U.S. History Detective® Book 1
Colonial Era to Reconstruction Era
Grades: 8-12+
Social Studies
Full curriculum
View Sample Pages Grades: 8-12+
Social Studies
Full curriculum
- Multiple Award Winner
Description and Features
Description and Features
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I really love the bookHello i am a teacher and this book really helped my kids learn a lot. if you are interested in the book go ahead and buy it you wont regret it.
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My History Hating Son Loved itI just want to thank you for this curriculum! My son has always said he hates U.S. History and I told him with the right books he would find it really interesting. I'm happy to say he loved U.S. History Detective! He was engaged and even looked forward to doing history on many days. We both appreciate how it's written and the format of the questions. Educational materials should be thoughtful, engaging, and provoke a love of learning, and books one and two both fit that criteria.
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N/AI just wanted to thank you for U.S. History Detective. My daughter has always disliked history but, thanks to your book, she is really enjoying learning about it now! She looks forward to her lesson every day and I look forward to hearing her tell me what she's learned. It's wonderful to see her excited about history!
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N/AI’ve found U.S. History Detective Book One to be an exceptional tool for learning history. The lessons are arranged well and the information is presented in an interesting way. The questions at the end of each lesson are designed for students to gain the maximum benefit from what they’ve read, as well as enabling them to grow in critical thinking. The graphics, maps, photos and illustrations are eye-catching and beautiful. The lesson lengths are just right and very accessible, so that students build knowledge upon knowledge and skill upon skill. One of the things that I found to be a fantastic benefit to the book is the essay portion. And, I also loved that U.S. History Detective doesn’t teach ONLY history. Rather, it interweaves what was happening in art, in journalism, in political writing, in economics, in scientific invention along with what was happening historically in each era. That even provides rabbit trails for further educational exploration as you study the course!
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a great addition to any classroomThe text is very well written, each topic within a lesson is titled which really help my girls if they needed to go back and look for an answer to the questions. We loved the maps that are included. It made if very easy to locate places that were included in the text. The pictures that are placed throughout make a great addition to the book and makes things easier to remember. The girls favorite part are the Fun Fact Features, I think they went through the book to read them all before they even started using it. Some of the questions are multiple choice, but the student cannot just guess at the answer. They actually have to go back and find the sentence in the text where they got their answer. U.S. History Detective makes a great addition to any classroom -- no matter if your children are taught at home, public or private school.
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N/AThis book is fabulous. In the multiple choice questions, you have to do more than just figure out the correct answer -- you also have to give the sentence number(s) that best supports your answer. I love that. This isn't just about what you know -- it is about being able to read text and support your conclusions. I simply love this book.
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N/AAsperger's Syndrome is a disorder that effects the social side of kids and adults. My son has a lot of difficulty with how to act in social situations and even has a difficult time with things that effect you socially such as reading body language and understanding idioms and nuances. That makes reading comprehension often difficult for him. However, Asperger's kids are often very gifted in particular areas. Geography and History are the areas in which my son is very advanced. Unfortunately, those two things combined - his love for geography/history and his reading comprehension problems - often make finding good homeschool curriculum that will keep his interest difficult. That is why this book is really perfect for him and any history loving child that has reading difficulties. It is written in an interesting way. It's not like the boring textbooks that we knew as a child. It is very thorough but the lessons are fairly short so he is able to remain focused and interested. It helps to develop critical thinking skills. From the start you notice the difference. Each sentence in each lesson is numbered. The reason that they are numbered is because the questions asked at the end of each lesson often ask that you back up your answer by noting which sentence gave you the information that you used to answer that question. It teaches the child how to think and look for answers and therefore they will retain the information and learn more. I really like that approach. It also has reviews after every two or three lessons. Having a review every two or three lessons helps any student to learn, but especially helps children that are distracted and don't retain things easily. We highly recommend this book to anyone as a supplemental history book, or as the main U.S. History Curriculum.
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N/AThe way the content is broken up is much more conducive to retention than other history textbooks. There are multiple choice and free response review sections, charts and diagrams, a "Fun Fact" section for each lesson, and lots of pictures to help with the multiple ways a student needs to get the material into the brain's memory banks. I am always impressed with The Critical Thinking Co.'s ability to make their books interesting and interactive as compared to other texts. My daughter really likes this book and finds that it works well with her learning style. She tends to have trouble retaining a lot of text, so having it broken up in meaningful ways and with frequent student response sections has really helped her make more sense of U.S. History.
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N/AThroughout the book there are Fun Facts, such as the one about the development of a special whole grain bread, called Graham bread, known today as Graham crackers. We found these little tidbits of trivia fun to read!
The reading passages are interesting and the high quality illustrations supplement it well. We have found that it is also not dry and boring like many history texts. The review questions encourage them to think critically which helps them to retain more from what they read. I would recommend U.S. History Detective Book 1 as a good way to study United States history!Posted on
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N/AI found plenty of detailed extras that really round out this curriculum, including editorial cartoons that teach the student the cultural mindset of the period they are studying, and help them understand and interpret various historical writings, statements, and events. This book is very thorough, and effectively teaches the highlights of American History that every American high schooler should know before graduating. We found that controversial topics are written in an objective way, for the student to draw their own conclusions. It leaves plenty of room for the teacher/parent to guide the student in the perspective that they would like to emphasize. If a student is studying and preparing to take standardized testing, either AP, SAT Subject, or CLEP, in U.S. History, this book would be a great help in that preparation.
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