History of the Ancient World - Study & Teaching Guide

Susan Wise Bauer's books on the scope of human history for high school and adult students follow the story of mankind from his earliest beginnings to the Renaissance period (a projected fourth volume will cover up to the modern period). Now the first volume,The History of the Ancient World, can be used as a full ancient history course for high school credit: The History of the Ancient World Study & Teaching Guide by Julia Kaziewicz offers all you need.

Each of the text's 85 chapters are covered here. For every chapter there's a student worksheet to be printed off which offers four kinds of review: Who, What, Where questions determine students's retention of facts, comprehension questions have students summarize the chapter's main content, critical thinking questions make them analyze the content and draw conclusions, and map studies help them internalize the physical and political makeup of the ancient world. The written questions call for either short answer or essay responses.

The blank student pages appear in the back of the study guide, while the same pages with answers and teaching tips make up the first part of the volume. There are a variety of ways you can have students complete the questions, each outlined at the beginning of the book. Fact-based, comprehension, and critical thinking questions can be answered either open-book or from memory as the teacher sees fit; the map study exercises will need to be completed consulting the maps in Bauer's volume.

The History of the Ancient World Study & Teaching Guide is easy to use and implement. Students learn by doing, not simply by absorbing words off a page, and this book will help them do just that, thereby internalizing the content and ideas they encounter in Bauer's excellent book. Not just for high school students or classrooms, adults who want to improve their knowledge of history can work through this guide on their own. Highly recommended.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he's a husband and father who loves church, good food, and weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews here.