A number of people have asked me recently for my opinion on using The Human Web by John and William McNeill as a summer assignment reading for my AP World History Course. Here are some initial comments I wrote in an email response below. I plan to add more in the future, especially as I rework my summer assignments for this year's incoming class of APWH 2010.
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Bill,
As a first year AP World teacher, I cannot thank you enough for sharing your links for The Human Web. It truly will help me provide my students with an excellent and relevant summer assignment. I am in the process of reading the book and am excited to share various ideas with my students when we return in September.
We also use the Bentley book and I use similar charts for a summer assignment (PERSIAN). I would like your advice, at your convenience, to the following question: I want my students to create PERSIAN charts from the Bentley text as well as read The Human Web but fear together it is too much work. I do not have the "Bentley brief" and the text for Unit 1 Foundations is very lengthy. Do you think I could combine the two somehow? Also, another idea I had was to have the kids read part of the Human Web in the summer, and the remainder throughout the school year -however is that ineffective for CCOT? Would it be best served to be read in its entirety over the summer?
Sorry for the lengthy email - I am spinning my wheels trying to make a good decision i the interest of my students.
Thank you so much, in advance, for your time.
Sincerely, C.
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Hi C.,
Last year I had the students read the McNeill's book and complete "SPICER" charts over the summer. It didn't kill them, but it was a lot of work and I am not sure it was all necessary--I've decided I should have been focusing on other things.
So, this year, I will have the students read The Human Web again, but I will assign them 3-5 questions per chapter only, and this year they will post their responses online at our class wiki. Also, I will emphasize geography over the summer, but I am still figuring out how exactly I will do this. Maps, obviously, and probably those University High games that have been floating around, but I am still working on it.
As for the reading, I think it would be best to have the students read the whole book over the summer. Cutting it off in the middle, to me, would detract from the independent scholarly aspect of the assignment--we want them to be able to read a book with minimal guidance and in a more natural setting than a classroom's "HW: H.Web, 36-49 and SPICER Chart". (I am sure you take my meaning.)
All last year, I continually referred to the HW as we progressed through the course and discussed globalization. Because the students had read the whole book, they had a narrative framework through which to conceptualize where we had been and where we were going. I found that framework to be immensely useful throughout the course.
Hope all that helps!
--Bill.
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