This GROWING Modern American History curriculum covers topics from Reconstruction to the Post-Cold War Era in U.S. History. It provides a No-Prep, Year-Long Curriculum with informational text workbooks, meaning no textbook is needed!
Reading passages incorporate comprehension skills tasks, annotations directions, and other literacy-development tools. Also included are interactive hands-on activities, research, lesson plans, assessments, and more! In addition, student workbooks, PowerPoints, and tests are Google compatible, which allows for digital learning.
*Units to be added:
– Progressive Era Mini-Book
– The Cold War Full Unit
All units are easy to use with independent learners, teacher-guided instruction, or a mix of both.
Need an Early American History Bundle? Click HERE! Or- get both bundles combined into a MEGA American/U.S. History Bundle!
Please note: Resources are not editable. For a better understanding of the material provided in this bundle, please click “View Preview” near the thumbnails at the top of the page, and check out the “SUGGESTED PACING GUIDE” on the last page of the preview. Continue reading below, where specific topics and content in each unit are described.
**INCLUDED:
– 5 Full Units
– 1 Read & Research Unit
– Mini-Books for mini-units
– 1 Historical Snapshot resource
– Introductory and closing units/activities for the year
——— Included in FULL UNITS ———
- Student Workbooks with Informational Text- No textbook needed!
- Embedded Reading Skills Tasks: Annotations Directions, Guided Notes, Checks for Understanding (Main Idea, Summarize, Cause & Effect, Draw a Conclusion, Compare & Contrast).
- Study Guide.
- Interactive Notebook / Lapbook Activities for hands-on learning.
- PowerPoints for teacher read alouds (fully aligned with the Student Workbook).
- A Teacher Guide: Scripted Lesson Plans, Teacher Prep Checklists, Learning Goals, Answer Keys.
- An End-of-Unit Test
- Google Compatible Workbooks and PowerPoints (Google Slides)
——– Included in READ & RESEARCH UNITS ———
- Student Workbooks with Informational Text- No textbook needed!
- Embedded Reading Skills Tasks: Annotations Directions, Checks for Understanding (Main Idea, Summarize, Cause & Effect, Draw a Conclusion, Compare & Contrast).
- Two optional research tasks- included in the Student Workbook.
- Interactive Flip Books.
- PowerPoints for teacher read alouds (fully aligned with the Student Workbook).
- A Teacher Guide: Unit Preparation Page with suggested websites for research, Answer Keys.
- An End-of-Unit Test
- Google Compatible Workbooks and PowerPoints (Google Slides)
——– Included in MINI-BOOKS ———
- Student-friendly directions for mini-book creation.
- Informational Reading Passages with directions for annotating and embedded reading skills tasks.
- Interactive Flip Cards to summarize content.
- An Assessment with Answer Key.
——— Included in HISTORICAL SNAPSHOTS ———-
- Informational Reading Passages with directions for annotating and embedded reading skills tasks.
- Cover Page for student binders
- An end-of-lesson assessment
- Answer Keys for reading skills tasks and the assessment
__________________________________________________________________
**UNITS & TOPICS:
SOCIAL STUDIES BASICS (7-10 day Introductory Unit):
- Topics: What is Social Studies (5 Themes, types of Social Scientists). Think like a Social Scientist: 1. Perspective, 2. Fact v. Opinion, 3. Reliable Sources (Primary & Secondary).
LEARNING ABOUT MAPS (7-10 day Introductory Unit):
- Topics: Map Basics (How to read a map, Map components). The Continents & Oceans. Political Maps. Physical Maps. Road Maps. Longitude & Latitude. Hemispheres & Directions.
WOMEN’S RIGHTS MOVEMENT (Mini-Book)
Topics:
- Seneca Falls Convention, activism, and achievements- like the 19th Amendment. SIX Women’s Rights Activists are highlighted:
1. Elizabeth Cady Stanton
2. Lucretia Mott
3. Frederick Douglass
4. Sojourner Truth
5. Susan B. Anthony
6. Jane Addams
RECONSTRUCTION (Historical Snapshot)
Topics:
1. A Summary of the American Civil War (Causes, Results)
2. Reunifying and Healing the Nation (Casualty numbers, Lincoln’s Plan, Military Zones, 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments)
3. Efforts to help Formerly Enslaved People (Freedmen’s Bureau, 40 Acres and a Mule)
4. Limiting Freedoms and Rights (Sharecropping, Black Codes, Jim Crow Laws, Compromise of 1877)
5. The Effects of Reconstruction (Plessy v. Ferguson, KKK, Great Migration, Tulsa Massacre, Ida B. Wells, NAACP, Harlem Renaissance)
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION (Read & Research)
Lesson 1: The Beginning of Industrialization. (Cotton Gin, Manufacturing, Pre & Post-Civil War Industry)
Lesson 2: The Industrial Revolution. (Inventions- Spinning Jenny, Steam Engine, Telegraph, Mechanical Reaper, Steel Plow. Transportation- Erie Canal, Transcontinental RR. Urbanization)
Lesson 3: People of Industry
* Inventors (George Washington Carver, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison)
* Industrialists (Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Carnegie, Ford)
* Laborers (Immigrants, Children, Women, African Americans)
* Immigrants (Irish, Germans, Chinese)
Lesson 4: Effects of Industrialization: (Cheaper goods, medicine and science, poor living and working conditions, unions, women’s rights, Muckrakers & laws)
U.S. IMMIGRATION (Mini-Book)
Topics:
*Industrial Revolution, Push-Pull factors of immigration, Ellis and Angel Islands, Contributions of immigrants, Nativism and discrimination against immigrants. Four immigrant groups are highlighted:
1. Irish
2. Germans
3. Chinese
4. Italians
WORLD WAR I (Full Unit)
Lesson 1- The World Before the War:
- Industrialization (impacts in the U.S. and Europe)
- Imperialism: Europe- Indochina, China, Africa, India. United States- Monroe Doctrine, Spanish-American War, Roosevelt Corollary
Lesson 2- Cause of The Great War:
- MAIN Causes: Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism, Nationalism)
- The Balkans: The “Powder Keg”
- Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Lesson 3- The War Begins:
- Germany’s “Blank Check”
- Alliance- Allied and Central Powers
- U.S. Neutrality
- Weapons of War: Artillery, Machine Guns, Tanks, Poison Gas, Submarines
- Trench Warfare
Lesson 4- The U.S. Enters the War:
- Sinking of the Lusitania, Russia Withdrawal, Zimmerman Telegram
- U.S. Propaganda
- Americans Contribute
-Rationing, Victory Gardens, and Liberty Bonds
-Harlem Hellfighters
-Women (Nurses, Rosie the Riveter)
-Code Talkers
-American Pilots: the Lafayette Escadrille
Lesson 5- The End of the War:
- Final Battles (Somme, Marne, Hundred Days Offensive) and the Armistice
- Casualties by country, Armenian Genocide
- Paris Peace Conference: The Big Four and Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points, League of Nations
- The Treaty of Versailles
GREAT DEPRESSION & ROARING 20’S (Full Unit)
Lesson 1- The Roaring Twenties:
- Post WWI World & A Booming US Economy
- Women’s Rights, Jazz Music, Flappers, & Prohibition
- Harlem Renaissance
- Famous 1920’s People (F. Scott Fitzgerald, Bessie Smith, Duke Ellington, Zora Neale Hurston, Charlie Chaplin, Babe Ruth, Louis Armstrong, Clara Bow, Langston Hughes)
Lesson 2- Causes of The Great Depression:
- Overproduction
- Wealth Gap
- Stock Market Crash (Black Tuesday)
- Bank Runs
- Efforts by Herbert Hoover
Lesson 3- Effects of The Great Depression:
- Unemployment
- Bank Failures
- Hoovervilles
- Global Effects
- The Dust Bowl
Lesson 4- FDR and the New Deal:
- Election of 1932
- FDR’s Fireside Chats
- The New Deal (Relief, Recovery, Reform: 12 different New Deal programs)
- The Effects of the New Deal
WORLD WAR II (Full Unit)
Lesson 1- The Rise of Dictators:
- Post-WWI Instability: Bolshevik Revolution, Treaty of Versailles impacts, Weakness of the League of Nations
- Fascism: Benito Mussolini in Italy, Adolf Hitler in Germany
- Emperor Hirohito in Japan
Lesson 2- The War Begins:
- European Theater: German Anschluss & Treaty violation, Munich Agreement, Appeasement, Invasion of Poland, Battle of Dunkirk, Battle of Britain, Operation Barbarossa (invasion of the Soviet Union)
- Pacific Theater: Japan’s need for resources, Nanjing Massacre, Hong Kong, Philippines, and Pacific Islands
- Alliances
- U.S. Neutrality
Lesson 3- The U.S. Joins the War:
- Attack on Pearl Harbor
- Japanese-American Internment Camps
- American War Efforts: Women, Rationing, Code Talkers, Tuskegee Airmen, Douglas MacArthur & Dwight Eisenhower
Lesson 4- The Holocaust:
- Anti-Semitism & the Nuremburg Race Laws
- Kristallnacht
- Nazi Propaganda
- Ghettos and Camps (Warsaw Ghetto)
- The Final Solution & Extermination Camps (Auschwitz-Birkenau)
Lesson 5- The Tide of War Changes:
- Turning Point Battles (Midway, Stalingrad, D-Day)
- Yalta and Potsdam Conferences
- V-E Day: Liberation of Auschwitz, Battle of Berlin
- V-J Day: Manhattan Project, Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Lesson 6- The Aftermath:
- Casualties
- The United Nations & Universal Declaration of Human Rights
- Nuremburg & Tokyo Trials
- Zones of Occupation, Israel, Arms Race
CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT (Full Unit)
Lesson 1- A History of Discrimination & Violence:
- Jim Crow Laws, Poll Tax, Literacy Tests, KKK
- 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre
- Plessy v. Ferguson
- White Flight
- Early Black Leaders: Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, Marcus Garvey
Lesson 2- The Movement Begins:
- Truman & the Desegregation of the Armed Forces
- Jackie Robinson breaks the color barrier in the MLB
- Brown v. Board, Little Rock Nine, Ruby Bridges
- The Lynching of Emmett Till
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Rosa Park, Thurgood Marshall
- Montgomery Bus Boycott
Lesson 3- The Movement Grows: Civil Disobedience:
- Greensboro Four, Sit-ins, SNCC
- Freedom Riders
- MLK: Letter From a Birmingham Jail, March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
- 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing
- Freedom Summer
- Selma-Montgomery March, Bloody Sunday
Lesson 4- Change is Made:
- 24th Amendment, Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965
- Loving v. Virginia
- Assassinations- Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, MLK Jr.
- Legacy- Anti-Apartheid Movement, Title IX, Disabled in Action, Shirley Chisolm
***COLD WAR & THE PROGRESSIVE ERA u… Coming Soon!
END-OF- YEAR SOCIAL STUDIES ACTIVITIES:
Included:
US MAPS ACTIVITIES
– Three Map Activities
- States & Capitals
- Physical Features
- 5 U.S. Regions
– Blank, printable maps.
– Student-friendly directions.
– “Check for Understanding” Self-Assessments.
– Sample, completed maps to use as guides.
– A Teacher Guide
- Teacher Outline
- Links to Google compatible resources
- Answer Keys for self-assessments
US SONGS AND ANTHEMS
Three Songs/Anthems:
- Pledge of Allegiance
- Start-Spangled Banner (National Anthem)
- America the Beautiful
– 1-page reading with song/anthem lyrics and background information.
– Scavenger Hunt Reading Tasks:
- “Find Me” short answers.
- “Complete Me” fill-in-the-blank answers.
- “Summarize Me” short-written response.
– “Make your own Word Wall” reading and craft activity.
Teacher Guide
- Teacher Suggestions.
- Link to a Google compatible resource.
- Answer Keys for scavenger hunt tasks.
‘JOURNEY THROUGH HISTORY’ PROJECT OPTIONS:
Project 1- Social Studies on a String:
- Teacher Guide
- Images of Sample Project
- Student Directions
- Templates for three project themes- “Where I’ve Been”, “Who I met”, and “What was Awesome”.
Project 2- Cereal Box Collage:
- Teacher Guide
- Images of Sample Project
- Student Directions
- Student “Brainstorming Page”
Project 3- 3-D Community Project:
- Teacher Guide
- Images of Sample Projects
- Student Directions
- Student “Brainstorming Page”
– Editable Grading Rubric
– Editable Letter Home to Parent/Guardian
Extras:
SOCIAL STUDIES ACCESSORIES PACKAGE
– Great addition to your lesson planning and student experiences!
SOCIAL STUDIES THEMES: CLASSROOM AND STUDENT BINDER POSTERS
READING SKILLS & COMPREHENSION- CLASSROOM AND STUDENT BINDER POSTERS
**Friendly Reminder: LICENSING TERMS: This purchase includes a license for one teacher only for personal use in their classroom. Licenses are non-transferable, meaning they cannot be passed from one teacher to another. No part of this resource is to be shared with colleagues or used by an entire grade level, school, or district without purchasing the proper number of licenses. If you are a coach, principal, or district interested in transferable licenses to accommodate yearly staff changes, please contact me for a quote at tonythetourist1@gmail.com. Thank you for respecting my terms!
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