8th Social Studies - Early US History
Contact Information
Email: kara.bethea@jeffco.k12.co.us
Phone: (303) 982-9070 Ext. 56509
Room #: 102j
Email is the best option to contact me and I will do my best to respond to non-urgent emails within 48 hours. I will pick up the phone if it is after the school day, 3:30-4 pm and return any voicemails as quickly as I can, as needed.
Kara Bethea
About me
Hello wonderful Wayne Carle community! This is my 7th year teaching social studies and I couldn't be happier to be joining such a wonderful team of learners and educators.
I am originally from the state of Idaho but have called Colorado my home for the last 13 years. I graduated from CU Boulder and am happy to say I am nearly done with a Masters degree from the University of Northern Colorado in Technology, Innovation and Pedagogy. One more class this fall and done!
My husband, Andrew and son, Liam (4th grade) enjoy spending our time together biking, hiking, SUP'ing, walking our pups (Lucy and Josie) and cooking. Recently, I have grown an obsession with plants and have over 50 in my house now! Favorite plant right now is probably my Monstera. Ask me about their names...yes, I named them all.
I strive to create a classroom where every student feels valued and where they have choice and voice in what they do. Together we will build a community of learners that are curious every day, take risks, embrace failure as a learning moment and have fun along the way! Obviously, every day is not always our best but I hope that students feel they can communicate that to me so that I can provide grace and a safe space. It is not about being perfect but about growth and the process of becoming a more confident version of ourselves.
Google Classroom
Below you will find links to each period's Google classroom invite. I will give each student time to get into Google Classroom the first week, so no need to click on the links below, before then.
ADVISEMENT: https://classroom.google.com/c/NDk3NTQzNTA5MjYz?cjc=mromnas
Period 2: https://classroom.google.com/c/NTA5MDAyODgwODM3?cjc=3spbtcs
Period 3:https://classroom.google.com/c/NTgwMDI3NjQzMDU0?cjc=5ovi5ce
Period 4: https://classroom.google.com/c/NTA5MDAzMTMwOTYw?cjc=cuuq2dg
Period 6: https://classroom.google.com/c/NTA5MDAzMDYzOTIx?cjc=x27w4x7
Period 7: https://classroom.google.com/c/NTA5MDAzMDIwNDI3?cjc=fr2t4gs
About the Class
8th Grade U.S. History
What our classroom will look like this year….
As a teacher-leader in the district, I’m excited to be part of the iCivics EAD Teacher Fellowship, working with five other teachers in our district, the district social studies team, and local historians and community experts to build and implement high-quality curriculum inspired by the Roadmap to Educating for American Democracy (EAD)—and learning from students in the process. I bet you’re wondering, “What does this look like for my child?”
Your child will be at the center: We designed this curriculum that includes opportunities for your child to be a leader in their own learning and practice skills that are important to success in school and beyond, including leadership, communication, and literacy. We will also be enlisting local historians and community experts to connect the content to our community and make learning relevant to your child.
Your child will dive deep into U.S. History: We will explore U.S. History from colonialism to pre-industrialization by diving deep into primary and secondary resources. We will also exercise skills like text analysis, independent thinking, and analysis of multiple perspectives and ideas to draw one’s own conclusions based on evidence, all while aligning to our state’s social studies standards.
Your child will be able to share their learning in creative and authentic ways: Through project-based learning, students will be documentarians, artists, panelists, poets, and oral historians. Stay tuned for more information on how you can support their projects!
Your child will be a student-leader in the nation: Through surveys and focus groups with iCivics, your child will help inform social studies teachers in our district and across the country about what kids need in order to engage deeply around civics and history. Soon, I’ll be sharing more information about what we’ll use, along with parent consent and student assent forms!
Unit Compelling Questions
This year, our inquiry-rich curriculum is divided into units, each of which will be driven by a complex, open-ended question—what we refer to as compelling questions.
Students will read primary and secondary sources, engage in rich discussions, and reach their own conclusions about the following compelling questions, using evidence from the unit.
Unit 1: What happens when worlds collide?
Unit 2: What is a revolution?
Unit 3: What do Americans expect from their government?
Unit 4: What problems did the new Constitution attempt to solve, and did it succeed?
Unit 5: What caused the borders of the early United States to change?
Unit 6: How did Americans manage change in the Antebellum Era?
Unit 7: How did the Civil War change the United States?
Unit 8: Can you have freedom without equality?
Unit 9: How do we define and measure progress?
Standards Based Grading and Tips For Success
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.
What to bring to class:
Notebook with lined paper, dividers and pockets to store papers given out.
CHARGED Chromebook - we will use this EVERY DAY.
Headphones - we use these a lot in my class. If you forget yours I might have some available to use but it is BEST if you have your own.
Pens, pencils, colored pencils and hi-lighters.
A positive attitude - if something is going on and you are not having a good day, that is okay. All I ask is that you let Ms. Bethea know and not bring the class down with you.
Late Work
Late work from one unit will only be accepted if we are still within the same unit (unless there is another agreed upon circumstance, which some may have). If you have work that was from a previous unit and we have moved on, it will no longer be accepted. This is to ensure that the feedback from me is timely, relevant and useful to both me, the teacher and the student. Assessments (any assignment or test that is scored) can be retaken during Advisement on Thursdays or at an agreed upon time with Ms. Bethea to receive a better grade.
Absent?
It is the students responsibility to figure out what is missed each day they are not in class. You will have an extra day for each day you are absent to make up the work. How do you know what is missed? You can follow along by opening up our Daily Slides from Google Classroom. There, you will know what we are doing each day, including directions and any links you may need. Be sure to check for any assigned work on Google Classroom as well. If we happen to use a paper copy of an assignment for the day and it is not posted on Google Classroom, you may grab the paper once you are back from the hanging files underneath the big window in the classroom. THIS IS THE STUDENTS RESPONSIBILITY. I will do my best to remind students who are absent, but with 150+ students it is not easy to ensure I get to everyone who was absent.
If you know when you will be absent, you may check in with Ms. Bethea for what we will be doing - but often the work will be posted on Google Classroom so I may not give you anything physically to take with you.
**A note about Daily Warm Ups while you are absent. You should at least read them to see what I want you to think through or focus on. Then, you have two options: you may either type in "Absent" for the warm up OR answer the warm up. Some people are absent multiple days so there may be a warm up they cannot answer. Regardless, at least let me know and DO NOT LEAVE IT BLANK. Warm ups are assessed and go into consideration for content and Work Habits scores.
Help
If you are struggling with your social studies class I encourage you to reach out to me, Ms. Bethea, immediately. We can discuss where there are issues and come up with a plan together for how to get back on track. If a student is struggling to understand the content - I am available on an agreed upon day after school for 30 minutes. Students will be able to make up work, get help or retake assessments in their Advisement classes during a teacher, designated time.
I also encourage staying up-to-date on current events, speaking about them with your parents/guardians, neighbors, grandparents or older siblings. The more you use the vocabulary of social studies, the stronger you will become in it. For 8th grade, Crash Course US History with John Green is recommended if you need some prior or post knowledge of US History/Civics. He does speak quite fast, I would recommend slowing it down in the video speed settings. There are also newer videos from Crash Course in U.S. Government and Politics that dive into deeper topics for the class, and the speed is better, so check anything out that interests you. BE CURIOUS, ALWAYS!