Changes in Class Structure

Dear students,

As I spoke about briefly before I am making some changes in the structure of the class for this semester.  The main change is that I will no longer assign to you the reading of the entire chapter of Bennett.  Instead I will assign portions and excerpts that deal with specific topics that I want you to focus on.  This does not mean that I don't encourage you to read the entire chapter (or at least listen to it) - I do, it's just that I will not try to cover all the material in class.

The second change is that I will take the first portion of class at the beginning of each new chapter and we will together go over the timeline and key people for this chapter.  You may have some things to look up afterwards, but you will not be assigned these as a pre-class assignment.

The third change is that each week you will turn in to me a one page narration from your week's reading assignments.  Some weeks the topic will be assigned and some weeks the choice will be yours.  Eighth and ninth grade narrations should be typed and at least one page double spaced in length. 

The fourth change is in the 'extra' requirements for the class.  For the remainder of this year I will be discontinuing the current events requirement.  We will return to this requirement the beginning of next year but with a bit of a different approach and more guided instruction.  I will also be offering another option for meeting the literature requirement for the remainder of this semester.  I'll post details for this very soon.

Week 3 Homework Guide

I'm pleading patience with the details of the syllabus!  I'm trying to adjust topic discussions to the actual amount of class time we have (it's never enough) and adjust pacing of things so as not to overwhelm.  Please use this as your homework guide for this week and put a copy in the front of your notebook to check off as you go.

On that note please note that we will begin cartoon projects in two weeks.  Next week we are practicing in groups.

It looks like the link for the Noel Piper mp3 file is a bit wonky in the document.  You can find that file HERE.  It is not required, but I love it. 

Week 3

Notebook Checklist

We went over our notebooks rather quickly yesterday, but I thought you all did an amazing job keeping up and following instructions.  You will get more familiar with how to use your notebooks as class goes on.  I've posted a checklist of your handouts just in case there was a mixup.  If you find yourself missing a handout let me know and I will email you a copy!

History Notebook Handouts


Here is a copy of the most current syllabus (see explanation in the above document):

Honors US History Syllabus