 through 8) utilizes two spine books and 21 literary works to teach about the period from the 1860s through Obama’s presidency. Rather than texts, students read from literary works—historical novels, biographies, autobiographies, and poems—plus selected chapters from two “spine” books, A Child’s First Book of American History (published by Beautiful Feet Books) and Joy Hakim’s A History of US: All the People, fourth edition.
The guide explains the choice of literary selections on page v of the Introduction, saying:
Sadly, the twentieth century was the bloodiest century in history, as totalitarian forces—set on a conquest of the world—drew countless millions into their webs of darkness, destruction, and death. Because this view of humanity can become distressing to readers, we have attempted to balance the otherwise overwhelming turmoil of the period with inspiring stories of heroic individuals who, amid great challenges, stood for justice, truth, equality, and freedom. Their stories will hopefully inspire in students an understanding of the tremendous sacrifices made by men and women devoted to something bigger than themselves.
So, while students read War Boy: A Wartime Childhood about life in Britain during WWII and Air Raid-Pearl Harbor!, they also read Number the Stars, the story of a heroic Danish girl who helps to save a Jewish family and Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom: My Story of the 1965 Selma Voting Rights March, a teenage girl’s experiences in the fight for racial equality. Some of other literary works used for this study are Carver: A Life in Poems, The Wright Brothers: Pioneers of American Aviation, The Singing Tree, Rascal, The House of Sixty Fathers, Sergeant York, Water Buffalo Days: Growing Up in Vietnam, Ronald Reagan: Our 40th President, Ground Zero (about 9/11), and Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry.
It might sound like a lot of resources, but not if you consider that the course covers both world and U.S. history from 1860 into the 21st century. A literature approach requires selectivity in the choice of individual books, so spine books serve to fill the gaps for complete coverage. If you find yourself pressed for time or your child is overwhelmed with reading, consider substituting additional chapters from spine books for one or more literary works. Also, because so many significant events have occurred since the Obama administration, you might want to expand coverage of history to include those years.
The 121-page coursebook for Modern American and World History guides you through all the resources and activities. It divides the lessons into five sections:
- The Civil War
- Reconstruction, Industrial Revolution, and Turn of the Century
- The First World War, the Great Depression, and Segregation
- Building towards War, the Second World War, and the Atomic Age
- The Struggle for Freedom in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
Each section is divided into lessons that vary in content. Many lessons include vocabulary words, and most lessons present comprehension and discussion questions. An answer key on pages 97 through 113 assists parents who might not have time to read all the books themselves. Lessons sometimes provide background information, brief biographies, photos, and other images, such as political cartoons and propaganda posters.
Students need a binder in which they will create a glossary of vocabulary words and terms with their definitions, paste images (such as a one-page version of the Gettysburg Address), write notes to be used in future writing assignments, write short essays, and insert final drafts of essays, such as one assigned on page 6 to write about an important battle mentioned in the book Across Five Aprils. (It is assumed that students already know how to work through the writing process: planning, writing a rough draft, editing, and writing a final draft.)
Related online activities within the lesson plans include watching videos, viewing animated maps, listening to speeches, performing research, and reading historical documents. Some URLs are included, but the coursebook often directs us to look things up with directions such as, “…watch ‘The true history of James “Wild Bill” Hickok | Images of the Past’ on the SDPB YouTube channel.”
Each of the five sections of the coursebook ends with a page or two titled “Rabbit Trails” that have annotated descriptions of additional books you might want to read and another page or two titled “Historic Table” with a recipe for food related to the era.
Students should also have the Beautiful Feet Book Timeline set for this course, which has figures to cut out, color, and paste onto a timeline.
Parents should select lesson activities that are most suitable for the abilities of their children rather than expecting them to do everything.
The course has 116 lessons, and students should complete three or four per week to complete the course in one school year. They can read on their own, but you will have more interesting discussions if you read at least some of the books aloud together. It is not unusual for one day’s assignment to require reading two or three chapters from an assigned book, so this course is likely to work best for students who enjoy reading. (It would be difficult to cover all the reading as read-alouds!)
The course includes brief mentions of religious figures such as Mother Theresa, but it is a secular course.
The guide is available in either print or PDF formats. Beautiful Feet Books sells all the required books individually, but they also have a discounted package of the coursebook, the other required books, and the timeline set.
Summary
This is one of the most interesting courses for studying Modern World History at the intermediate level. While using “living books” takes more time, students are much more likely to remember the historical events and gain a more nuanced sense of history that goes beyond names and dates. The use of the two spine books addresses concerns about topics that are missed when you rely solely on the selected literary works.
