(Approximately 8 – 10 weeks)
Students Will Understand:
- Patterns of settlement and how colonization increased rivalries between participating nations.
- How overlapping claims lead to disputes and war between the nations of Europe.
- Why the nations of Europe sought new routes to the riches of East Asia.
Guiding Questions:
- What other discoveries were made by those nations searching for a route to Asia?
- How did English land claims in North America create frictions among its rivals?
- What were the reasons for the various English colonists coming to America?
- How did each of the 13 English colonies treat the indigenous people they encountered?
- How did geography shape the economic patterns of subsistence in the 13 colonies?
- How did each of the 13 colonies develop their own governments?
- How did the 13 colonies develop regional differences that were largely dictated by geographic factors?
Unit 2: Road to Revolution and Independence
(Approximately 8 – 10 weeks)
Students Will Understand:- The major causes that led to the 13 English colonies fighting for its independence.
- The birth of Democratic ideas beginning in the 13 English colonies
- The major strategies, people, events, turning points, and battles of the American
Guiding Questions:
- Why was the French and Indian so important and why can it also be seen as an actual cause of the Revolution?
- What early democratic ideas can be seen in the Albany Plan of Union and Taxation without Representation?
- Why are the pre-revolutionary events such as the taxes, the Boston Massacre, and the Boston Tea party, so important to our nation’s history?
- How did George Washington and the Continental Army facing enormous odds fight from New England thru the Middle Colonies and eventually win the War in the South?
- How did the Continental Congress come together and make decisions to lead the colonies through theAmerican Revolution?
- What were the ideas and people behind the creation of the Declaration of Independence?
- What were the strengths and weaknesses of the country’s first plan of government in theArticles of Confederation?
Unit 3: The Evolution of Government - The Constitution
(Approximately 2 - 3 weeks)
Students Will Understand:
- How the Constitution was created out of what could be salvaged from the prior government and how it continues to evolve to this day.
- Why the framers chose a unique democratic-republic based on the ideals of capitalism.
- How the 3 branches of government work and specific jobs of each branch.
Guiding Questions:
- On what fundamental principles did the Founding fathers base their systems of government?
- Why was the central government under the Articles of Confederation purposely designed as weak?
- How did it come to pass that the need was perceived for the creation of a new and better form of government?
- What were the major goals of the new government and what compromises had to be struck in order to reach the desired consensus for agreement?
- What are the basic components for the government framework of the U.S. Constitution?
- What are the basic principles of American democracy?
- What safeguards for individual rights and liberties were incorporated into the new United States Constitution?
- Why is the United States Constitution considered to be a “living” document?
Unit 4 Westward and Territorial Expansion of the U.S.
(Approximately 8 – 10 Weeks)
Students Will Understand:
- The political, economic, social, geographic, and environmental factors that contributed to
- The basic geography of the United States as it changed as we moved west.
- The United States philosophy of Manifest Destiny and how it provided the rationale for the
- America’s expansion beyond the contiguous 48 states and how we now had to deal with foreign nations.
Guiding Questions:
- How did the basic geography of the United States change as a result of territorial acquisitions?
- Why did the United States feel compelled to expand its territorial boundaries?
- How would the process by which American westward expansion was accomplished impact the Native Americans?
- How would American westward expansion enable the nation to achieve what it believed to be its geographic destiny and clear fate?
- In accomplishing it goal of westward and territorial expansion, how would American actions lead to tensions between cultures and to conflicts?
- How were the acquired territories later divided into states which could then enter the union at varied times?
- By what specific processes did the United States acquire and settle the newly acquired lands?
- What did the United States gain from the lands acquired; what mineral and natural resources, raw materials, and how was the land itself of strategic geographic importance?
- How has the acquisition of new territories helped to make America a nation of blended cultures?
Unit 5: Road to Civil War
(Approximately 8 – 10 Weeks)
Students Will Understand:
- The sectional differences that began to divide the country through
- Why the south relied on being agricultural while the north became more industrial.
- The cultural changes that came about in theearly to mid-1800s.
- The major strategies, people, events, turning points, and battles of the Civil War.
Guiding Questions:
- What different beliefs in the north and the south allowed for the term sectionalism to be used to describe the country?
- What different inventions led to an economic boom in both the north and the south?
- How did the Abolitionist movement have an effect on an eventual end to slavery?
- What major compromises were created as new states was added to the Union?
- What major issues were unavoidable and eventually led to war?
- What were the major battles and issues of theCivil War and its outcome?