As students become more acquainted with the concept of grappling with history, I want students to realize that knowledge is power; particularly literacy. Building skills in reading and writing will be invaluable to my students now and throughout their lives. Given that many of my students will be entering my classroom below their designated reading level, it is my job to integrate literacy building as a backbone of my curriculum through DBQ’s, primary sources and relevant articles. Increasing literacy in the classroom will allow for students to further explore our world and the stories that we are told. More importantly, building literacy will empower my students to share their own stories with the world and make their own meaningful contributions to history.My students will be pushed to a high academic standard and will be challenged with high school materials. Students will make connections as they interpret difficult primary sources across a number of mediums and build upon their worldviews. Additionally, I want my students to realize that without struggle, there can be no progress, both inside and outside of the classroom. My class will feature an emphasis on student improvement as 100% of students will be expected and deemed capable to reach their growth goals for the course. Additionally, students will maintain an average of 80% mastery on all unit assessments. In my class students will be challenged to move beyond elementary social studies skills such as identification and memorization of facts into more rigorous assignments of evaluation and critical thinking as they engage in DBQ writing strategies and other primary sources. I hope to inspire my students to seize accountability for their futures and learn how to reach goals in a step by step process by creating a culture of achievement in the classroom. My vision is for reaching goals to become a habit for my students.