Social Science Course Descriptions

U.S. History to 1865

Course Code 710000 (Grade Level); 710200 (Honors)

Why do people start a whole new country? How do they do that? Once a country gets started, how do you keep it from falling apart? These are three key questions students learn to answer as they study the first part of American history. As they learn about the birth of our country, and its “rebirth” during the Civil War, students will develop the ability to:

•  Read text for content information

•  Read and compare primary sources

•  Read for the “point of view” of a document

•  Understand cause-effect relationships

•  Think critically

•  Understand diverse cultural backgrounds

•  Write with structure and purpose

•  Participate in class discussion

•  Develop their memory for, and appropriate usage of, Social Science vocabulary

•  Apply geographical terms and concepts

•  Interpret famous historical speeches

As students build skills in the areas listed above, they develop regular, independent thinking habits in U.S. History. This means they will become “historical thinkers”!

U.S. History, 1865 to Present

Course Code 720000 (Grade Level); 720200 (Honors)

Today you can send a text message to a friend in California in the amount of time it takes to turn on a light switch. If your great-grandparents wanted to send a written message to their friends in California when they were teenagers, it would have taken days for the mail train to deliver a paper letter. How has our country changed so much since the days of your great-grandparents? In this course students will learn how the United States changed from a farming economy in 1865 to a highly technical information society in 2018. As students learn about the transformation of our country from the Industrial Age to the “Information Age,” they will strengthen their abilities to:

• Read text for content information

• Read and compare primary sources

• Read for “point of view” of a document

• Understand cause-effect relationships

• Think critically

• Understand diverse cultural backgrounds

• Participate in class discussion

• Develop their memory for and appropriate usage of Social Science vocabulary

• Apply geographical terms and concepts

• Interpret famous historical speeches

As students build skills in the areas listed above, they will develop regular, independent thinking habits in U.S. History. This means they will become “historical thinkers”!

Civics and Economics

Course Code 730000 (Grade Level); 730200 (Honors)

SOL Test What rights do you have here in the United States? What rights do you have as a student? In this course, students will discover what they can do as a resident of our country, and what our country relies on them to do as they grow into adulthood. Students will also learn answers to economic questions, such as “Why does a new X-Box system go down in price as time passes?” As students learn about the important questions in their lives as residents and consumers in the United States, they will develop their abilities to:

• Read text for content information

• Read and compare primary sources

• Read for the “point of view” of a document and differentiate fact from opinion

• Understand cause-effect relationships and identify potential solutions to problems

• Think critically

• Understand diverse cultural backgrounds

• Write with structure and purpose

• Participate in class discussion

• Develop their memory for, and appropriate usage of, Social Science vocabulary

• Apply knowledge of geography to economic or political maps

• Interpret charts, graphs, political cartoons and maps

As students work to make the skills above part of their regular performance in Civics and Economics, they will be building their abilities to be active members of their community and smarter consumers in our economy!