History

Students are not receptacles of information; they are educated, well-prepared producers of research, ideas, and observations that are innovative and engaging. The VCA Department of History will challenge students to ascertain not only the significance of past historical events but also to discern their connection to them. Further, students will employ a number of skills as they journey through both World History and American history.

The History Department will stress two facets of historical inquiry: historical thinking skills and habits of the mind:

Historical Thinking Skills & Habits of the Mind

• Constructing and evaluating arguments: using evidence to make plausible arguments
• Using documents and other primary data: developing the skills necessary to analyze point of view, context, and bias, and to understand and interpret information.
• Assessing issues of change and continuity over time, including the capacity to deal with change as a process and with questions of causation.
• Understanding diversity of interpretations through analysis of context, point of view, and frame of reference

The History Department also promotes NYSED Standards for Social Studies:

• Standard 1: History of the United States and New York—Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in the history of the United States and New York.

• Standard 2:World History—Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in world history from a variety of perspectives.

• Standard 3: Geography—Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the geography of the interdependent world in which we live—local, national, and global—including the distribution of people, places, and environments over Earth’s surface.

• Standard 4: Economics—Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of how the United States and other societies develop economic systems and associated institutions to allocate scarce resources, how major decision-making units function in the United States and other national economies, and how an economy solves the scarcity problem through market and nonmarket economies.

• Standard 5: Civics, Citizenship, and Government—Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the necessity for establishing governments; the governmental system of the United States and other nations; the U.S. Constitution; the basic civic values of American constitutional democracy; and the roles, rights, and responsibilities of citizenship, including avenue of participation. (Source: NYSED)                                                                                          

Courses

Middle School

Survey of American History  (1 Year 1 Credit)

In this Common Core-aligned course, seventh-grade students study the first part of United States History, beginning with roots of Colonial America and continue through the economic, political, social, intellectual, cultural and military development of the nation through the Civil War. Students will interpret both primary and secondary documents, answer document-based questions, and strengthen their research and historical writing skills.

Requirements: Special Projects, Midterm, Final Examination

Historical Inquiry  (1 Year 1 Credit)

In this Common Core-aligned course, eighth graders will study the second part of a complete study of United States History. The course begins with the Reconstruction of the United States after the Civil War and continues through the economic, political, social, intellectual, cultural and military development of Post-Cold War America. Students will reinforce their interpretive skills using both primary and secondary documents, answer document-based questions, and strengthen their research and historical writing skills. Students will also be introduced to the Socratic Seminar method of discussion to develop and strengthen their critical thinking, reading, and writing skills in preparation for High School-level history course work.

Requirements: Special Projects, Midterm, Final Examination

High School

World History: Origins to 18th Century (1 Year 1 Credit)

Students will explore world history covering pre-civilization and Neolithic Period up through the Age of Absolutism. Our study will incorporate the three major components for instruction and assessment: Key Ideas and Conceptual Understanding, Common Core Literacy Skills, and Social Studies Practices. This class employs “flipped” instruction with interactive lecture material outside of the class as well as Socratic Seminars to maximize the classroom time for exploration, mastery, and assessment of the concepts.

Requirements: Quarterly Assessments, Midterm, Regent Examination

World History: 18th Century to Present Day (1 Year 1 Credit)

Students will explore world history covering the Enlightenment up to the present day. Our study will incorporate the three major components for instruction and assessment: Key Ideas and Conceptual Understanding, Common Core Literacy Skills, and Social Studies Practices. This class employs “flipped” instruction with interactive lecture material outside of the class as well as Socratic Seminars to maximize the classroom time for exploration, mastery, and assessment of the concepts. Students will evaluate and analyze historical primary and secondary sources, write cogent essays that compare and contrast epochs, concepts.

Requirements: Quarterly Assessments, Midterm, Regent Examination

U.S. History and Government (1 Year 1 Credit) 

This Regents-leveled Common Core aligned course is a one–year survey of American History from the pre-Colonial era to the present. Our study will incorporate the three major components for instruction and assessment: Key Ideas and Conceptual Understanding, Common Core Literacy Skills, and Social Studies Practices This class also uses “flipped” instruction with interactive lecture material outside of the class as well as Socratic Seminars to maximize the classroom time for exploration, mastery, and assessment of the concepts.

Requirements: Quarterly Assessments, Midterm, Regent Examination

Government Policy & Politics (1 Year 1 Credit)

This course will help students develop an understanding of basic economic principles, which affect their lives in both a general and day-to-day sense. Students will study the basic principles of capitalism including supply and demand, budgeting, and the stock market. In addition, students will be required to understand basic economic theories and be able to discuss the positives and negatives of each theory. It also enlarges on what students have learned in U.S. history in their junior year. Material will include how nation states emerge, the basic structure of the United States government, the philosophy that underlies the Constitution, and the study of the Supreme Court cases, which define our liberties. Students also design and participate in a mock criminal trial to apply their understanding of the judicial process.

Requirements: Quarterly Assessments, Midterm, Final Examination