History What is the nature of History in Grades 7 and 8? History at SJII is not a matter of learning names and dates, nor a matter of spending long periods taking notes from the teacher or the textbook. It is rather a wide range of activities through which students experience, understand and analyse the events they are studying. Above all, it is process of thinking and developing a range of skills. In the case of Grades 7 and 8 it is the foundation of their historical skills, their understanding of the world around them, through the critical and analytical eyes of a historian.
What is the approach to learning? The students’ experience of History at SJII will be active, diverse and engaging. It will challenge their skills of judgement, evaluation and reasoning, and it will strengthen their values as they study real world dilemmas. They will be given opportunities to be original and creative, to communicate to small and larger audiences, to be persuasive, to lead and to follow. Through activities and means of engaging with the material, the students’ historical skills will develop in an enjoyable academic environment.
What is the subject content? The topics of study in Grades 7 and 8 aim to provide a broad subject knowledge of events and themes from around the world which are significant enough to stand on their own but which also build a background for the study of History IGCSE. In Grade 7 we study the following: A.
Early and Early-Modern Singapore to 1900 The students start their history development with a familiar topic that introduces them to the necessary historical skills which they will build throughout the two years.
B.
East Asia meet the West Students study imperialism in the form of British expansion into China and the opening of Japan while also examining the modernisation that follows for both countries.
C.
The French Revolution Students get to examine the original revolution for liberty, to understand its ideas, its causes and its importance to history and the world today.
D.
Slavery and Civil Rights Students examine the impact of the French Revolution in their study of slavery and the civil rights movement in the USA.
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