8th Grade U.S. History Syllabus
Instructor: Chris Eusebio
Resources: My World Interactive Beginnings to 1877, Savvas
We the People, the Citizen and the Constitution, Center for Civic Education
Primary and Secondary Source Documents
In this history class we will study America and its people from earliest records to Reconstruction (after the Civil War). If we have extra time, we will continue our march through U.S. history. We will base our learning on textbooks (the new, digital text from Savvas), primary and secondary sources, and current events. We will dig deeply into history in a variety of ways. Students will work in teams using the inquiry method of learning for Problem-Based Learning scenarios.
During the school year students are responsible for one large history project and several inquiry-based projects:
- Our social studies digital text utilizes an inquiry-based learning structure for each of its topics about United States history. These projects are called Quests and can be document-based inquiries, project-based inquiries, or civic discussion-based inquiries.
- The largest history project, the Legacy Project, is a biography of someone in your family at least two generations removed. It’s a big project (around fifty pages with text and image). This project begins in January.
Grading in U.S. History is based on the following:
- Assignments/Homework – 20%
- Projects – 25%
- Quizzes – 20%
- Tests – 25%
- Participation/Notebooks – 10%