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U.S. History A Self-Paced

Syllabus

Course Essential Questions

  • To what extent does the United States live up to the ideals established in the founding documents?
  • How has the struggle for rights and opportunity been a defining feature of American history?
  • How do unresolved conflicts throughout American history continue to impact the country (us) today?

Course Learning Objectives

  • Identify and explain historical developments and processes throughout United States history.
  • Analyze and discuss primary source documents.
  • Analyze the context of historical events, developments, or processes.
  • Develop an argument based on historical evidence.

Unit 1: Foundations of American Democracy (Topics 1-2)

Unit Level Essential Questions:

  • How do the ideals set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution compare with the reality of the American experience?
  • To what extent is the Constitution a living document?
  • Should we expect elections to bring about revolutionary changes?

Topic 1: America’s Founding Documents and Ideals

Learning Objectives:

  • Develop your skills for navigating the course environment and using the various course tools
  • Compare your experience and prior knowledge of American history with our learning community
  • Evaluate the ideals established in the Declaration of Independence
  • Identify the central conflicts of the Constitutional Convention and the compromises that were made
  • Compare the different perspectives over the ratification of the Constitution

Topic 2: Early Partisan Divides

Learning Objectives:

  • Evaluate the competing visions of America of the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans
  • Identify the protections granted to American citizens under the Bill of Rights
  • Describe how foreign relations began to impact American politics

Unit 2: Growth and Challenges in a New Nation (Topics 3-5)

Unit Level Essential Questions:

  • Is economic growth sustainable?
  • Are class divisions inevitable in capitalist societies?
  • Does the expanded participation in politics make America more democratic?
  • How do the ideals of the founding documents compare with the reality of the American experience?

Topic 3: Industrialization in the North

  • Describe the effect of industrialization on producers, consumers and workers
  • Explain the impact of expanded transportation on the economy and Americans’ lives in the nineteenth century
  • Compare the different interests and priorities of emerging social classes

Topic 4: Westward Expansion and Jacksonian Democracy

  • Provide examples of the ways more Americans were becoming involved with politics and assess the impact of this expanded participation
  • Explain the Indian Removal Act and its effect on Native American people

Topic 5: Slavery, the American South and the Impact of the Slave Economy

Learning Objectives:

  • Compare the role of slavery in the agrarian economy of the South with the role of the slavery economy in the industrialized North
  • Describe the lives of enslaved people and the ways they sought to resist slavery
  • Explain the differences and similarities between free Black people and enslaved people

Unit 3: America’s Second Revolution: The Civil War (Topics 6-8)

Unit Essential Questions

  • Can moral issues be addressed by policy decisions?
  • Was the Civil War inevitable?
  • How do the ideals of the founding documents compare with the reality of the American experience?
  • Can freedom exist without economic opportunity?

Topic 6: Expansion and Growing Divides

Learning Objectives

  • Analyze critical events and policies leading to the Civil War and the connections among them
  • Explain the role of abolitionists and the abolitionist movement in impacting public perception of slavery
  • Describe the impact of the Election of 1860
  • Compare the ideals of the US Constitution and the constitution of the Confederate States of America
  • Compare the strengths and weaknesses of the Confederacy and the Union

Topic 7: The Civil War

Learning Objectives

  • Analyze the role and policies of Civil War era leaders
  • Compare the strengths and weaknesses of the Confederacy and the Union
  • Identify and describe the major turning points of the Civil War

Topic 8: Reconstruction

Learning Objectives

  • Describe the goals and policies of the differing plans for Reconstruction
  • Evaluate the impact of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments
  • Explain the reasons that Reconstruction failed
  • Analyze the impact of changes on the nation due to the Civil War and Reconstruction
  • Review and consolidate new learning in the course thus far
  • Reflect on your learning and course engagement

Unit 4: Ongoing Struggle to Expand Citizenship and Opportunity (Topics 9-12)

Unit Level Essential Questions

  • How has the West been romanticized in American culture and art?
  • How do the ideals set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution compare with the reality of the American experience?
  • What role should the government have in regulating business?
  • Has industrialization been good for Americans?
  • Who is a citizen in America?
  • Was Reconstruction destined to fail?

Topic 9: Westward Expansion and Native American Policy

Learning Objectives

  • Explain how the federal government facilitated Americans’ westward migration
  • Compare the impact of the policies of Indian removal and assimilation on Native Americans
  • Explain the discrimination and oppression faced by different groups at the turn of the 20th century

Topic 10: Industrialization, Big Business, and Labor

Learning Objectives

  • Evaluate the leaders of big business at the turn of the century as "robber barons" or "captains of industry"
  • Identify challenges faced by workers and compare the tactics of different efforts to organize workers (labor unions)
  • Explain the discrimination and oppression faced by different groups at the turn of the 20th century

Topic 11: Urbanization and Immigration

Learning Objectives:

  • Describe the different experiences and settlement patterns of major immigrant groups around the turn of the 20th century
  • Explain the discrimination and oppression faced by different groups at the turn of the 20th century

Topic 12: Challenges for Farmers, Labor Unrest & the end of federal Reconstruction

Learning Objectives:

  • Explain the economic and political challenges facing farmers around the turn of the century.
  • Analyze the impact of the end of federal Reconstruction.
  • Explain the discrimination and oppression faced by different groups at the turn of the 20th century.
  • Reflect on the progress towards achieving the founding ideals of the US and challenges and barriers that remain