Why Choose Living History Weavings?

• Cultivates students’ awareness of God’s global kingdom with stories of Christians who have lived out the love of Jesus around the world.

• Encourages student engagement through multiple teaching methods, including extensive use of pictures and stories.

• Develops strong history skills such as cause-and-effect analysis, map reading, and analysis of primary sources.

• Supports teachers with well-developed lesson plans and rich background information.

Living History Weavings: Methods

Living History Weavings utilizes a variety of instructional strategies to make meaningful learning a reality for all students. For the teacher, the Teacher’s Guide provides detailed instructions for each lesson. The student experience is anchored in the Student Portfolio, where students take notes, complete study exercises, and interact with texts, maps, and pictures. Learning activities fit into the following three categories:

• Direct instruction: Content is presented by the teacher, either through lectures supported by the provided PowerPoints or through reading a book aloud. Students are guided in developing discussion and note-taking skills as they interact with the content.

• Exploration: Students spend significant time studying information-rich maps in student atlases, building their knowledge about geography, climate, demographics, and more. Weavings also prioritizes interaction with primary sources, guiding students in asking appropriate questions to glean knowledge from historical documents, pictures, and artifacts. In addition, most units include one or more student texts that serve as the touchstone for learning activities in multiple lessons.

• Unit project: Integrative projects extend and deepen students’ engagement with each unit. In some units, students will work on the project throughout the unit – examples include a “travel journal” in a survey unit and a picture book in a biography unit. In other units, students will spend several days working on research and production of a project chosen from multiple options – perhaps an ethnic meal, informative poster, creative writing project, or oral presentation.

All units except biographies include two tests for assessment. Along with the tests, we recommend grading the unit project and occasional portfolio pages for a complete assessment of student learning.

Living History Weavings: Vision

A well-designed study of history and cultures is a powerful tool in raising young people who love God supremely and love their neighbors through effective service. Living History Weavings seeks to encourage and equip students for loving service through its focus on non-Western regions of the world and in the variety of teaching methods it employs. These unique features are oriented toward the development of the values and skills we hope to see in our students as they interact with the realities of our world.

The Realities

• More people live in the non-Western world than in the Western world. These people have had and will continue to have a significant influence on the story of the world and the church.

• In an increasingly interconnected world, our students will likely develop cross-cultural relationships in their neighborhoods and around the world through travel, business, and missions. Knowledge of others will help them overcome cultural barriers.

• Many unreached people groups live in the regions explored in Weavings. Thus, studying these areas is strategically significant for the advance of God’s kingdom.

The Values and Skills

• We seek to develop students who see their citizenship in God’s kingdom as primary before their citizenship in an earthly nation.

• We seek to grow students who model Christlike character through awareness of and compassion for people and their needs.

• We seek to train students to view themselves as participants in the fulfillment of the Great Commission, advancing the growth of God’s kingdom around the globe.

• We seek to equip students with skills in historical investigation, analysis, and understanding so they can exercise discernment in a world filled with conflicting voices.