Appendix on Implementing District Standards
Specific California Content Standards:
California Content Standard 8.7: analyzing the path of American life in the South: Students will use the WPA narratives to attempt to create an overall picture of what the experience of slavery was like in the per-civil war period of United States history. Although slavery was not just a Southern issue as the California standard might imply, the bulk of the narratives were obtained in Southern states.
California Content Standards 8.11: character and consequences of Reconstruction: Students will also be looking at commentary about the experiences of post-slavery life that is contained in the narratives, which will allow them to comment on the character and consequences of Reconstruction according the these specific primary sources.
California Historical Analysis Skills:
Research, Evidence, and Point of View 4: Students assess the credibility of primary and secondary sources and draw sound conclusions from them. Students’ will be reviewing and analyzing a number of primary and secondary sources as they participate in this unit. In particular, students will be analyzing various arguments in secondary sources and creating and support claims about those arguments.
Historical Interpretation 1: Students explain the central issues and problems from the past, placing people and events in a matrix of time and place. My students will be asked to use these primary sources to determine whether or not a general idea about the experience of formerly enslaved persons can be created from the sources.
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