Michael Kazin, professor of History at Georgetown University, explores the turbulent two decades between World War I and World War II. He describes the radical shifts in American political power and social institutions during that time. This lecture is part one of two. Click for part two.
A.E. Dick Howard, White Burkett Miller Professor of Law and Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, analyzes the changes in the Supreme Court from the Warren Court of the 1960s to the Rehnquist era.
Historian James T. Patterson discusses his book Restless Giant: The United States From Watergate to Bush v. Gore. He looks at the United States during the final quarter of the 20th century, from the 1970s to the election of 2000. This is part one of a two-part lecture.
The Ad Council has been producing public service announcements attempting to affect change in society and serve the public interest for nearly 70 years. The campaigns take the form of print, radio, and television advertisements. They have run the spectrum of societal issues, from "Rosie the Riveter" and the campaign to place women in war jobs to contemporary ads related to predatory lending. The Ad Council has brought us memorable characters like Smokey Bear, McGruff the Crime Dog, and Vince and Larry (the two crash test dummies who convinced us to wear seat belts). But what do these public advertising campaigns say about America? How can we use these ad campaigns to better understand U.S. history?
Through analyzing the ads we can isolate time periods in history and understand what were believed to be the most pressing societal issues of the time. These campaigns tried to decrease behaviors that were believed to lead to social problems or promote behaviors that would lead to a better society. Thus, in seeking to understand the advertisements, we can help students uncover the contemporaneous sociology of the ad campaign.
You can begin by exploring the Ad Council's Historic Campaigns that highlight some of the more notable campaigns in the last 70 years. Each campaign is complete with background information and some have links to PSA videos associated with the campaign. An even more complete retrospective of past advertising campaigns is maintained by the Advertising Educational Foundation and can be accessed here.
I have found the site particularly useful in helping students understand more recent history. For instance, few would disagree that, socially, the 1980s were rocked by the AIDS epidemic. The site highlights PSAs to prevent the spread of AIDS, which represent a dramatic shift in societal norms with the public call for condom use. The ads on crime prevention featuring McGruff the Crime Dog also help illuminate the 1980s. These ads coincide with America's "war on drugs" and emphasis on law and order during the 1980s. 1970s culture was epitomized by environmental awareness featuring Ad Council PSAs showing Native Americans distraught to find their territory littered. These ads and more can be found in the Historic Campaigns section.
Teaching with advertisements as primary sources is beneficial in two ways. One, students are exposed to yet another example of primary sources that come with their own unique set of historical questions. Two, by learning how to unpack the intent of advertisements on people of the past, students are more apt to be able to recognize advertising manipulation in the present. The Ad Council dedicates a page of resources for educators that includes useful links and frequently asked questions. These pages also identify current advertising campaigns, which might be useful for students to identify some of the important topics of today compared to the important issues they find in earlier decades.
Before having students analyze advertisements as primary sources, it is important to model for students how advertisements should be read. Students should also be made aware of the strengths and limitations of using advertisements to understand the past. An excellent overview of these strengths and weaknesses can be found on page 11 of this guide to primary sources, from the Smithsonian's History Explorer, along with questions to guide students in analyzing advertisements.
A natural fit to teaching U.S. history through public service announcements would be to have students create their own PSAs. Students could be given a list of pertinent social issues to a particular time period or could be asked to research important topics on their own. Students could write a script and use a pocket camcorder to record their PSA. Editing could be done using iMovie, Windows MovieMaker, or any number of free online video editing tools. The purpose of the assignment is to help students understand the changing nature of social issues in the United States.
Another idea is to have students research the effectiveness of given historic campaigns. The Ad Council maintains a database of reports and figures related to the success of various PSAs. This is a condensed version highlighting the impact of the Ad Council's more famous campaigns. The purpose here is to help students see how effective advertising not only convinces people to buy products, but also can convince people to change behavior for the common good.
The Ad Council works to address the most significant social issues of the day. With that purpose, the Ad Council offers a unique look into making sense of our social past by revealing important issues of the time. Advertisements offer students an opportunity to interpret an overlooked type of primary source of the past and establish connections to the present.
Looking for more guidelines on using ads in the classroom? Historian Daniel Pope helps you make sense of advertisements, and historian Roger Horowitz analyzes historical documents behind 1950s potato chip advertising campaigns. This syllabus from a university history course also walks you through the steps of analyzing an ad.
Search our Website Reviews using the keyword "advertisement" for reviews of more than 200 websites featuring archived advertisements.
Does anyone know a solid, one-stop shop for interactive simulation and activities for high level, college-bound U.S. history students? I am looking to freshen up some of my units and I thought these might be fun. I am specifically looking for one-day activities that engage students (there can be homework before and after).
While the web is full of great resources for the history classroom, you’ll have to narrow your search in order to find simulations. The most efficient way to start is to head to sites offering lesson plans, and to search within them for simulations.
One great resource for lesson plans is the work of Teaching American History grant partners, which is often posted online. The Danbury, CT TAH project, for instance, has a number of lesson plans on its website, including a number of simulations relevant for an American history class. Fitchburg State University also has a number of lesson plans online, including a simulation on the causes of the Civil War.
Another kind of web resource to explore is the work of states and school districts. One good example of this kind of resource is SCORE, the Schools of California Online Resources for Education site, which has a number of resources for classroom teachers including simulations for U.S. history classes. Some come from outside sources like Harper’s Weekly online, which hosts a simulation on Reconstruction, while others, like a simulation on immigration, are created by classroom teachers.
Colleges and universities are also rich sources for materials, often providing creative approaches to classroom instruction. The University of North Carolina School of Education has a number of lesson plans and ideas online, including a simulation on fugitive slaves. Columbia University, through Columbia American History Online, also offers lesson plans, like a simulation of pre-Civil War efforts at compromise.
Yet another good place to look for resources is an aggregating site like Best of History Websites or the National History Education Clearinghouse. At the former of those sites, you can find links to resources like the Day in the Life of a Hobo podcast—a creative simulation focusing on the Great Depression. At the latter of those two sites, you can find a number of resources, including a link to a simulation game exploring the impeachment of Andrew Johnson. Interact also has classroom ready simulations about U.S. and world history, which can be purchased by your school.
Good luck with your search!
(Note: By the completion of twelfth grade, Iowa students are expected to master the following standards.)
Behavioral sciences include, but are not limited to, the areas of sociology, anthropology and psychology. In addressing these disciplines the actions and reactions of humans are studied through observational and experimental methods.
Understand the historical development of the behavioral sciences and the changing nature of society.
Understand the influences on individual and group behavior and group decision making.
Understand current social issues to determine how the individual is able to formulate opinions and responds to those issues.
Understand how social status, social groups, social change, and social institutions influence individual and group behaviors.
Understand the process of how humans develop, learn, adapt to their environment, and internalize their culture.
Understand how personality and agents of socialization impact the individual.
Economics addresses the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The concept of scarcity is understood to mean that available resources are insufficient to satisfy the wants and needs of everyone. Economics is therefore founded upon the alternative use of available resources and the study of choices.
Understand the function of common financial instruments.
Understand the role of scarcity and economic trade-offs and how economic conditions impact people’s lives
Understand the functions of economic institutions.
Understand how governments throughout the world influence economic behavior.
Understand how universal economic concepts present themselves in various types of economies throughout the world.
Understand the local, state, regional, national, and international factors that create patterns of interdependence in the global economy.
Understand the impact of advancing technologies on the global economy.
Geography is the study of the interaction between people and their environments. Geography therefore looks at the world through the concepts of location, place, human-environmental interaction, movement, and region.
Understand the use of geographic tools to locate and analyze information about people, places, and environments.
Understand how physical and human characteristics create and define regions.
Understand how human factors and the distribution of resources affect the development of society and the movement of populations.
Understand how physical and human processes shape the Earth’s surface and major ecosystems.
Understand how human actions modify the environment and how the environment affects humans
Understand how culture affects the interaction of human populations through time and space.
Understand how cultural factors influence the design of human communities.
History is the study and analysis of the past. Built upon a foundation of historical knowledge, history seeks to analyze the past in order to describe the relationship between historical facts, concepts, and generalizations. History draws upon cause and effect relationships within multiple social narratives to help explain complex human interactions. Understanding the past provides context for the present and implications for the future.
Understand historical patterns, periods of time, and the relationships among these elements.
Understand how and why people create, maintain, or change systems of power, authority, and governance.
Understand the role of culture and cultural diffusion on the development and maintenance of societies.
Understand the role of individuals and groups within a society as promoters of change or the status quo.
Understand the role of individuals and groups within a society as promoters of change or the status quo.
Understand the effects of geographic factors on historical events.
Understand the role of innovation on the development and interaction of societies.
Understand cause and effect relationships and other historical thinking skills in order to interpret events and issues.
Political science is the study of power and authority through the examination of political processes, governmental institutions, and human behavior in a civil society. In this context the study of civics is understood to include the form and function of government. Civic literacy encompasses civics but also addresses the individual’s social and political participation.
Understand the rights and responsibilities of each citizen and demonstrate the value of lifelong civic action.
Understand how the government established by the Constitution embodies the enduring values and principles of democracy and republicanism.
Understand the purpose and function of each of the three branches of government established by the Constitution.
Understand the differences among the complex levels of local, state and national government and their inherent, expressed, and implied powers.
Understand strategies for effective political action that impact local, state, and national governance.
Understand how law and public policy are established at the local, state, and national levels of government.
Understand how various political systems throughout the world define the rights and responsibilities of the individual.
Understand the role of the United States in current world affairs.
Students demonstrate how structures of power, authority, and governance have developed historically and continue to evolve.
Students describe unique freedoms, rights, and responsibilities of living in a democratic society and explain their interrelationships.
Students explain and/or demonstrate how to participate in the political processes and express personal beliefs and convictions.
Students explain the historical development of the U.S. Constitution and how it has shaped the U.S. and Wyoming governmental systems.
Students demonstrate an understanding of the major distinguishing characteristics of the United States and Wyoming Constitutions.
Students demonstrate an understanding of the U.S. civil and criminal legal systems and distinguish differences between those systems.
Students demonstrate an understanding of different cultures and how these cultures have contributed and continue to contribute to the world in which they live.
Students explain how various cultural influences impact society.
Students communicate how shared cultural experiences influence peoples' perceptions of prominent historical figures, groups, institutions, and world events.
Students demonstrate an understanding of economic principles and concepts and describe the influence of economic factors on individuals and societies.
Students explain how different economic systems are organized for production, distribution and consumption of goods and services.
Students formulate solutions to economic problems.
Students describe the impacts of global economic interdependence.
Students demonstrate an understanding of economic principles that influence individual financial planning.
Students demonstrate an understanding of the people, events, problems, ideas, and cultures that were significant in the history of our community, state, nation and world.
Students analyze the interactions among individuals and groups and their impact on significant historical events.
Students analyze current events to better understand the world in which they live.
Students evaluate the impact of technology and how it has shaped history and influenced the modern world.
Students explain how past events impact the present and the future.
Students demonstrate an understanding of interrelationships among people, places, and environments.
Students interpret charts, maps, and graphs to answer questions dealing with people, places, events, or environments.
Students analyze how physical characteristics of the earth and human interactions with the environment have affected the development of societies, cultures, and individuals.
Students demonstrate an ability to organize and process information about people, places, and environments.
People, Places and Environments: Students in Wisconsin will learn about geography through the study of the relationships among people, places, and environments.
Use various types of atlases and appropriate vocabulary to describe the physical attributes of a place or region, employing such concepts as climate, plate tectonics, volcanism, and landforms, and to describe the human attributes, employing such concepts as demographics, birth and death rates, doubling time, emigration, and immigration.
Analyze information generated from a computer about a place, including statistical sources, aerial and satellite images, and three-dimensional models.
Construct mental maps of the world and the world's regions and draw maps from memory showing major physical and human features.
Analyze the short-term and long-term effects that major changes in population in various parts of the world have had or might have on the environment.
Use a variety of geographic information and resources to analyze and illustrate the ways in which the unequal global distribution of natural resources influences trade and shapes economic patterns.
Collect and analyze geographic information to examine the effects that a geographic or environmental change in one part of the world, such as volcanic activity, river diversion, ozone depletion, air pollution, deforestation, or desertification, may have on other parts of the world.
Collect relevant data to analyze the distribution of products among global markets and the movement of people among regions of the world.
Identify the world's major ecosystems and analyze how different economic, social, political, religious, and cultural systems have adapted to them.
Identify and analyze cultural factors, such as human needs, values, ideals, and public policies, that influence the design of places, such as an urban center, an industrial park, a public project, or a planned neighborhood.
Analyze the effect of cultural ethics and values in various parts of the world on scientific and technological development.
Describe scientific and technological development in various regions of the world and analyze the ways in which development affects environment and culture.
Assess the advantages and disadvantages of selected land use policies in the local community, Wisconsin, the United States, and the world.
Give examples and analyze conflict and cooperation in the establishment of cultural regions and political boundaries.
Time, Continuity, and Change: Students in Wisconsin will learn about the history of Wisconsin, the United States, and the world, examining change and continuity over time in order to develop historical perspective, explain historical relationships, and analyze issues that affect the present and the future.
Explain different points of view on the same historical event, using data gathered from various sources, such as letters, journals, diaries, newspapers, government documents, and speeches.
Analyze primary and secondary sources related to a historical question to evaluate their relevance, make comparisons, integrate new information with prior knowledge, and come to a reasoned conclusion.
Recall, select, and analyze significant historical periods and the relationships among them.
Assess the validity of different interpretations of significant historical events.
Gather various types of historical evidence, including visual and quantitative data, to analyze issues of freedom and equality, liberty and order, region and nation, individual and community, law and conscience, diversity and civic duty; form a reasoned conclusion in the light of other possible conclusions; and develop a coherent argument in the light of other possible arguments.
Select and analyze various documents that have influenced the legal, political, and constitutional heritage of the United States.
Identify major works of art and literature produced in the United States and elsewhere in the world and explain how they reflect the era in which they were created.
Recall, select, and explain the significance of important people, their work, and their ideas in the areas of political and intellectual leadership, inventions, discoveries, and the arts, within each major era of Wisconsin, United States, and world history.
Select significant changes caused by technology, industrialization, urbanization, and population growth, and analyze the effects of these changes in the United States and the world.
Select instances of scientific, intellectual, and religious change in various regions of the world at different times in history and discuss the impact those changes had on beliefs and values.
Compare examples and analyze why governments of various countries have sometimes sought peaceful resolution to conflicts and sometimes gone to war.
Analyze the history, culture, tribal sovereignty, and current status of the American Indian tribes and bands in Wisconsin.
Analyze examples of ongoing change within and across cultures, such as the development of ancient civilizations; the rise of nation-states; and social, economic, and political revolutions.
Explain the origins, central ideas, and global influence of religions, such as Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, and Christianity.
Identify a historical or contemporary event in which a person was forced to take an ethical position, such as a decision to go to war, the impeachment of a president, or a presidential pardon, and explain the issues involved.
Describe the purpose and effects of treaties, alliances, and international organizations that characterize today's interconnected world.
Identify historical and current instances when national interests and global interests have seemed to be opposed and analyze the issues involved.
Explain the history of slavery, racial and ethnic discrimination, and efforts to eliminate discrimination in the United States and elsewhere in the world.
Power, Authority, Governance, and Responsibility: Students in Wisconsin will learn about political science and acquire the knowledge of political systems necessary for developing individual civic responsibility by studying the history and contemporary uses of power, authority, and governance.
Identify the sources, evaluate the justification, and analyze the implications of certain rights and responsibilities of citizens.
Describe how different political systems define and protect individual human rights.
Trace how legal interpretations of liberty, equality, justice, and power, as identified in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and other Constitutional Amendments, have changed and evolved over time.
Explain the multiple purposes of democratic government, analyze historical and contemporary examples of the tensions between those purposes, and illustrate how governmental powers can be acquired, used, abused, or legitimized.
Analyze different theories of how governmental powers might be used to help promote or hinder liberty, equality, and justice, and develop a reasoned conclusion.
Identify and analyze significant political benefits, problems, and solutions to problems related to federalism and the separation of powers.
Describe how past and present American political parties and interest groups have gained or lost influence on political decision-making and voting behavior.
Locate, organize, analyze, and use information from various sources to understand an issue of public concern, take a position, and communicate the position.
Identify and evaluate the means through which advocates influence public policy, and identify ways people may participate effectively in community affairs and the political process.
Evaluate the ways in which public opinion can be used to influence and shape public policy.
Explain the United States' relationship to other nations and its role in international organizations, such as the United Nations, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and North American Free Trade Agreement.
Describe and evaluate ideas of how society should be organized and political power should be exercised, including the ideas of monarchism, anarchism, socialism, fascism, and communism; compare these ideas to those of representative democracy; and assess how such ideas have worked in practice.
Explain and analyze how different political and social movements have sought to mobilize public opinion and obtain governmental support in order to achieve their goals.
Describe and analyze the origins and consequences of slavery, genocide, and other forms of persecution, including the Holocaust.
Describe the evolution of movements to assert rights by people with disabilities, ethnic and racial groups, minorities, and women.
Production, Distribution, Exchange, Consumption: Students in Wisconsin will learn about production, distribution, exchange, and consumption so that they can make informed economic decisions.
Explain how decisions about spending and production made by households, businesses, and governments determine the nation's levels of income, employment, and prices.
Use basic economic concepts (such as supply and demand; production, distribution, and consumption; labor, wages, and capital; inflation and deflation; market economy and command economy) to compare and contrast local, regional, and national economies across time and at the present time.
Analyze and evaluate the role of Wisconsin and the United States in the world economy.
Explain and evaluate the effects of new technology, global economic interdependence, and competition on the development of national policies and on the lives of individuals and families in the United States and the world.
Explain how federal budgetary policy and the Federal Reserve System's monetary policies influence overall levels of employment, interest rates, production, and prices.
Use economic concepts to analyze historical and contemporary questions about economic development in the United States and the world.
Compare, contrast, and evaluate different types of economies (traditional, command, market, and mixed) and analyze how they have been affected in the past by specific social and political systems and important historical events.
Explain the basic characteristics of international trade, including absolute and comparative advantage, barriers to trade, exchange rates, and balance of trade.
Explain the operations of common financial instruments (such as stocks and bonds) and financial institutions (such as credit companies, banks, and insurance companies).
Analyze the ways in which supply and demand, competition, prices, incentives, and profits influence what is produced and distributed in a competitive market system.
Explain how interest rates are determined by market forces that influence the amount of borrowing and saving done by investors, consumers, and government officials.
Compare and contrast how values and beliefs, such as economic freedom, economic efficiency, equity, full employment, price stability, security, and growth, influence decisions in different economic systems.
Describe and explain global economic interdependence and competition, using examples to illustrate their influence on national and international policies.
Analyze the economic roles of institutions, such as corporations and businesses, banks, labor unions, and the Federal Reserve System.
Individuals, Institutions, and Society: Students in Wisconsin will learn about the behavioral sciences by exploring concepts from the discipline of sociology, the study of the interactions among individuals, groups, and institutions; the discipline of psychology, the study of factors that influence individual identity and learning; and the discipline of anthropology, the study of cultures in various times and settings.
Summarize research that helps explain how the brain's structure and function influence learning and behavior.
Explain how such factors as physical endowment and capabilities, family, gender, ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic status, attitudes, beliefs, work, and motivation contribute to individual identity and development.
Compare and describe similarities and differences in the ways various cultures define individual rights and responsibilities, including the use of rules, folkways, mores, and taboos.
Analyze the role of economic, political, educational, familial, and religious institutions as agents of both continuity and change, citing current and past examples.
Describe the ways cultural and social groups are defined and how they have changed over time.
Analyze the means by which and extent to which groups and institutions can influence people, events, and cultures in both historical and contemporary settings.
Use scientific methods to assess the influence of media on people's behavior and decisions.
Analyze issues of cultural assimilation and cultural preservation among ethnic and racial groups in Wisconsin, the United States, and the world.
Defend a point of view related to an ethical issue such as genetic engineering, declaring conscientious objector status, or restricting immigration.
Describe a particular culture as an integrated whole and use that understanding to explain its language, literature, arts, traditions, beliefs, values, and behaviors.
Illustrate and evaluate ways in which cultures resolve conflicting beliefs and practices.
Explain current and past efforts of groups and institutions to eliminate prejudice and discrimination against racial, ethnic, religious, and social groups such as women, children, the elderly, and individuals who are disabled.
Compare the ways in which a universal theme is expressed artistically in three different world cultures.
Use the research procedures and skills of the behavioral sciences (such as gathering, organizing, and interpreting data from several sources) to develop an informed position on an issue.
Identify the skills needed to work effectively alone, in groups, and in institutions.
Identify and analyze factors that influence a person's mental health.
Examine and describe various belief systems that exist in the world, such as democracy, socialism, and capitalism.
The student understands and applies knowledge of government, law, politics, and the nation's fundamental documents to make decisions about local, national, and international issues and to demonstrate thoughtful, participatory citizenship.
Understands key ideals and principles of the United States, including those in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and other fundamental documents.
Analyzes and evaluates the ways in which the U.S. Constitution and other fundamental documents promote key ideals and principles.
Evaluates how well court decisions and government policies have upheld key ideals and principles in the United States.
Understands the purposes, organization, and function of governments, laws, and political systems.
Evaluates the effectiveness of the system of checks and balances during a particular administration, court, Congress, or legislature.
Understands the purposes and organization of international relationships and United States foreign policy.
Analyzes and evaluates the causes and effects of U.S. foreign policy on people in the United States and the world in the past or present.
Understands civic involvement.
Analyzes and evaluates ways of influencing local, state, and national governments to preserve individual rights and promote the common good.
The student applies understanding of economic concepts and systems to analyze decision-making and the interactions between individuals, households, businesses, governments, and societies.
Understands that people have to make choices between wants and needs and evaluate the outcomes of those choices.
Analyzes the incentives for people's economic choices in the United States in the past or present.
Understands how economic systems function.
Understands that nations have competing philosophies about how best to produce, distribute, and consume goods, services, and resources.
Analyzes how comparative advantage has affected United States imports and exports in the past or present.
Understands the government's role in the economy.
Evaluates the role of the U.S. government in regulating a market economy in the past or present.
Understands the economic issues and problems that all societies face.
Analyzes and evaluates how people in the United States have addressed issues involved with the distribution of resources and sustainability in the past or present.
The student uses a spatial perspective to make reasoned decisions by applying the concepts of location, region, and movement and demonstrating knowledge of how geographic features and human cultures impact environments.
Understands the physical characteristics, cultural characteristics, and location of places, regions, and spatial patterns on the Earth's surface.
Analyzes information from geographic tools, including computer-based mapping systems, to draw conclusions on an issue or event.
Analyzes how differences in regions and spatial patterns have emerged in the United States from natural processes and human activities.
Understands human interaction with the environment.
Analyzes and evaluates human interaction with the environment in the United States in the past or present.
Analyzes cultural interactions.
Analyzes the causes and effects of voluntary and involuntary migration in the United States in the past or present.
Understands the geographic context of global issues and events.
Analyzes and evaluates elements of geography to trace the emergence of the United States as a global economic and political force in the past or present.
The student understands and applies knowledge of historical thinking, chronology, eras, turning points, major ideas, individuals, and themes in local, Washington State, tribal, United States, and world history in order to evaluate how history shapes the present and future.
Understands historical chronology.
Understands how the following themes and developments help to define eras in U.S. history:
Our foundations (1776 - 1791).
Industrialization and the emergence of the United States as a world power (1890 - 1918).
Reform, prosperity, and the Great Depression (1918 - 1939).
World War II, the Cold War, and international relations (1939 - 1991).
Movements and domestic Issues (1945 - 1991).
Entering a new era (1991 - present).
Understands and analyzes causal factors that have shaped major events in history.
Evaluates how individuals and movements have shaped the United States (1890 - present).
Analyzes how cultures and cultural groups have shaped the United States (1890 - present).
Analyzes and evaluates how technology and ideas have shaped U.S. history (1890 - present).
Understands that there are multiple perspectives and interpretations of historical events.
Analyzes differing interpretations of events in U.S. history (1890 - present).
Analyzes multiple causes of events in U.S. history, distinguishing between proximate and long-term causal factors (1890 - present).
Uses history to understand the present and plan for the future.
Analyzes how an understanding of United States history can help us prevent problems today.
The student understands and applies reasoning skills to conduct research, deliberate, form, and evaluate positions through the processes of reading, writing, and communicating.
Uses critical reasoning skills to analyze and evaluate positions.
Analyzes the underlying assumptions of positions on an issue or event.
Evaluates the depth of a position on an issue or event.
Uses inquiry-based research.
Evaluates and revises research questions to refine inquiry on an issue or event.
Evaluates the validity, reliability, and credibility of sources when researching an issue or event.
Deliberates public issues.
Creates and articulates possible alternative resolutions to public issues and evaluates these resolutions using criteria that have been identified in the context of a discussion.
Creates a product that uses social studies content to support a thesis and presents the product in an appropriate manner to a meaningful audience.
Evaluates and interprets other points of view on an issue within a paper or presentation.
Skills
The student will demonstrate skills for historical and geographical analysis, including the ability to
Identify, analyze, and interpret primary and secondary source documents, records, and data, including artifacts, diaries, letters, photographs, journals, newspapers, historical accounts, and art to increase understanding of events and life in the United S
Evaluate the authenticity, authority, and credibility of sources;
Formulate historical questions and defend findings based on inquiry and interpretation;
Develop perspectives of time and place, including the construction of maps and various time lines of events, periods, and personalities in American history;
Communicate findings orally and in analytical essays and/or comprehensive papers;
Develop skills in discussion, debate, and persuasive writing with respect to enduring issues and determine how divergent viewpoints have been addressed and reconciled;
Apply geographic skills and reference sources to understand how relationships between humans and their environment have changed over time;
Interpret the significance of excerpts from famous speeches and other documents.
The student will describe how early European exploration and colonization resulted in cultural interactions among Europeans, Africans, and American Indians (First Americans).
The student will describe how the values and institutions of European economic life took root in the colonies and how slavery reshaped European and African life in the Americas.
The student will demonstrate knowledge of events and issues of the Revolutionary Period by
Analyzing how the political ideas of John Locke and those expressed in Common Sense helped shape the Declaration of Independence;
Describing the political differences among the colonists concerning separation from Britain;
Analyzing reasons for colonial victory in the Revolutionary War.
The student will demonstrate knowledge of the issues involved in the creation and ratification of the Constitution of the United States and how the principles of limited government, consent of the governed, and the social co
Explaining the origins of the Constitution, including the Articles of Confederation;
Identifying the major compromises necessary to produce the Constitution, and the roles of James Madison and George Washington;
Describing the conflict over ratification, including the Bill of Rights and the arguments of the Federalists and Anti-Federalists.
Examining the significance of the Virginia Declaration of Rights and the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom in the framing of the Bill of Rights;
The student will demonstrate knowledge of the major events during the first half of the nineteenth century by
Identifying the economic, political, and geographic factors that led to territorial expansion and its impact on the American Indians (First Americans);
Describing the key features of the Jacksonian Era, with emphasis on federal banking policies;
Describing the cultural, economic, and political issues that divided the nation, including slavery, the abolitionist and women's suffrage movements, and the role of the states in the Union.
The student will demonstrate knowledge of the Civil War and Reconstruction Era and its importance as a major turning point in American history by
Identifying the major events and the roles of key leaders of the Civil War Era, with emphasis on Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, and Frederick Douglass;
Analyzing the significance of the Emancipation Proclamation and the principles outlined in Lincoln's Gettysburg Address;
Examining the political, economic, and social impact of the war and Reconstruction, including the adoption of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution of the United States.
The student will demonstrate knowledge of how the nation grew and changed from the end of Reconstruction through the early twentieth century by
Explaining the relationship among territorial expansion, westward movement of the population, new immigration, growth of cities, and the admission of new states to the Union;
Describing the transformation of the American economy from a primarily agrarian to a modern industrial economy and identifying major inventions that improved life in the United States;
Analyzing prejudice and discrimination during this time period, with emphasis on ''Jim Crow'' and the responses of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois;
Identifying the impact of the Progressive Movement, including child labor and antitrust laws, the rise of labor unions, and the success of the women's suffrage movement.
The student will demonstrate knowledge of the emerging role of the United States in world affairs and key domestic events after 1890 by
Explaining the changing policies of the United States toward Latin America and Asia and the growing influence of the United States in foreign markets;
Evaluating United States involvement in World War I, including Wilson's Fourteen Points, the Treaty of Versailles, and the national debate over treaty ratification and the League of Nations;
Explaining the causes of the Great Depression, its impact on the American people, and the ways the New Deal addressed it.
The student will demonstrate knowledge of World War II by
Identifying the causes and events that led to American involvement in the war, including military assistance to Britain and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor;
Describing the major battles and turning points of the war in North Africa, Europe, and the Pacific, including Midway, Stalingrad, the Normandy landing (D-Day), and Truman's decision to use the atomic bomb to force the surrender of Japan;
Describing the role of all-minority military units, including the Tuskegee Airmen and Nisei regiments;
Describing the Geneva Convention and the treatment of prisoners of war during World War II;
Analyzing the Holocaust (Hitler's ''final solution''), its impact on Jews and other groups, and postwar trials of war criminals.
The student will demonstrate knowledge of the effects of World War II on the home front by
Explaining how the United States mobilized its economic, human, and military resources;
Describing the contributions of women and minorities to the war effort;
Explaining the internment of Japanese Americans during the war;
Describing the role of media and communications in the war effort.
The student will demonstrate knowledge of United States foreign policy since World War II by
Describing outcomes of World War II, including political boundary changes, the formation of the United Nations, and the Marshall Plan;
Explaining the origins of the Cold War, and describing the Truman Doctrine and the policy of containment of communism, the American role in wars in Korea and Vietnam, and the role of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Europe;
Explaining the role of America's military and veterans in defending freedom during the Cold War;
Explaining the collapse of communism and the end of the Cold War, including the role of Ronald Reagan.
The student will demonstrate knowledge of the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s by
Identifying the importance of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, the roles of Thurgood Marshall and Oliver Hill, and how Virginia responded;
Describing the importance of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the 1963 March on Washington, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The student will demonstrate knowledge of economic, social, cultural, and political developments in the contemporary United States by
Analyzing the effects of increased participation of women in the labor force;
Analyzing how changing patterns of immigration affect the diversity of the United States population, the reasons new immigrants choose to come to this country, and their contributions to contemporary America;
Explaining the media influence on contemporary American culture and how scientific and technological advances affect the workplace, health care, and education.