Activities

Readings

• American Odyssey- this is our main textbook
• Don't Know Much About History - An additional text that adds critical and creative narratives to US history
• Almost America - A collection of counterfactual histories
• Taking Sides - Essays on debatable historical topics

Multimedia

• "Crash Course"- John Green's engaging videos that contextualize topics within respective eras
• Google Slides Presentations- Teacher and student created presentations
• "Oversimplified"- Youtube series that provides brief/ comical overviews of historical conflicts
• "Drunk History"- Comical videos poking fun at historical events

Interactive/Collaborative Work

• Take-a-Stand Debates: Corner-to-corner debates in which students move around them room based on what they believe. Topics- involvement in wars, ethical dilemmas, internment of citizens, etc.
• Socratic Seminars: Student-centered, text-driven discussions about various topics. Topics- consumerism, effects of industrial farming, human capacity for evil, etc.
• Daily Focus Questions- Bellwork writing and discussions about: current events, politics in the past and present, etc.
• Various text assignments- Think, Pair, Share readings, worksheets, headings-to-questions, highlighting quests, and other active reading strategies.
• Jigsaws-students serve as "resident experts"-- they are assigned a portion of a text to read, process, and present to their classmates.
• British Parliamentary Debate- Two teams prepare cases based off of provided resources. The cases are created and presented in a 4-on-4 debate.

Independent Work

• Family Immigration Interview- Students must interview a family member--preferably the family member closest to the time when the family immigrated to the US-- and ask the 6 questions on the worksheet as well as 3-4 questions they create.
• Great Depression Lyrical Assignment- Students pick a song that they feel embodies the feelings/ attitudes of the present day and retrieve the lyrics online. They analyze the song and compare/contrast the song to the songs that we listened to in class.
• Cold War Unit Project: Students are asked to create essays, interactive presentations, and annotated bibliographies on topics of their choosing. The project requires students to apply and practice the skills of historians, as they: Conduct meaningful independent research, scrutinize various resources and evaluate them for credibility, bias, relevance, etc., argue a coherent thesis and support/ challenge claims with appropriate evidence, and present their arguments to their classmates.

Writing

• Daily Focus Questions- Bellwork questions that begin most classes.
• Short-answer essays
• Civil Rights Letter to the President- Students are to write a formal business letter to the President of the United States. The purpose of this assignment is to demonstrate understanding of past/ present civil rights and advocate for change.

Social Emotional Growth

Classroom activities intentionally focus on students' social-emotional development in addition to academic skills. Any liberal arts education ought to embed opportunities in the curriculum for students to practice the skills and understandings necessary to communicate, collaborate, and otherwise interact with their peers. Students will often work in pairs and groups to accomplish a shared goal, and throughout the class will be asked to present their interpretive arguments to the class. For instance, students will debate, discuss, research, and interpret contentious historical topics and will be identifying areas of group consensus as well as disagreement. Topics history are often controversial and can be emotional, and developing the maturation to handle these issues in a civil academic atmosphere remains the major area of social and emotional development related to this subject. All topics that students confront with great depth and complexity will render possibilities to develop values, social-emotional awareness, and understandings; this course both creates and capitalizes on teachable moments.