U.S. History
Bowen High School United States History
Bowen High School's United States History curriculum looks at the human experience through the lens of disenfranchised groups. The Core Units of the course include American Insurrection, American Expansion, American Mobilization for War, Reparations: Police Brutality and Jon Burge on the SouthSide of Chicago and Beyond, Social Stratification in America, The Role of Government, and Conspiracy Theories and Missing Persons. While students will be taking the CPS and State-Required Constitution/Public Law Exam, United States History is NOT about memorizing facts, dates, or names. Our U.S. History courses emphasize skills alongside content: Our goal is to ensure that students are able to identify main ideas and concepts, analyze maps, charts, tables, and use their ever-evolving critical thinking skills to identify historical/contemporary issues, trends, and patterns. Bowen’s Social Science teachers aim for argumentative and disciplinary literacy in all students, which also prepares them for required standardized tests, such as PSAT, SAT, ACT, and more.
We also believe that it’s not just the content that matters, it’s how we deliver our instruction. Technology is a significant element in how we develop young people. We have classroom Chromebooks and use timely news, documentaries, and various websites to enhance our classroom environments.
Our goals are to challenge students to exceed beyond what they thought was possible. The U.S. History classroom also helps students become advocates and agents of change at Bowen High School and in the City of Chicago. Students who take U.S. History will have the opportunity to earn two Service Learning Projects throughout the year, one on Police Brutality through the CPS Reparations Curriculum, and one as a Conspiracy Theory/Missing Persons Podcast Creation Unit.
What Makes Bowen’s U.S. History Different?
Bowen High School’s United States History coursework is student-centered and encourages students to work together through guided and independent document analysis of primary and secondary sources in a variety of mediums. We will work in satellite classroom spaces to allow students to create their own podcasts, as well as to conduct outreach beyond the classroom for Service Learning projects. Bowen High School’s Social Studies teachers implement a variety of different literacy strategies, use multimedia sources to help meet and engage students, with the hope of pushing them to achieve higher, and provide varied complexities of texts for students. We encourage stakeholders in the South Chicago neighborhood and community to get involved, to encourage our Boilermakers in their studies, and foster a positive impact for the future of our students.
Have questions for your student’s Social Science teacher? Check out our Staff Directory and contact us today!
Differentiated United States History Courses
- Honors U.S. History
- General Education U.S. History
- Co-Taught U.S. History
- Instructional U.S. History