Social Studies

Graduation Requirement: World History

The World History course focuses on developing students' understanding or world events from the 15th century to the present. The course investigates significant events, processes, and individuals that have shaped the world in which we live. The World History course revolves around the themes of gender equality, justice and the development and protection of individual rights and liberties, the reduction of inequality, and the protection of the environment from human exploitation. Students will develop skills in critical thinking and argumentation, the ability to analyze primary and secondary historical sources, an understanding of cause and effect in a historical context, and in recognizing changes and continuity over time. In building these skills students explore various geographical regions including the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. The course delves into European colonization of the Americas, the trans-Atlantic slave trade and its legacy, revolutions of Latin America, the Industrial Revolution, imperialism and decolonization in Africa, World War I, the rise of fascism, World War II and the Holocaust, and the impact of climate change.

Prerequisite: ELPA Level 2 or 3

Graduation Requirement: World History and Geography

English Language Learner (ELL) courses are designed for the acquisition and rapid mastery of the English language, focusing on reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills. This course includes cultural interactions, colonization, resistance, and world political systems and current events. Students apply research and computer technology skills to complete a CBA research project.

Graduation Requirement: World History; Elective

Human Geography focuses on content that is presented thematically rather than regionally and is organized around the discipline’s main subfields: economic geography, cultural geography, political geography, and urban geography. The approach is spatial and problem oriented. Case studies will be used throughout the year and will be drawn from all world regions, with an emphasis on understanding the world in which we live today. Historical information serves to enrich analysis of the impacts of phenomena such as globalization, colonialism, and human-environment relationships on places, regions, cultural landscapes, and patterns of interaction.

Graduation Requirement: World History; Elective

AP Human Geography presents high school students with the curricular equivalent of an introductory college level course in human geography or cultural geography. Content is presented thematically rather than regionally and is organized around the discipline’s main subfields: economic geography, cultural geography, political geography, and urban geography. The approach is spatial and problem oriented. Case studies are drawn from all world regions, with an emphasis on understanding the world in which we live today. Historical information serves to enrich analysis of the impacts of phenomena such as globalization, colonialism, and human-environment relationships on places, regions, cultural landscapes, and patterns of interaction.

Prerequisite: ELPA Level 2 or 3

Graduation Requirement: World History; Elective

Human Geography focuses on content that is presented thematically rather than regionally and is organized around the discipline’s main subfields: economic geography, cultural geography, political geography, and urban geography. The approach is spatial and problem oriented. Case studies will be used throughout the year and will be drawn from all world regions, with an emphasis on understanding the world in which we live today. Historical information serves to enrich analysis of the impacts of phenomena such as globalization, colonialism, and human-environment relationships on places, regions, cultural landscapes, and patterns of interaction. English language learners will be provided opportunities to develop academic language in speaking, listening, reading, and writing.

Prerequisite: ELPA Level 3

The U.S. History course will provide students with an overview of the history of the United States, examining time periods from discovery or colonialism through World War II or after. This course will include a historical overview of political, military, scientific, and social developments. Course content may include a history of the North American peoples before European settlement. The class is designed to help new English speakers work on their reading, writing and comprehension skills through the content area. Students will participate in a final, in-depth research project and presentation.

Prerequisite: ELPA Level 3

This Civics course surveys the general structure and functions of American systems of government, the roles and responsibilities of citizens to participate in the political process, and the relationship of the individual to the law and legal system in order for ELL students to gain an understanding of the foundations of citizenship in the US. The students will also study the impact world events have on the United States, Washington State, and each of us as individuals.