11th Grade
United States History

Big Idea: Legality vs Morality

HSS Standard 11.1.4. 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 United States as a world power

Activity: Students will use the U.S. constitution and determine how the former Confederacy used then-legal methods to keep former slaves in poverty and regain control of the southern states.

Big Idea: Cities and Monopolies

HSS Standard 11.2.2 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.

Activity: Students will learn how cities are designed and compare that design to the design of rural areas by trying to place as many building blocks as possible in an outlined area.

HSS Standard 11.2.5 Discuss corporate mergers that produced trusts and cartels and the economic and political policies of industrial leaders.

Activity: Students will understand how monopolies are formed and function by participating in a hypothetical situation in which they control all gasoline companies and explain how they would determine prices under their monopoly.

HSS Standard 11.2.7 Analyze the similarities and differences between the ideologies of Social Darwinism and Social Gospel (e.g., using biographies of William Graham Sumner, Billy Sunday, Dwight L. Moody).

Big Idea: Negotiation Tactics and U.S. Interests

HSS Standard 11.4.2 Describe the Spanish-American War and U.S. expansion in the South Pacific.

HSS Standard 11.4.4 Explain Theodore Roosevelt’s Big Stick diplomacy, William Taft’s Dollar Diplomacy, and Woodrow Wilson’s Moral Diplomacy, drawing on relevant speeches.

Activity: Students will debate which form of diplomacy is the most efficient: Big Stick, Dollar, or Moral and explain their arguments by providing examples from the lesson as well as personal examples.

HSS Standard 11.4.5 Analyze the political, economic, and social ramifications of World War I on the home front.

Activity: Students will engage in a debate discussing the Wilson Administration's efforts to silence criticism of U.S. involvement in World War 1.

ELD Standards:

1. Exchanging information/ideas
Contribute to class, group, and partner discussions, sustaining conversations on a variety of age and grade-appropriate academic topics by following turn-taking rules, asking and answering relevant, on-topic questions, affirming others, and providing coherent and well-articulated comments and additional information.

5. Listening actively
Demonstrate comprehension of oral presentations and discussions on a variety of social and academic topics by asking and answering detailed and complex questions that show thoughtful consideration of the ideas or arguments with light support.

6. Reading/viewing closely
Explain ideas, phenomena, processes, and relationships within and across texts (e.g., compare/contrast, cause/effect, themes, evidence-based argument) based on close reading of a variety of grade-level texts, presented in various print and multi-media formats, using a variety of detailed sentences and precise general academic and domain-specific words.

HSS Standard 11.10.1 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.

HSS Standard 11.10.2 Examine and analyze the key events, policies, and court cases in the evolution of civil rights, including Dred Scott v. Sandford, Plessy v. Ferguson, Brown v. Board of Education, Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, and California Proposition 209.

HSS Standard 11.10.4 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.

HSS Standard 11.10.6 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.

ELD Standards

1. Exchanging information/ideas
Contribute to class, group, and partner discussions, sustaining conversations on a variety of age and grade-appropriate academic topics by following turn-taking rules, asking and answering relevant, on-topic questions, affirming others, and providing coherent and well-articulated comments and additional information.

5. Listening actively
Demonstrate comprehension of oral presentations and discussions on a variety of social and academic topics by asking and answering detailed and complex questions that show thoughtful consideration of the ideas or arguments with light support.

11. Justifying/arguing
Justify opinions or persuade others by making connections and distinctions between ideas and texts and articulating sufficient, detailed, and relevant textual evidence or background knowledge by using appropriate register.

Literacy Standards

Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on- one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11–12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

Respond thoughtfully to diverse perspectives; synthesize comments, claims, and evidence made on all sides of an issue; resolve contradictions when possible; and determine what additional information or research is required to deepen the investigation or complete the task.

Big Idea: Race vs Content of Character

HSS Standard 11.9.3.Trace the origins and geopolitical consequences (foreign and domestic) of the Cold War and containment policy, including the following: The era of McCarthyism, instances of domestic Communism (e.g., Alger Hiss) and blacklisting

Activity for 1st Lesson:
Students will form into groups and will pick which excerpts they want to read or listen to(audio book provided on unit plan website)

The options for excerpts are 1984 by George Orwell and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

Students will then make a KWL chart and fill out each section of the chart.

Once students fill out the chart, they will enter into a group discussion describing how the government in 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 operate in terms of dealing with those accused of a crime.

Section 2: The Music Industry During the Cold War

HSS Standard 11.8 Students analyze the
economic boom and social
transformation of post–World War II America.
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)

ELD Standards

1. Exchanging information/ideas
Contribute to class, group, and partner discussions, sustaining conversations on a variety of age and grade-appropriate academic topics by following turn-taking rules, asking and answering relevant, on-topic questions, affirming others, and providing coherent and well-articulated comments and additional information.

5. Listening actively
Demonstrate comprehension of oral presentations and discussions on a variety of social and academic topics by asking and answering detailed and complex questions that show thoughtful consideration of the ideas or arguments with light support.

6. Reading/viewing closely
a. Explain ideas, phenomena, processes, and relationships within and across texts (e.g., compare/contrast, cause/effect, themes, evidence-based argument) based on close reading of a variety of grade-level texts, presented in various print and multi-media formats, using a variety of detailed sentences and precise general academic and domain-specific words.

Literacy Standards

4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including analyzing how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term over the course of a text.

Literacy Standards

Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media in order to address a question or solve a problem.

Present information, findings, and supporting evidence (e.g., reflective, historical investigation, response to literature presentations), conveying a clear and distinct perspective and a logical argument, such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning, alternative or opposing perspectives are addressed, and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and a range of formal and informal tasks. Use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation.

Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on- one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11–12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

ELD Standards

Exchanging information and ideas with others through oral collaborative discussions on a range of social and academic topics.

Supporting Opinions and Persuading Others: Negotiate with or persuade others in discussions and conversations in appropriate registers (e.g., to acknowledge new information and politely offer a counterpoint)

Big Idea: Changing Political
Culture and Pop Culture

Big Idea: Fighting for Human Rights
at home and abroad.

HSS Standard 11.7.1 Examine the origins of American involvement in the war, with an emphasis on the events that precipitated the attack on Pearl Harbor.

ELD Standards

3. Supporting opinions and persuading others Negotiate with or persuade others in discussions and conversations in appropriate registers (e.g., to acknowledge new information and politely offer a counterpoint) using a variety of learned phrases, and open responses to express and defend nuanced opinions.

Justify opinions or persuade others by making connections and distinctions between ideas and texts and articulating sufficient, detailed, and relevant textual evidence or background knowledge by using appropriate register.

6. Reading/viewing closely

a. Explain ideas, phenomena, processes, and relationships within and across texts based on close reading of a variety of grade-level texts, presented in various print and multi-media formats, using a variety of detailed sentences and precise general academic and domain-specific words.

Literacy Standards

Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness, or beauty of the text.

Determine two or more central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex analysis; provide an objective summary of the text.

Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media in order to address a question or solve a problem.

HSS Standard 11.7.5 Discuss the constitutional issues and impact of events on the U.S. home front, including 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.

Activity: Students will debate on the following topic addressing FDR's decision to relocate Japanese Americans to concentration camps:
In times of war, which is more important? Liberty or Security?

HSS Standard 10.8.5. Analyze the Nazi policy of pursuing racial purity, especially against the European Jews; its transformation into the Final Solution; and the Holocaust that resulted in the murder of six million Jewish civilians.

Webercise Activity: Students will form into groups and will use their cellphones to access the internet and answer one of the question sets.

Set 1: Questions regarding Holocaust Survivors:

What is their name?

What did they do before the Holocaust?
Where did they hide?(If applicable)

Did they get caught?(If applicable)

What camp were they sent to?(If applicable)

What did they do after the war?

Set 2: Questions regarding Heroes of the Holocaust:

What is their name?

What did they do before the Holocaust?

What did they do to protect Jews from the Nazi Party?

Were they successful?

If yes, how many Jews were they able to save?

If not, were they punished for protecting Jews?

HSS Standard 11.7.7 Discuss the decision to drop atomic bombs and the consequences of the decision (Hiroshima and Nagasaki).

Activity: Students will debate on the following topic:
In times of war and conflict, do the ends justify the means?

Big Idea: Changing the Role of
the Federal Government

HSS Standard 11.6.1 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.

ELD Standards

Listening actively

Demonstrate comprehension of oral presentations and discussions on a variety of social and academic topics by asking and answering detailed and complex questions that show thoughtful consideration of the ideas or arguments with light support.

Presenting

Plan and deliver a variety of oral presentations and reports on grade-appropriate topics that express complex and abstract ideas, well supported by evidence and reasoning, and are delivered by using an appropriate level of formality and understanding of register.

HSS Standard 11.6.2 Understand the explanations of the principal causes of the Great Depression and the steps taken by the Federal Reserve, Congress, and Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin Delano Roosevelt to combat the economic crisis.

HSS Standard 11.6.4 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).

Literacy Standards

1. Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on- one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11–12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

4. Present information, findings, and supporting evidence (e.g., reflective, historical investigation, response to literature presentations), conveying a clear and distinct perspective and a logical argument, such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning, alternative or opposing perspectives are addressed, and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and a range of formal and informal tasks. Use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation.

Activity: Students will discuss how the role of the Federal Government changed during the Great Depression.

HSS Standard 11.6.3. 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 California.

Activity: Students will understand how comic book characters were used to boost morale and alleviate the psychological toll the Depression had on Americans.
They will create their own hero/anti-hero in order to boost the morale of the American public during the depression era.

Big Idea: Challenging the Status Quo

HSS Standard 11.5.1. Discuss the policies of Presidents Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover.

Activity: Students will discuss the morality and legality of the Palmer Raids in order to restore national security.

HSS Standard 11.5.3. Examine the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution and the Volstead Act (Prohibition).

Activity: Students will participate in the Box Test simulating the era of Prohibition. The Instructions are as follows:

I will place 3 boxes in the middle of the class.
These Boxes have items inside that might be useful for students.
If the students choose to open one box, they will be able to keep the item that is inside the box.
However, opening one box has negative consequences.
The students who open one of the boxes will lose 10 participation points which is the equivalent of today’s debate.(this is just to trick them into following the rules. The students won't lose any points)

If one student(3 at max) choose to break the rules and claim a box and keep its contents, ask those students the following question:

Why did you break the rules?
Was it worth breaking the rules?

HSS Standard 11.5.4. Analyze the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment and the changing role of women in society.

HSS Standard 11.5.6. Trace the growth and effects of radio and movies and their role in the worldwide diffusion of popular culture.