Course Description for Ancient Civilizations
2019 – 2020
Dear Students, Parents, and Guardians,
Welcome to social studies and the study of ancient peoples and places. I am looking forward to creating a learning community that includes teachers, students, and their families. I hope to make this a meaningful learning experience for not only the students but for all those involved in their education. If you want to print this course description at home for your records feel free to do so. By doing this contact form online, I am assuming that you also read the course description. Doing it this way I thought I would save trees, and maybe your time, by combining a couple of assignments together.. If you need to contact me, email is the most convenient. However, if you wish to call me, you can leave a message on my voice mail and I will call you after 2:30 p.m.
Focus of the Course
Unlike typical history courses, this class will not always progress chronologically through time. We will begin with units on geography, Thinking Skills, ECMS’ Honor Code and the Universals of Culture. The Universals of Culture will be the framework with which we examine all of the ancient civilizations this year. The Universals include: economics, education, social organization, arts-play-recreation, material culture, social control, conflict-warfare, language-nonverbal communication and finally world view-religion.
Grading and Grades
Grades will be based upon progress towards learning goals, and in some cases, mastery of the learning. I use Measurement Topic rubrics extensively in evaluating your students; these allow me to track growth over time and are consistently used by all teachers at all grade levels. Catalina Foothills School District has developed comprehensive rubrics to measure students’ performance in knowledge, skills, and behavior. Graded assessments can go home for parental perusal, however, students will keep their work in a portfolio in my classroom to use on the end of the year Final Exam. Please encourage your student to use StudentVUE to access their grades and monitor their progress. (You may use ParentVUE to access the same information.)
Reading Requirement
During each quarter, your student is required to read two books independently outside of class. These texts can be books or approved articles the student can choose with parent and teacher input. The books can be used for any other classes’ outside reading requirements. However, any book they are reading in ELA as a literature study in class cannot be used for this requirement. Students will be expected to complete and discuss a Text Exploration on their independent reading texts and show how the texts link to Social Studies’ topics. They should also have a reading book in all of their 6th grade classes. It is particularly important to have the reading book in social studies if we are doing an assessment that day. Studies show that independent reading is a key factor in developing vocabulary, reading fluency, comprehension, writing and thinking skills.
Technology
Access to a computer and the Internet is critically important to the success of the students. (If students do not have access to a computer, or the Internet, computers are available for use at school before school, after school, and in my room during lunch.) The social studies’ textbook remains in the classroom. However, there are many web-based assignments throughout the year. I use Google Drive and Google Classroom frequently, and many assignments will be assigned, and turned in, there. Any writing assignments that are a paragraph, or longer, should be typed. My website, discussed later, is also accessed through the Internet. Also, the ability to search the Tucson/Pima County Library system on-line and have books sent to your closest library would be extremely convenient during our units.
Homework
Expect homework 2-3 nights per week from Social Studies. Students are expected to use their planners on a daily basis and to set aside time for homework. Parents are expected to review the planner with their students and help students structure their time. Homework and announcements are posted on my website (https://jgrobe.wixsite.com/website). Homework needs to be turned in on time. Late work is not accepted unless a student turns in a Late Coupon when the late assignment is due. There are consequences for missing work. The student’s Personal and Social Responsibility grade will decrease for late work and will result in a zero if missing. I will explain my policy more to your students and to parents at Back to School Night.