U.S. History 2

COURSE OVERVIEW

This course is required of all sophomores and is a survey and analysis of how and why the United States became the foremost power of today. The course offers students a lively chronological history of the U.S., from the end of the Civil War to the present. The major purpose of teaching American History is to provide the students with a general overview of the U.S. History, to help students gain insights into relationships among people, ideas and events as they learn the significant facts of American history, and to help students have a better understanding of history and its study.  Focus is divided between learning course content (history) and process (map skills, reading comprehension, etc.).

• Identify and explain the key aspects of the Civil War.
• Review the major events of the Civil War.
• Identify and analyze how conditions after the Civil War led to Reconstruction.
• Identify and explain the significance of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.
• Identify and analyze Black Codes and Jim Crow laws.
• Analyze the system of sharecropping.
• Identify the rise and tactics of the Ku Klux Klan.
• Identify the factors that caused changes in the lives of Western Native Americans and life on the Western Frontier
• Identify how certain technological advances led to the growth of industry.
• Identify different Captains of Industry and the various American Industries that grew in the 19th Century.
• Analyze the life of Andrew Carnegie.
• Analyze the growth and development of the Pittsburgh area including our local Fort Cherry area.
• Analyze social, political and economic changes that occurred in America at the turn of the century.
• Identify the new kinds of performances and recreation enjoyed at the turn of the century.
• Examine how African Americans lived at the turn of the 20th century.
• Examine the issues in the debate over women’s equality.
• Identify the main causes of World War One and how the conflict quickly expanded.
• Identify how the U.S. responded to the outbreak of World War and how they eventually were drawn into war.
• Identify the major events of World War One and their locations on a map.
• Identify the new advances brought about by World War One.
• Identify the outcomes of World War One.
• Identify and explain the significant economic and social changes in America during the 1920’s.
• Analyze the rise of Jazz music in America.
• Identify and analyze the causes and effects of the Stock Market Crash and the Great Depression.
• Compare and contrast the various responses to the Great Depression both politically and socially.
• Identify the main causes of World War Two and how the U.S. responded.
• Identify the major events of World War Two and their locations on a map.
• Analyze the repercussions of World War Two decisions and their impacts on the globe.
• Identify the causes of the Cold War.
• Identify how the Cold War affected Americans.
• Identify how the Cold War led to the Korean War and Vietnam.
• Identify the technological advances that occurred in the 1950’s and the social changes they brought about.
• Identify and analyze the major causes and events of the Civil Rights Movement in America.
• Identify the major events politically and socially that occurred during the Vietnam Era.

Reading Informational Text

CC.8.5.9-10.A: Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, attending to such features as the date and origin of the information.

CC.8.5.9-10.B: Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text.

CC.8.5.9-10.C: Analyze in detail a series of events described in a text; determine whether earlier events caused later ones or simply preceded them.

CC.8.5.9-10.D: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary describing political, social, or economic aspects of history/social science.

CC.8.5.9-10.E: Analyze how a text uses structure to emphasize key points or advance an explanation or analysis.

CC.8.5.9-10.F: Compare the point of view of two or more authors for how they treat the same or similar topics, including which details they include and emphasize in their respective accounts.

CC.8.5.9-10.G: Integrate quantitative or technical analysis (e.g., charts, research data) with qualitative analysis in print or digital text.

CC.8.5.9-10.H: Assess the extent to which the reasoning and evidence in a text support the author’s claims.

CC.8.5.9-10.I: Compare and contrast treatments of the same topic in several primary and secondary sources.

CC.8.5.9-10.J: By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend history/social studies texts in the grades 9–10 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

Writing

CC.8.6.9-10.A: Write arguments focused on discipline-specific content.

• Introduce precise claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and create an organization that establishes clear relationships among the claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence.
• Develop claim(s) and counterclaims fairly, supplying data and evidence for each while pointing out the strengths and limitations of both claim(s) and counterclaims in a discipline-appropriate form and in a manner that anticipates the audience’s knowledge level and concerns.
• Use words, phrases, and clauses to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships between claim(s) and reasons, between reasons and evidence, and between claim(s) and counterclaims.
• Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing.
• Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from or supports the argument presented.

CC.8.6.9-10.B: Write informative/explanatory texts, including the narration of historical events, scientific procedures/ experiments, or technical processes.

• Introduce a topic and organize ideas, concepts, and information to make important connections and distinctions; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., figures, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.
• Develop the topic with well-chosen, relevant, and sufficient facts, extended definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples appropriate to the audience’s knowledge of the topic.
• Use varied transitions and sentence structures to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships among ideas and concepts.
• Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to manage the complexity of the topic and convey a style appropriate to the discipline and context as well as to the expertise of likely readers.
• Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing.
• Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation presented (e.g., articulating implications or the significance of the topic).

CC.8.6.9-10.C: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

CC.8.6.9-10.D: Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience.

CC.8.6.9-10.E: Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology’s capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically.

CC.8.6.9-10.F: Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.

CC.8.6.9-10.G: Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the usefulness of each source in answering the research question; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.

CC.8.6.9-10.H: Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

CC.8.6.9-10.I: Write routinely over extended time frames (time for reflection and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.

Unit:  An Era of Growth and Disunion

Lessons:

• Reconstruction, 1865-1877

Unit:  Migration and Industrialization

Lessons:

• Changes on the Western Frontier, 1877-1900
• A New Industrial Age, 1877-1900
• Immigrants and Urbanization, 1877-1914
• Life at the Turn of the 20th Century, 1877-1917

Unit:  Modern American Emerges

Lessons:

• The Progressive Era, 1890-1920
• America Claims an Empire, 1890-1920
• The First World War, 1914-1920

Unit:  The 1920s and the Great Depression

Lessons:

• Politics of the Roaring Twenties, 1919-1929
• The Roaring Life of the 1920s, 1920-1929
• The Great Depression Begins, 1929-1933
• The New Deal, 1933-1940

Unit:  World War II and its Aftermath

Lessons:

• World War Looms, 1931-1941
• The United States in World War II, 1941-1945
• Cold War Conflict, 1945-1960
• The Postwar Boom, 1946-1960

Unit:  Living with Great Turmoil

Lessons:

• The New Frontier and the Great Society, 1960-1968
• Civil Rights, 1954-1968
• The Vietnam War Years, 1954-1975