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While I am not one to find studying history boring, I realize that many do not share the same love of the past that I do. Bringing the subject alive and making it memorable while helping students build critical thinking skills is an important part of education. When teaching history in our homeschools, we also have to keep in mind that there are so many different areas of history that we can teach. How can we expect our children to remember all the details?
Provide our children with quality and engaging resources to help children learn about the past.
The Critical Thinking Co.™ publishes U.S. History Detective® Book Two, which is part of the Nonreligious 2021 Ninth-Grade Curriculum Kit from Timberdoodle. This 312-page paperback book is a perfect addition to your homeschool US History course. It starts with the Gilded Age and moves all the way through to the Obama Administration. There are both black-and-white and color illustrations, maps, political cartoons, photographs, and more, which add to the beauty of the homeschool history book.
As our oldest son graduated recently, we used this history resource differently than we might have done in the past. I wanted to continue his education – especially as it relates to U.S. History and developing his critical thinking skills – while he decides upon his future path. Having the opportunity to review U.S. History Detective® Book Two fit perfectly into this plan.
U.S. History Detective® Book Two can be a stand-alone textbook, provide supplemental activities, or act as a review book for your child grades 8 to 12 and up. We used it more as a review book as I let our son pick and choose what he wanted to read about and complete.
About U.S. History Detective® Book Two
There are two books available for print or eBook form from The Critical Thinking Co.™, and you can find both as paperbacks available from Timberdoodle. In Book Two, there are nine sections which include 56 lessons. These lessons focus upon individual passages where students must provide supporting evidence for their answer choices. The questions about each lesson consist of multiple-choice, short-answer, and short essay questions.
Section 1: The Gilded Age: 1870-1900
Section 2: Imperialism and Progressives: 1890s-1910s
Section 3: The Great War: 1914-1919
Section 4: The Roaring Twenties: 1920-1929
Section 5: The Great Depression: 1929-1939
Section 6: World War II: 1939-1945
Section 7: The 1950s
Section 8: The 1960s
Section 9: 1970s-2016
In the Introduction to Section 6 and Lesson 30, students will read about World War II, review a timeline of key events, read about the rise of dictatorships, appeasement, the start of World War II, and the third term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and examine a political cartoon by Dr. Seuss. This is followed by nine multiple choice and short answer questions and a written response question: "Use complete sentences to explain why President Roosevelt and Congress were reluctant to involve the U.S. in the war against the Axis Powers in the late 1930s."
How Did We Use U.S. History Detective® Book Two in our Homeschool?
As our son has graduated, I used the book as a review source for him. At the beginning of the review period, I handed it off to him and asked for it back to complete my review. While he did not complete as many lessons as I would have liked if he was still "in school," I also understand he has many responsibilities as a graduate. If we were using this as a part of our homeschool curriculum, I would assign two to three lessons a week along with primary source and secondary source materials to read. The written response questions would provide homeschool students and parents with excellent starting points for discussions. They could also be developed into essays or research papers with a little bit of work.
My Thoughts
I have had the pleasure of using several products from The Critical Thinking Co.™ over the years, and they have never disappointed me. They do help our children use critical thinking skills and reinforce key ideas such as fractions, vocabulary, and events in history. U.S. History Detective® Book Two is wonderful because it does not require a lot of parent involvement. While you can easily discuss each lesson and examine the supporting evidence for each question, you can also allow your child to work on it by themselves.
I really like how the U.S. History Detective® Book Two encourages readers to use their critical thinking skills to find evidence to support historical conclusions. The book provides both primary (first-hand accounts) and secondary (materials written by historians or others who were not present at the event) sources to help students reach conclusions about what they have read. Each passage has the sentences numbered so that students can mark their answers with the supporting evidence. A key part of upper-level history courses is also drawing inferences and conclusions based upon historical events and evidence. This book helps students practice and hone those skills which will help them in future essays.
Having taught Advanced Placement U.S. History when I was a high school teacher, I could see this being a very useful resource to assist students in their preparation for the AP Exam. As each lesson is short, they could review the material, complete the questions which require them to critically think about the subject material, and write essay outlines for the written response questions. This homeschool resource can help students on their journey to bring together, compare, and contrast historical information and present clear arguments.
I would recommend U.S. History Detective® Book Two for any family who is studying U.S. History II. I think the grade recommendation by The Critical Thinking Co.™ is accurate (8-12) and the placement in the 9th Grade Curriculum Kit from Timberdoodle is also good. It provides a compact look at U.S. History while helping your child develop their critical thinking skills.
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