Oct. 26, 2009
American Heritage TOS
Posted in Reviews
In honor of November being American Heritage month, the American Heritage Education Foundation wants to bring the attention of teachers( including homeschoolers) to the wealth of free information available from their site. The Mission AHEF is a non-profit, non-partisan educational foundation (501.c.3) dedicated to the understanding and teaching of America's factual and philosophical heritage to promote constructive citizenship and Freedom, Unity, Progress, and Responsibility among our students and citizens. AHEF accomplishes this patriotic mission by writing, producing, and distributing FREE K-12 lesson plans to teachers, students, and families in all 50 states and through additional initiatives, programs, and partnerships. AHEF is inclusive of individuals of every race and creed and every religious or non-religious persuasion.(taken from AHEF's website) BASIC CONCEPT The three founders of AHEF believe that America and its beginnings could be explained using 4 basic themes: 1) Freedom 2) Unity 3) Progress 4) Responsibility They believe that Americans should use these 4 themes to realize that no matter how diverse we are as a people, we have to remember that we are all part of the same nation and should act accordingly and not forget what this country was founded on. AHEF's founders feel that the teaching and learning of these 4 important themes aren't being taught or learned by today's youth in K-12 and even in college. The PRODUCT We were sent a CD that contains the K-12 lesson plans that you can download free from their website. The down load is divided into 3 sections: 1) Elementary-include lessons about the colonists' experience under monarchy; the context for the writing of the Declaration of Independence; the creation of important American symbols, songs, and holidays; and the character traits modeled by great national leaders and presidents. 2) Middle school- include lessons focusing on concepts within the Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address, and other important texts and American symbols as well as the ideals for which many fought and sacrificed their lives. 3) High school- include lessons for in-depth analysis and understanding of the ideas, intentions, arguments, rights, and meanings addressed in significant texts from the Mayflower Compact and the Declaration of Independence to Federalist 47, the First Amendment, and a government letter on religious expression in public schools. Since we have two in the seventh grade, we used the middle school lesson plans. At the beginning of each lesson plan the following is stated : Purpose Objective Theme NCSS standards Time needed Material list Preparation list Each of the 15 units has the following: Focus Activity Closure Assessment Some lessons also include an enrichment activity. I had heard that most Americans are only focused on the United States and don't know much about the rest of the world- I'm afraid our family is the opposite. We were so concerned that our children learn about world history, but somewhat neglected US history. It's like telling your children about all the religions of the world but forgetting the one you believe. We are proud to live in the United States and our children should be able to see where we stand by observing us! The COST Downloads -instant & free Lesson plan CD- order for free Binders - $19.50/ level We plan on using this along side our world history curriculum so our children will have a better rounded education. As part of the TOS review crew, I received this CD free in exchange for an honest review, but you can get it free and not have to write a review- good deal, right? http://www.americanheritage.org/index.html |
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