The "Australian Curriculum: History" has emerged out of a neoliberal federal education policy landscape. This is a policy landscape where pragmatic and performative, rather than pedagogic concerns are clearly foregrounded, and this has implications for curriculum development and implementation. A useful way to conceptualise the features,…

Reviews two textbooks for seventh-grade students on modern history discussing the strengths and deficiencies of each: (1) "Modern History. Part I: A Textbook for the Seventh Grade of the Basic School" and (2) "Modern History, 1500-1800: A Textbook for the Seventh Grade of General Education Institutions." (CMK)

Reviews various movements since 1960 to alter the social studies syllabus for New York State and suggests that an effective way to meet student needs today in the areas of social studies and basic skills would be to restructure the seventh- and eighth-grade curriculum into a two-year American history program. (DB)

Examines the viability of using hypothetical problems that need the application of causal models for their solution as a method to assessing understanding in the social sciences. Explains that this method was used to describe how seventh-grade students understand causal factors affecting the "discovery and colonization of America." (CMK)

This document is a collection of lessons for teaching a unit on ancient Chinese history. The unit focuses on a specific dramatic moment in history from which students can explore the deeper meanings of selected landmark events and their wider context in the great historical narrative. Continuing narrative provides the contest in which the dramatic…

This unit begins by examining the problem of rural poverty in China in the 1940s. A variety of solutions attempted by the Chinese government between the mid 1940s and the present all aimed at the improvement of peasant living standards in the countryside. Because 80 percent of China's people are peasants, the Chinese Communist party saw the…

The purpose of this unit is to explore the ideas and ideals of the 18th century Enlightenment thinkers called the Philosophes, and to understand how they continue to influence basic notions about the nature of man and his world. The unit introduces key members of the Philosophes through short excerpts from their works. The selections illustrate…

Describes a simulation exercise used in a seventh-grade class to teach about the conflict between Mexican Americans and European Americans living in Texas prior to the Mexican War. Reports on student response to the activity. Asserts that student understanding and empathy for the Mexican Americans is a result of the lesson. (CFR)

The two papers represent the result of a four-week 7th and 8th grade unit entitled the Caesar Unit. Organized using primary sources, the basic materials were a selection of Cicero's letters and Caesar's Commentary on the Civil War. The first paper, by the classroom teacher of the unit, contains brief factual information about the materials,…

This unit focuses on a dramatic moment in the Renaissance from about 1420 when Filippo Brunelleschi single handedly created, defined, and engineered a new architecture by building the great dome of the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence. The dome became the symbol of Florence's grandeur during the Renaissance, and a model for great…

Written in 1965, the author describes the initial stages in the development of Man and Politics, a three year social studies curriculum for students ages 12-14. The author notes that the reason for choosing the political theme is that the school is the most influential agent of political socialization in the child's life. The report outlines the…

This unit is one of a series that presents specific moments in history from which students focus on the meanings of landmark events. The purpose of this unit is for the student to explore the advances in scientific knowledge made in Europe in the mid-sixteenth to mid-seventeenth centuries. These advances, beginning with Copernicus, radically…

This content guide is designed for a seventh-grade geography course and an eighth-grade United States History course. Each course section is divided by the three levels of skills to be developed: basic skills, developmental skills, and extensions. The geography course features economic geography, cultural-regional geography, map skills, and study…

Materials about the culture specific to French-speaking people in Canada are presented as part of the cultural component of the prescribed second language curriculum. The materials follow the suggested sequence of studying the "French Fact" in Alberta in grade 7, the study of French settlements in Canada in grade 8, and in-depth study of…

Students in grades seven through nine will examine and analyze the political organization, social structure, economic life, and values of the American Colonial period in this quinmester arranged American Studies course. Since the thirteen English Colonies effected the United States development, many of our nations foundations in government,…