I actually did not start on Civil War and beyond today. That’s where I ended with my video lecture series yesterday. Before I got too far into US History, I had one text book that I wanted to delve into. I started reading the 8th grade US History textbook (teacher edition) which put me back to the founding of America. I chose this book because the teacher notes in the book include all the California Standards that must be taught. To my way of thinking, if California demands that these particular items are taught, there is a good chance that they will also be on the California teacher test. This book will help me with my breadth of study, and possibly help me answer some of the “depth” (essay questions on the test), should I get lucky. I did the same thing last week by reading the 7th grade World History teacher’s edition text, which I found immensely useful.
What I liked about the textbook is that it sort of takes a break after the formation of the Constitution to actually go through the Constitution. I was going to do this next week anyway as part of my Civics study, but doing so now helped me understand some of the history that happened after 1787. As new things happened, they would change the Constitution, or attempt to change the original intent of the document, much like we continue to do today.
After a very full day of reading and studying (I went through three pencil leads in my mechanical pencil!), I am back to the Civil War in the textbook. Tomorrow, I will be that “hole” I talked about yesterday – events from the Civil War to WWII. Now that I’m up to the Civil War in the text book, I can read beyond the Civil War tomorrow and then reinforce what I’ve learned with the video lecture series. I had done the same thing last week with a lot of success – combining book study with lectures really works for me!