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Curriculum and Instructional Guide
Curriculum and Instructional Guide
Course Description: United States history will cover the early exploration of North American and the settlement of Jamestown (early 1600s) through the Progressive Era of the early 1900s. While the primary focus of the course is United States History, attention will be given to significant events that occurred in South Carolina during the period. Students will study the European colonization of North America and the role that geography played in the creation of the colonies. Students will examine the colonial period and the events that eventually led to the outbreak of the American Revolution. The United States Constitution and the creation of the new government will be covered, and students will analyze both the Jeffersonian and Jacksonian Eras and the effects of both on different cultures within American society. Students will explore the effect of sectionalism on the United States. Students will also study policies that affected Native Americans and African Americans. Students will analyze and explore the major events and key issues that led to the American Civil War, leaders and key battles during the war, and the resulting era of Radical Reconstruction. In the final unit, students will examine large-scale migration patterns in the United States post-civil war, the rise of the major industrial base within the United States, and the Progressive Era where the government attempted to check industrial monopolies and create a more balanced society within the United States.
Key Ideas to Consider - Key ideas teachers may want to consider include things such as vocabulary, essential knowledge, places, and historical figures. The list provided is not all inclusive but provides a basis for teachers to build upon with additional resources.
Course Concepts - The content and performance Social Studies standards are organized around the following guidelines:
CIV - Civics & Government – Citizenship entails an understanding of the nature of government and the unique qualities of a democracy including fundamental rights, structure, and the role of the citizen. Students will apply justice, equality, responsibility, and freedom to life. Students will understand and be able to describe various forms of government and analyze rights and responsibilities within each.
CUL - Cultures & Societies – Culture is the way of life shared by a group of people. Culture includes ideas, religion, traditions, philosophy, social rules and institutions. Students will analyze human behavior based on the major components of culture. Students will interact and work cooperatively with diverse groups throughout the world based on their knowledge of culture. Students will understand that culture relates directly to the environment, economy, religion, education, family, and government.
ECO - Economics – Economics includes the study of production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Students will understand how their economic decisions affect themselves, others, the nation, and the world as a whole. Students will be able to reconcile unlimited wants with limited resources. Students will understand the effects of economic decisions in daily living.
GEO - Geography – Geography includes the study of location, place, regions, movement and human interaction with the environment. Understanding the world and its delicate balance are essential to human survival. A geographic perspective allows better understanding of the past and preparation for the future.
HIS - History – History is an interpretation of events, people, ideas, and their interaction over time. In order for students to understand the present and make plans for the future, they must understand the past. Students will be able to understand, analyze, and interpret historical events, conditions, trends, and issues to develop historical perspectives.
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Ways to Infuse the Catholic Faith:
Catholic Social Teaching Themes:
Life and Dignity of the Human Person – The Catholic Church proclaims that human life is sacred and that the dignity of the human person is the foundation of a moral vision for society. The Church believes that every person is precious, that people are more important than things and the measure of every institution is whether it threatens or enhances the life and dignity of the human person.
Call to Family, Community and Participation – The Catholic Church tradition proclaims that the person is not only sacred but also social. Marriage and the family is the central social institution that must be supported and strengthened, not undermined. Our Church teaches that the role of government and other institutions is to protect human life and human dignity and promote the common good.
Rights and Responsibilities – Catholic tradition teaches that human dignity can be protected and a healthy community can be achieved only if human rights are protected and responsibilities are met.
Option for the Poor and Vulnerable – Catholic teaching proclaims that a basic moral test is how our most vulnerable members are faring. We are instructed in Matthew 25: 31-46 to put the needs of the poor and vulnerable first.
The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers – The Catholic Church believes that the economy must serve people, not the other way around. Work is more than a way to make a living; it is a form of continuing participation in God’s creation.
Solidarity – Catholic social teaching proclaims that we are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers, wherever they live. We are one human family whatever our national, racial, ethnic, economic, and ideological differences. Learning to practice the virtue of solidarity means learning that “loving our neighbor” has global dimensions in an interdependent world.
Care for God’s Creation –The Catholic tradition insists that we show our respect for the Creator by our stewardship of creation. We are called to protect people and the planet, living our faith in relationship with all of God’s creation.
Catholic Social Teaching Questions:
Units 1 & 2 (North American Exploration and Colonization / Colonial America & South Carolina) Catholic Social Teaching Questions:
In America’s founding, freedom was wanted, but religious liberty was not a popular idea in that Catholics were held in suspicion or contempt in many places. Using the USCCB as reference, discuss current challenges and opportunities American Catholics face regarding Religious Liberty.
No two saints are the same yet all have things in common. What do saints from every time and place have in common?
What is the USCCB? Familiarize yourself with the breadth of topics addressed in its website. Are there areas of concern in the United States that you think the
Bishops are not addressing? What do you think they would say?
When the USCCB makes an official statement, is it a primary source for the Church? Yes. When a local pastor makes a statement, is that a primary source for the Church? No.
Unit 3 (The American Revolution) Catholic Social Teaching Questions:
Many Catholics conformed to the revolution. But did the revolution conform to Catholic teaching?
War is permissible only to confront a ‘real and certain danger’, that is, ‘to protect innocent life, to preserve conditions necessary for decent human existence, and basic human rights’.17 As the Catechism phrases this requirement, ‘the damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave and certain ... ’ Catechism, supra note 2, 2309.
This requirement emphasizes both the presumption against war and that, in a world of sovereign states recognizing neither a common moral nor political authority, no state should act on the basis that it has absolute justice on its side. Every party to a conflict should acknowledge the limits of its ‘just cause’ and the consequent requirement to use only limited means in pursuit of its objective. The basic question is whether the rights and values involved are sufficient to rebut the presumption against war and to justify killing. Challenge of Peace, supra note 3, 92-93.
Units 4 & 5 (The United States Constitution / The New Nation) Catholic Social Teaching Questions:
What can we learn by the times in history that the majority of opinion was not the right one (Dred Scott)? Are there current trends in opinion in which the Christian view is a minority and ironically not tolerated because they’re viewed as intolerant?
The Church encourages citizens to inform one’s conscience. Everything you choose is a choice to form conscience and habits. (See Catechism of the Catholic Church 1776-1789) What are the best ways to form your conscience at your age? How does one find what the Church actually teaches vs what someone says it says? How is technology forming you?
What is an inalienable right and what did the framers of the Constitution mean by liberty? Can/should people be free to do anything they want? See Catechism of the Catholic Church 1730-1748.
According to the Preamble to the Constitution, where does man get His rights?
If a person in your class constantly beat boxes while the teacher is teaching, what Catholic Social Teaching principle is being violated? How would you respond to someone who says “It is a free country where I can do what I want”?
Unit 6 (Antebellum America) Catholic Social Teaching Questions:
Attitudes cannot change with one decision – such as in slavery. Jesus Himself was not accepted readily. What is culture? Can you tell when culture is forming you and when you are forming a culture? See Catechism of the Catholic Church 2820.
Pope Benedict said we live under a cultural dictatorship of relativism. What is moral relativism and how does its prevalence in culture affect society? What is objective truth and subjective truth?
How would you describe our current culture and where does this culture stand with Catholic Social Teaching? (e.g., secularism, individualism, materialism, relativism, etc.)
Does slavery exist today? What is human trafficking and what has the Church said about it?
The Dred Scott decision is one of many examples when people thought they were right when they are wrong. Why do you think they did not see it was wrong? How can we form our conscience correctly?
Unit 7 (The American Civil War) Catholic Social Teaching Questions:
What criteria does the Church suggest when deciding to go to war? See Catechism of the Catholic Church 2243, 2308-2310.
What causes prejudice of any kind and how can CST help prevent unjust discrimination?
Many saints experienced ill treatment. What do we learn from how they reacted? See Martin dePorres, Henriette deLille, Josephine Bahkita, Pierre Toussaint, Augustus Tolton.
What is technology’s effect on today’s culture and how we view others? Is Catholic Social Teaching promoted by today’s media?
People often find and fight for a cause they see as important. What ‘causes’ has the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops asked us to be involved in? www.usssb.org
Unit 8 (Reconstruction) Catholic Social Teaching Questions:
The Dred Scott case illustrates how a majority opinion can be legal but morally wrong. Are there other situations today that are similar (e.g. Roe v. Wade, Blaine Amendment)?
What is the USCCB? What does it say about racism? http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/racism/index.cfm
Catholic Social Teaching believes in tolerance and non-discrimination, but can one be too tolerant? Yes. See Catechism of the Catholic Church 2264-65.
Catholic Social Teaching follows principles readily accepted by non-Catholics. Read Martin Luther King’s Letter from the Birmingham Jail and trace Catholic Social Teaching principles in it.
Unit 9 (Industrialization, Migration, and the Progressive Era) Catholic Social Teaching Questions:
There are many levels and nuances in immigration policy (state and federal) and practices. Different media stations may take different slants. How does one properly inform one’s conscience on this matter? What stands has the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops made regarding immigration? See www.usccb.com and See Catechism of the Catholic Church 2241.
What can we learn about immigration from the following: Katharine Drexel, Rose Philippine Duchesne, Marianne Cope, Damian of Molokai, Theodore Guerin, Isaac Jogues, John Neumann, Elizabeth Ann Seton?
Rerum Novarum was a game changer for world thought. What is Rerum Novarum?
Most people justify their actions in their own mind. How do you think those who led the industrial movement justified the poor treatment of workers? Do people today ever justify unkindness and if so, how?
While we cannot judge another’s conscience, there are distinctions that help us assess our own culpability. What is vincible ignorance, invincible ignorance and the natural law? See Catechism of the Catholic Church 1734-38.
Why are economic principles discussed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church in the 7th commandment? 2401-2463. What are some economic principles mentioned?
Catholic Resources:
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Catechism of the Catholic Church
Suggested Resources:
The American Nation, Davidson and Stoffl, (Upper Saddle River, Pearson Publishing, 2005).
South Carolina: The Beautiful Palmetto State, Moore, Robert J., (Atlanta, Claremont Press, 2014).
We the People: The Citizen and The Constitution, (Calabasas, CA, Center for Civic Education, 2007).
Discovery Our Past: A History of the World, McGraw Hill, (McGraw Hill Education, 2018).
Interactive Historic Role Play (you will need to create a free account)
National Council for the Social Studies
Discovery: gives access to free classroom-ready lesson plans and activities for K-12 education, organized by grade level and subject for science, social studies, and literature.
EDSITEment! The Best of the Humanities on the Web: National Endowment for the Humanities website of lessons and other resources.
EdTech Teacher: Aims to provide quick, convenient, and reliable access to the best history-oriented resources online in a wide range of categories and has been designed to benefit history teachers and their students.
National Archives: A collection of U.S. history docs and other resources.
The History Channel: Your must-have site for history resources, including teaching materials, TV shows, videos, games.
Kahoot! Create, share and play fun learning games or trivia quizzes.
Goformative - Choose a premade formative from the library and edit any question to adjust for your students.
Quizizz - Free self-paced quizzes to review, assess, and engage.
IXL- Requires school subscription.
Blooket- Free self-paced games to review and introduce new ideas.
Seterra - More than 400 free map quiz games in more than 40 languages.
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