History

Honors World History

Ninth grade

1.00 high school credit

Core curriculum

to see where this is scheduled in your curriculum.

Description

This course builds upon the four years of world history studied in the elementary grades to gain an understanding of the broad trends that will continue to shape human history into the future.

There are three main components to the course: 1) a series of lectures on world civilizations from the Great Courses, 2) "spine" texts that present the facts of world history, and 3) several popular history books for adults which examine key trends in human history.

One of the spine texts is a fairly conventional choice: A History of the World by Andrew Marr. This book presents the major events from the Stone Age to the present at a level appropriate for high school.

The second spine text is The Cartoon History of the Universe series, a detailed narrative of world history in the guise of humorous graphic novels. These comic books are actually more detailed than Marr's A History of the World, and are a wonderfully entertaining way to learn about historical events and characters.

Finally, several excellent historic movies are included as part of the curriculum. These are optional but highly recommended as they bring to life the people and historical periods being studied.

This is the only high school history course in our curriculum which does not include a research paper. This is because the course is intended to be taken in the ninth grade year, when the Literature and Writing course includes substantial writing practice and research paper writing has not yet been studied at a high school level. It also leaves more time for reading the excellent books that have been written about world history.