Honors U.S. History
HONORS AMERICAN HISTORY
This course is an overview of American history, beginning with the Reconstruction era and moving up to the present day, with an emphasis on social history. Students will learn how to examine primary source documents and artifacts from a scholarly perspective, while understanding how these sources fit into the social, political, and economic climate of their own historical era. We will pay particular attention to the role bias, point-of-view, and author’s purpose played in the construction of these sources. Using this approach we will examine our own era, and analyze how our social, cultural, and religious beliefs affect our view of the world.
Text/s:
Don’t Know Much About History by Kenneth Davis
America: Pathways to the Present Prentice-Hall textbook & supplemental materials
Editorials, political cartoons, and articles from various sources, including periodicals. For a more detailed list of additional curricular materials, see my Fact Sheet.
Grading System: Grades will be awarded on a numerical basis, based on the total point value of an assignment, exam, or project. SMA uses Sarasota County’s grading scale, as follows:
A = 90 to 100 points
B = 80 to 89 points
C = 70 to 79 points
D = 60 to 69 points
F = 59 points and below
My extra credit policies can be found on my webpage on the SMA website. Extra credit is a reward, and not a rescue. Students who do not do their assigned work during the school year will not be permitted to earn extra credit points in order to pass the course.
Employability Points: SMA follows Sarasota County’s employability points system, in which a student’s behavior in class, including preparation for learning (completing/handing in assignments and readings on time, bringing needed learning materials to class daily, keeping an assignment notebook, etc.) and in-class behaviors (staying on task, staying AWAKE, taking notes, refraining from chatting, eating, gum-chewing and other distracting behaviors, and following the SMA Cadet Code of Conduct) account for 20% of a student’s final grade. Students receive a verbal warning for the first infraction, and then the SMA handbook’s procedures are followed (a student-teacher conference; parental contact; a written referral and administrative discipline, depending on the severity and frequency of the undesirable behavior).
Class
Work/Homework/Exams/Projects: COMPLETING READING
ASSIGNMENTS ON TIME IS VITAL TO PASSING THIS COURSE. Some items will
require memorization (the Bill of Rights and excerpts from various
primary documents, and the use of a first letter mnemonic aid is
permitted), but in general rote memorization will not play a major role
in grading students’ achievements. Rather than a traditional research
paper, hands-on projects of various kinds will be assigned. Major
projects will be posted on my webpage, along with due dates.
Extra
Help: Students at this level must be
responsible for their own learning, which means they must be able to ask
for help when they need it. I am available after school almost
every day. Whether the help needed is in reading comprehension, source
analysis, concrete help on a project, or with memorization, my job is to
give students the help they need, BUT I can only do this if students let
me know when they need this help.
Parent
Conferences and Contact: The surest way to contact
me is via email:
rachel_wasserman@sarasota.k12.fl.us
. I can also usually be reached every day during my planning period,
from 7:50 to 8:40 a.m. and after school from 2 to 2:30 at the school’s
phone number (941–926–1700). I am available for face-to-face
conferences either during my planning period or from 2 to 2:30, with at
least 24 hours prior notice. I believe strongly, however, that all
parent-teacher conferences should include the student!
Links
FDOE
AMERICAN HISTORY
STANDARDS
americanhistory.about.com
/library
historyplace.com/
unitedstates/revolution
historyplace.com/
unitedstates/revolution
/rev-nation