United States History: 1877 to the Present

Skills

USII.1

The student will develop skills for historical and geographical analysis, including the ability to

a) identify and interpret primary and secondary source documents to increase understanding of events and life in United States history to 1877;
b) make connections between the past and the present;
c) sequence events in United States history from pre-Columbian times to 1877;
d) interpret ideas and events from different historical perspectives;
e) evaluate and discuss issues orally and in writing;
f) analyze and interpret maps to explain relationships among landforms, water features, climatic characteristics, and historical events;
g) distinguish between parallels of latitude and meridians of longitude;
h) interpret patriotic slogans and excerpts from notable speeches and documents.

SUGGESTED INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES

Have students use maps, globes, photographs, pictures, and tables to locate the seven continents; locate and describe the location of the geographic regions of North America: Coastal Plain, Appalachian Mountains, Canadian Shield, Interior Lowlands, Great Plains, Rocky Mountains, Basin and Range, and Coastal Range; locate and identify the water features important to the early history of the United States: Great Lakes, Mississippi River, Missouri River, Ohio River, Columbia River, Colorado River, Rio Grande, Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, and Gulf of Mexico.
Have students use maps to locate the regions of the Northeast, the Southeast, the Midwest, the Southwest, the Rocky Mountains, the Pacific, and the Noncontiguous states of Alaska and Hawaii.
Have students use maps to locate the states in the following regions:
--Northeast: Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania
--Southeast: Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas
--Midwest: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota
--Southwest: Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona
--Rocky Mountains: Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho
--Pacific: Washington, Oregon, California
--Noncontiguous states of Alaska and Hawaii
Have the students use maps to locate the cities in the following regions:
--Northeast: New York, Boston, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia,
--Southeast: Washington, D.C., Atlanta, and New Orleans
--Midwest: Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit
--Southwest: San Antonio, Santa Fe
--Rocky Mountains: Denver, Salt Lake City
--Pacific: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle
--Noncontiguous states of Alaska and Hawaii: Juneau, Honolulu
Use maps to identify the location of natural resources in North America.
Use maps to locate the seven regions and discuss their similarities and differences.

WEB SITES

http://www.loc.gov/rr/geogmap/guide/
Geography and Maps: An Illustrated Guide from the Library of Congress

http://www.kids.gov/k_geography.htm
First Gov for Kids provides a variety of United States maps

http://www.cnr.vt.edu/geography/vga/resource.html#SOL
Virginia Geographic Alliance provides resources for geography teachers

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/matrix.html
National Geographic Xpeditions Lesson Plans

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/
The Library of Congress American Memory Project

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/
This Web site was designed and developed to support the teaching of American History in K-12 schools and colleges and is supported by the Department of History and the College of Education at the University of Houston.

http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi
This Web site is brought to you from the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., the largest library in the world and the nation's library.

http://edsitement.neh.gov/tab_lesson.asp?subjectArea=3
"EDSITEment" is a World Wide Website for humanities education developed by the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal government agency, in partnership with WorldCom Foundation, The Council of the Great City Schools, and the National Trust for the Humanities for the benefit of parents, students, and teachers.

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