Social Studies Curriculum

United States History

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HISTORIOGRAPHY (Introductory/review unit used as an integral component throughout the course including the use of primary sources.)

Pacing notes for each unit are approximate guides to help teachers create a “doable” year based on core curriculum. “Partial” weeks, testing, and other variables need to be taken into account.

National Standards for Historical Thinking http://nchs.ucla.edu/standards/thinking5-12.html

Enduring Understandings

Students will understand:

1. History is about perspective, interpretation, evaluation and analysis of available data.
2. The study of history is essential in dealing with contemporary issues because it provides better insight, context and comprehensive understanding of the present.

Essential Questions

1. Why do we study history?
2. What are primary and secondary sources?
3. What is historical perspective?
4. How is history relevant? 

Objectives

• Use and identify primary sources including maps, newspaper, artifacts, letters, journals, diaries, speeches, official documents, photos, drawings, paintings, sketches, interviews, and testimony.
• Use and identify secondary sources including newspaper, memoirs, documentaries, timelines, textbooks, commentaries, editorials, literature, charts, graphs, report, testimony, and hearsay.
• Understand that many secondary sources contain primary source information. 
• Understand that each participant or observer of an event may interpret the facts differently. 
• Understand that historical events are interpreted differently depending on the perspective of time and place. 
• Understand correlations and connections in historical and current events.
• Define major terms including:  history, geography, psychology, sociology, political science, and economics.

Next: Review of American History through 1824 »