History Honors Requirements
To learn about New West's History Department and the eligibility requirements for all history Honors Courses, please click here.
History 10: World History (College Prep/Honors)
Recommended For: Sophomores
Prerequisites: None
By the end of the course, students will have a solid foundation of the problems and success of the 20th century and how they affect life today in the 21st century. Throughout the year students will develop critical questioning and thinking skills to objectively study history using a variety of primary and secondary sources. Students will participate and learn through structured class simulations, college level class discussions, multimedia presentations (including the internet, documentary and feature films, broadcast news including television and radio, and a host of others), individual and group projects, formal research essays, and field trips. In Honors, students are given a yearlong Reading Program designed as a mini- dissertation/research paper in which they read three independent books that centers on a world topic, theme and/or historical figure.
In World History students will first review the principles and the ideas of democracy and citizen participation from its early beginnings in Greece (Plato’s Republic and Aristotle’s Politics) and analyze how they influenced revolutions thousands of years later in England (Glorious Revolution), the United States (American Revolution), Latin America (Simon Bolivar’s campaigns) and in France (French Revolution). As these countries came into their own they began stretching their influences into countries around the world.
Students will examine the role the industrial revolution and capitalism played in the era of New Imperialism with European and American expansions in Latin America, Asia (including China, Southeast Asia, and the Philippines), and Africa. Students will begin to connect the successes and failures of these endeavors to future partnerships and conflicts around the globe.
Students will understand the causes and lasting political and social effects of the two World Wars including the beginning of the Cold War and the division of the world into Communist and Capitalist spheres of influences. Students should understand these two divisions and how they led to further problems in the world like the Korean War, Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Vietnam War.
By the end of the year, students will have a solid foundation of the problems and success of the 20th century and how they affect life today in the 21st century. Throughout the year students will have developed critical questioning and thinking skills so they can objectively study history using a variety of primary and secondary sources.
History 10: Honors Modern World History
Recommended For: Sophomores
Prerequisites: Applicant must be a 10th grade student and have a final grade of A in 9th grade ELA or a B or an A in Honors English 9
By the end of the course, students will have a foundation of the problems and success of the 20th century and how they affect life today in the 21st century. Throughout the year students will develop critical questioning and thinking skills to objectively study history using a variety of primary and secondary sources. Students will participate and learn through structured class simulations, college level class discussions and readings, multimedia presentations (including the internet, documentary and feature films, broadcast news including television and radio, and a host of others), individual and group projects, formal research essays, and field trips. A comprehensive written final examination is required along with a student selected Reading Program of three topic related books and a final research essay or a presentation.
History 11: US History (College Prep/Honors)
Recommended For: Juniors, Seniors
Prerequisites: Applicant must have completed World History
By the end of US History, students will have a solid foundation of the economic, social, political, and military history of the United States with an emphasis on the huge turning points between the 1920s through the 1980s. Students will build upon their global knowledge learned in 10th grade analyzing where the United States fits in the global picture over this period of time and the steps the country took to become a global super power. Students will participate and learn through structured class simulations, college level class discussions, multimedia presentations (including the internet, documentary and feature films, broadcast news including television and radio, and a host of others), individual and group projects, formal research essays, and field trips.
Students will study the migration of people from rural to urban cities and the problems associated with workplace safety, issues surrounding immigration and treatment of immigrants in large cities. They will study the lives of those living through the Roaring 20’s focusing on literature and music, major domestic and international developments including Prohibition and the rise of organized crime, and the birth of the movie industry diffusing popular culture to the rest of the world. Unfortunately, students will learn the downside of such explosive growth and lax regulations examining the causes and impacts of the Great Depression. Students will examine the effects and controversies surrounding Roosevelt’s New Deal including the increase of the federal government.
Students will explore the main causes, course, and ultimate lasting effects of World War Two focusing on FDR’s foreign policy, the average American soldier and contributions of different military groups (Navajo Code Talkers, Tuskegee Airmen et al). At the conclusion of the war, students will examine the attempts to rebuild Europe and begin to focus on the conflict between capitalist and communist countries focusing on US foreign policy since WWII and major Cold War events.
Lastly, students will examine the major steps taken to gain equal civil and voting rights in the US from the 1940s through the Civil Rights era in the 1960s but also looking at the feminist movements of the 60’s and 70’s.
History 12: American Government (College Prep)
Recommended For: Seniors
Prerequisites: Applicant must have completed US History
Students in grade twelve pursue a deeper understanding of the institutions of American government. It moves from a broad study of foundational topics and constitutional legal ideals into an application of these topics and ideals to contemporary times. They will participate and learn through structured class simulations, college level class discussions, multimedia presentations (including the internet, documentary and feature films, broadcast news including television and radio, and a host of others), individual and group projects, formal research essays, and field trips to sites that reinforce or connect topics from class to the real world. They will begin the year reviewing the fundamental philosophies and origins of modern American political thought. They will study such great thinkers as Locke, Montesquieu, Machiavelli, and William Blackstone and their contributions to the developments of American government. Students will be able to explain how the US Constitution reflects a balance between protecting individual rights, separating powers in the governments, and granting citizens different ways to participate in political life. The goal is to engage high school students in a critical examination of their government and the exercise of their responsibilities as United States citizens especially voter empowerment.
Students will also analyze the roles, responsibilities, and leaders of the three branches of the federal, state, tribal, and local government, how leaders are selected and how they can be removed. Students will also spend time learning about and be able to summarize some landmark Supreme Court cases and how they affected individual rights in the U.S.
Throughout the year students will look at, read, and listen to a variety of media sources to understand the role and responsibility of a free press and their significance in elections, campaigns, and interest groups.
Finally, students will compare the U.S. system of government to different governmental bodies that exist in the world including communism, parliamentary democracy, dictatorships and the problems and successes associated with them.
History 12: Honors American Government
Recommended For: Seniors
Prerequisites: Applicant must have passed US History
Everyone has heard the story of the exchange between Ms. Powel and Benjamin Franklin at the close of the constitutional convention in 1789. Mrs. Powel of Philadelphia asked Benjamin Franklin, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a democracy or a monarchy?” With no hesitation whatsoever, Franklin responded, “A republic madam, if you can keep it.” The meaning of “if you can keep it” is frequently discussed in history classes. This premise of this course is that keeping our republic requires educated citizens and a free press.
This is a one semester course. It moves from a broad study of foundational topics and constitutional legal ideals into an application of these topics and ideals to contemporary times. The goal is to engage high school students in a critical examination of their government and the exercise of their responsibilities as United States citizens. Students have the opportunity to conduct discussions, research concepts, and debate with their classmates about governmental problems, contemporary political issues and the ramifications of governmental decisions. The ultimate goal of this class is to provide students with a sense of voter empowerment so they can exercise their citizen responsibility based on their knowledge of how government works.
Social Science 12: Economics (College Prep)
Recommended For: Seniors
Prerequisites: Applicant must have completed US History
In addition to studying government in grade twelve students will also master fundamental economic concepts (supply and demand, incentives, etc.) and terms and understand the concept, benefits and drawbacks of a free market economy. Students will learn how to use the tools (graphs, statistics, equations) from other subject areas to understanding of operations and institutions of economic systems (including real and nominal data) and analyze different economic behaviors and how they interact with the economy.
Student will also study in a historic context are the basic economic principles of micro and macroeconomics, international economics, comparative economic systems, measurement, and methods. Students will analyze microeconomics with a focus on supply, demand, price and the factors that influence change. They will analyze the U.S. labor market noting the current economy and labor statistics, differences in pay among professions and how the U.S. interacts with economies around the world. Students will have the opportunity to learn about alternative forms of business organizations and their impact on the economy. Students will analyze labor, wages, and distribution of goods, different market structures and their influence on the market economy.
Students will also analyze macroeconomics, focusing on aggregate economic behavior (household consumption, business investment, foreign sales and government) and the role of fiscal and monetary policy. Students will analyze international economics and trade benefits of trade, restrictions on free trade, exchange rates, balance of payments accounts, economic integration, terms of trade, economic development and the role for international trade, foreign direct investment, foreign aid and international debt.
Students will be called upon to evaluate, describe and analyze economic themes in global events. Students must be critical readers, writers and thinkers. They will use information from reading, primary sources, class discussion and lectures and individual research to be effective communicators and thus demonstrate their understanding of the historical process. There is an emphasis on inquiry and questioning which focus on being internationally minded in their analysis of history and government. Ultimately, the goal is to develop open-minded, confident and analytical students who are able to express their argument in a clear and logical manner both verbally and in writing.
Social Science 12: Honors Economics
Recommended For: Seniors
Prerequisites: Applicant must have completed US History
This one semester course is aligned to the California Standards for Social Science, grade 12. This is an inquiry based course that is intended to provide understanding of the discipline equivalent to those gained in a college-level introductory course.
Students will analyze microeconomics with a focus on supply, demand, price and the factors that influence changes. Students will have the opportunity to learn about alternative forms of business organizations and their impact on the economy. Students will analyze labor, wages, distribution of goods, different market structures and their influence on the market economy.
Students will also analyze macroeconomics, focusing on aggregate economic behavior (household consumption, business investment, foreign sales and government) and the role of fiscal and monetary policy.
Students will analyze international economics and trade benefits of trade, restrictions on free trade, exchange rates, balance of payments accounts, economic integration, terms of trade, economic development and the role fo international trade, foreign direct investment, foreign aid and international debt.
Students will be called upon to evaluate, describe and analyze economic themes in global events. Students must be critical readers, writers and thinkers. They will use information from reading, primary sources, class discussion and lectures and individual research to be effective communicators and thus demonstrate their understanding of the historical process. There is an emphasis on inquiry and questioning. The focus on being internationally minded in their analysis of history and government. Ultimately, the goal is to develop open-minded, confident and analytical students who are able to express their argument in a clear and logical manner both verbally and in writing.
Social Science: Speech & Debate
Recommended For: Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, Seniors
Prerequisites: None
A yearlong course offers instruction in the fundamentals of effective oral delivery, including body control, use of voice and diction, and analysis of audience. Instruction stresses organization, selection, and arrangement of material and use of transitions and rhetorical effects in making speeches to inform, persuade, or entertain. Supporting material, methods of research, critical thinking, logical argumentation, and effective language are applied in learning discussion and debate techniques.
Social Science: Psychology
Recommended For: Juniors, Seniors
Prerequisites: Passed Modern World History
The aim of this class is to introduce students to the main core concepts in psychology beginning with the history of psychological study and its various sub fields. Students will examine the six main lenses at which psychologists view human behavior from humanists to biological and the five schools of thought. Students will learn how the brain works in conjunction with the body and its systems This will provide a deeper understanding of how the different parts of the brain allows us to experience the world around us alongside the varying states of consciousness.
Students will spend more time on human cognition and motivation closely looking at conditioning techniques, positive and negative reinforcements and short and long term memory, as a pathway to the way we perceive intelligence, acquiring knowledge and social and behavior actions/responses. The course will touch up on motivation and sexuality to have a better understanding of human development and personality traits.
The class will end looking at various behavior disorders. The class will focus on the science of the brain and how psychologists use the scientific method in research to understand humans and their behavior on a scientific level. Students will be introduced and critically examine case studies to better understand material covered in class.