World History - Junior High

This course will help students build a historical framework that they can refine in the future, while also developing habits of critical thinking and evaluation of statements for accuracy and bias. The first part of the course will go through Susan Bauer's "History of the Ancient World" from the earliest known records of Sumer and Egypt to the fall of Rome. The second part of the course will traverse a variety of readings from two free online resources: the OER (Open Educational Resources) Project, and UCLA's "World History For Us All", ending with the fall of the Soviet Union. These readings will be supplemented throughout by primary sources available online.

This course combines the modern emphasis on recurring patterns and societal ideas with the more traditional method of focusing on the lives of influential men and women. By combining these two approaches, students will become accustomed to reading from different perspectives, while not missing out on the colorful narratives of the “characters” of history.