People, Places & Principles Of America

This largely self-study course covers American history from the time of Columbus through the election of George W. Bush. It is designed as a two-year course, with 180 lessons in all. The course is made of two main parts; student texts (or chapters) and activity and test books. Each of the textbooks is divided into sections and topics that cover consecutive spans of time, each which is broken down into 15 cultural components including families, agriculture, religion, economics, military, discoveries, inventions, food, communication, sports/recreation, the arts, transportation, government, industry/medicine, and education. Major personalities and events are also studied for each period, giving the student a well-rounded look at both the daily life and culture of the time, along with the important historical events. The course text is well-written and pretty interesting, with examples and vignettes woven in to add further interest. Black and white illustrations and diagrams are included, which also provide maps and charts for student reference. While not overly Christian in content, the writers acknowledge the deep religious beliefs of our founding fathers, and are fairly balanced in presentation. The course is designed for the student to read a topic each day (about 3-4 pages), and then turn to the Activities book and complete a worksheet about what they've read. The activity sheet for each day incorporates short answer, fill-in-the-blank, multiple choice, and true/false questions about the selection. There are several pages of activity worksheets for each section, providing quite a few questions for each reading assignment. The Teacher Resource Kit is a valuable addition to this program because it provides a section quiz to take after each part of the activity book and a fairly lengthy chapter test for each text. Besides providing these quizzes and tests, it also includes answer keys to them, as well as an answer key for each of the Activity Books and additional supplemental administrated resources. You can order the Teacher Resource Kit as a book which comes with either a free download of the same material as PDF files or a CD-ROM of the pdf files, or you can just get it as a PDF CD without the book. Also available separately is a Student Resource Kit, which includes a compilation of historical maps, charts, and documents that pertain to all six of the chapters, which the student will be required to access as they proceed through the activities. The Full Course Kit includes all the texts and activities from chapters 1-12, the Student Resource Kit, and the Teacher Resource Kit with free download. If you want to go half-way, the course kit for chapters 1-6 has all the above components for the first half of the course, from discovery of the New World to roughly the 1820's. Chapter 7 begins with westward expansion into Texas and the West and takes us into the 21st century. Altogether, if you're looking for a primarily reading-based history curriculum that covers American history with a good amount of detail and a focus on daily life, for a student who is self-motivated enough to keep up with the study, you may enjoy this offering from Paradigm Accelerated Curriculum. - Jess

The People, Places, and Principles of America is a comprehensive study of American history from pre-Columbus through the election of 2012. Content of each chapter is based on the 15 major components of culture: families, agriculture, media, military, government, religion, education, discoveries, industry, communication, leaders, light/energy, art, music, sports, and transportation. Each lesson incorporates a narrative carefully designed to engage the students emotionally and academically. Theme art, time lines, maps, and charts illustrate each lesson to "pull the student's mind" into the text and clarify content. This course has been called "real history" because it ties the fifteen major cultural components to real people, places and principles which distinguish America. It is not revisionist history.

People Places, and Principles of America I (chapters 1-6) is appropriate for one transcript credit, and People, Places, and Principles of America II (Chapters 7-12) is designed for one transcript credit. Completion of All 12 chapters earns two transcript credits. The vocabulary level is applicable for students from eighth through twelfth grade. The content is designed to raise students' aspirations for noble and honorable lifestyles of the American Dream. Essential academic elements are aligned with standards normally expected for grades eight through high school, either for essential elements or for state exit exams.

Some states require graduating students to know about the Founding Fathers and important national documents; this course covers these topics in chapters 3-6. *(Teachers who omit some sections in order to accommodate state or local school circumstances will need to avoid assigning applicable portions of chapter quizzes and tests.) This is a very popular course, especially for students whose previous enrollment in other schools createdfactual voids in American history. *America's Founding Fathers, Events and Documents is a stand-alone unit study of 15 pertinent topics extrapolated from chapters. 1-6 of the People, Places and Principles of America, and is suitable as an adjunct to other history, government, or civics courses.