US I Honors

Course Description

This course satisfies the second year of the state mandated United States history requirement. It is designed to analyze contemporary issues with an historical perspective. This course is organized around three essential quetions designed to challenge students to consider history using abstract thinking. Each unit approaches the essential questions in a way that challenges students to demonstrate content mastery and mature historical thinking skills. Guided questions, primary readings and student inquiry anchor class discussions and learning activities. Students apply historical thinking skills that include comparing and contrasting content, identifying continuity and change over time and periodization. Students develop advanced critical thinking skills such as historical interpretation and synthesis. Students arrive at meaningful interpretations of the past by applying all historical thinking skills. Studens draw on different fields of inquiry and creatively fuse sources. Additionally, students apply insights about the past to other historical contexts or circumstances, including the present.