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COURSE DESCRIPTION
U. S. HISTORY/SOCIAL STUDIES
Mr. Meadows
E-mail: lmeadows@rocklin.k12.ca,us
Learning Concepts Every student is important; every student has the ability to learn. In order for my students to learn, we must develop an environment where there is mutual respect established between the instructor and student and between student and student. I will do everything possible to make sure that our classroom will be a place of mutual respect and learning. The classroom will always be a safe and respectful environment and respect will always be a two-way street. Overview
Our Social Studies class will be studying United States history. We will be covering the time period from the colonization of the United States to just prior to World War I. We will adhere to the California States Standards for History/Social Science. We are implementing the Common Core standards and will be focusing on developing critical thinking skills and stressing the importance of reading and writing skills, as they relate to U.S. History and our content standards. Student Responsibilities
All students must turn in their best work possible. Plagiarism and/or copying the work of another student will not be tolerated. Students should always take pride in their work Students must follow the posted rules for class room behavior. Website The weekly class work/ homework calendar will be posted on my website every Friday at the end of the day and will be as accurate as possible. Occasionally, changes will become necessary in the course of the academic week but students’ planners will provide for the backup communications should changes arise in the course of the week. Emails are returned as soon as possible (generally the same day) and are the best means for contact. Grades are updated daily and are also accessible through the teacher website. Progress Reports will be emailed about once a month. Homework Home work will be assigned each week and will be checked on a daily basis in class. Homework and class work will be collected every Friday in the form of a packet that you will create. It will be returned to you the following week. Do not fall behind on homework. Absent students must check the homework center located in class immediately following any absences. SAVE YOUR PACKETS FOR STUDY MATERIAL. If a student is absent for a quiz, test, or homework assignment, it is his/her responsibility to make arrangements with the instructor to make up the missed work within two days of the absence. Late work will suffer a 10% loss of grade for each day past the due date.Tests and Quizzes Tests will follow each major unit we cover. They will be a combination of multiple choice, matching and true/false questions. A full study guide and flash cards will be handed out several days before each test. In addition, we will have optional study sessions preceding unit tests. There will not be any surprise quizzes although there may be occasional announced quizzes.
Projects
A project will be assigned each quarter. Some projects are technology-based and will involve library research and computer lab activity. These will be primarily class time projects. For our major Civil War themed project, I will give you a list of acceptable subjects, show examples of previous student work and provide guidelines /rubrics before the project begins. This project is created out of the class room and sufficient time is always allowed. The results of our work are presented on "Showcase Night’ in May.
Grading
A point system will be used to evaluate student progress based on their class work, homework, tests, quizzes and projects. The grading percentages will be broken down as follows: A 90% - 100%B 80 % - 89% C.70% - 79% No Mark 69% - lower In order to ensure parity between all eighth grade academies, tests are weighted 60% and homework/class work is weighted 40% in the students’ total grade. ExpectationsAll students will operate under the same expectations within the classroom. I expect each student to:
Never verbally or physically harass another person
Failure to follow the above expectations will result in one or more of the following actions:
Extra Credit
Extra credit will be offered from time to time as extra incentive to reward extra effort in test preparation activities and some as a fun enhancement for some class room activities such as Jeopardy! Students should not expect extra credit to be an avenue to replace required work. Extra credit should never impact a grade. I understand the above classroom policies and expectations for Mr. Meadows’ Social Studies class.
COURSE DESCRIPTION EIGHTH GRADE SOCIAL STUDIES
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