The Idea of America

Local Standards

US History 11

VUS.1The student will demonstrate skills for historical and geographical analysis and responsible citizenship, including the ability to

a)identify, analyze, and interpret primary and secondary source documents, records, and data, including artifacts, diaries, letters, photographs, journals, newspapers, historical accounts, and art, to increase understanding of events and life in the United States;

b)evaluate the authenticity, authority, and credibility of sources;

c)formulate historical questions and defend findings, based on inquiry and interpretation;

d)develop perspectives of time and place, including the construction of maps and various timelines of events, periods, and personalities in American history;

e)communicate findings orally and in analytical essays or comprehensive papers;

f)develop skills in discussion, debate, and persuasive writing with respect to enduring issues and determine how divergent viewpoints have been addressed and reconciled;

g)apply geographic skills and reference sources to understand how relationships between humans and their environment have changed over time;

h)interpret the significance of excerpts from famous speeches and other documents;

i)identify the costs and benefits of specific choices made, including the consequences, both intended and unintended, of the decisions and how people and nations responded to positive and negative incentives.

VUS.2The student will describe how early European exploration and colonization resulted in cultural interactions among Europeans, Africans, and American Indians.

VUS.3The student will describe how the values and institutions of European economic and political life took root in the colonies and how slavery reshaped European and African life in the Americas.

VUS.5The student will demonstrate knowledge of the issues involved in the creation and ratification of the Constitution of the United States and how the principles of limited government, consent of the governed, and the social contract are embodied in it by

a)explaining the origins of the Constitution, including the Articles of Confederation;

b)identifying the major compromises necessary to produce the Constitution, and the roles of James Madison and George Washington;

c)examining the significance of the Virginia Declaration of Rights and the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom in the framing of the Bill of Rights;

d)assessing the arguments of Federalists and Anti-Federalists during the ratification debates and their relevance to political debate today;

e)appraising how John Marshall's precedent-setting decisions established the Supreme Court as an independent and equal branch of the national government.

VUS.8The student will demonstrate knowledge of how the nation grew and changed from the end of Reconstruction through the early twentieth century by

a)explaining the relationship among territorial expansion, westward movement of the population, new immigration, growth of cities, the role of the railroads, and the admission of new states to the United States;

b)describing the transformation of the American economy from a primarily agrarian to a modern industrial economy and identifying major inventions that improved life in the United States;

c)analyzing prejudice and discrimination during this time period, with emphasis on "Jim Crow" and the responses of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois;

d)identifying the causes and impact of the Progressive Movement, including the excesses of the Gilded Age, child labor and antitrust laws, the rise of labor unions, and the success of the women's suffrage movement.

VUS.15The student will demonstrate knowledge of economic, social, cultural, and political developments in recent decades and today by

a)examining the role the United States Supreme Court has played in defining a constitutional right to privacy, affirming equal rights, and upholding the rule of law;

b)analyzing the changing patterns of immigration, the reasons new immigrants choose to come to this country, their contributions to contemporary America, and the debates over immigration policy;