7th Grade Social Studies2016-2017 Syllabus

Mrs. Elizabeth Honn 425-837-5941

I am very excited for our year of learning together!

CLASSROOM GOALS:

Learning and personal growth are the absolute focuses in the classroom. Students will have many opportunities to practice and demonstrate both what they have learned and how they have grown. We are all in this together so let’s support one another in our classroom and school community by helping to create an inviting, engaging, and safe environment for ourselves and one another.

CLASS EXPECTATIONS

  1. Take responsibility for your own learning.
  2. Please participate! The more you put in, the more you (and the rest of us) get out.
  3. Please respect yourself, your classmates and me. Be kind. I promise to do the same.
  4. Reflect on your behavior and make amends if you have caused harm to another person and to our community.
  5. We will all try our best to come to class every day prepared, ready to learn, and with a positive attitude.
  6. We will follow school rules and expectations as stated in the PCMS planner and will strive to practice our school HEROES goals (Health, Excellence, Relationships, Opportunities, Equality, Safety).

UNDERSTANDING THE GRADE BOOK

The grade book will reflect both student mastery of the Common Core Standards in language arts and social studies and a non-academic component that will reflect student work habits, initiative, collaboration, and citizenship. Work must be completed to a high standard and demonstrate mastery of material in order to earn a high grade. Completion of work alone is not a measure of student learning. These standards will be made very clear to students using rubrics and other guides.Please ask if you have questions!

There will be absolutely no rounding of grades. Extra credit will not be an option(this is the policy for all 7th grade humanities classes), so be sure to do your best work. All students will be successful and are expected to meet learning targets. You will have multiple opportunities to do this. To be sure you understand your grade, look through your returned work and ask me questions if you do not understand a particular grade, feedback, or expectation. Check Family Access (your grade book) often to track your progress and speak to me right away if you have concerns.

TECHNOLOGY IN THE HUMANITIES CLASSROOM

We will be using technology in the classroom to enhance the education and learning of students. While technology does not necessarily apply to every learning experience, its application does often engage students and supports deeper levels of learning, thinking, and exploring. We will be using iPads and computers in the classroom on a regular basis. Students are invited to use cell phones in the classroom for learning purposes only. However, in order to use cell phones in the classroom, students and guardians will need to read, agree to, and sign the Personal Device Policy and Agreement form. While outside of the classroom, the school’s cell phone policy will apply.

Students will be expected to watch screencast and/or Power Point lessons on vocabulary and grammar. This will be the primary way for them to access the material. We will follow up with in class discussions and it will be important for them to have viewed the lesson beforehand.

Students will be required to visit my website frequently. They can access homework, lesson material, watch and review class lessons, and participate in online discussions. I also encourage guardians to look at my website and your student’s gradebook on a regular basis. Please let me know if access to the internet is a hardship for your family.

I will also be using the text messaging app Remind. This is optional on your part and is another way for me to reach out to students and parents. Remind is a communication tool designed to allow teachers to remind students and guardians of upcoming assignments, tests, and other important information. If you would like to be included in this, please add your cell phone number to the signature page (see below).

HOMEWORK

It is my goal to limit the amount of homework a student has. I try to arrange assignments so that students can work during class time. I also try to provide a due date window so that students have multiple days to turn an assignment in. However, there will be times when spending time on your classwork outside of class time will be inevitable. Please see the late work policy below.

It is also my hope that students will be excited about what they are learning in the classroom and will want to explore that learning further on their own time. This could include reading, online research and just “digging around” time, watching videos and documentaries about a given topic, and engaging in conversations about what they are learning in class, as well as completing assignments we started in the classroom. Use your brain in ways that excite you and help you grow!

STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY

1)All assignments are important to learning. It is necessary for assignments to be completed and turned in on time in order for students to interact with the material they are expected to learn.

2)7th graders are expected to complete all of their work on time. Students are encouraged to complete any late or missing work for their learning. Late work will be accepted up until the unit test; however, you will benefit less from learning that trails behind what we are doing in class.To optimize your learning and understanding, you need to keep up with classwork.

3)Any late work must be turned in before the unit test for any credit. Work turned in after the unit test will not be accepted for credit.

4)If a student regularly turns in late work and cannot correct their behavior, the following interventions will apply:

  1. student conference with the teacher
  2. parent contact
  3. student will be assigned lunch detention and/or after school 7th period to get work completed

5)No matter how planned and organized we are, sometimes life has other ideas. Please be proactive and communicate with me if you are going to be absent or if you cannot meet a deadline. Responsible students do this before an assignment is due. Proactive honesty also decreases your stress level, which is important!

6)If you are absent, please check my website from home and print off and/or attend to the work you missed. You are also welcome to email me. It also a good idea to check in with me the day you come back. For each excused day of absence, you have one additional day to get work in. If you are absent, it is your responsibility to inquire about and make up the work you missed.

7)Academic Integrity/Honesty Policy: Issaquah School District has a clear policy, detailed in your planner, regarding plagiarism. Plagiarism, or academic dishonesty, is presenting someone else’s ideas or writing as your own. Please do not plagiarize; there will be severe consequences for plagiarism.

LOVE AND LOGIC

The Love and Logic principles will guide how opportunities for learning and making mistakes are handled. Students will be asked to step back and think about behaviors that do not adhere to classroom expectations. Each situation will be responded to on an individual basis.Students are ultimately responsible for their own behavior.

SOCIAL STUDIES:

Students will continue to develop skills to increase understandings of the core concepts and ideas in civics, social studies skills, economics, geography, and history. Students will be using in-class textbooks for both the Medieval World and Beyond and Washington State History. Each textbook has an on-line component for home use. Our units of study will span from 600 CE to 1600 CE and will include Medieval Europe, the Origins and Spread of Islam, Imperial China, and Medieval Japan. In the third trimester we will study Washington State history which is a high school requirement.

History tells us stories and is made up of beliefs, events, and relationships that have shaped the world we currently live in. We will be learning about the cultural past of real places and people and making connections to current times. We will incorporate historical artifacts from traveling museum trunks from the Burke Museum and MOHAI for our study of China and WWII Homefront (Washington State History). We will also be incorporating simulations in various units to help immerse students’ perception and imagination in the cultures we study.

Our job as social scientists is to discoverhistory’s story with as much curiosity and insight as we can. Events, people, relationships, and geography help us make sense of the world we live in today and challenge us to be creative and compassionate when considering the future.

COURSE MATERIALS

  1. History Alive: The Medieval World and Beyond. Palo Alto, CA: Teacher's Curriculum Institute, 2011.
  2. Carlson, Laurie M., Michael K. Green, and Charlene Kerwin. Reyes. The Washington Journey. Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith Education, 2010. Print.
  3. Please have a system to electronically transport materials to and from class (USB drive, email account, file “on the cloud”). A back up is always a good idea.
  4. Writing instruments: pens (red), pencils (including lead and erasers), and highlighters (yellow, green, orange).
  5. Sticky notes.
  6. Basic art supplies are available in class, but if you like Sharpies or special markers, you will need to supply your own.

I use the app Remind for textor email messages to remind students and parents about upcoming assignments, tests, or important information. Please see the sign up page below if you are interested in receiving these messages.

I occasionally allow student to use their cell phones in the classroom for assignments or to take photos of calendars, graphic organizers or other work we have done together in class. Please see and sign the PCMS electronic user agreement for classroom use below.

We may watch the following videos as part of our classroom curriculum. Please sign and return the video permission slip below.

VIDEO MATERIAL RELATED TO CURRICULUM

  1. Going Medieval (Going Medieval. By Mike Loades. 2014. DVD.)
  2. China: Engineering an Empire (China: Engineering an Empire. History Channel. 2014. Web.)
  3. Hanford (Hanford. OPB. 2013. WEB.)
  4. Mulan (Mulan. Walt Disney Pictures. 2004. DVD.

Welcome to 7th grade humanities! I am confident that this is going to be a fabulous and learning-filled year, and I look forward to working with and getting to know you!

Elizabeth Honn 425-837-5941

What class period(s) is your student in my Social Studies class?

 1st  3rd  4th  5th  6th

Parents/Guardians,

As an indication that you and your student understand the course expectations and policies, please sign below and returnthis last page of this syllabus (you keep the previous pages)and permission slips to my classroom (1106) by Thursday, September 10, 2016.

Parent/Guardian name: ______

Parent/Guardian signature: ______

Student name: ______

Student signature: ______

Remind App

Parent/Guardian

Yes, I would like to receive Remind alerts about upcoming assignments, tests, or important information. My cell phone number or email address is ______.

 No, I do not want to receive Remind alerts about upcoming assignments, tests, or important information.

Student

Yes, I would like to receive Remind alerts about upcoming assignments, tests, or important information. My cell phone number or email address is ______.

 No, I do not want to receive Remind alerts about upcoming assignments, tests, or important information.

Parents/Guardians:

Is there anything you would like me to know about your child?

Students:

Is there anything you would like me to know about you?

Parents/Guardians,

The following videos may be shown in your student’s 7th grade Social Studies classroom this year. The Issaquah School District requires parent permission to watch these videos because they are more than 45 minutes in length. Please sign the form below to indicate that your student has permission to watch the following films. If you don’t grant permission, please indicate for which film(s) in the space provided. An alternate activity will be provided to learn the content with no penalty to the student.

SOCIAL STUDIES VIDEO MATERIAL RELATED TO CURRICULUM

  1. Going Medieval (Going Medieval. By Mike Loades. 2014. DVD.)
  2. This film from the History Channel serves as an engaging introduction to Medieval Europe. Students learn everything from weapon technology to food to hygiene practices.
  3. China: Engineering an Empire (China: Engineering an Empire. History Channel. 2014. DVD.)
  4. This film does an outstanding job introducing students to the incredible accomplishments of ancient China, from the Great Wall to the Terracotta Soldiers.
  5. Mulan (Mulan. Walt Disney Pictures. 2004. DVD.)
  6. This Disney film helps students recognize the different Chinese philosophies that we will study. The film also highlights some of the cultural practices that we will learn about.
  7. Hanford (Hanford. OPB. 2013. WEB.)
  8. This documentary tells the fascinating and historical story of Hanford from the people who lived and worked there during Hanford’s growth during WWII.

I give my student permission to watch all the films in class.

I do not want my student to watch the following films:

______

Student name: ______Parent/Guardian name: ______

Parent/Guardian signature:______

Date: ______

PCMS Personal Device Student Policy and User Agreement

Dear Parent or Guardian:

This year in Mrs. Honn’s 7th grade Social Studies class, we will continue the program which allows students to use personal devices (cell phones, tablets, etc.) to enhance instruction. There will be specific guidelines students must adhere in order to maintain the use of the device as a tool to enhance learning, and not distract from it. It is not mandatory for your student to have a personal device, as students will always work in groups to make use of this tool. Additionally, at no time will students be deducted points because they could not, or choose not to use a device in any assignment. Students will not be allowed to use personal devices at their leisure. Rather, students will be able to use a cell phone or tablet only upon teacher direction. Upon leaving the classroom, students must abide by the school’s published cell phone rules as stated in the school planner below.

Telephone/Cellular Phone Use

Students are not allowed to use school telephones except in emergency situations. Cellular phone use is prohibited during the school day. Please help your student by communicating schedules and planning the materials needed for school the next day.

By signing the agreement below, students and parents are stating that they understand the guidelines and agree to adhere to them.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Honn

Personal Device Policy and User Agreement

  1. Students will agree to abide by all district enacted policies regarding the use of personal devices (on back).
  2. Students will follow instructions given by teacher in using personal devices according to the course assignment or project’s purpose and task.
  3. Students will not use their devices in this class for personal communication (i.e. calling or texting parents, family or friends; visiting web sites not listed in assignment; or using social media).
  4. Students may not record, videotape, or take pictures of the teacher or other students in the class.
  5. Students will not go to any inappropriate sites on their devices.
  6. Students will respect each other’s property.
  7. Students realize that this privilege is for this course only and will not try to use personal devices in another course in the school unless directed by the teacher.
  8. If a student is defiant and refuses to follow the guidelines or teacher’s directions and expectations for the use of personal devices in the course, the student will not be allowed to use the device in a future class or classes. Second offenses will result in no personal device use during class until a scheduled meeting with student, teacher, and parent/guardian is completed.

Please cut along line and return the bottom portion of this form.

PCMS Personal Device Student Policy and User Agreement

Student Name (please print): ______

Signature of Student: ______

Parent/Guardian Signature: ______Date: ______