U.S. History Learning Coach Guide

U.S. History

Learning Coach Guide

uide

Contents

Digital Citizenship Unit13

The Civil War and Reconstruction Unit14

The Gilded Age Unit15

The Progressive Era Unit16

Imperialism and Empire Unit17

World War I and the Roaring 20s Unit18

The Great Depression and New Deal Unit 19

World War II Unit20

The Cold War Unit21

The Modern Civil Rights Movement and Social Change Unit22

The 20th Century Ends Unit23

The New Millenium Unit24

Part A:Welcome to US History

Welcome Letter

Dear Learning Coach,

Thank you for partnering with CCA and investing in your learner’s education. This Learning Coach Guide is intended to help you support your learner in their U.S. History course.

Within this guide, you will find the goals, components, and features of the online course. Please take time to read and review this information so you understand how to help your learner interact with all the course’s elements.

The Learning Coach Guide also includes information about each of the units in this course. On each page of unit information, you will discover the following.

The Unit Overview will tell you what the focus, content, and skills of the unit will be.

The Unit Assessment section is a place for you and your learner to preview the graded work in the course. At the start of each unit, work with your learner to look at the unit in edio and find out which types of graded work are in this unit. Write them in the box and use it as a checklist. You can check off each one as your learner completes it.

The Unit Materials section tells you the materials your learner will need to complete the activities in this unit. You will also find the materials list repeated within each lesson so that your learner has exactly what they need at the right time.

The Unit Discussion Questions are optional questions that you may want to ask your learner during the unit to increase home and school connections about what your learner is studying.

In the Unit Notables section, you may find optional activities, career connections, technology tips, ideas to help your learner if they get stuck, or safety tips.

CCA wishes you and your learner a terrific school year!

Supporting Your Learner

Your role as a Learning Coach is very important. Here are a few ways you can help your learner do their very best in the course.

Help your learner know what time guided or live class instruction is scheduled for and prompt them to attend sessions or watch recordings.

Remember, it is okay for your learner to get stuck. Learning new material takes time. Encourage them to take breaks, keep trying, and even ask the teacher for help.

Help your learner navigate technology. That may mean helping them type information or upload work into edio.

Always encourage your learner to do their very best.

Review the course syllabus for your learner’s course.

Maintain communication with your learner’s teacher.

Part B:Course Information

Course Goals

This U.S. History course is a survey of United States history since Reconstruction. Learners explore the major social, political, economic, and military events that shaped U.S. history during this time and the themes that run through the period.

Learners will watch videos, use interactive multimedia, and listen to audio recordings. They will read both primary texts (works from the period) and secondary texts explaining historical facts and concepts. They will read a lot and write a lot. They will complete several independent research projects. As they do so, your learner will need to think critically and incorporate evidence from their reading and research to support their ideas.

In addition to the focus on U.S. history, the course begins with a unit on digital citizenship. This unit is intended to address the reality of today’s high school students: they live in a digital age and will need to learn to make sense of it.

In this first unit, learners will reflect on the effects digital media has on their lives. Learners reflect on how digital media affects their relationships, and how it can affect their reputations. They grapple with the challenge of misinformation and learn how to fact-check information, a skill that is essential for both history and life.

By the end of the year, your learner will be able to:

analyze conflict that happened throughout U.S. history;

understand that conflict can have multiple causes, such as competing interests, misunderstanding, and an inability to accept change;

examine how the government can be a force for change, but also how the government can block change or slow it down;

analyze how a struggle for greater equality and fairness shapes American history;

examine how change can make people want to keep things the same;

analyze how economic power can come from resources, especially who owns them and how they are used;

examine how territorial expansion, population changes, and migration shape national institutions and culture; and

analyze how advances in science and technology affect how people interact with the world and each other.

Course Format

Lesson Components:

Each day, your learner will spend roughly 60 minutes completing a history lesson. Some days may take less time while other days may take a little more time. The lesson does not need to be completed in one sitting, and in fact, there are natural stopping points for breaks. Encourage your learner to take short breaks as they need.

This section will help you to understand how your learner’s course is structured in edio.

Lesson Bundling:

Within the lesson bundles, there are different components your learner will interact with. These components will not be used every day.

1. Getting Started Lesson: There is one Getting Started lesson in this course. It can be found on Day 1 of Unit 1. This lesson includes important information about the course and contact information for your teacher.

2. Unit Overview: Each unit will include a Unit Overview. This describes what your learner will learn in the unit and how many assessments the unit will have.

3. Prep for Success: At the beginning of each unit, your learner will find a Prep for Success. This component offers learners tips to be successful in the course, such as study tips, important software information, safety reminders, and more.

4. Knowledge Check: There will be one Knowledge Check in each unit. The Knowledge Check is designed to check prior learning and understanding of key skills and concepts that will be taught in the unit. The Knowledge Check is not a graded assessment. Instead, learners will answer a few questions (at least five questions, but sometimes more) to check their existing level of knowledge on this subject.

The first lesson in every unit is often a bundle of lessons that introduces your learner to a new unit.

See the example below.

Additionally, quizzes in this course often come in a lesson bundle with another lesson.

See the example below.

Each lesson has its own components to help guide your learner through the lesson.

1. Lesson Overview: At the beginning of every lesson, your learner will see the Lesson Overview. This section contains lesson objectives, lesson vocabulary, materials your learner will need for the lesson, and the suggested lesson length.

2. Engage: The first section of the lesson is Engage. In this section, learners will be introduced to the lesson by making a connection to past and present knowledge and will get ready for the lesson’s instruction.

3. Discover: New content and instruction is presented in the Discover section. Your learner will interact with the lesson content through defined vocabulary terms, videos, audio, and Pause and Think activities. Your learner will be able to practice and answer questions as they work through the lesson.

4. Show: Learners will demonstrate what they have learned in the lesson through a series of practice questions.

5. Summary: This section recaps the day’s objectives and prepares learners for a future lesson or assessment.

The course includes assignments and projects. These graded assignments allow your learner to show what they have learned and apply their new skills. All CCA assignments and projects include these components.

1. Assessment Overview: At the beginning of each assessment, your learner willsee the Assessment Overview. This section contains the goals of the assessment, materials your learner will need, the length of the assessment, and directions for

completion.

2. Plan: In the Plan section, learners will be introduced to the assignment or project. Learners may be provided with a review of content from the previous lessons, strategies for completing the activity, graphic organizers, and grading rubrics.

3. Do: Learners will put their plan into action and work to complete the assignment or project successfully. This section also provides the grading expectations and/or rubric the teacher will use to grade the work.

4. Reflect: In Reflect, learners will think back to the work they completed. They will reflect upon the experience and analyze how well they completed the task. These moments of reflection are important and allow learners to think about their learning and their work habits.

In addition to assignments and projects, this course also includes quizzes and tests.

Quiz Review: Before a quiz, learners will have the opportunity to review the content they will be assessed on in a quiz.

Quiz: A quiz may be given at the end of a topic or the end of a unit.

Test Review: Before a test, learners will have the opportunity to review the content they will be assessed on in the test.

Test: A test will assess learning across topics or at the end of a unit.

Course Features

This course includes and uses unique features such as:

Textual analysis: Text analysis, in which learners read a specific historical document closely, so they can learn how to analyze and interpret documents.

Document-Based Questions (DBQs): Document-Based Questions (DBQs), in which learners practice reading and evaluating documents. Analyzing these historical documents gives learners the chance to practice the kinds of skills historians use. Historians must sort and synthesize documents from different people and work hard to make sense of them and create a larger historical narrative that makes sense. These assignments also give learners the chance to “hear” voices sometimes left out of traditional history texts, like workers, immigrants, and farmers.

Artistic analysis: Artistic analysis, is when learners interpret songs, poems, and images from specific historical periods to better understand how people felt during crucial events and what these defining moments in American history meant to them.

Creative questions: Creative questions give learners practice in both analysis and empathy as they role-play people from the past to get a glimpse into their world and understand what major historical events mean to them.

Part C:Unit Information

Digital Citizenship Unit

Unit Overview

Digital media and technology are evolving at a rapid pace. This unit introduces skills to help your learner use technology to improve online communication as well as to be able to understand the differences in types of digital media. It includes lessons that discuss different types of information your learner may find online, both for this class and as a digital media consumer.

Unit Assessments

Quiz ________________________

Test _________________________

Assignment ________________

Project _____________________

Exam _______________________

Have your learner identify which assessment type they see in their unit. Check all that apply.

Unit Discussion Questions

What did you find interesting or surprising about bias in news stories?

How can digital citizens analyze online information for bias and check its accuracy?

How does this unit help you understand fact and opinion?

Unit Notables

In this unit, your learner will identify ways to engage in active listening in both online and face-to-face communication. Your learner will also identify the difference between fact and opinion and learn to evaluate a news story for bias as well as misinformation by applying critical thinking skills analysis.

Kit Materials

none

Household Materials

The Civil War and Reconstruction Unit

Unit Assessments

Have your learner identify which assessment type they see in their unit. Check all that apply.

Unit Overview

In this unit, your learner will explore the causes of the Civil War, the major events in that war, and its impact on political and social life. Your learner will examine how the U.S. responded to the period of Reconstruction after the Civil War and explore the nation’s commitment to liberty and justice for all.

Quiz _________________________

Test _________________________

Assignment ________________

Project _____________________

Exam _______________________

Unit Discussion Questions

How did the Civil War change the United States?

What did you find surprising about the Civil War? Why?

What are the most difficult things to understand about this period?

Unit Notables

Your learner will explore how the Civil War divided the United States, and the ways Reconstruction worked to try and reunite the nation. Your learner will also explore the legal outcomes of the war in the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the Constitution. If your learner is interested in this period, encourage them to research and explore major Civil War places, such as Gettysburg.

Kit Materials

none

Household Materials

The Gilded Age Unit

Unit Overview

In this unit, your learner will explore a period of great change in American History. During this era, the United States had great advances in technology and industrialized. Millions of people immigrated to the U.S. from other parts of the world, and the country expanded west to California. Political problems including corruption, an economic gap between rich and poor, and social problems based on race continued to cause tensions throughout the country.

Unit Assessments

Quiz _________________________

Test _________________________

Assignment ________________

Project _____________________

Exam _______________________

Have your learner identify which assessment type they see in their unit. Check all that apply.

Unit Discussion Questions

Which technological innovation created the most social change during this period?

Why was there so much political corruption?

What did you find the most interesting or surprising in this unit?

Unit Notables

Kit Materials

none

Household Materials

In this unit, your learner will explore many of the issues that helped make America modern. Some things, like the oil industry, the telegraph, the telephone, and electricity, were new. Others, like immigration, had been happening since the first settlers came to America, but the number of new immigrants was much higher than in previous centuries. Each of these factors helped create the world Americans know today. You can support your learner by encouraging them to research the past evolution of their favorite technology. Many current technologies have their origins in the industrialization of America.

The Progressive Era Unit

Unit Overview

In this unit, your learner will learn about the Progressive movement that took place in the U.S. during this time. This movement sought economic, political, and social reform in response to industrialization. The press helped to expose some of these problems and local, state, and federal government officials all proposed reforms. Progressives sought to end government corruption and improve the lives of workers. The movement also included the struggle for women’s right to vote. Many reforms of the progressive era continue to impact the nation today.

Unit Assessments

Unit Notables

Your learner will complete their first Document-Based Essay question in this unit. You can support your learner by encouraging careful time management and planning. Encourage your learners to try their best on this first essay. Your learner will also explore the role the press played in advocating for change. This is a good opportunity to support your learner by discussing how the media today continues to impact politics.

Quiz _________________________

Test _________________________

Assignment ________________

Project _____________________

Exam _______________________

Have your learner identify which assessment type they see in their unit. Check all that apply.

Unit Discussion Questions

Which muckraker were you the most interested in learning about?

What progressive reform do you believe had the greatest impact on workers on the United States?

What is interesting or hard to understand about the argument over whether women should have the right to vote? Why?

Kit Materials

none

Household Materials

Imperialism and Empire Unit

Unit Overview

Unit Assessments

In this unit, your learner will learn about the era of imperialism. Your learner will explore how imperialism led to the U.S. conquest of Hawaii, and to the country’s involvement in the Spanish-American War and political struggles in Cuba, Mexico, Asia, and Latin America. Your learner will explore the arguments made by those who supported imperialism and those who opposed it.

A key challenge when studying this period is recognizing how much social attitudes have changed. For example, some of the American military interventions abroad assumed the United States should get involved because it was culturally superior. Sometimes this involved explicit assumptions about race and religion that would seem very shocking today.

What were the results of the Spanish-American War?

How would you have felt if you had been a citizen of Cuba or Hawaii during American invasions of these nations?

Do you believe that Puerto Rico should become a state or remain a territory?

Quiz _________________________

Test _________________________

Assignment ________________

Project _____________________

Exam _______________________

Have your learner identify which assessment type they see in their unit. Check all that apply.

Unit Discussion Questions

Unit Notables

Kit Materials

none

Household Materials

World War I and the Roaring 20s Unit

Unit Overview

In this unit, your learner will explore the changes in the U.S. from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. As the U.S. became a global power, it became involved in major global conflicts, including World War I. After the war, the U.S. played an active role in trying to reshape the world and prevent future wars. The Roaring 20s, the period following World War I, was an era of great economic and social change in the U.S. A booming economy, new innovations, the era of prohibition, and renewed efforts at equality all changed the nation.

Unit Assessments

Quiz _________________________

Test _________________________

Assignment ________________

Project _____________________

Exam _______________________

Have your learner identify which assessment type they see in their unit. Check all that apply.

Unit Discussion Questions

How did World War I impact women and African Americans in the United States?

What technological innovation do you believe had the greatest impact on life in the United States during the Roaring 20s?

Do any of the social and cultural difference of the Roaring 20s still exist in the United States today?

Unit Notables

In this unit, your learner will explore how complicated society and history can be. Your learner will discover the reasons World War I happened, including the ways a network of treaties pulled nation after nation into the conflict. Your learner will explore how the war reshaped U.S. domestic and international policy. If your learner struggles with remembering the various policies, treaties, and their results, encourage them to use a graphic organizer for their notes.

Kit Materials

none

Household Materials

The Great Depression and New Deal Unit

Unit Overview

Unit Assessments

In this unit, your learner will learn about what caused the Great Depression, how it destroyed the American economy, and how President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) tried to lead the country through the Depression. Roosevelt’s New Deal sought to alleviate the suffering during the Great Depression by passing many reform programs. Some of these programs, like Social Security, continue to exist today.

Have your learner identify which assessment type they see in their unit. Check all that apply.

Quiz _________________________

Test _________________________

Assignment ________________

Project _____________________

Exam _______________________

Kit Materials

Household Materials

none

Unit Notables

Unit Discussion Questions

In this unit, your learner will learn about the reform programs of the New Deal. There are many programs to remember. You can support and encourage your learner by helping them to categorize the New Deal programs by purpose. Also, encourage your learner to make note cards or graphic organizers to better prepare for the unit test.

Would you rather have been a farmer in the Dust Bowl or someone living in New York City when the Great Crash hit?

What is hardest to understand about the Great Depression? Why?

Which of Roosevelt’s New Deal programs do you believe had the greatest impact on the lives of the American people?

Unit Discussion Questions

Quiz _________________________

Test _________________________

Assignment ________________

Project _____________________

Exam _______________________

Do you believe that President Truman made the right decision when he chose to use the atomic bombs on Japan at the end of World War II?

What does the Holocaust teach you about human nature?

Which war had a bigger global impact—World War I or World War II? Why?

Unit Notables

In this unit, your learner will explore human tragedies in World War II. Your learner will be introduced to the horrors of Japanese internment in the U.S. as well as the Holocaust. World War II resulted in catastrophic loss of life around the world. The war also saw the introduction of the atomic bomb, a stronger and more destructive weapon. Encourage your learner to reflect on what these human tragedies can teach society about the value and dignity of all life.

Kit Materials

none

Household Materials

World War II Unit

Unit Assessments

Unit Overview

In this unit, your learner will learn about the horrors of a second global conflict, World War II. As the Great Depression, the U.S. was hesitant to join another global conflict. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, the U.S. declared war. World War II helped end the Great Depression, renewed U.S. involvement in world affairs, and changed life in the United States.

Have your learner identify which assessment type they see in their unit. Check all that apply.

Unit Notables

In this unit, your learner will explore human tragedies in World War II. Your learner will be introduced to the horrors of Japanese internment in the U.S. as well as the Holocaust. World War II resulted in catastrophic loss of life around the world. The war also saw the introduction of the atomic bomb, a stronger and more destructive weapon. Encourage your learner to reflect on what these human tragedies can teach society about the value and dignity of all life.

Unit Discussion Questions

Do you believe that President Truman made the right decision when he chose to use the atomic bombs on Japan at the end of World War II?

What does the Holocaust teach you about human nature?

Which war had a bigger global impact—World War I or World War II? Why?

Quiz _________________________

Test _________________________

Assignment ________________

Project _____________________

Exam _______________________

Kit Materials

none

Household Materials

Household Materials

none

Unit Discussion Questions

Quiz _________________________

Test _________________________

Assignment ________________

Project _____________________

Exam _______________________

Have your learner identify which assessment type they see in their unit. Check all that apply.

Unit Assessments

Kit Materials

none

In this unit, your learner will explore life in the U.S. after World War II. While many Americans wanted life to go back to normal after the war, they soon learned that the country was quickly changing. With the rise of communism in the Soviet Union, the U.S. became an example of a free, democratic world. The Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union began in 1945 and would last for over 40 years. With both countries having nuclear weapons, the United States, and much of the world, faced new problems.

Unit Overview

Why did the United States get involved in the Korean War?

Can you see anything in the contemporary world that seems like the split between capitalism and communism during this time?

How was the Great Society both similar to and different from the New Deal?

Unit Notables

In this unit, your learner will explore the ways the world was shaped by political influence and national alliances. After World War II, Communism seemed like a threat to everything the United States stood for, and so the U.S. fought against communism in its foreign and domestic policy alike. If your learner struggles with the details of the Cold War, encourage your learner to create a comparison chart of how the U.S. and the Soviet Union were different in political, social, and economic ways.

The Modern Civil Rights Movement and Social Change Unit

Unit Overview

In this unit, your learner will explore U.S. politics in the 1960s, which was defined by two large forces. One was the attempt to end segregation and achieve civil rights for African Americans, Native Americans, and Latinos. The other was the movement to change society for the better overall, which was led mostly by younger Americans. This meant working to gain women’s liberation, but it also meant challenging the role of the U.S. in Vietnam.

Have your learner identify which assessment type they see in their unit. Check all that apply.

Quiz _________________________

Test _________________________

Assignment________________

Project_____________________

Exa _______________________

Household Materials

none

Kit Materials

Unit Notables

In this unit, your learner will be introduced to the struggle for civil rights across many groups during the 1960s, as well as U.S. involvement in Vietnam and the arguments made supporting as well as challenging that involvement. Encourage your learner to share what they are learning with family members that might have experienced some of the trends and events being studied. This is also a great unit to discuss the current state of civil rights in the United States and the impact of social movements.

Unit Discussion Questions

What made the 1960s an appropriate time for these movements for social change?

Why do you think so many Americans fought these changes so hard?

How is the Vietnam War related to domestic movements for change (like the civil rights movement) and how is it unrelated?

The 20th Century Ends Unit

Unit Overview

In this unit, your learner will explore the United States in the 1970s and 1980s, including the Watergate scandal, a political crime that put the United States through a constitutional crisis. Your learner will examine the rise of the modern conservative movement, and how it reshaped both U.S. society and the larger world.

Unit Assessments

Have your learner identify which assessment type they see in their unit. Check all that apply.

Quiz _________________________

Test _________________________

Assignment ________________

Project _____________________

Exam _______________________

Household Materials

none

Kit Materials

Unit Notables

Your learner will complete an oral history project in this unit. You can support your learner by helping them to choose a person to interview and encouraging them to write questions about events that they enjoyed learning about. This is also a great opportunity to talk about the interview process and how learners can best prepare to interview people and to be interviewed.

Unit Discussion Questions

Do you think Richard Nixon should have been prosecuted for his actions in Watergate? Explain.

What do you believe was the most important factor that led to the rise of Ronald Reagan and the new conservative movement?

What did you find interesting or surprising in this unit? Why?

In this unit, your learner will explore the United States since the turn of the century. As the U.S. had a more global reach, the world became more interconnected than ever before. This globalization has impacted migration, immigration, the climate, and politics since the 1990s. President Barack Obama and President Donald J. Trump faced great challenges including recession and the COVID-19 pandemic. Their administrations’ responses to these challenges impacted the United States socially, economically, and politically.

Unit Overview

Have your learner identify which assessment type they see in their unit. Check all that apply.

Quiz _________________________

Test _________________________

Assignment ________________

Project _____________________

Exam _______________________

Unit Assessments

Household Materials

none

Kit Materials

How did the events of 9/11 affect the United States?

What do you think is the greatest challenge facing the United States today?

You are living through this period. What do future generations need to know about it?

Unit Discussion Questions

In this unit, your learner will examine how the U.S. today has been influenced by the national and international decisions of the last thirty years. As they explore globalization, the rise of global terrorism, the impact of technology, and modern challenges in the world, your learner will link the past to the present. Encourage your learner to discuss the trends that they have noticed in this course and make predictions about the future of the country. This is also a great opportunity to discuss current events with your learner.

Unit Notables