El Segundo Unified
El Segundo High School
Course Title: Basic
United States
History is a challenging course that is meant to enhance the students’ ability
to reason and think like an historian.
It is a two-semester survey of American history from the Age of
Exploration and Discovery to the present.
Emphasis is placed on critical and evaluative thinking skills, writing,
and interpretation of original documents.
In this required eleventh grade course, students analyze and evaluate
American political, social, and economic behavior during major periods in the
nation’s experience. Multiple factors
that effect continuity and change in historical settings are studied, in
addition to the outstanding contributions of individual Americans. The course traces the change in ethnic
composition of American society, the movement toward equal rights for racial
minorities and women, and the expanding role of the Federal government.
Length: One Year
Prerequisite
for Enrollment:
Individualized Education Plan
Type of
Course: Basic
COURSE OUTLINE AND STANDARDS
Based on the
1.0:
Students analyze the significant events in the founding of the nation and its
attempts to realize the philosophy of government described in the Declaration
of Independence.
1.1: Describe the
Enlightenment and the rise of democratic ideas as the context in which the
nation was founded.
1.2: Analyze the ideological origins of the
American Revolution, the Founding Fathers’ philosophy of divinely bestowed
unalienable natural rights, the debates on the drafting and ratification of the
Constitution, and the addition of the Bill of Rights.
1.3: Understand the history
of the Constitution after 1787 with emphasis on federal versus state authority
and growing democratization.
1.4: Examine the effects of
the Civil War and Reconstruction and of the industrial revolution, including
demographic shifts and the emergence in the late nineteenth century of the
2.0: Students analyze the relationship among the rise of
industrialization, large scale rural-to-urban migration, and massive
immigration from Southern and
2.1: Know the effects of
industrialization on living and working conditions, including the portrayal of
working conditions and food safety in Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle.
2.2: Describe the changing
landscape, including the growth of cities linked by industry and trade, and the
development of cities divided according to race, ethnicity, and class.
2.3: Trace the effect of
the Americanization movement.
2.4: Analyze the effect of
urban political machines and responses to them by immigrants and middle-class
reformers.
2.5: Discuss corporate
mergers that produced trusts and cartels and the economic and political
policies of industrial leaders.
2.6: Trace the economic
development of the
2.8: Examine the effect of
political programs and activities of Populists.
2.9: Understand the effect
of political programs and activities of the Progressives (e.g., federal
regulation of railroad transport, Children’s Bureau, the Sixteenth Amendment,
Theodore Roosevelt, Hiram Johnson). (Meaningful Integration of
Core Knowledge, Critical Thinking/Problem Solving,)
3.0: Students analyze the
role religion played in the founding of
lasting moral, social, and
political impacts, and issues regarding religious liberty.
3.1: Describe the
contributions of various religious groups to American civic principles and
social reform movements (e.g., civil and human rights, individual
responsibility and the work ethic, antimonarchy and self-rule, worker
protection, family-centered communities).
3.3: Cite incidences of
religious intolerance in the
3.4: Discuss the expanding
religious pluralism in the
3.5: Describe the
principles of religious liberty found in the Establishment and Free
Exercise clauses of the
First Amendment, including the debate on the issue of separation of church and
state. (Meaningful
Integration of Core Knowledge, Critical Thinking/Problem Solving, Effective
Communication, Personal/Social Development)
4.0: Students trace the rise
of the
4.1: List the purpose and
the effects of the Open Door policy.
4.2: Describe the
Spanish-American War and
4.3: Discuss
4.4: Explain Theodore
Roosevelt’s Big Stick diplomacy, William Taft’s Dollar Diplomacy, and Woodrow
Wilson’s Moral Diplomacy, drawing on relevant speeches.
4.5: Analyze the political,
economic, and social ramifications of World War I on the home
front.
5.0: Students analyze the
major political, social, economic, technological, and
cultural developments of the 1920s.
5.1: Discuss the policies
of Presidents Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover.
5.2: Analyze the
international and domestic events, interests, and philosophies that prompted
attacks on civil liberties, including the Palmer Raids, Marcus Garvey’s
“back-to-Africa” movement, the Ku Klux Klan, and immigration quotas and the
responses of organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union, the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the
Anti-Defamation League to those attacks.
5.3: Examine the passage of
the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution and the Volstead
Act (Prohibition).
5.4: Analyze the passage of
the Nineteenth Amendment and the changing role of women in society.
5.5: Describe the Harlem
Renaissance and new trends in literature, music, and art, with special
attention to the work of writers (e.g., Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes).
5.6: Trace the growth and
effects of radio and movies and their role in the worldwide diffusion of
popular culture.
5.7: Discuss the rise of
mass production techniques, the growth of cities, the impact of new
technologies (e.g., the automobile, electricity), and the resulting prosperity
and effect on the American landscape. (Meaningful Integration of Core Knowledge, Critical
Thinking/Problem Solving, Effective Communication, Personal/Social Development)
6.0: Students analyze the
different explanations for the Great Depression and how the New Deal
fundamentally changed the role of the federal government.
6.1: Describe the monetary
issues of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that gave rise to
the establishment of the Federal Reserve and the weaknesses in key sectors of
the economy in the late 1920s.
6.2: Understand the
explanations of the principal causes of the Great Depression and the steps
taken by the Federal Reserve, Congress, and Presidents Herbert
6.3: Discuss the human toll
of the Depression, natural disasters, and unwise agricultural practices and
their effects on the depopulation of rural regions and on political movements
of the left and right, with particular attention to the Dust Bowl refugees and
their social and economic impacts in
6.4: Analyze the effects of
and the controversies arising from New Deal economic policies and the expanded
role of the federal government in society and the economy since the 1930s
(e.g., Works Progress Administration, Social Security, National Labor Relations
Board, farm programs, regional development policies, and energy development
projects such as the Tennessee Valley Authority, California Central Valley
Project, and Bonneville Dam).
6.5: Trace the advances and
retreats of organized labor, from the creation of the American
Federation
of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations to current issues of a
postindustrial, multinational economy, including the United Farm Workers in
7.0: Students analyze
7.1: Examine the origins of
American involvement in the war, with an emphasis on the events that
precipitated the attack on
7.2: Explain
7.3: Identify the roles and
sacrifices of individual American soldiers, as well as the unique contributions
of the special fighting forces (e.g., the Tuskegee Airmen, the 442nd Regimental
Combat team, the Navajo Code Talkers).
7.4: Analyze
7.5: Discuss the
constitutional issues and impact of events on the
the internment of Japanese
Americans (e.g., Fred Korematsu v. United
States of America)
and the restrictions on German and Italian resident aliens; the response of the
administration to Hitler’s atrocities against Jews and other groups; the roles
of women in military production; and the roles and growing political demands of
African Americans.
7.6: Describe major
developments in aviation, weaponry, communication, and medicine and the war’s
impact on the location of American industry and use of resources.
7.7: Discuss the decision
to drop atomic bombs and the consequences of the decision (
7.8: Analyze the effect of
massive aid given to
rebuild itself after the war and the importance of a rebuilt
8.0:
Students analyze the economic boom and social transformation of post–World War
II America.
8.2: Describe the
significance of Mexican immigration and its relationship to the agricultural
economy, especially in
8.3: Examine Truman’s labor
policy and congressional reaction to it.
8.5: Describe the increased
powers of the presidency in response to the Great Depression,
World War II, and the Cold War.
8.6: Discuss the diverse
environmental regions of
8.7: Describe the effects
on society and the economy of technological developments since 1945, including
the computer revolution, changes in communication, advances in medicine, and
improvements in agricultural technology.
8.8: Discuss forms of
popular culture, with emphasis on their origins and geographic diffusion (e.g.,
jazz and other forms of popular music, professional sports, architectural and
artistic styles). (Meaningful Integration of Core Knowledge, Critical Thinking/Problem
Solving, Effective Communication, Personal/Social Development)
9.0: Students analyze
9.2: Understand the role of
military alliances, including NATO and SEATO, in deterring
communist aggression and maintaining security during the Cold
War.
9.3: Trace the origins and
geopolitical consequences (foreign and domestic) of the Cold War and
containment policy, including the following:
a. The era of McCarthyism, instances of domestic Communism (e.g., Alger Hiss) and blacklisting
b. The Truman Doctrine
c. The
d. The Korean War
e. The
f. Atomic testing in the
American West, the “mutual assured destruction” doctrine, and disarmament
policies
g. The Vietnam War
h. Latin American policy
9.4: List the effects of
foreign policy on domestic policies and vice versa (e.g., protests during the
war in
9.5: Analyze the role of
the Reagan administration and other factors in the victory of the West in the
Cold War.
9.6: Describe U.S. Middle
East policy and its strategic, political, and economic interests,
including those related to the Gulf War.
9.7: Examine relations
between the
10.0: Students analyze the
development of federal civil rights and voting rights.
10.1: Explain how demands
of African Americans helped produce a stimulus for civil rights, including
President Roosevelt’s ban on racial discrimination in defense industries in
1941, and how African Americans’ service in World War II produced a stimulus
for President Truman’s decision to end segregation in the armed forces in 1948.
10.2: Examine and analyze
the key events, policies, and court cases in the evolution of civil
rights, including Dred
Scott v. Sandford, Plessy
v.
10.3: Describe the
collaboration on legal strategy between African American and white civil rights
lawyers to end racial segregation in higher education.
10.4: Examine the roles of
civil rights advocates (e.g., A. Philip Randolph, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcom X, Thurgood Marshall,
James Farmer, Rosa Parks), including the
significance of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s
“Letter from Birmingham Jail” and “I Have a
Dream”
speech.
10.5: Discuss the diffusion
of the civil rights movement of African Americans from the churches of the
rural South and the urban North, including the resistance to racial
desegregation in Little Rock and Birmingham, and how the advances influenced
the agendas, strategies, and effectiveness of the quests of American Indians,
Asian Americans, and Hispanic Americans for civil rights and equal
opportunities.
10.6: Analyze the passage
and effects of civil rights and voting rights legislation (e.g., 1964 Civil
Rights Act, Voting Rights Act of 1965) and the Twenty-Fourth Amendment, with an
emphasis on equality of access to education and to the political process.
10.7: Analyze the women’s
rights movement from the era of Elizabeth Stanton and Susan
Anthony
and the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the movement launched in the
1960s, including differing perspectives on the roles of women. (Meaningful Integration of Core Knowledge, Critical Thinking/Problem
Solving, Effective Communication, Personal/Social Development)
11.0: Students analyze the
major social problems and domestic policy issues in
contemporary American society.
11.1: Discuss the reasons
for the nation’s changing immigration policy, with emphasis on how the
Immigration Act of 1965 and successor acts have transformed American society.
11.2: Discuss the
significant domestic policy speeches of Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy,
Johnson, Nixon, Carter,
Reagan, Bush, and Clinton (e.g., with regard to education, civil rights,
economic policy, environmental policy).
11.3: Describe the changing
roles of women in society as reflected in the entry of more women into the
labor force and the changing family structure.
11.4: Explain the
constitutional crisis originating from the Watergate scandal.
11.5: Trace the impact of,
need for, and controversies associated with environmental conservation,
expansion of the national park system, and the development of environmental
protection laws, with particular attention to the interaction
between environmental protection advocates and property rights advocates.
11.6: Analyze the
persistence of poverty and how different analyses of this issue influence
welfare reform, health insurance reform, and other social
policies.
11.7: Explain how the
federal, state, and local governments have responded to demographic and social
changes such as population shifts to the suburbs, racial concentrations in the
cities,
INSTRUCTIONAL METHODS
EVALUATION/GRADING OF STUDENT WORK
INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS