ClassSyllabus

Coweta Junior High
U.S. History to 1865
Fall and Spring Semesters

Course: Eighth Grade American History
Instructor: Mr. Garrett
Classroom: Hall B Room 7
Planning Period: 9:55-10:50
Telephone: 486-2127 (j.h.) or 486-4474 (h.s.)

Course Description: American History from 1492 to 1865. European origins and colonization; revolution and the development of federalism, nationalism and democracy; foreign relations; political parties and the Civil War will be covered in this class.
   The history of the United States is one of the most exciting and interesting action-adventure stories that could be imagined. It has everything one can envision: heroes, villains, war, blood and even romance. In this course you will learn about the early years of this adventure, from the continent filling with people all the way to the end of the Civil War. To me, this is the most interesting part of U.S. history because it covers why and how we became a nation and, up to a point, why and how we became who and what we are today. Before we get started it is important you understand the ground rules under which we will operate during this school year.
Text: The American Nation by James West Davidson and Michael B. Stoff. Unless otherwise instructed bring year text with you every day to class. The sharing of text is not allowed. Failure to bring your text to class will result in a decline of your grade.
Materials: A writing utensil, either a pencil or a blue or black ink pen are the only instruments that you are allowed to write with. You will need a three-inch loose-leaf notebook with an ample supply of loose-leaf paper. In the notebook you will need three dividers labeled notes, tests, and daily work. MAKE SURE YOU COME TO CLASS EACH DAY TOTALLY PREPARED.
Course Objectives:
The students will:
· I. Review and summarize the Age of Exploration up to 1607, including the motivations and accomplishments of significant expeditions from Spain, France, Portugal, and England.
· II. Review and summarize colonial America with emphasis o the factors that led to the founding of the colonies; geographic, political, economic, and social similarities and differences n new England, the mid-Atlantic, and the Southern colonies; and the principal economic and political connections between the colonies and England.
· III. Analyze and explain the sources of colonial dissatisfaction and colonial responses that led to the American Revolution
A. The French and Indian War
B The Proclamation of 1763
C. The Sugar, Stamp, and Declaratory Acts.
D. Colonial protest and opposition to “taxation without representation,” such as the Sons of Liberty and boycotts of British goods.
E. The Townsend Acts
F. The Quartering Act and the Boston Massacre
             G. The Boston Tea Party
H. The First Continental Congress
I. Battles of Lexington and Concord
· IV. Analyze and describe key events and significant individuals of the American Revolution.
1. Describe political, economic, geographic and social advantages and disadvantages of both sides.
2. Examine the response of Loyalists, African Americans, and Native Americans to the war for independence.
3. Detail significant developments, battles and events of the time period, including Lexington and Concord, Saratoga, the Valley Forge encampment, Yorktown, and the Treaty of Paris of 1783, and give reasons why the colonies were able to defeat the British.
4. Trace the formation of the United States government by the Second Continental Congress in the Articles of Confederation.
5. Analyze the ideological war between Great Britain and her North American colonies as expressed in Common Sense and the Declaration of Independence.
6. Recognize the significance of key individuals, including King George III, John Adams, Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Lord Cornwallis, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, and Thomas Paine.
· V. Analyze the factors, events, documents, and political ideas that led to the formation of the United States of America.
A. Explain the importance of the Articles of Confederation, and its strengths and weaknesses; the various state constitutions; The Northwest Ordinance; and the postwar economy.
B. Recognize and analyze the significance of the Constitutional convention, its major debates and compromises, and the leadership of George Washington and James Madison, the struggle for ratification of the Constitution, embodied in the Federalist Papers and the Anti-Federalist arguments; and the addition of the Bill of Rights to the Constitution.
· VI. Analyze and explain significant political and economic events of the early national period.
1. Examine the organization of the national government under the new Constitution; the major domestic and foreign affairs issues facing the first three presidents and Congress; and the development of political parties and the presidential election of 1800.
2. Evaluate the impact of Supreme Court decisions affecting the interpretation f the Constitution, including Marbury V. Madison and McCulloch v. Maryland.
3. Describe United sates foreign relations and conflicts, territorial disputes, the War of 1812, and the significance of the Monroe Doctrine, the Louisiana Purchase and the acquisition of Florida.
4. Explain the impact of trade, tariffs, taxation, and trends in the national debt on United States economic development.
· VII Describe the economic growth and changes in the nited States in science, technology, energy, manufacturing, and transportation from 1801 to 1877, by appraising the impact of the building of roads, canal/river linkages, railroads, and communication networks; the origins and development of the American Industrial Revolution; the birth of the early labor movement; and geographic factors in the location and development of United States industries and centers of urbanization.
· VIII. Describe and analyze the economy of the United States from 1801 to 1877.
1. Evaluate the impact in the Northern states of the concentration of industries, manufacturing, and shipping; the development of the railroad system; and the effects of immigration and the immigrant experience.
2. Evaluate the impact in the Southern states of the dependence on cotton; the plantation system and rigid social classes; the relative absence of business enterprises engaged in manufacturing, commerce, and finance; the institution of slavery, the variety of slave experience and African American resistance to slavery; and sharecropping and tenant farming.
IX. Research and analyze important social reform movements in the United States from 1801 to 1877 (e.g. the Abolitionist Movement, the Women’s Suffrage Movement, the Second Great Awakening and its effects, and Utopian societies).
· X. Examine the emergence of an American culture (i.e., art, music, and literature from 1801-1877.
· XI. Explain the significance of the Jacksonian era with emphasis on the Andrew Jackson’s appeal to the “Common Man”; his attack on the Bank of the United Stats; the tariff issues, the nullification crisis and states’ rights debate; and the economic depression of the 1830s.
· XII. Analyze and explain the westward expansion of the United States from 1801-1877.
A. Delineate and locate particular territorial acquisitions, explorations, events and settlement (e.g., the Louisiana Purchase; the expansion into Texas; the Alamo and the Mexican-American War; the expansion into the Trans-Mississippi and the Inter-Mountain West; the effects of the California gold rush on emigration; the expansion into Oregon Country, and travel by wagon train; the passage of the Homestead Act of 1862; and the Post-Civil War movement westward to “free land”).
B. Discuss Manifest Destiny as a motivation and justification for American expansion.
C. Describe the importance of trade on the frontiers and assess the impact of westward expansion on Native American peoples, including their displacement and removal.
· XIII. Analyze and describe the emergence of sectional similarities and differences, as well as attempts at compromise, from 1801 to 1860 (e.g., the Missouri Compromise, the effects of westward expansion on slavery; the effects of the differences in the Northern and southern economic systems; states’ rights debates; the compromise of 1850; the Kansas-Nebraska Act; The Dred Scott decision; John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry; and the presidential election of 1860).
·

XIV. Describe the key events and effects of the Civil War and Reconstruction.
A. Identify key leaders of the Union and the   Confederacy (e.g., Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Jefferson Davis, and Robert E. Lee).
B. Examine major events of the Civil War(e.g., the
    battles at Fort Sumter, Bull Run/Manassas, and Gettysburg; Union naval blockades of Southern port; the Emancipation Proclamation; and Lee’s surrender at Appomattox).
C. Reconstruction policies (e.g., the significance of   Lincoln’s assassination, Andrew Johnson’s impeachment, and the addition of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the United States Constitution).
D. Investigate the impact of Reconstruction policies on the South (e.g., the role of carpetbaggers and scalawags; the passage of Black Codes, and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan; and the significance of the presidential election of 1876).
· XV. Interpret economic and political issues from 1607 to 1877 as expressed in maps, tables, diagrams, charts, political cartoons and economic graphs.
· XVI. Interpret patriotic slogans and excerpts from notable quotations, speeches and documents in United States history up to 1877, such as “Give me liberty or give me death, “E Pluribus Unum.” The Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the Constitution, “Fifty-four forty or Fight,” and the Gettysburg Address.
· XVII. Develop and practice social studies research skills.
A. Identify, analyze, and interpret primary and secondary sources, such as artifacts, diaries, letters, photographs, art, documents, newspapers, and contemporary media (i.e., television, motion pictures, and computer-based technologies) that reflect events and life in United States history to 1877.
B. Identify characters, setting, and events from narratives of Oklahoma, United States, and world History form 1607 to 1877.
C. Construct various timelines of Unite States history from 1607 to 1877, highlighting landmark dates, technological changes, major political and military events, and major historical figures.
D. Locate on a United States map major physical features, bodies of water, exploration and trade routes; and the states that entered the Union up to 1877.

Course Calendar:
· Sept. 4 Labor Day
· Sept. 22 Parent-Teacher conferences
· Oct.13 First nine weeks notebooks due.
· Oct. 18 End of first nine weeks.
· Oct. 19-20 Fall break.
· Nov. 22-24 Thanksgiving break
· Dec. 18-Jan. 1 Christmas break
· Jan. 3 Second nine weeks notebook due.
· Jan. 15 Professional Day
· Feb. 9 Parent-Teacher conferences.
· Feb. 19 Professional Day
· March 7 Third nine weeks notebook due.
· March 26-30 Spring Break
· April 13 Good Friday
· May 17 Fourth nine weeks notebook due.
· May 23 Last day of school
Course policies:
Attendance, tardiness—Almost everyday we will have an in-class exercised, notes, quizzes, worksheets or tests that will be very important to you.
You are to be in your seats before the bell rings. If you are inside the door you are late. If you are on your way to your seat and the bell rings, you are late.
Missed exams or assignments: In-class work will only be made up if you miss school for a school activity or an absence. You have two days for every day you miss. After that time period has expired you will receive a zero. There are no excuses, if your work goes to Dallas with your Mom or Dad on a trip the day it is due, it will not be accepted. We will have a five to 10 point quiz almost every day over the previous day’s reading assignment. These quizzes can only be made up before school or after school. I am usually at school at 8:00 am and do not leave school until 3:45 pm. You will need to make arrangements during those times to make up the quizzes. You will not take the same quiz your classmates took during the normal class period.
Tests will be made up in the same manner as quizzes.
Daily work: Your daily work will be due the next day at the beginning of each class period. Your name will be placed in the upper right hand corner. Next, you will place the date, the page or page numbers, and the title of each exercise.
Academic dishonesty: If you are caught cheating on a test or a quiz you will be given a zero for the test or quiz and you will not be able to make the work up. I will keep the test on file for future reference.
Grading: Your grade in this class will be determined on a total point basis using several methods of instruction.
Method of instruction: There will be several methods of instruction used to determine your grade. We will take notes over each section in each chapter. Along with the notes we will complete questions from the text, worksheets, and worksheets from the Internet. This work will go into your notebook under daily work once it has been graded and returned to you.
At the completion of a chapter we will have a test. Most tests, if not all, in the class will be of the essay nature. We will go over taking an essay test thoroughly before the first one is given. Possible points on a test can range from 100 to 500 points or may vary at the discretion of the instructor.
At the conclusion of each nine weeks your notebook will be due. Your notebook is expected to contain all of your notes, daily work, and tests for that nine weeks as ell as the second, third, and fourth nine weeks. The notebook is worth 100 points at the end of the first nine weeks. 200 points at the end of the second, 300 points at the end of the third nine weeks, and 400 point at the end of the fourth nine weeks. Remember, this notebook is accumulative for the whole year. Do not throw anything away until the end of the year.
Dismissal of class: The bell does not dismiss the class, the instructor does. Work until the bell rings, then get your things together and do not gather at the door prior to the bell ringing.
Classroom Citizenship: None of us can accomplish anything important if there are distractions during class sessions, i.e. people talking, arriving late or leaving early.
· You should have developed internal discipline in a classroom by now, so I’ll begin the year with the expectation that you will act as responsible students in class, but if there are problems I will take swift and adequate measures.
· There will be no talking while I am talking or until I grant permission to do so.
· If you are tardy for the third time we will be turned into the office.
· No sign of disrespect to the instructor will be tolerated.
· Treat your classmates with respect. Keep your hands to yourself.
· You will not be allowed to leave the classroom for any reason other than the office calling for you or an emergency.
· You will not be allowed to get a drink or use the restroom after the tardy bell rings. If you have a condition that requires an exemption to this you must have a doctors note and have it cleared with the office.
· If you take prescribe medication it must be kept in the office and you can only be let out of class to take with a note from the office.
· If you are to be picked up before the class ends your parents must go to the office and they will call for you. Do not have your parents come to the class to get you.
Note: This syllabus is subject to revision at the instructor’s discretion to meet changing conditions