My Global History Course Curriculum: Developing Cultural Competency and Skill

This is the approach and curriculum for my college 1st-year global history and culture course. This is simply an example of my approach to the course based on teaching it over the past four decades. Links are provided to the assigned readings and media. It has been a wonderful journey teaching history over the past four decades. I am in debt to my college professors who taught me and my college colleagues who mentored me. In May 2019, I retired from teaching my global history course but will continue to write curriculum, compose articles, and record YouTube videos about what I have learned. I am in process of publishing all the course lectures through my Then and Now podcast available through Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, and a host of other providers.

• Click on this link for my reflection on forty years as a history teacher.

General Course Materials

• Course Syllabus (Face-to-Face Class) Typically I have taught the class in a traditional approach with students and I meet several times a week face-to-face.

• Course Syllabus (Online Version)

• Connecting all the Course Pieces and Components Sometimes students do not see the bigger purposes of the course and get lost in the individual readings and assignments. This handout makes sense of the course complexity.

• Nine Forces of History Rather than the two or three history forces I was taught decades ago, more historians teach that nine distinct forces of history influence events, people, and nations. I integrated these nine forces explicitly throughout the course curriculum.

Major Course Activities and Assignments

• Video Overview of the Major Assignments

• Major Exams Students have three major exams for the course along with all the other activities. They are given two weeks to submit the six-page paper in response to one of the two questions provided for them ahead of time.

  • Click on the following web links: Video Overview of Major Exams; PP Slides for Video; Overview; Major Exam #1 Scoring Rubric

• History Field Trip Activity to encourage students to explore campus cultural and education events.

  • Click on the following web links: assignment instructions and history field trip options for Fall 2018

• Historpedia Report It is a 7-page report on a history topic of the student's choosing. The name of this report is based on Wikipedia. The best papers are posted anonymously online for the public through the Historpedia website.

  • Click on the following web links: assignment instructions; instructions for topic selection, sample topics; forces of history to include in assignment; instructions for inserting references into paper; assignment grading rubric; Historpedia website where anonymous versions for the better student papers.

• Course Podcast Study Guide Use podcasting to prepare for major exams and for cultural enrichment through interviews and special music.

  • Click on the following web links: a survey to select one activity for one time during the term; interview instructions: interview permission form; interview submission form; music assignment instructions; music unit form; music unit special form; definitions instructions; summary unit instructions; and the history podcast web page to listen to episodes.

• Course Online Study Guide Using Google Sites for students to create their own online exam study guide.

  • Click on the following web links: a survey to select one activity for one time during the term; unit summary instructions; definitions unit instructions; essay unit questions instructions; and the online study guide.

• History Music Videos Students use simple software to create digital history stories.

  • Click on the following web links: assignment instruction; video tutorial how to share video with others; sample history video created by elementary children, and link to videos created by students for the assignment and by me for overviews of the academic units.

• Flip Grid Videos Flip Grid is an online software program that permits students to respond to question prompts with a video response no longer than 90 seconds. It was used in this class for students to do short video introductions to each other. It can be used for many more learning purposes.

  • Click on the following web links: FlipGrid.com website; instructions on use of FlipGrid.

Course Units

Each of these is the individual units we explore in class. Most are four-clock hours in length, a few involving history simulations require eight hours of student time.

• Course Introduction and the Forces of History at Work

• Rise of Industrial Society in Western Europe

• High Tide of Imperialism by Western Countries

• Worldwide Competition Escalates: World War One and the Russian Communist Revolution

• Rise of Chinese and Russian Communism: Different Approaches with Common Goals

• Between World War One and World War Two: Preparing for World War Again

• World War Two: An Entire World Engulfed in War with an Uncertain Outcome

• WWII Supplemental Learning Materials

• WWII Supplemental Learning Materials: Hollywood Goes to War

• Cold War of the 20th Century: Living Through the Threat of Extinction

• Cold War Supplemental Learning Materials

• War, Genocide, and The Holocaust: Understanding the Madness and the Motivations

• Reemerging Africa: The World's Oldest Culture Break Free of Colonial Control

• South Asia and Family Turmoil: Challenge of Different Cultures Living Together

• Middle East Becomes the Crossroads Again for the World

• Globalism Today: History Forces At Work in the World, the U.S., and You

• Course Summary and the Forces of History for the Future

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