U.S. History I: Goals, Course Outline, and Unit Proficiencies

 

 

TEXTBOOKS:

 

The Americans: Reconstruction through the 20th Century, Danzer et al. McDougal (CD-ROM 2008).

 

GOALS

 

1.      Students will demonstrate an understanding of the major events and themes in the history of the United States from the Revolutionary era through the Progressive Era.

  1. The course is organized around the following topics:

·         Topic one—The New Nation:  the American Revolution, Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.

·         Topic two—Civil War:  the background to the Civil War, the war between the states, and the ordeal of Reconstruction.

·         Topic three—Modern America Emerges: Urbanization, Industrialization, and the Progressive Movement.

·         Topic four—America as a World Power: Imperialism, Spanish American War.

  1. Students will trace key themes across these topics, which include 1) diversity and national identity; 2) immigration and migration; 3) the struggle for civic rights; 4) economic opportunity; and 5) America in world affairs
  2. Students will read critically, interpret and apply evidence from primary sources and secondary materials, communicate an understanding of history through oral, written, and technological means.

 

SEMESTER ONE

 

Unit 1: The American Revolution

 

1.      Overview of the colonial era

2.      Background causes of the American Revolution

3.      Political ideas and principles of The Declaration of Independence

4.      Formation of a separate American identity.

5.      The Revolutionary War and Peace of Paris

 

Unit 1 proficiencies: students will be able to

  1. Evaluate the extent of economic and political self-sufficiency that developed in the colonies in the years before the French and Indian Wars.
  2. Describe the cultural and economic differences that created regional differences in the British colonies of North America.
  3. Explain the causes and describe the results of the French and Indian War.
  4. Describe the clashes with Great Britain over regulations, tariffs, and suspension of the rights of Englishmen and explain their role as background causes of the American Revolution.
  5. Describe and assess the impact of Britain’s response to American resistance to its authority.
  6. Evaluate arguments for and against declaring independence
  7. Analyze the Enlightenment ideas, especially the ideas of John Locke, included in the Declaration’s arguments.
  8. Assess the extent to which its ideals of liberty were a reality for Americans.
  9. Assess the strengths and weaknesses of the British and American forces at the beginning of the Revolutionary War.
  10. Explain the factors that contributed to Britain’s defeat and to an American victory in the Revolutionary War and describe the terms of the peace treated that ended the American Revolutionary War.
  11. Identify the factors that contributed to the formation of an American identity—factors that changed Englishmen into Americans.

 

Unit 2: The U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights

 

  1. Weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation
  2. Conflict and compromises and the Constitutional Convention.
  3. Structure, ideas, principles and core democratic values and the US Constitution.
  4. Federalists and Antifederalists.
  5. Purpose and principles of the Bill of Rights.
  6. John Marshall and the Supreme Court.
  7. Role of the courts in the separation of powers.
  8. Issues before the Supreme Court today.

 

Unit 2  proficiencies: students will be able to

 

  1. Describe key weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation and the role of Shays’s Rebellion in the call for devising changes to the constitutional framework of the U.S.
  2. Identify the issues of conflict and explain the process of compromise at the Constitutional Convention. 
  3. Describe the key purposes that guided the framers of the Constitution.
  4. Explain the significance of the wording of the Preamble, which begins with the words “we the people…”
  5. Explain the federal structure of government created by the U.S. Constitution and evaluate the dynamic relationship between state and national power under our federal system.
  6. Identify the structure and functions of the three branches of the national government and give examples of how “separation of powers” issues created separate but overlapping areas of authority that continue to be balanced and debated today.
  7. Describe the struggle over ratification of the Constitution and the Federalist vs. Antifederalist arguments for and against ratification.
  8. Explain why the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution, identify the freedoms guaranteed by the first amendment, and identify fundamental rights established in the other amendments of the Bill of Rights.
  9. Explain and assess a strict vs. a loose constructionist approach to constitutional interpretation.
  10. Evaluate the role of John Marshall in establishing the power of an independent judiciary.
  11. Explain the role and significance of the Supreme Court in interpreting the Constitution, shaping government practice, and defining the rights of individuals.
  12.  Describe recent decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court and identify and explain the constitutional questions at the heart of each case.

   

 

Unit 3: The Civil War

 

  1. Reforms Movements
  2. Abolitionism
  3. Separate economic and cultural development of the North and the South
  4. Breakdown of consensus: states rights, economic policy, and slavery
  5. Uncle Tom’s Cabin
  6. Eve of the crisis: political conflicts of the 1850s.
  7. Escalating Violence
  8. Election of Lincoln
  9. Emancipation Proclamation
  10. The North Takes Charge

 

Unit 3  proficiencies: students will be able to

  1. Describe the emergence of pre-Civil War reform movements.
  2. Evaluate the arguments of Northern abolitionists and the counter-arguments of Southern defenders of slavery.
  3. Discuss the role of women in 19th century reform movements and the rise of the women’s rights movement.
  4. Contrast the economic development of the North and the South, describe key factors that contributed to regional economic differences, and assess the impact of economic differences on both societies.
  5. Evaluate how sectionalism, the issue of slavery in the territories, and states’ rights divided North and South in the years before the Civil War
  6. Assess the impact of the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
  7. Evaluate the impact of Uncle Tom’s Cabin on opinion in the North and the south.
  8. Trace the escalation of violence in the 1850s: “Bleeding Kansas,” Harper’s Ferry, and the trial and execution of John Brown.
  9. Describe the impact of the Fugitive Slave Act and the Dred Scott decision on Northern opinion.
  10.  Describe the impact of anti-slavery political parties and the election of Lincoln on Southern opinion.
  11. Assess the strengths and the weakness of North and South during the Civil War.
  12. Explain Lincoln’s motives for issuing the Emancipation Proclamation.
  13. Evaluate the roles of key individual in the Civil War: Lincoln, Lee, and Grant.
  14. Explain the factors that led to the Northern victory over the South.

 

Unit 4: Reconstruction, Segregation, and Discrimination

  1. Reconstruction
  2. Segregation and Discrimination
  3. Plessy v. Ferguson
  4. Mexican Americans
  5. Chinese American

 

Unit 4  proficiencies: students will be able to

  1. Contrast the Presidential plans for Reconstruction with the Congressional Plan.
  2. Explain what led to the impeachment of Andrew Johnson and the significance of the failure to convict him as a precedent.
  3. Identify important measures taken by Congress to protect the rights of African Americans during and immediately after the Civil War.
  4. Evaluate the role of Reconstruction in the failure to achieve political, social, and economic justice for African Americans in the post-Civil War era.
  5. Describe the rise of groups in opposition to Reconstruction.
  6. Explain the role of the disputed election of 1876 in ending Reconstruction.
  7. List and describe policies enacted in the South after the end of Reconstruction that imposed political and social restrictions on African Americans.
  8. Explain the Supreme Court’s legal reasoning in Plessy v. Fegurson and the controversial doctrine that the Court’s decision established, and describe its historical significance.
  9. Contrast the approaches advocated by African American leaders to for dealing with the segregation and discrimination experienced by Black Americans.
  10. Identify other groups who faced discrimination in late 19th century America.

 

SEMESTER TWO

 

Unit 5: Modern Industrial America Emerges        

  1. Rise of the railroad industry
  2. Industrialization
  3. Growth of big business
  4. Regulating industry
  5. Social Darwinism
  6. Unionization
  7. Urbanization

 

Unit 5  proficiencies: students will be able to

 

  1. Describe the social and economic impacts of the development of the transcontinental railroad system.
  2. Explain the abusive practices of the railroads and government efforts to regulate the industry.
  3. Discuss the economic and technological factors that contributed to the growth of industrialization in the late 19th century.
  4. Explain how new business methods led to the growth of giant industries as well as to efforts to regulate big business.
  5. Assess the influence to Darwin’s ideas on American social and economic attitudes.
  6. Explain the circumstances that gave rise to the union movements.
  7. Contrast craft vs. industrial unions and describe the challenges the union movement faced in organizing workers.
  8. Assess the impact of strikes, describe the trend toward violence within the union movement, and describe tactics used by business and government to weaken unions.
  9. Explain the factors that contributed to the growth of cities in the late 19th century.
  10. Describe the problems and challenges of city life and the reform efforts that emerged to address urban problems.        

 

Unit 6: Immigration

 

      Unit 6: Immigration

1.      The Causes of Immigration

2.      The New Immigrants

3.      Lives of Immigrants

4.      Nativism

5.      Naturalization and citizenship

     

      Unit 6 proficiencies: students will be able to

  1. Describe the factors that led to a dramatic increase in immigration from both Europe, Asia, and Latin America in the last third of the 19th century.
  2. Trace the journey immigrants endured, their experience passing through the immigration stations, and the challenges they faced and strategies they adopted as immigrants.
  3. Explain the causes of “nativist” opposition to immigration and the forms that anti-immigration actions took in the late 19th century.
  4. Describe the link between race and citizenship established by law and the elimination of race as a limit to naturalization.
  5. Explain the contributions of immigrants to the growth and development of United States society, culture and economy.
  6. Differentiate between naturalization and citizenship in the United States and the steps involved in becoming a U.S. citizen.
  7. Analyze legislation (existing and proposed) in dealing with illegal immigration today.

 

Unit 7: The Progressive Era

  1. Origins of the Progressive Movement
  2. Women’s suffrage movement
  3. Muckrakers
  4. Roosevelt’s Square Deal
  5. The Taft Administration
  6. Wilson’s New Freedom

 

Unit 7 proficiencies: students will be able to

  1. Define progressivism and analyze its goals for political, social, moral, and economic reform.
  2. Discuss the role of women in progressive reforms movements and the strategies women pursued in seeking the vote.
  3. Assess Theodore Roosevelt’s role in re-creating the role of the President
  4. Describe actions taken by Roosevelt that expanded the role of the federal government in regulating business, in protecting the health of citizens, and in conservation and environmentalism.
  5. Identify key muckrakers and describe the areas of society that they criticized.
  6. Describe the political and economic reforms of the Wilson administration.
  7. Contrast the approaches taken by different women’s groups to achieving suffrage.

 

Unit 8:  America in the World

 

      1. Imperialism and America

      2. Spanish-American War

      3. Acquiring New Lands

      4. America as a World Power

 

Unit 8 proficiencies: students will be able to

  1. Trace the rise of American nationalism and its impact on our society, economic

development and foreign policy.

  1. Examine the ways in which America asserted itself in world affairs at the turn of the 20th Century.
  2. Describe the course of the Spanish-American-Cuban War and its results.
  3. Identify the cause and effect of the Philippine –American War.
  4. Analyze U.S. relations with Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Philippines.
  5. Understand how American imperialism developed across the globe: Open Door Policy, Platt Amendment, Foraker Act, Boxer Rebellion, Panama Canal, Dollar Diplomacy, and Roosevelt Corollary.
  6. Explain how Theodore Roosevelt’s foreign policy promoted American power around the world.
  7. Describe how Woodrow Wilson’s Missionary Diplomacy ensured U.S. dominance in Latin America for the remainder of the 20th Century.

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