US History Honors Designation
THE ACADEMY OF TUCSON
The Social Studies Department at the Academy of Tucson allows students the option of receiving an “honors” designation on their transcripts while enrolled in the standard US History course.
The honors designation is intended to:
- Provide sufficient challenges for those students who have strong academic skills.
- Increase student proficiency in reading, writing and critical thinking.
- Expand student exposure to US History.
- Prepare students for collegiate level history courses.
The honors designation program:
- Students will take standard US History, fulfilling all requirements and participating in class on a daily basis.
- To receive the “honors” designation, students must receive a mark of “B” or better in the standard class and complete the following in a manner acceptable to the teacher.
- Students will read the A Peoples History of the United States by Howard Zinn in its entirety.
- A five page compare/contrast paper will be completed each semester. This paper will analyze a time period in US History as presented in A Peoples History with that of A Patriots History of the United States by Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen.
o Paper #1 – Rough draft due by last day of first quarter, final paper due Monday, one week before finals begin.
o Paper #2 – Rough draft due by last day of third quarter, final paper due Monday, one week before finals begin.
In order to participate students must:
- Have an above average grasp on both reading and writing fundamentals, they must understand the concept of a thesis and how to construct a multi-page paper based off of that thesis. Their reading comprehension must be of a higher level to sufficiently complete their additional tasks.
- Fulfill all requirements for US History class.
- Fulfill all requirements for the honors designation outside of normally scheduled class time.
- Read this entire document and agree to all of its terms, indicated by a signature below.
- Have parent/guardian read this entire document and agree to support the student in fulfilling all of its terms, indicate with a signature below.
- Be willing to work with teacher on rough draft and rewrites.
- Be able to turn in work on time. Being an “honors” student means you are able and willing to take responsibility for your own work and due dates.
Student: Date:
Parent/Guardian: Date:
Teacher: Date:
Principal: Date:
