Oh, the Places We Will Go...: With Social Studies, there are many paths that lead up the mountain. While there is no "right path," it is important to order courses in a way that has a purposeful skill progression. Global Academic Productions has set the following pathway to purposefully move students from the trailhead at the beginning of their social studies journey ​to college-crossroads where students transition to Community College or University courses.

NOTE: This path is not set in stone. The following information contains proposals and plans. If your state or situation requires a different path, the courses can be taken in the order that best suits your family. Most colleges require a World History, an American History, and US Government/Civics. Some require Economics while others require a Geography.

Stages of Progression

• The Trailhead: ​

  • This is where the journey begins. This is aimed at students who are just starting out on their formal social studies path. The focus is on building broad thematic conceptual frameworks; creating a "structural" understanding of the world.​

  • Students work on building the skills they will need for the journey: note taking, critical thinking, critical listening, text analysis, making connections between texts, and building test-taking skills (not the focus of the courses, but still good to have to be college-ready).

  • Assignments are shorter in length, but built for a strategic purpose. These questions are built to encourage Bloom's higher order thinking and making meaningful connections. The assignments also focus on students supporting conclusions with evidence, along with building "beginning research" skills.

• The Ascent: 

  • To improve is to change, to perfect is to change often. These courses encourage students to grow. There is an increase in page length, an increase in lexile reading difficulty. The events have a greater depth and complexity; spending more time on a focused period of history.​

  • The assignments introduce more primary source material. Students work on the SOAPStone analysis, to be able to dissect and contextualize texts.

    • SOAPStone: Speaker, Occasion, Audience, Purpose, Subject, Tone​

  • Writing assignments increase in complexity. Students build on their ability to express cause and effect relationships, understanding and articulating trends in the evidence, etc. This includes introducing more formal research methods and techniques. ​

• The Peak:

  • These courses build upon the previous foundation, preparing students to enter the college setting. Reading length and difficulty increases. Concepts become increasingly theoretical and abstract, requiring greater intellectual imagination. ​

  • Work assignments increase in length and complexity. These include longer primary sources, professional documents, and data analysis. Students have more opportunities to develop and hone their research skills.

• Crossroads​

  • Students now determine their next path forward: Community College/Dual Enrollment? University? Career opportunities? No matter which path they choose, they will have the skills needed to achieve success.​

Progression Plans
*Note: Every state's requirements are different. So too, every college has different requirements for homeschool admissions. It is important to become familiar with what local colleges require, to know what type of work your child will need to produce to be ready for college admissions. GAPro is willing to work with families who have specific portfolio piece needs, if the course work does not perfectly line up with your college admissions requirements. ​​​