History for the Australian Curriculum - Year 8: Textbook

Part of the series History for the Australian Curriculum - Year 8.

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Written by Australia's leading history educators to equip inquiring minds with the knowledge and skills needed to illuminate and enrich their understanding of the past. History for the Australian Curriculum is a comprehensive and compelling series for Years 7-10 that caters for the different learning styles and abilities in Australian classrooms without sacrificing the depth and quality of content needed to successfully understand historical concepts and skills. The series encourages students to pose questions, analyse sources and use evidence to illuminate and enrich their understanding of the past. Using this inquiry framework, students develop historical knowledge and understanding, explore key concepts and apply essential skills as they study the societies, events, movements and developments that have shaped world history.

Why choose this series?

• Explicitly written for the Australian Curriculum, providing a fresh inquiry-based approach to support the study of history
• Skillfully integrates the two strands of historical knowledge and understanding and historical skills, helping teachers cover the curriculum in depth
• The author team is comprised of highly experienced teachers and renowned academics from across Australia who are experts in their specialty areas
• Caters for multiple learning styles and abilities without sacrificing depth and quality of content
• Includes an Historical Skills Toolkit in each textbook to provide learning strategies and tips to help students think and read like historians.
• All suggested Australian Curriculum 'depth study' electives are covered at each year level

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History for the Australian Curriculum Year 8 - Textbook

History for the Australian Curriculum - Year 8 provides opportunities for in-depth investigations from the end of the ancient period to the beginning of the modern period.

Features

• An Historical Skills Toolkit introduces each textbook and contains a range of learning strategies and tips to help students think, read and communicate like an historian
• Comprehensive chapter openers include inquiry questions, key terms, timelines and much more to focus student attention on the topic being studied and prepare them for their in-depth investigations
• Full page maps begin each chapter, identifying relevant geographical features, cities and landmarks to provide students with a geographical context for their historical studies
• Case studies with focus questions link back to key historical themes to spark student interest and add another layer to their knowledge and understanding
• A range of recommended graphic organisers are highlighted within each chapter helping students to comprehend, record and revise key ideas
• A wide range of activities help teachers engage students with different learning styles, including comprehension, written response, role-plays, analysis of primary and secondary sources, mapping of events and presenting
• Content within the activities covers cross-curricular priorities, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures, and develops general capabilities, such as literacy, numeracy, ICT, critical and creative thinking, helping teachers to create a well-rounded course
• End-of-chapter sections include summaries linked to the inquiry questions and multiple-choice, short-answer; source analysis and extended response questions

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Contents

• Historical skills toolkit
• Reading skills
• Visual literacy skills
• Writing skills
• Speaking skills
• Chapter 1: Overview, the ancient to the modern world
  • Transformation of the Roman World
  • Key features of the medieval and early modern world
  • Emergence of ideas about the world
• DEPTH STUDY 1: THE WESTERN AND ISLAMIC WORLD
• Chapter 2: The Vikings (c.790 – c.1066)
  • Way of life in Viking society
  • Significant developments and achievements
  • Conquests and relationships
  • Role of significant individuals
• Chapter 3: Medieval Europe (c.590 – c.1500)
  • Death of an empire, birth of modern Europe
  • The medieval world and Christian kings
  • Living in the medieval Christian world
  • Lives and experiences of women
• Chapter 4: The Ottoman Empire (c.1299 – c.1683)
  • Ottoman beginnings 1299–1389
  • Setbacks and recovery 1389–1444
  • Conquest of Constantinople 1444–1481
  • Height of Ottoman power 1481–1566
  • Way of life in the Ottoman Empire
  • Challenge and change 1566–1683
• Chapter 5: Renaissance Italy (c.1400 – c.1600)
  • Way of life in Renaissance Italy
  • Significant developments and achievements
  • Spread of Renaissance culture
• DEPTH STUDY 2: THE ASIA-PACIFIC WORLD
• Chapter 6: Angkor/Khmer Empire (c.802 – c.1431)
  • Angkor's rise to prominence
  • Way of life in the Khmer Empire
  • Cultural achievements
  • Decline of Angkor
• Chapter 7: Japan under the Shoguns (c.794–1867)
  • Way of life in Shogunate Japan
  • The Tokugawa era
  • The Tokugawa and the environment
  • Modernisation and Westernisation
• Chapter 8: The Polynesian expansion across the Pacific (c.700–1756)
  • Origin and spread of the Polynesians
  • Way of life in Polynesian society
  • Achievements of Polynesian societies
  • Use of environmental resources
• Chapter 9: Mongol Expansion (c.1206 – c.1368)
  • The Mongols
  • The Mongol army under Genghis Khan
  • The Mongol Empire expands
  • Mongol rule in China
  • Consequences of Mongol expansion
• Chapter 10: The Black Death in Asia, Europe and Africa
  • Life in the 14th century
  • Origins and spread of the Black Death
  • Responses to the Black Death
  • Effects of the Black Death
• Chapter 11: The Spanish Conquest of the Americas (c.1492 – c.1572)
  • Pre-Columbian life in the Americas
  • Spanish arrival in the Americas
  • The Spanish and the indigenous populations
  • Impact of the conquest
  • Longer-term effects of colonisation

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View Other Year Levels in the 'History for the Australian Curriculum' Series

Year 7
Year 9
Year 10