The Curriculum of the Steiner School - Class 8

Notes and Lesson Plans

Age of Revolution
updated April 14, 2020


Recorded here is my own personal collection of articles, resources, favorite links, teaching ideas, and lesson plans. It encompasses many years, from the very beginning of my experience studying and learning about Waldorf to the present time. People from all around the world visit my site and recommend it to others. Welcome!

This site records my journey. I hope my honesty is encouraging and helps break down some barriers that may prevent people from trying Waldorf methods. Because this is an ongoing site documenting my curriculum planning and ideas, some materials are more Waldorf-y than others. Please feel free to take what you like and leave the rest.

This page has helpful links and LOADS of free resources to help you plan your eighth grade year. Enjoy!



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Age of Revolution
for Class 8



Pinterest - Renee Schwartz
My curated collection of visuals! Browse sample main lesson book pages, watercolor paintings, chalkboard drawings, etc. for Age of Revolution.


FREE eBooks at the Online Waldorf Library
Excellent resource! Published Waldorf curriculum books provided here in PDF format for you to download, keep, and read... for free!


Sample Lessons and Free Curriculum

Live Education curriculum samples:


Other Helpful Resources

BLACKBOARD SKETCHING book by FREDERICK WHITNEY (1908)
available online for free - with step by step directions and illustrations


European Royal Family Tree Poster

Teaching History through Biography in Grade 8
article by the San Francisco Waldorf Grade School

This Country of Ours: The Story of the United States by Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall (1876-1941)
New York: George H. Doran Company, 1917.

Carrie at The Parenting Passageway also recommend the Mexican Revolution for this block.

Latin American Revolutions Map Activity - FREE on TpT

Great historical fiction choices for the American Revolution
my blog post of Becca's book list

Great historical fiction choices for the Industrial Revolution:


Books to Buy

I'm preparing to teach this block with my eighth grade mostly-unschooling daughter. (She's doing a ton of cool things including private lessons in yoga, art, machine sewing, and Spanish. She's also volunteering in the community, taking an Italy cultural studies class, and spending time working on a farm each week. BUT I'm making sure she does her math as well as this one main lesson block.)

So far I'm at the point of reading Charles Kovacs' The Age of Revolution and looking for related activities to explore the chapters further. If you don't feel like he pays enough attention to the American Revolution, Steve Sheinkin's King George, What Was His Problem? is great!

I also highly recommend, for the mighty task of bringing students up to the present day, Linda Rice's What Was It Like: Teaching History and Culture through Young Adult Literature. It is a fantastic resource for multi-faceted literature studies throughout the year.


The Age of Revolution


King George, What Was His Problem?


What Was It Like: Teaching History and Culture through Young Adult Literature



NEW INSIGHT on Charles Kovacs' The Age of Revolution:

This book is VERY slow. We only made it through Part I. It would be 3 main lesson blocks if you did every chapter. Although I made some notes on resources that might tie in with future chapters, we ended up finishing her History in another way (her American History Booklist). Now I'm working on a deeper book study of Steve Sheinkin's King George, What Was His Problem? as a main lesson.


The Age of Revolution
by Charles Kovacs

Table of Contents

Part I: Rebellions

    1. Spain and Holland
    2. The Dutch Rebellion
    3. The Siege of Leyden

      Becca combined chapters 1-3 into a two-page spread about the Dutch Rebellion


    4. The Divine Rights of Kings


    5. Charles I

      Becca combined chapters 4-5 into a two-page spread about James I and Charles I


    6. Cromwell and the Civil War
    7. The Execution of Charles
    8. England and Scotland
    9. The Lord Protector

      Becca combined chapters 6-9 into a two-page spread about Cromwell
      listing his positive and negative qualities (6 positives, 8 negatives)


    10. The Restoration
    11. The Merry Monarch

      Becca combined chapters 10-11 into a two-page spread about Charles II
      listing his positive and negative qualities (1 positive, 8 negatives)


    12. The Plague and the Great Fire


    13. The Glorious Revolution

      Becca gave chapter 13 its own two-page spread


    14. Union of 1707
    15. The Jacobite Rebellion


    16. Past and Future: Russia and Germany


Part II: The French Revolution

    17. The Huguenots
    18. Le Roi Soleil
    19. Versailles
    20. Banking
    21. Louis XV and Frederick the Great
    22. The Count of Saint Germain
    23. Rousseau, Voltaire, and the Aristocrats
    24. The American War of Independence

    25. Louis XVI. The Three Estates
    26. Liberty - Equality - Fraternity
    27. The Tuileries
    28. Danton, Robespierre and Marat
    29. The Reign of Terror
    30. Napoleon
    31. Egypt
    32. Emperor Napoleon and Trafalgar
    33. Austerlitz. Wellington. Russia 1812
    34. Elba. Waterloo


Part III: The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

    35. The Threefold State
    36. The Beginning of the Industrial Revolution
    37. The Arrival of Steam Power
    38. The Locomotive
    39. The Proletarians

      new 2019 Massachusetts quarters - Lowell


    40. Liberty and Economics
    41. Robert Owen
    42. The Workers' Struggle
    43. Robert Clive
    44. Garibaldi: the Early Years
    45. Garibaldi and the Unification of Italy
    46. Henri Dunant
    47. Abraham Lincoln

    48. Tsar Alexander II
    49. Bismarck
    50. The Turn of the Century
    51. The First World War

    52. The Rise of Nationalism
    53. The Second World War
    54. Prospects



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