6th grade is a year of transition from a childhood education where the child did little self study to a young adult mode of learning where the student begins to learn to work with less supervision and to analyze more complex material. This is reflected in the content studied in 6th grade history and the manner of study. Since grades 1-5 consists of wide and varied reading from all historical periods and world cultures, it’s helpful in 6th grade to take the student through a chronological study of world history from ancient times to the present. Our suggested book is Kingfisher History Encyclopedia.
The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia(KF) organizes world history into 10 periods which can be studied in 3 or 4 weeks each. This pace works well for the typical 36 week school year. Each period consists of 20 to 30 short topics on 1 or 2 pages of brilliant graphics, maps, and charts accompanied by 4 to 8 paragraphs of text on the topic.
The student should complete a history lesson each day. The lesson consists of reading one or more topics in KF then outlining the topic. Outlining is a key skill which trains the student to distinguish major points from minor details and to follow the general flow of a descriptive passage. The lesson begins with the student reading the topic, looking at the photos and captions, and generally enjoy the interesting topic in itself. Then have them go back and outline the topic.
If the student has not yet learned to outline, at the start of the year the outline should consist of one topic for each paragraph. Have them re-read the paragraph and write in 3 to 7 words what the main idea is for the paragraph. Have them repeat this for all paragraphs. After a couple weeks of this simple outlining, have them add details to their daily outlines. They’ll write the topic’s main point and under it write 2 or more details from the paragraph that pertain to the main topic. This is all they need to do for 6th grade. You will find that initially they list paragraph details that do not pertain to the main point. Just show them that details must relate to the main topic and not be a new topic in themselves. As time goes on, they may see some paragraphs really have more than one main idea so may have two main points for a paragraph. Now you know they are thinking and really learning to interact with more complex information. Also, they may see that several main points from sequential paragraphs really all have something in common and relate to an even more general “major” point. Wonderful – they are thinking maturely at this point. Have them combine the main points under the more general major point. Then the details for each main point become third level details under the major point. They are now doing three level outlines – no small feat for a 6th grader.
With encouragement and daily practice they will become accomplished outliners well before the end of 6th grade. They are learning to think and analyze rather than memorize simple facts. They are growing up! Sharing these developments side by side with your child is what parenting is all about.
Here’s how we pace ourselves to complete the KF book in one year, for each of the 10 major sections.
| Section | pages | days required |
| Ancient World to 500BC | 3-48 | 2 weeks 2 days |
| Classical World 499BC-500AD | 49-96 | 5 weeks |
| Early Middle Ages 501-1100 | 97-144 | 5 weeks |
| Middle Ages 1101-1460 | 145-192 | 3 weeks 3 days |
| Renaissance 1461-1600 | 193-240 | 4 weeks 3 days |
| Trade and Empire 1601-1707 | 241-288 | 4 weeks |
| Revolution and Independence 1708-1835 | 289-336 | 3 weeks 2 days |
| Unification and Colonization 1836-1913 | 337-384 | 4 weeks |
| World at War 1914-1949 | 385-432 | 2 weeks |
| Modern World 1950-Present | 433-464 | 2 weeks |
The detailed lesson plans provided later for month 1 and month 6 give an example of how to work through each major section on a daily basis. On some days more than one topic is studied. Early in the school year, you may require outlining for just one of the topics. Again, flexibility is inherent in the teaching method. You also may skip some of the topics in each section to save time or to allow a switch to a different history resource from time to time. The KF topics can be resumed without losing context due to omitting some topics. We recommend not rearranging or omitting too much as the student can lose a sense of the flow of history. Remember, 6th grade should provide a broad historical context, the details of which will be studied in 7th grade and beyond.
Our outline method for History in 6th grade was initially motivated by principles from the book The Well Trained Mind. Some of these ideas can be found here.