History – 7th Grade

7th grade history follows a method similar to 6th grade. In 6th Grade History, an overview of world history was studied by reading and outlining sections from the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia. In 7th grade, we focus on United States history using A Basic History of the United States by Clarence Carson. This is a 6 volume set that recounts US History in a narrative style. Many homeschoolers use this text in high school, but it is suitable for middle school as well. We skipped various sections that were more philosophical in nature since we want to save those for the high school years. We also did not study volume 6 since it covers only the 10 years of 1985-1995. With these deletions, the entire set can be covered in 7th grade at a pace of 10-12 pages a day and allow several weeks for the studying your home state’s history.

We took a break in the middle of the US study to focus on state history, Texas in our case. The best time for this is when you reach the point in US History where your state joined the Union. So for Texas, we paused in volume 3, between chapter 6 (Westward Expansion) and chapter 7 (The Coming of the Civil War).

Rather than list all the pages we studied, it’s simpler to list those we omitted. Each volume is arranged in chapters and sections, so just assign one or more chapter sections each day, averaging 12 pages a day and you will complete the volumes in 7th grade. Examples of these daily lesson plans are shown on the 7th Grade Monthly Lesson Schedules .

Historical books assigned for reading during the year generally corresponded to the time period being studied in these history studies. See 7th Grade Reading for details.

At the end of the school year, a final project is done. This is a wonderful introduction to research papers and allows the entire year to be reviewed and presented by the student.

Basic History of the United States – 7th Grade History Final Project

I. Make a timeline of the following events, showing the general dates (within 25 year accuracy for dates before 500 AD, actual year for dates after 500 A.D.) and the region or continent where the event occurred. You may need to consult the Kingfisher World History Encyclopedia or other resources. (Events are not listed in chronological sequence).

American Civil War
Reformation
Communist Soviet Union
Charlemagne’s reign
Israel’s Exodus from Egypt
Roman Empire begins
American Revolution
Greek/Persian war
World War II
Birth of Jesus Christ
Crusades
French Revolution
World War I
Islam founded
Fall of Rome

II. Write a summary of American History. The major topics in American History are listed below. Order them chronologically and prepare a short description of each one. Then combine the topics in report form (like an essay). The report should be about 4 pages long. (Since there are about 40 topics and you’ll have 2 or 3 sentences per topic, you’ll have about 100 sentences. If a typical paragraph is 4 to 6 sentences, you should end up with about 20 paragraphs. With about 5 paragraphs per page, you should therefore have about 4 pages. This is just a rough idea – don’t worry about the length, just get the 2 or 3 sentence description per topic and the length will take care of itself.)

Labor Unions
King George III
Ideas of Adam Smith
Andrew Jackson
Declaration of Independence
Growth of Factories
3 branches of government
Winston Churchill
Thomas Jefferson
The Stamp Act
World War II
Bicameral legislature
Benjamin Franklin
Major New World colonizers: England, Holland, Spain, France
Louisiana Purchase from Napolean
Soviet Union
1850 Compromise
Major reasons leading to American Revolution
John Adams
Growth of Plantations
Nazi Germany
Civil War
William Penn
Growth of Railroads
James Madison
Abraham Lincoln
U.S. Constitution
Important places 1765-1775
World War I
William Bradford
Growth of Major Cities 1860-1900
Robert E. Lee
Reconstruction
Ulysses S. Grant
George Washington
Monroe Doctrine
Bill of Rights
Articles of Confederation
Cold War
Ideas of John Locke
Jonathan Edwards
Theodore Roosevelt