Nelson History Essentials 2 is a text written to meet the curriculum requirements of the Victorian Essential Learning Standards in the Humanities domain specifically.
The student text offers the explicit teaching of History, with specialised Civics and Citizenship spreads incorporated into the chapters. The texts also incorporate the Interdisciplinary and Physical, Personal and Social strands from VELS, facilitating the practice of new skills and new ways of viewing the world in the discipline-based learning of History. A Domain Wheel alongside each set of activities highlights how different domains are integrated into the activities.
Through extensive research, the student text features the most popular topics taught in History for Level 5 of the VELS.
Chapter 1: What is history?
1.1 The world of the middle ages
1.2 The work of historians
1.3 What is archaeology?
Chapter review
Chapter 2: Medieval England: People and power
2.1 1066: The battle for Medieval England
2.2 1066: Separating facts and opinions
2.3 Crime and punishment
2.4 Civics and citizenship: The Magna Carta
2.5 Civics and citizenship: Protest and change
2.6 Keeping control
2.7 Knights and ladies
Chapter review
Rich task: Profile and presentation
Chapter 3: Everyday life in medieval England
3.1 Beds and belongings
3.2 The castle as a home
3.3 The village
3.4 The town
3.5 Children
3.6 Pleasures and plague
3.7 Beyond the plague
Chapter review
Rich task: A mini-series character profile
Chapter 4: Medieval Europe
4.1 Christianity in Europe
4.2 Charlemagne
4.3 Crusades
4.4 The crusaders experience
4.5 The crusades: impacts and outcomes
4.6 Civics and citizenship: Medieval European towns
4.7 Black Death
Chapter review
Rich task: An illuminated manuscript
Chapter 5: The golden age of Islam
5.1 The spread of Islams Golden Age
5.2 What is Islam?
5.3 Life in a Medieval Muslim society
5.4 Civics and citizenship: Islamic towns
5.5 Seek Knowledge from the cradle to the grave
5.6 Salah ud-Din Yusef In Ayyub
5.7 Architecture and arts
Chapter review
Rich task
Chapter 6: Medieval Japan
6.1 Land of the Rising Sun
6.2 Powerful Princes and Shogun
6.3 Getting to know Yoritomo
6.4 Everyday life for the peasants
6.5 The life of a samurai
6.6 Peace and harmony
6.7 Invasion of the Mongols: Medieval Japanese warfare
6.8 After the Mongol invasions
Chapter review
Rish task: Building a website
Chapter 7: The age of exploration
7.1 European knowledge of the world
7.2 Admiral Zheng He
7. 3 European Voyages: The Indian Ocean
7.4 Across the Atlantic: The Americas
7.5 Circumnavigating the globe
7.6 Early colonies
Chapter review
Rich Task: Research report
John Cantwell is Deputy Head of Senior School at Haileybury College. He is a very experienced and well respected author whos been an active participant in the history community for more than two decades, authoring and contributing to a range of student books from Junior to Senior level. John has also authored various publications for history associations around Australia and has been an active presence at history conferences and in teacher professional development for many years. Maryellen Davidson has worked developing history curriculum in Victoria for P10 and the VCE for many years. She is a former Vice President of the HTAV Board, has written a text on Australias Federation, and was a consultant on the Nelson History Essentials and Nelson Geography Essentials series. Sarah Mirams has taught history in secondary and tertiary settings, worked as an education officer for cultural and heritage institutions, and has contributed to numerous textbooks for secondary students. Sarah is the author of Nelsons successful Twentieth Century History 19001945 for VCE Unit 1 and Twentieth Century History 19452000 for VCE Unit 2. She is also the author of Nelson Modern History titles, Civil Rights in the United States of America and co-author of Australia 1918-1950s, to be released next year. Sarah now works as an independent historian. Annabel Astbury is the Head of Digital Education at ABC Innovation, managing projects for the Australian Curriculum website Splash. She taught History for many years and served as the Executive Officer of the History Teachers Association of Victoria. Agatha Fedrizzi is an experienced History teacher, having taught in both Catholic and government secondary schools. She is a former President of the HTAV. Patricia Hincks is the Curriculum Manager of Humanities for the Victorian Curriculum Assessment Authority (VCAA). She has worked on a range of national projects in Civics and Citizenship, History, and Values Education. She has been a contributing writer to a number of school publications in History, Values Education and Civics and Citizenship.
