Hello 5^th/6^th Grade parents/guardians,

 

I am Mr. Coughlin. I will be your child’s Social Studies teacher for the 2015-16 academic year. My classroom is Room 211. Your child will see me 90-minutes each class, every other day. For the days your child does not have Social Studies, they will have Science with Mrs. Romei in Room 308.

 

There was a post made by Ms. Knudsen (5th grade Math teacher) last week on the Thorp website regarding general questions we covered in our individual homerooms at Open House. Here is a link to those questions: https://n8r.afd.myftpupload.com/parent-open-house-2015/

 

The Thorp website (for my classes), Google Classroom, Parent Portal, etc. are currently in the process of being put together since I was just hired last week. You will receive notification once everything is up and running (thank you for your patience!). I will use these frequently so you are able to track what is going on in my class and how your child is doing in Social Studies.

 

We have an amazing, brand new curriculum for 5th & 6th Grade Social Studies this year! The class focuses on World History. For the 5th Graders, we will cover the first half of the textbook, which is approximately 12 chapters in 5 different units. 6^th graders will cover the first unit of the book (because it serves as a great introduction to World History and prepares students for the rest of the textbook) and the second half of the book.

 

Here are the units each grade level will cover:

 

5^th Grade:

• Early Humans and Societies
• Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Kush
• Civilization in India and China
• Foundations of Western Ideas
• The Roman World

 

6^th Grade:

• Early Humans and Societies
• Islamic and African Civilizations
• Empires of Asia and the Americas
• Renewal in Europe
• The Early Modern World
• The Modern World

 

My goal for the year is to make World History as interesting as possible for the students since this is the first time they are really covering it in school. There will be many activities and projects that not only create an interest in history for the students, but also teach them a wide variety of skills that will help them throughout their academic career.

 

This is my first year teaching full-time at O.A. Thorp Scholastic Academy. I was a substitute teacher here last school year and loved every minute of it! If you have any other questions, comments, concerns, etc., please contact me at vcoughlin@cps.edu.

 

Happy First Week of School!

 

 

– Vince Coughlin