Modern History West

Modern History West Course Syllabus

• Overview, Units of Study

• Body of Evidence v Prep and Practice Assessments

• Try Again and Late Work Policies

• Standards and Grading Weights

• Academic Honesty

• Cell Phones

Overview:

Students in this college prep level course will study the development of democracy from its roots in the ancient world to its development in the United States. Units covered will include Ancient Greece and Rome, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and Enlightenment, the American and French Revolutions, and the growth of democracy in the United States. The course will utilize a variety of instructional methods, including lecture, small group work, projects, essays, debates, current events, and research assignments. Emphasis will be placed on helping students develop analytical skills for understanding primary and secondary source documents and data sets and communicating their interpretation of the materials. Students should expect assignments outside of class several times a week. Assessment methods will include quizzes, tests, class discussions, essays, projects and debates.

Students find assignments and instructions in the Schoology platform.  Work is submitted through Schoology and teacher feedback is documented there. An agenda is also available through the teacher Google Site, which is particularly useful if a student must be absent from school.

Body of Evidence v Prep and Practice Assessments

Two broad categories of assessments exist: Body of Evidence and Prep and Practice.

Body of Evidence assessments include formal tasks such as document based questions, quizzes, tests, papers and projects.  Scores on these assessments comprise the semester grade. Prep and practice assessments include homework, daily tasks and group work. This work is checked and students receive feedback. It is not formally assessed or calculated into the course grade, but its completion is significant in terms of student success.

Prep and Practice and the "Try Again" Process

While Prep and Practice work is not graded per se, it provides essential learning and practice and must be completed for a student to participate in the “Try Again” process for Body of Evidence assignments.

Students may try again

• with a student-initiated teacher conference 

• for on-time Body of Evidence assessments 

“Try again” may occur  through later opportunities to meet standards rather than through reworking past assessments. Work that is turned in late is considered to have been “revised” and may not be resubmitted. Work may be rescored one time.

Late Work Policy:

Students have two days for every day of an excused absence to complete missing work on time. Body of Evidence assessments are accepted for two weeks after the due date, but late work cannot be revised. An exception is made if, before the due date, the student initiates, negotiates, and fulfills an extension with a clear timeline for completion.

Prep and practice work is available to complete for the duration of a unit. If a student wants the record-keeping of the missing/incomplete work to be changed they must email/meet with the teacher with a request to record the changes in Schoology.

Standards and Grading Weights:

The student's grade is an average of the Body of Evidence assignments, which are aligned to the following standards:

• Communication/Collaboration 

             We use technology responsibly and develop active listening and reflective

             skills.  We present information and supporting evidence that is appropriate to                 purpose, audience, and task, while respecting deadlines and speaking and writing

             conventions and participating in the feedback and editing process. 

• Historical Reasoning 

Practices include a concern for the significance and authenticity of information, the consideration of continuity and change, the processing of primary documents, the investigation of causality, the comparison of experiences and systems, and the contextualization of past actors, their stories and the biases that the modern world imposes on the past.

• Critical Thinking 

Students interpret texts, maps, charts, timelines and other content area data sets accurately and can summarize, compare, organize, explain, support, defend and apply their findings to real world questions and issues. 

Academic Honesty:

Academic integrity is essential for a successful learning environment. Teachers must be able to trust the authenticity of a student’s work, and students deserve feedback on their authentic work in order to grow academically. Plagiarism undermines this trust and is subject to serious penalties, including a zero on the assignment, parental notification, and possible disciplinary action by the vice principal. The intent of the student does not mitigate the responsibility to uphold academic integrity. When in doubt, students should seek clarification from their teacher.

Students must not:

• Use the work of others without proper attribution, including quotations, ideas, images, data, music, video, and visual arts.

• Collaborate with other students on assignments without explicit permission.

• Submit assignments written for other classes, purchased from essay services, or authored by another person.

• Use artificial intelligence tools, such as ChatGPT or Grammarly Premium, in their assignments.

• For typed assignments, students must use the files provided by the teacher via Schoology. Any content copied and pasted from external documents will be considered cheating.

Students and families are expected to complete a contract acknowledging these expectations.

Cell Phones:

Cell phone use is not permitted during class

• Consistent with the MDIHS school protocol, phones should be off and in bags during class time unless the teacher allows them. Students should not remove them from their bags at any point during class, including to bring to the restroom. Phones that are out during class time will be held by the teacher until the end of class. Second offenses will result in phones being sent to Mr. Braun until the end of the day. Repeat offenses will be treated with disciplinary action. 

• PLEASE call the front office to contact your child; do not call or text your student during school hours.