Curriculum FAQs

The shorter one – 

There is a test book we put together for the older set of students. It only tests the sections that all students would likely encounter — the intro materials from the CDs and the article. There is an answer key for that, though it is focused on private school settings most homes school families do not need it. After that, in the Phases, you are looking at the scenario where no student will be able to fulfill some kind of correct answer for all the varied activities that are available: there are too many and cover too broad a sweep of information. They will be pursuing a theme given in the activity they have chosen, but whether they pursue it to this emphasis or that will not be foretold. It is Education that's Relational. So, instead, we teach you, in the Teacher's Guide, to assess fairly the various sorts of presentations your students will be offering. There is a section of explanation, an offering of model templates to choose from, and we are right now, for awhile, sending with Package Deal purchases a free DVD that includes a section on fair evaluations for this kind of approach. After we cease offering it free, it will cost something just over $10. 

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Thank you.

The longer one – 

Thanks so much for writing!  Your question is an excellent one, and I hope this answer will help to rest anyone's fears about our lack of an answer key to the "questions."

The questions that are under consideration here, are found in Phase One, during the Introductory week. Phases 2, 3, and 4 have a different attitude. In Phase One, students will have been listening to the CD's, reading the article, reading pertinent Scriptures, and basically being introduced to the particular time period that they will be learning more about over the 4 weeks.

After this input of new information, there are questions asked which are designed to cause students to become more actively involved in what they have been hearing and reading (a step which is normally absent in most curriculums!).

These questions are meant to draw students into considering what it would have been like to have lived during that time (for which there are no right/wrong answers), and questions that may fire up a student to learn more about something that has been referenced during the CD's or the article. 

For the first types of questions, the "open-ended" questions, the point is for students to imagine what it was like to have actually been alive in that time period.

For instance, "The fire that destroyed much of Rome during Nero's reign caused Nero to need a scapegoat (an innocent substitute to take the blame). Why do you think he picked on the Christians? Would you want someone like Nero to be the ruler in your country? Why or why not?"

This is an open-ended question.  Why do YOU think he picked on the Christians?  Your thoughts on this question might be different than mine, which might be different than my neighbor's.  But if it gets students really considering, even passionately defending why they think Nero used Christians as scapegoats, then suddenly they have a vested interest in learning MORE about this time period, and about Nero specifically. 

And THAT is my goal. 

For the questions that are more of a discovery-type question to help them learn more, the point is for students to become self-motivated to dig into something THEY are interested in learning. 

For instance: "Early in the history of the Church, false teachings or heresies arose.  In the audio-recording Digging Deeper: The Exploding Church several heresies are mentioned, including marcionism (which took away from the Word), montanism (which added to the Word) and arianism (which reduced Jesus to a superhero rather than a member of the triune God). Are you aware of similar heresies today? What do you think are the best tools Christians (of any timer period) have for combatting heresy?"

Students may or may not have any knowledge of similar heresies today.  However, on the question about the best tools Christians have for combatting heresy, they could interview their pastor, dialogue with parents, look up Scriptures that have to do with heresy, look at books at a Christian bookstore (if they REALLY got interested). . .

If they became ACTIVELY engaged in learning more about this, it could be life changing.  And it would certainly fire them up to do far more than read the text, answer a few questions, take a test, and get a grade (as is so often the case with history classes).

If I put answers to these types of questions in the Teacher's Guide, it would reduce considerably the "Sherlock Holmes" factor — the desire, the hunger, to discover what they are interested in knowing. 

Asking questions here is NOT for the purpose of identifying how much students memorized from the CD's or articles!!  This is NOT a test!!  This is a very strategically placed opportunity for students to say, "Wow, I wonder how that works!" (or something to that effect), and then to energize them to actively become involved in looking things up, asking their own questions, formulating ideas and opinions.

It is Education that's Relational. For those who have written reviews which state "there wasn't an answer key to the questions", I'm wishing that we had an opportunity to help them understand that these particular questions are serving an entirely different purpose than questions one fills in for a test!

Now, let me hasten to say that students are not supposed to answer EVERY question.  The point is not to see how many questions they can answer, the point is to have a rousing discussion time, where even ONE question causes students to want to become excited and eager to learn more. Having the answers in the back of the book would defeat that very purpose!

Another take on the question –

Answers in the Teacher Guide –

Thanks for asking. A typical textbook that had no answers would be a sad piece, but a non-typical or non-traditional resource might take a different approach. When we write a definitive question, such as in the test booklet, then we offer the answer. In the Student Manual, however, we do not ask students to recite or rehearse answers to somebody else's questions. Our DISCUSSION QUESTIONS from Phase One of each unit, just following the Intro, are mostly phrased like,"What did you find…" or "What do you think…" or " How would you…" These will be sparking interaction and familiarity, along with compassion, before the students move into the heart of the program. In Phases 2, 3 and 4, they encounter suggestions for study that they can pursue, but the answer they might derive, and the presentation of that answer, could be quite different than another student would do. For instance, if there were a question about the uniforms of the armies in some great battle, and they were to answer "What were the key elements of the uniforms?" one student might do a project learning about the woolen industries of the two nations at war, including numbers of sheep and of mills and of sewing factories, and bringing in concerns for weight and quality. The other student might answer, "Red wool," and then move on because his topic was more concerned with the insignias and patches, sashes, headgear and protective elements. Both of these two are learning more info than any textbook could offer about the cultures and about the times, both answers are right, but as for an answer key, well there are dozens of these questions! What we do instead is train you to assess their presentations, both in the Teacher Guide and in the How-To DVD. There is a section of explanation, an offering of model templates to choose from, and we are right now, for awhile, sending a free DVD with Package Deal purchases that includes a section on fair evaluations for this kind of approach. After we cease offering it free, it will cost something just over $10. Oh, and the map projects have all been marked in the back pages of the Teacher Guide (in the Answers in Genesis versions).