Examples of High School Records for Multiyear, Literature-Based History Courses

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At one point I was asked exactly how I recorded my teens’ Canadian history studies for their university admission records.  I could see no other way to answer the question than to cut and paste the relevant sections from their comprehensive records, which makes this article incredibly long.  Hopefully it will benefit some of you.

I have included 3 examples. Two are very similar and are at the level of Ontario Canadian history course, which is usually taught in grade 10.  The other one has Canadian history folded into an intense Western history course and is at a grade 12 level.  Notice that even though the courses are all spread over several years, the different readings and emphases make the level different.  In all cases, my teens helped decide which texts they used and also selected most of the other books they read.

The reading lists, which I did eventually decide to include in this article, clearly show that these courses cover a span of years.  Some of the books are rather simple; others are very intense.  It is obvious that these records represent teens who loved to read and, having studied How to Read a Book, knew how to make reading work for them.  Please do not be intimidated by them!  Every teen is different; the teens represented by these records loved history and that shows in these records (and in the fact that they each did several of such history courses in high school).

You will notice that I wrote the course descriptions in the future tense; this is what seems to be done in high school course catalogues.  Of course, I wrote the descriptions after we had decided that particular course was completed, which was helpful because our goals for courses like this change throughout the years.  Even so, I tried to keep the descriptions relatively generic.  The records themselves follow the format suggested by Lee Binz in Comprehensive Record Solution and Setting the Records Straight.

And, I want to repeat once again, please do not be intimidated by these records and please do not use them as a template for your teen. A reading course like this should be tailored to the student’s interests, so these record-keeping examples are mainly meant to be inspiration for record-keeping. If you and your teen ever plan a course like this, be aware of what is being taught in local public or private schools (often libraries will carry textbooks), and combine that with your teen’s own interests, remembering that a high school credit is somewhere between 100-180 hours of work and that the level of a course can be adjusted by changing the difficulty and amount of readings and the depth of the assignments.

Note:

• I myself did not read each of the books on the lists because there are only 24 hours in the day. On the other hand, because I do try hard to ensure that my teens read suitable books, I did skim many of them.
• My teens were responsible for their own reading records; recording what they had read that week was part of their Friday homeschool assignment.
• For structured courses, like science or French where we followed a textbook, our records are very different.

So, on to the examples:

Example 1:  Canadian History   

Course Description:

In this reading course, spread over several years, the student will learn about all aspects and times of Canadian history using biographies, historical fiction, textbooks, collections, and monographs.  Field trips to museums, discussions with old-timers, research into fashions, and studying the effect of history on current events will all form a part of this course.

Overviews: 

Challenge and Survival:  The History of Canada by Herstein, Hughes, and Kirbyson

The Story of Canada by Janet Lunn

Famous Canadian Stories by George E. Tait, Ed.

The Upward Trail by George E. Tait

One Dominion by George E. Tait

The Pageant of Canadian History by Anne Merriman Peck

Canada Our Country Part 1 by Aileen Garland

Canada: Portraits of Faith, Ed. Michael D. Clarke

Reading List:

The Refugees:  A Tale of Two Continents by Arthur Conan Doyle

The King’s Daughter by J.E. White

My Story:  Spy Smuggler by Jim Eldridge

My Story:  The Trenches by Jim Eldridge

My Story:  The Flying Ace by Jim Eldridge

My Story:  The Battle of Britain by Jim Eldridge

Brendan Voyage by Tim Severin

Champlain:  Northwest Voyageur by Louise Hall Thorp

The Luck of the La Verendryes by Lyn Harrington

The Talking Wire:  The Story of Alexander Graham Bell by O. J. Stevenson

Drummer Boy for Montcalm by Wilma Pitchford Hays

Viking Treasure by Henry Bamman and Robert Whitehead

Roughing it in the Bush, or, Life in Canada by Susanna Moodie

Letters of Love and Duty: The Correspondence of Susanna and John Moodie by Susanna Moodie

Life in the Clearings versus the Bush by Susanna Moodie

The Backwoods of Canada by Catherine Parr Traill

Canadian Wild Flowers by Catherine Parr Traill

The Canadian Settler’s Guide by Catherine Parr Traill

Canadian Crusoes: A Tale of the Rice Lake Plains by Catherine Parr Traill

The Force Carries On by T. Morris Longstreth

Madeleine Takes Command by Ethel C. Brill

Jeremy’s War: 1812 by John Ibbitson

Mary Cook:  All of her local history books

Introduction to New France by Marcel Trudel

A Picture History of Canada by Jessie McEwan and Kathleen Moore

More Famous Canadian Stories, Donald G. French, Ed.

Agnes: The Biography of Lady Macdonald by Louise Reynolds

Ordeal by Fire:  Canada 1910-1945 by Ralph Allen

Shakedown by Ezra Levant

Beginning Again:  Further Adventures of a Loyalist Family by Mary Beacock

Maria Chapdelaine by Louis Hemon

The Sea Captain’s Wife by Beth Powning

I am a Hutterite by Mary-Ann Kirkby

The Discovery of Insulin by Michael Bliss

Flint and Feather by Pauline Johnston

Hudson’s Bay: or Every-day Life in the Wilds of North America by Robert Ballantyne

Grading Criteria:

The final mark will be based on readings, narrations, and discussions.  Detailed, accurate knowledge and analyses of events and persons will be expected.  Percentages will not be recorded for this course.

Example #2:  History of Western Civilization (400 – the Present)

Course Description:

This literature-based, multi-year course, covering the western world from late Roman times until the present, will feature in-depth studies of historical writing.  It will emphasize knowledge of ideas, events, and people as well as an understanding of their interrelationships. Special emphasis will be placed on Britain, Canada, and the United States. Readings, tests, reports, projects, and discussions will be key components of the course. Whenever possible the course will include primary source documents, biographies, field trips to museums and historic sites, discussions with old timers and veterans, and documentaries.  Studying the effects of history on current events will form part of this course.

Texts:

Omnibus 2: Church Fathers Through the Reformation Edited by Douglas Wilson and G. Tyler Fischer, selections

Omnibus 5: The Medieval World Edited by Gene Edward Veith, Douglas Wilson and G. Tyler Fischer, selections

Omnibus 3:  Reformation to the Present Edited by Douglas Wilson and G. Tyler Fischer, selections

Omnibus 6: The Modern World Edited by Gene Edward Veith, Douglas Wilson and G. Tyler Fischer, selections

World History:  The Human Odyssey, Jackson J. Spielvogel, ch 7

Supplemental Resources:

Museums:  Museum of Civilization, Canadian War Museum, The Canadian Aviation Museum, Diefenbunker:  Canada’s Cold War Museum, Canada Science and Technology Museum, Bytown Museum, Goulborne Museum, Watson’s Mill, Upper Canada Village, Heritage Mica Festival and the Silver Queen Mica Mine, Medieval Festival at Upper Canada Village, Fort George,

Film: Documentary series such as Victorian Farm, War Time Farm, and Edwardian Farm, and individual documentaries such as Sisters in the Wilderness and The Queen and the Skipper.

Course Contents:

World History:  The Human Odyssey, Jackson J. Spielvogel, ch 7, The Americas (400-1500)

Omnibus 2: Church Fathers Through the Reformation: Confessions by Augustine, Ecclesiastical History by Bede, The Rule of Saint Benedict, Beowulf

Omnibus 5: The Medieval World: The City of God by Augustine, Summa Theologica, selections, by Thomas Aquinas, The Divine Comedy by Dante, The Travels of Marco Polo by Marco Polo, The Prince by Machiavelli, The Institutes, selections, by Calvin, St. Matthew Passion by Bach,

Omnibus 3:  Reformation to the Present:  Animal Farm by George Orwell, Pilgrim’s Progress by Bunyan, Pride and Prejudice by Austen, Autobiography of Charles G. Finney by Finney, Post-Modern Times by Veith, How Should We Then Live?  by Schaeffer

Omnibus 6: The Modern World:  Robinson Crusoe by Defoe, Huckleberry Finn by Twain, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Leaves of Grass by Whitman, Modern Short Stories, Poetry of T. S. Eliot, The Stranger by Camus

Reading List:

As listed under Course Contents, Omnibus 2,5,3,6  above

Note:  For Historical Fiction Reading List, see Introduction to World History

Famous Canadian Stories by George E. Tait

The Story of Canada by Janet Lunn and Christopher Moore

Canada: Portraits of Faith, Ed. Michael D. Clarke

More Famous Canadian Stories by Donald G. French

Tomb of Tutankhamen by H. Carter

Prime Ministers of Canada by Jim Lotz

Canada and the First World War by John Swettenham

George Washington’s World by Joanna Foster and Genevieve Foster

Abraham Lincoln’s World by Genevieve Foster and Joanna Foster

The World of Columbus and Sons by Genevieve Foster

The Landmark History of the American People by Daniel J. Boorstin

Indians by Edwin Tunis

El Escoral by Mary Cable

The Song of Roland by James Baldwin

Story of Britain by R.J. Unstead

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, selections, translated and compiled by Anne Savage

Luther the Leader by Virgil Robinson

The Rise of Great Britain by R.J. Unstead

Her Majesty the Queen by Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd

Wilderness Mission by John F. Hayes

Bay of the North by Ronald Syme

Champlain by Lourse Hall Tharp

The Loyalists by Christopher Moore

With Pipe, Paddle and Song by Elizabeth Yates

The Luck of the La Verendryes by Lyn Harrington

Augustine Came to Kent by Barbara Willard

The Little Duke or Richard the Fearless by Charlotte Yonge

Stories from the Heart of Canada by Lane

The Life of Charlemagne by Einhart

Salt in His Blood: The Life of Michael De Ruyter by William R. Rang

Saint Patrick by McHugh

O Canada by Karla Akins

Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl

Sebastian Bach: The Boy from Thuringia by Opal Wheeler and Sybil Deucher

L’Abri by Edith Schaeffer

Little Britches by Ralph Moody

Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinor Pruitt Stewart

Man of the Family by Ralph Moody

The Home Ranch by Ralph Moody

Mary Emma and Company by Ralph Moody

The Fields of Home by Ralph Moody

Papa’s Wife by Thyra Ferre Bjorn

Riders of the Pony Express by Ralph Moody

Snow, Stars and Wild Honey by George Morrill

Tracking Marco Polo by Timothy Severin

Photographing Canada from Flying Canoes by S. Bernard Shaw

A Century of Change by R.J. Unstead

Louis Pasteur by Linda W. Smith

The Doctor Who Never Gave Up by Carolynn Scott

War Stories by Gregory Clark

The Children’s Homer by Padraic Colum

The Assault on Reason by Al Gore

Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler

Going Rogue by Sarah Palin

The Brendan Voyage by Tim Severin

A Soldier First by General Rick Hillier

Vet in a Spin by James Herriot

The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan

Hitler’s Second Book by Adolf Hitler

Gideon’s Spies by Gordon Thomas

Nickles and Dimes by Nina Brown Baker

Moe Howard and the Three Stooges by Moe Howard

George Alfred Henty by George Manville Fenn

Pigeon Hero by Shirley Ray Redmond

J.R.R. Tolkien by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull

Sadam’s Secrets by Georges Sada

Decision Points by George W. Bush

America by Heart by Sarah Palin

J.R.R. Tolkien by Humphrey Carpenter

Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization by Anthony Esolen

The Faith of Ronald Reagan by Mary Beth Brown

Mayday Mayday by Lowell Green

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

The Prince by Niccolo Machivelli

The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant (selections)

Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana Jr.

The Consequences of Ideas by R. C. Sproul

After America by Mark Steyn

Art of War by Sun Tsu

Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers by Patrick Kavanaugh

Righteous Indignation by Andrew Breitbart

Gravity by George Gamow

History of the House of Rothschild by Niall Ferguson

History of World War II, all volumes, by Winston Churchill

History of the English Speaking Peoples, vol 1 and 2 by Winston Churchill

The Ecclesiastical History by Bede

Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

Canterbury Tales, selections, by Chaucer

Beowulf

Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx

Other Documents and Speeches:

The Riot Act

The Magna Charta

The US Declaration of Independence

The Constitution of the United States

Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address

Churchill’s Blood, Sweat, and Tears Speech

Grading Criteria:

The final mark will be based on studying the texts and overviews, reading widely, and discussing historical topics.  Detailed and accurate knowledge of events, ideas, and persons will be expected.  Essays, homework, and tests will be assigned.

Example 3:  Canadian History  

Course Description:

In this multi-year course the student will learn about all aspects and times of Canadian history using biographies, historical fiction, textbooks, collections, and monographs.  Field trips to museums, discussions with veterans and other senior citizens, research into fashions, and studying the effect of history on current events will all form a part of this course.

Main Texts: 

Challenge and Survival:  The History of Canada by Herstein, Hughes, and Kirbyson.

Making History:  The Story of Canada in the Twentieth Century by Bain, DesRivieres, Flaherty, Goodman, Schemenauer, Scully

Supplemental Resources:

Museums:  Canadian Museum of History, Canadian War Museum, Canadian Aviation Museum, Diefenbunker: Canada’s Cold War Museum, Canada Science and Technology Museum, Bytown Museum, Goulborne Museum, Watson’s Mill, Upper Canada Village, Heritage Mica Festival and the Silver Queen Mica Mine, Fort George, National Art Gallery.

Films: Sisters in the Wilderness, The Queen and the Skipper, Summer on Ross Farm.

Reading List:

The Backwoods of Canada by Catherine Parr Trail

Famous Canadian Stories by George E. Tait, Ed.

The Story of Canada by Janet Lunn

Hudson’s Bay: or Every-day Life in the Wilds of North America by Robert Ballantyne

The Brendan Voyage by Tim Severin

Evangeline by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Alone in an Untamed Land by Maxine Trottier

With Pipe, Paddle and Song by Elizabeth Yates

The Memory of All That by Ruth Latta

A Liberation Album by David Kaufman, Michiel Horn

If Kisses Were Roses by Helen Shewchuk

Promise You’ll take Care of My Daughter by Ben Wicks

Blackouts to Bright Lights edited by Barbara Ladouceur and Phyllis Spence

Agnes: the Biography of Lady Macdonald by Louise Reynolds

A Rebel’s Daughter by Janet Lunn

With Wolfe in Canada by G. A. Henty

The Pork Chop and Other Stories by Lowell Green

Canada: Portraits of Faith, Ed. Michael D. Clarke

Song of Acadia series Janette Oke by T. Davis Bunn

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Mrs. Mike by Benedict Freeman

Strangers and Sojourners by Michael O’ Brien

All Else is Folly by Peregrine Acland

Project: Canadian war brides.

Grading Criteria:

The final mark will be based on readings, narrations, projects, and discussions.  Detailed, accurate knowledge and analyses of events and persons will be expected.  Percentages will not be recorded for this course.

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