Prerequisites: None
Length: Two semesters

World History offers a tightly focused and scaffolded curriculum that uses multiple perspectives to trace the development of civilizations around the world from prehistory to the present. The course covers major events in world history, including the development and influence of human-geographic relationships, political and social structures, economics, science and technology, and the arts. Students investigate the major religions and belief systems throughout history and learn about the importance of trade and cultural exchange. Other topics include the development of agriculture, the spread of democracy, the rise of nation-states, the industrial era, the spread of imperialism, and the issues and conflicts of the 20th century. Students learn to use primary historical documents as evidence as they learn about past events.
World History is designed as the second course in the social studies sequence. Students develop confidence in their analytic writing through a scaffolded sequence of short analytic pieces and short essays, including document-based questions. Primary documents are embedded in the instruction to encourage students to make frequent connections to evidence from the past.
The content is based on standards from the National Council for History Education (1997), the National Center for History in the Schools (1996), and the National Council for Social Studies (1994) and is aligned to state standards.