United States History

• “These Truths: A History of the United States, with Sources Inquiry Edition” by Jill Lepore ISBN: 978-1324046318
• “A People’s History of the United States” by Howard Zinn ISBN: 978-0062397348

A dedicated notebook for research – single subject should be sufficient.

Access to Perusall (an online collaborative reading tool) will be needed.  There is no cost for an account, but if your family needs to whitelist a website for your student, this will be required.

All other materials will be supplied.

Live class time will assume students have done their individual work as we will be using that to participate in group discussion and collaboration during our time together.

Amount of time will depend on your student’s speed/fluency with writing, reading or the topic at hand and the content of the week. Families should allocate approximately 2-3 hours/week of individual work in preparation for live class. Some of this can be done during Flex Work Time at our facility. Students will always have a piece of content to read and prepare for as well as ongoing activities or writing assignments.

Combined with our live class time, this is a total of 3-1/2 to 4-1/2 hours/week for a course total of 120-150 hours.  This equates to one full credit of Social Studies using the Carnegie unit methodology.

This course will require students to analyze historical perspectives and events that are more mature and sometimes unpleasant–sometimes dealing with death or difficult life circumstances, sexual orientation, race issues, etc. and the will learn how to discuss difficult topics productively.  However, students should be at a maturity level to be ready for this type of learning.

Assuming these more mature and controversial themes are acceptable, the key point in knowing if your student will be well-suited for this course will be whether they are ready to contribute meaningful ideas about WHY things are happening.

Sample discussion questions are:

• How does (James) Madison describe “a faction”? How does he propose, “curing the mischiefs of faction” and “removing the causes of faction”? Do you agree with his remedies? How and why?
• How were some slaves able to buy their own freedom and/or the freedom of their family members?
• How is the “wage slavery” described by Mother Jones similar to that described by many of the voices in Chapter 11?
• How did World War I, and particularly World War II, influence the way United States society dealt with racism? Why do you think the United States government took steps toward the integration of the military after World War II?
• Why do you think the gay-rights movement has placed such emphasis on the Stonewall Riot?
• Is it unpatriotic to challenge the decision of the United States government to go to war with Iraq? Explain.

Additionally, this is a high school level transcriptable course with a large portion of the work being done outside of class.  This requires planning and time management and/or parent support to learn these skills.

If you feel your child would be able to respond to questions like this with thoughtful and respectful contributions, then your child would be a good fit for this course.  If you are unsure, please contact us to discuss further.

Course time will be devoted to discussion related to the content that is the culmination of the students individual work assigned for the week. Pre-reading and individual work is an essential component for this class. In addition to listening and taking notes, students are expected to actively participate in the course, through asking and answering questions and doing research to expand on the material.

Students may need to watch movies, documentaries or make trips to the library during this course.

If your family does not have the additional time for individual work between classes, this may be a poor fit.