The curriculum I looked over was “History Alive! Pursuing American Ideals” which offers a pretty comprehensive amount of content to be used in class such as powerpoints, activities, worksheets and so on. Having seen Brian teach now (well after I wrote most of this post) he uses it for a foundation and builds on it to better fit his style and the class.
Thankfully for me the curriculum is pretty well divided into quarters, units and chapters. The first quarter has two units. The first unit looks at what history is and using that knowledge to look at the start of the United States. The second unit of the first quarter looks at the 1850s-1870s, namely the run up to the civil war, the civil war itself, and then reconstruction. This quarter then ends with an assessment. The second quarter also has two units. The first unit looks at the later 19th century with immigration and the progressive era. The second unit looks at the First World War, which will not be completed in this quarter and runs into the start of the third quarter. Nevertheless, there will be a midterm at the end of the second quarter to look back at the first half of the year.
While the curriculum does not mention specific dates for when units will be done, there being four units and about four months of time gives a good idea of when things will be covered. It is likely the first unit will span the first month of the course, with each unit taking about two weeks to do, give or take.
The first chunk of the month would be looking at history from a sort of meta perspective. What is history, why history is important, how to interpret history, etc. There is various mediums to teach the lesson. This includes a reading with a chapter looking at how to understand history by using the I Have A Dream Speech as an example of looking at what history is, with little activities on defining vocab words, figuring out what primary and secondary sources are and a multi choice question on what is not true of history. There is a slide show that is divided into a preview on what will be covered, an activity about gathering information about five students, going over some key vocab words and putting it all together in a timeline activity. Lastly, there is a series of videos that go over what history is with small activities to do that encapsulate the key ideas of the videos. There are optional readings as well to expand on certain ideas or concepts, probably for if there is time or interest. This includes a post about how to research and what different sources are, with accompanying questions asking students how they would research Lincoln, giving examples of different sources and evaluating different sources on different metrics. Then an assessment is provided with three options. The first is a timeline activity wherein the student has to make a timeline of their own life, color coding the three most important events and recording what family members think are the three most important. The second is a question game where the student has to answer questions that then reveal a picture that is key to answering the last question. The third are simple assessments that have multiple choice questions and some paragraph questions to see if the students have grasped how to analyze and understand history.
The second unit looks at the foundations of the United States and is the first “actual” history that is covered. The set up is much the same as the first unit but obviously with different content covered. The reading introduces the core ideas of what the Founding Father envisions, and then asking students how they would rate the implementation of those ideas and answering short questions about the Declaration of Independence. The slideshow which includes rating the core ideas (as above), but discussing them with classmates, going over some primary documents, defining and contextualizing parts of the Declaration of Independence, looking at 18 historical pictures with a partner and filling in a handout, defining some vocab words and then asking students to write a full essay processing all of this. For the videos the students have to watch a few, read some follow up questions and fill in the blanks. For the optional extra reading it is a small post about free enterprise and answering some questions about the definition of it, why it developed and the characteristics/benefits of it. For assessment there are three options. The first is writing a full essay about whether Americans have lived up to the ideals of the Declaration of Independence. The second is a game where students have to answer a series of questions, getting points for right answers, that eventually unlock the final question. The third and final is a test with multiple choice questions and short answer questions asking about the Declaration of Independence and American values.
Given American history is a pretty strong area of mine I feel confident about the content I looked over in this assignment. Perhaps a quick review here and there but I know a good amount of what is being looked at here off the top of my head.
Jace Flores Student Teacher Blog 