A Brief Overview of the Structure of US History this year! Welcome to US History! A Brief Overview of the Structure of US History this year!

Write down these questions!! What are two of our focuses in US History? What is the highest number of lectures we will have in a unit? What fraction of the days in the unit is that? What is the name of the question at the end of the lecture? How is it different than the guiding questions? What are the three different tiers? (Describe each tier) Write and describe the two types of grades going into the gradebook.

What is our focus? Our focus for this class is to prepare you with skills that you can utilize both in a Social Studies classroom and in the world outside of OHS You will be immersed in different content each day but the mastery will NOT be measured in rote memorization, but a progression of skills! (Aka… no more 60 questions of all facts you have to memorize!) You will have choice. Student choice is important because your life is full of choices! It is time for you to start making decisions in how it is best for you to show your knowledge and skill mastery!

Unit format Units will be targeted for about 3 weeks. There will be units that will have less class periods in them, but you can expect a unit exam every three weeks. Each unit will have at most, 6 lectures total. That is about 1/3 of all class days in a unit! The bulk of your work will be completed in class and a majority of the work you do will be collaborative in some way. The unit test will assess you on the skills that you worked on during the unit.

Lecture format Each lecture will strive to be no more than 15 minutes… TOPS! This means you will have to sit less and have more time to dictate your own learning! Each lesson will have around 5 (sometimes more, sometimes less) guiding questions for you to answer as we progress through the lesson. That’s it! No need to copy down everything from the slides or vocab to write down. At the end of the lecture you will have a larger summative question called an essential question which will have you analyze the significance of the content just covered in a larger historical context!

Tiered instruction You will be hearing a lot about tiered instruction this year, so it is important to understand what it means for you. Tiers refer to the level of understanding and mastery needed to complete a task. There are three tiers and anything we do will fit in one of these three tiers Tier 1- Basic recall of information. Labeling of maps and charts. Tier 2- Analysis of documents and information. Focusing on WHY did something happen or WHY someone did something. Tier 3- Creation. Finding ways to show your mastery of the content through the creation of something.

Assessments and class points Assessments will be given at the end of a unit. These assessments will be tests in which you will analyze documents, maps, and political cartoons. Very little of any test or assessment will be memorization based. You will have two types of grades in the gradebook: Formative Assessment- This is the everyday work you do in class. This is practice for your summative assessment but is still taken for points in the class. Summative Assessment- These are your unit assessments. This will be our benchmark for your level of mastery from the unit.

Essential Question What are two things you are excited about in this class? What is something that you may have reservations about? How can I help you with this transition?