Mr. Kiser's 8th Grade Early US History

Welcome to 8th Grade Early American History! This year we will be focusing our 8th grade study on pre-Revolution through Reconstruction. We will be connecting history to current issues in the United States and the world! I am excited to learn with you all!

If you need to set up a meeting with me outside of class time, please do so via email: ben.kiser@jeffco.k12.co.us

All course content will be found in Google Classroom.

This year in 8th Grade we will be piloting a new curriculum through iCivics and Educating for American Democracy. See the sidebar below for more info:

About Mr. Kiser:

I am from the greatest state in the nation, yep, you guessed it, Utah! I am an avid peakbagger and have climbed 56 of Colorado's 58 14ers (as of 9/02/2023). I am also a highpointer and have been to the high point of each of Colorado's 64 counties. I also love stopping at historical sites throughout the state. I am a huge Utah State Aggies and Utah Jazz fan and love watching Utah-based teams, but I am known to root for the Avs, Rockies, and Broncos. My wife, Andrea, is a PhD candidate at CU-Boulder and we have a cat named Penelope.

Standards Based Grading:  Wayne Carle is a Standards Based Grading School. We care deeply about student success in relation to state standards as well as in developing a strong work ethic. In our efforts to ensure that the focus of grades remains on student progress toward these goals, two separate grades will be reported: Content Knowledge/Skills and Work Habits.  The Content Knowledge/Skills scale is designed to help students and families understand where students are on the learning continuum (in relation to state standards). Work Habits grades will reflect the student’s attainment of work habits and of a successful student, such as engagement, preparedness and perseverance.  

• Exceeds Standard  4-3.5 (A): Mastery of content and skills, elements of advanced thinking and reasoning are present. 

• Meets Standard 3.49-3.0 (B): Demonstration of content and skills are in line with grade level expectations. 

• Progressing toward Standard: 2.99-2.0 (C): Grade-level elements are present, continued support and practice is needed to meet grade-level standards

• Does Not yet Meet 1.99-1.0 (D): Growth is needed to meet grade-level standards, significant support or intervention is needed. 

• Insufficient Evidence: There is not yet enough evidence to determine the student’s achievement of grade level standards. 

In Standards Based Grading, not every assignment factors into the “in-progress grade” for a class.  As a result, you may notice grades being entered and percentages such as 4%, 3%, 2%, 1% showing up for the assignment.  Please ignore the percentages, and only pay attention to the score.  The content rubric is 4-A, 3-B, 2-C, 1-D.  These are the grade equivalent scores.  Once teachers enter mastery grades for their standard's categories, an In-progress grade will show in Campus.   This strategy allows teachers to gather a body of evidence that more accurately represents your student's progress on a standard.