8th Grade American History 2012 – 2013
TOPICS:
U. S. Geography, Newspapers/Election, Colonization, Revolution, Constitution/Government, U. S. Expansion, and the U. S. Civil War.
DAILY UNIT STRUCTURE:
This year the American History learning will be presented in the “Layered Curriculum” format as developed by *Kathy Nunley. The layered curriculum approach allows for meeting students at their varied learning and working styles as well as their individual pace to bring them forward. Students are given some choice in assignments to accomplish each units learning goals which encourages higher levels of thinking and holds the learner more accountable for their learning. A more detailed explanation of how this works in my classroom can be found on the back of this sheet.
Each unit will include: required classwork and homework as well as choice classwork and homework, assessments in the form of tests, quizzes, visual demonstrations and oral defense.
LONG TERM PROJECTS:
There may be one long term project per semester that will include the reading of a Historical Fiction, age appropriate novel.
The topics of the novels will be: American Revolution, U. S. 1790 – 1859, and the Civil War.
ASSIGNMENT POLICY:
Assignments should represent the student's own work and be completed in a timely manner. 8th grade is a time when students need to begin to move beyond doing an assignment just to get it done. Now they must know the material covered on each assignments and retain it at a level that it can be discussed or recalled by the student with the teacher on a daily basis. (oral defense)
Daily planners should reflect topics to be covered each day and any homework assignments. Planners, Ipad folders and notebooks will be a portion of each trimesters grade.
MATERIALS NEEDED:
1 very sturdy pocket folder
headphones
blue felt tip pens, black felt tip pens, multi colored markers and colored pencils