Book Description

This document is a response to teachers' requests for practical assistance in implementing California's history-social science framework. The document offers stimulating ideas to enrich the teaching of history and social science, enliven instruction for every student, focus on essential topics, and help make learning more memorable. Experiences and contributions of ethnic groups and women in history are integrated in this course model. The framework is divided into 11 units: (1) Connecting with Past Learnings: Uncovering the Remote Past; (2) Connecting with Past Learnings: the Fall of Rome; (3) Growth of Islam; (4) African States in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times; (5) Civilizations of the Americas; (6) China; (7) Japan; (8) Medieval Societies: Europe and Japan; (9) Europe During the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Scientific Revolution; (10) Early Modern Europe: The Age of Exploration to the Enlightenment; and (11) Linking Past to Present. Six of the 11 units delineated in the framework's 7th grade course description are developed in these course models. All units follow the same format. Each begins with a rationale and overview. Ways are suggested for teachers to coordinate the model with the state-adopted textbook for 7th grade. A presentation of activities to introduce and continue the sample topic are suggested to encourage students to apply what they have studied through projects. Each unit ends with an extensive annotated list of sample resources. (DK)