Deepen your knowledge and understanding of World history on a journey through time. You will learn about the major events, people, and ideas that have shaped World history, and you will gain a deeper understanding of the forces that continue to shape our world today.  Explore primary documents and engage in historical study as a historian. 

This course is the first half of a rhetorical level course intended to introduce the student to the major themes and moments in world history.  This course will involve both writing and reading.  We will be reading a full-range of primary documents from each time period and geographical area we study.  You will be learning how to read, think about, analyze, argue with, and present ideas about history and to connect events to the larger trends and themes in world history.

This is a self-paced version of my popular live World History 1 course.  This class can coordinate with my World Literature courses if desired.  As a self-paced version of my World History 1 course, this course will offer no live class meetings.  Instead, your student will have access to 1-2 class recordings weekly to watch, as well as additional written and visual documents to augment the recording.  The student will also have various quizzes and interactive assignments to check their understanding of the video content, creating a workshop feel during the 15 weeks.  Also each week, students will have an opportunity to complete their own longer writing assignments related to the class content and to receive individualized teacher feedback.  

Each week you will be responsible for reading background material and assigned primary documents.  You will be expected to write a reading response for each of your readings.  These reading responses should be 1-2 pages on the background material for each time period in history and the important elements of the work.  You should be building a timeline of major events in world history across geographical boundaries.  In class videos, I will discuss our reading, putting themes in their historical context and asking questions about the author’s and our own worldviews.  You will then participate in this discussion via activities over the week. 

What to expect from this course:
-Strengthening your skills of primary text analysis
-Improve critical thinking skills through oral and written discussion
-Develop an understanding of the major moments and themes of World history
-Explore political, economic, social, and military changes that shaped the modern world