Woods School

As we approach the middle of the second quarter — and the holiday season — Middle Schoolers continue basic geography concepts using Junior Scholastic magazine, and especially the World Affairs Issue. Upcoming Current Events topics will include: issues articles on such topics as Teens & Drugs and Native Americans; history articles and plays on  George Washington, the Alamo, and the First World War; also investigative articles on Cyberbullying, Citizenship, and the 2010 Census.

The Basic Question posed for the Seventh World History students is: "How did this modern world come about and why are we the way we are?" More of that answer is revealed to them as we discover ancient connections to the cultures of the Phoenicians, the Hebrews, Assyrians,  Babylonians, and Persians. Soon, we will be prepared to study the ancient classical civilizations and cultures of Greece and Rome.

Eighth Grade American History students continue investigating the social history of the United States and how the "American Way of Life" came about: the "American attitude" that resulted in the Declaration of Independance, then the Revolutionary War, and finally a new government under the Constitution of the United States.

During the first quarter Sixth Graders learn basic geography concepts from their map skills worksheets and from Junior Scholastic magazine. We review and reinforce continents, oceans, and hemispheres.  Latitude and longitude study gives us exact location, and we’ll learned why the special parallels (Equator, Tropics of Cancer & Capricorn, Arctic & Antarctic Circles) exist where they do. Three basic types of map projections (Mercator, oval-style/equal-area, and polar) are studied, and each student will soon color a large Mercator map and label significant countries.           

The Basic Question posed for the Seventh World History students is:  “How did this modern world come about and why are we the way we are?”  We’ll set the stage by doing a physical map of the eastern hemisphere.  This shows not only the awesome distance from one end of the Eurasian land mass to the other but also the vast deserts, endless steppes and plains, and the daunting mountains that separated the different cultures and races of humanity. The seventh graders look at the evidence left by the real, recorded, written history of the ancient river valley civilizations--Sumer in Mesopotamia, proud and mysterious Egypt, and then the Indus and Huang Ho civilizations. Particularly with the Sumerian and Egyptian civilizations, we ask our Basic Question and discover ancient connections to our modern world.  During this next month we will discover more connections as we survey the ancient doings of the Phoenicians, the Hebrews, Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians. This foundation prepares the student for study of the classical ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome, and answers for our Basic Question become more and more obvious.           

The Eighth Grade American History students have had the Geography and World History lessons explained above, and are now presented with what I call a social history of the United States — modifying the world history Basic Question as such:  “What do we mean by the ‘American Way of Life’ and how did it come about?”  What have been the ingredients for it, and what should we expect of America in our future lives? How did the Americans write a Constitution, secure a Bill of Rights, and spread their nation across a continent? 

So far this year we have analyzed the unique geography of our continent and are taking a good look at Native Americans who solely called it home for many centuries before the Europeans arrived. The next three big players in the American drama – the Spanish, the French, and the English – will have their colonial systems examined and their contributions to American life noted by your students. During the next month we study the clash between the Big Three as they struggle to win the biggest prize: North America itself. Ultimately the English win the big prize, only to have it slip from their grasp a mere twenty years later as their own colonists declare a republic, win a revolution, and invent a new nation. The Americans write a Constitution, secure a Bill of Rights, and spread their nation across a continent. All in this fall season — don’t miss it!