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The following exerpts are from a review by Cathy Duffy of cathyduffyreviews.com. The reviewer, cathyduffyreviews.com, or Grove Publishing were not compensated in any way for these comments. This information is unedited and exactly as found on the cathyduffyreviews.com website. Read the review in it's entirety here.
Our Land of Liberty: The Story of the United States of America presents American history in a newspaper format. The content and style of presentation makes this course ideal for students in fourth and fifth grades. I envision it working especially well coupled with historical biographies and historical fiction. While I think it works well as your core curriculum, because of the format it can also be used as a supplement alongside another course. . . .
The full-color student handouts are each four pages in length. They present topical information in separate sections with headlines and illustrations, somewhat like a newspaper format. Lesson plans walk you through the various sections of each handout over five days. Occasionally, there is a blank line for students to answer a question; they can write directly in the handout. “Reaction Time” questions at the end of each handout can be used for research, discussion, or written responses. If you want to try to reuse the set with another student, students can write answers elsewhere, but it might be more trouble than it is worth.
The course requires interaction between the parent or teacher and student(s). The teacher’s manual provides presentation ideas alongside reproductions of each section of the text in the student handouts. You can skip some sections of the handout and lesson activities if time is limited. At the beginning of each lesson plan, a priority list numbers the topics and indicates a priority level of primary, secondary, or supplemental for each topic. Some sections of the text are already labeled as “Optional lesson” in the teacher’s manual. Clearly, priority topics should not be skipped. However, having different levels of priority clearly delineated makes it easy to flex the lessons at busy times of the year while still keeping forward momentum. . . .
Summary
Students who might be overwhelmed by the weight and size of a textbook might find the “newspaper” format of Our Land of Liberty far more appealing. While the course does require direct teaching, the teacher’s manual makes it easy for the parent or teacher to adapt lessons to suit each situation.
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