This course is designed to present a panorama of United States History including the key social, religious, political, and economic factors that have impacted the Western Hemisphere. The class will start with early America covering early explorers, the creation of the colonies, and the American Revolution with an emphasis on the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, the Constitution, and other historical Documents. Then we move quickly through the Early Republic, Early Expansion West, Antebellum, and the Civil War discussing the role fo change during the 19th century leaded to the Industrialization of the United States. While examining the Gilded Age, student determine the importance of the Robber Barrons to changing the face of America and then compare this changes made by the progressives. The last two sections will be Imperialism and World War I which focuses on the global connection with American History. Second semester starts with the 1920s to include the changes in American polices, values, behaviors towards drinking, African and Hispanic cultures. From there we go to the darkest time in American History referred to as the Great Depression and then jump to the most "honorable" time of World War II. The last three sections include the Early Cold War, the social/cultural movements of the 50s/60s/70s and the Vietnam War. To showcase the skills acquired throughout the semester, students will present their final project on a student selected topic focusing on the historiography of a given culture, president, or ideology.
Our exploration will involve reading, writing, discussion, group work, and projects in order to better students’ study skills and promote critical thinking. The purpose of his course is to provide students with the skills and content knowledge to increase their academic success and learn the skills needs to be competitive in either a school setting or private sector. The course’s academic emphasis is on oral language development, accelerated academic vocabulary acquisition, expository writing, and reading comprehension. Thematic units are organized to ensure that students make connections to other core content areas (science, math, social studies). This course is designed around effective reading strategies and student-centered activities that are culturally and linguistically responsive. It employs an inquiry-based process and builds student achievement through real-life applications. Students learn organizational and study skills, develop their critical thinking, learn to be resourceful, and participate in motivational enrichment activities. In addition, students will engage in research-based lessons with culminating writing projects and oral presentations. Reading, writing, listening and speaking skills will be assessed periodically using multiple measures to determine academic achievement.
My goal is to do the following throughout the semester:
(1) Teach academic language analytically in a student-centered environment
(2) Engage students in learning tasks that promote academic language in the four language domains (listening, speaking, reading and writing).
(3) Periodically assess level of academic development.
(4) Teach reading and writing systematically, using the reading and writing process.
(5) Teach reading and writing strategies and processes to accomplish a variety of intellectually challenging tasks. It is expected that students will complete extensive reading assignments. They will also respond to reading in full-length essays, as well as engaging in listening and speaking exercises (e.g. debates, literature circles, think-pair-share) that promote higher-level thinking and overall academic success.
