After relentless recommendations from peers and family, sophomore Kyra Jobalia enrolled in South’s Chicago History class, expecting a course that would balance engagement with a lighter workload. As the semester progressed, she found the class exceeded her expectations by offering a new understanding of the city through interactive learning and real-world connections, Jobalia said.

Chicago History is a semester-long course that explores topics ranging from Indigenous communities to modern political movements while incorporating current events throughout, Heather Chambers, Chicago History Teacher, said. The course is designed to provide students with a strong foundation that prepares them for more advanced history classes, Chambers added.

“It really helps with later courses, because it gives students so much background knowledge on United States history,” Chambers said. “We zoom in to Chicago, and then when students take U.S. history later, they already have that foundation and those connections.”

Not only does the course allow students to encounter certain topics earlier than they would in U.S. history, but it helps them connect larger events to their nearby city, a skill that will be useful in future classes, sophomore Ella Sanders, Chicago History Student, said.

“It’s interesting to learn about where we live and the overall area,” Sanders said. “We talked about things like the World’s Columbian Exposition, the Great Migration, alongside other big world events and how it shaped culture.”

The class also stands out because of its interactive format, with unique activities other than traditional lecture-based courses, Jobalia said. This makes the classroom environment much more enjoyable, she added.

“We do a bunch of activities, like stations where you go around the classroom and fill out different information at tables,” Jobalia said. “It’s a nice break from being stationary in the same room, and I feel like we do more activities than other history classes.”

Projects are a central part of the curriculum, Sanders said. For example, students are researching Chicago neighborhoods for the Ethnic Enclaves project, Sanders said. This involves students  presenting findings on demographics, culture, and history, Sanders added. The class curriculum has also adapted over time by breaking lessons into shorter segments with different activities in effort to maintain student focus and encourage deeper understanding, Chambers explained.

“We noticed that we have to break things down into multiple pieces or multiple mediums to teach it,” Chambers said. “Before it would be like a long lecture or documentary, but now we include more movement and different ways of learning so students stay engaged.”

The class made learning more meaningful by connecting history to student’s own lives, Jobalia said. The assignments, field trips, and the course content help students see their surroundings differently and better understand Chicago’s identity, Jobalia explained.

“On a trip to the city, I saw a bunch of monuments and different areas that I didn’t have knowledge about previously,” Jobalia said. “But now that I’m in this class, I know much more about the history of places, so it’s definitely changed the way I see Chicago.”