Class Expectations

 

 

HONORS US HISTORY E BLOCK

 

Below are some general guidelines for the course this year. In this class you can expect to learn content, but more importantly learn skills that will help you in college and later in life. Each you needs to put forth a maximum effort each day. If you ever need help I have a desk in the history office and in the college office. My phone extension at school is 1556, and my home phone number is 978- 448- 5906. I live in Elm Tree Hall if you need extra help at night and my email address is ssheehan@lacademy.edu.

BOOKS:

Robert Divine America Past and Present.

David E. Shi and Holly A. Mayer For The Record

PROBLEM APPROACH

In this class we will do a series of problems meaning we will try to answer an essential question for a given topic. For instance when we study the American Revolution we will try to answer the question- Were the colonist justified in their revolt against England? Our work on the revolution will help us gain a deeper understanding of that question. We will not study every event that happened during the revolution. Moreover, we have one essential question for the entire course, Is American History a history of progress? We will go back to this question often. Each term we will examine three problems, therefore there will be many events that happened in American history that we will not study.

ATTENDANCE

If you are in school you are to be in class on time. Being late to class or skipping class will not be tolerated. If you choose to skip class, you will have a zero for the day factored into your grade. If you miss more than four classes, you will have to meet with Mr. Ellsasser to determine if you can receive credit for the class that term.

GRADING

All the work you do in this class will be assigned a point value. Generally homework assignments are worth 10-50 points, quizzes 25-75 points, tests, seminars, essays and simulations 100-200 points. I do consider class participation when I compute your final grade. You earn your grades in this class, I do not give them. Late work will be marked off a full letter grade for each day it is late. If you have trouble finishing an assignment let me know before class starts.

QUIZZES AND TESTS

You will have announced quizzes and tests, and unannounced quizzes. I do not like to give unannounced quizzes; however, if I feel you are not doing the reading and taking reading notes I will give you a quiz.

ESSAYS

You will be asked to write essays in this class. Each essay should contain a thesis statement, an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Your paper should have a title page and be stapled in the upper left hand corner. You should be aware of the plagiarism rules as they are stated in the Omnibus Lucet. You are expected to use proper grammar and spelling. You must have specific evidence from your readings to support your argument. You must use proper citations in your paper, even when you are paraphrasing. We use the MLA format for this.

FINAL NOTE

I look forward to working with you this year. I expect each of you to work diligently each day and night to improve. If you do not work hard you will struggle in this class. You will get out of this class what you put into it. If you are willing to work we can have a great year.