United States History Unit 2

Big Idea:

Analyze major characteristics of the Gilded Age and Industrialization

Student Expectations:

Priority TEKS

USH.2(A) [Supporting] identify the major characteristics that define an historical era;

USH.2(B) [Readiness] identify the major eras in U.S. history from 1877 to the present and describe their defining characteristics;

USH.2(C) [Supporting] apply absolute and relative chronology through the sequencing of significant individuals, events, and time periods; and

USH.3(A) [Readiness] analyze political issues such as Indian policies, the growth of political machines, civil service reform, and the beginnings of Populism;

USH.3(B) [Readiness] analyze economic issues such as industrialization, the growth of railroads, the growth of labor unions, farm issues, the cattle industry boom, the rise of entrepreneurship, free enterprise, and the pros and cons of big business;

USH.3(C) [Readiness] analyze social issues affecting women, minorities, children, immigrants, urbanization, the Social Gospel, and philanthropy of industrialists; and

USH.12(A) [Readiness] analyze the impact of physical and human geographic factors on the settlement of the Great Plains, the Klondike Gold Rush, the Panama Canal, the Dust Bowl, and the levee failure in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina; and

USH.13(A) [Readiness] analyze the causes and effects of changing demographic patterns resulting from migration within the United States, including western expansion, rural to urban, the Great Migration, and the Rust Belt to the Sun Belt; and

USH.13(B) [Readiness] analyze the causes and effects of changing demographic patterns resulting from legal and illegal immigration to the United States.

USH.14(A) [Readiness] identify the effects of population growth and distribution on the physical environment;

USH.15(B) [Readiness] describe the changing relationship between the federal government and private business, including the costs and benefits of laissez-faire, anti-trust acts, the Interstate Commerce Act, and the Pure Food and Drug Act;

USH.26(A) [Readiness] explain actions taken by people to expand economic opportunities and political rights, including those for racial, ethnic, and religious minorities as well as women, in American society;

USH.27(A) [Readiness] explain the effects of scientific discoveries and technological innovations such as electric power, telephone and satellite communications, petroleum-based products, steel production, and computers on the economic development of the United States;

Focus TEKS

USH.3(D) [Supporting] describe the optimism of the many immigrants who sought a better life in America.

USH.15(A) [Supporting] describe how the economic impact of the Transcontinental Railroad and the Homestead Act contributed to the close of the frontier in the late 19th century;

USH.15(C) [Supporting] explain how foreign policies affected economic issues such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the Open Door Policy, Dollar Diplomacy, and immigration quotas;

USH.23(B) [Supporting] evaluate various means of achieving equality of political rights, including the 19th, 24th, and 26th amendments and congressional acts such as the American Indian Citizenship Act of 1924;

USH.24(A) [Supporting] describe qualities of effective leadership; and

USH.24(B) [Supporting] evaluate the contributions of significant political and social leaders in the United States such as Andrew Carnegie, Thurgood Marshall, Billy Graham, Barry Goldwater, Sandra Day O’Connor, and Hillary Clinton.

USH.26(B) [Supporting] discuss the Americanization movement to assimilate immigrants and American Indians into American culture;

Ongoing TEKS

USH.29(A) use a variety of both primary and secondary valid sources to acquire information and to analyze and answer historical questions

USH.29(B) analyze information by sequencing, categorizing, identifying cause-and- effect relationships, comparing and contrasting, finding the main idea, summarizing, making generalizations, making predictions, drawing inferences, and drawing conclusions

USH.29(C) understand how historians interpret the past (historiography) and how their interpretations of history may change over time

USH.29(D) use the process of historical inquiry to research, interpret, and use multiple types of sources of evidence

USH.29(E) evaluate the validity of a source based on language, corroboration with other sources, and information about the author, including points of view, frames of reference, and historical context;

USH.29(F) identify bias in written, oral, and visual material

USH.29(G) identify and support with historical evidence a point of view on a social studies issue or event

USH.29(H) use appropriate skills to analyze and interpret social studies information such as maps, graphs, presentations, speeches, lectures, and political cartoons

USH.30(A) create written, oral, and visual presentations of social studies information

USH.30(B) use correct social studies terminology to explain historical concepts

USH.30(C) use different forms of media to convey information, including written to visual and statistical to written or visual, using available computer software as appropriate

USH.31(A) create thematic maps, graphs, and charts representing various aspects of the United States

USH.31(B) pose and answer questions about geographic distributions and patterns shown on maps, graphs, charts, and available databases

USH.32(A) use a problem-solving process to identify a problem, gather information, list and consider options, consider advantages and disadvantages, choose and implement a solution, and evaluate the effectiveness of the solution

USH.32(B) use a decision-making process to identify a situation that requires a decision, gather information, identify options, predict consequences, and take action to implement a decision

Student Learning Targets:

• I will list and explain specific government regulations of business.
• I will compare and contrast the positive and negative effects of industrialization.
• I will analyze the impact of physical and human geographic factors
• I will identify the effects of population growth and distribution
• I will write about the life of immigrants in America

Essential Questions:

• What factors encouraged American economic growth in the decades after the Civil War?
• How did workers far in the new industrial America?
• Could workers have improved their working conditions without organizing labor unions?
• How did industrialization bring both positive and negative changes?
• What economic, social, and political changes did urbanization bring to American cities?
• What were the experiences of immigrants in the late nineteenth century?
• What factors contributed to the settlement of the Great Plains and Far West?

Extra Information:

Adopted Textbook: The Americans: US History since 1877 Texas Edition, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Holt McDougal

District Grading Policy

Texas Gateway Online Resource Center