District 11 Diamond Units/Lessons Overview - includes information about the purpose, goals and structure of these sample instructional units:

Enduring Understandings - important ideas that students should carry with them years beyond the instruction received this year.

• Chronology organizes history and increases understanding of historical relationships.
• Cause and effect relationships explain connections among people and events.
• Using data, events is history can be analyzed from multiple perspectives.
• Societies are diverse and change over time.
• Economic, scientific and technological developments impact human interactions.
• Human migration impacts cultural development of societies.
• Political power has been used throughout history.
• Religious and philosophical ideas have been powerful forces.
• Physical and human characteristics define regions.
• Maps are used to acquire information about people, places and environments.
• Using data, events in history can be analyzed from multiple perspectives.

Essential Questions - most important “big picture” questions students should be able to answer after completing learning activities.

• How can events during Reconstruction be organized chronologically?
• What were the causes and effects of the Reconstruction?
• How can events during this period be analyzed from multiple perspectives?
• How did cultures of the Native Americans and settlers lead to change over time?
• Which scientific/technological development had the greatest impact on human interactions?
• How did the United States implement imperialism throughout the world?
• How did American imperialism impact changes in the meaning, use, location, distribution, and importance of resources throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries?
• How did economic and technological advances affect the American Industrial Age?
• How did the migration of Europeans and Asians affect the development of industrialism in the U.S.?
• How were different groups of immigrants treated in America?
• How did business practices in the economy impact society?
• How and why did the Federal government begin regulating private businesses? How and why did voter participation expand in the Progressive Era?
• What series of events led to US participation in WWI?
• How did America's foreign policies change during WWI?
  How did American domestic policy impact American's lives during WWI?
• What social changes were a part of the 1920's?
• What were the major economic developments of the 1920's and the impact on society?
• What religious and philosophical ideas affected the 1920's?
• What were the causes of the Great Depression?
• How did the Great Depression change the role of the federal government?
• How did physical and human characteristics define the Dust Bowl?
• What events led to America's participation in WWII?
• Why were Japanese-Americans confined to internment camps?
• How was the war in the Pacific Theater influenced by geography? What role did the U.S. military play in the outcome of the European Theater?
• How did the U.S. war effort impact economy and society?
• What was the sequence of events that perpetuated the Cold War?
• How did the Cold War promote the development of nuclear weapons and space technology, and impact society?
• How and why were the systems of alliances formed after WWII? What U.S. policies were established during the Cold War?
• What characteristics defined the world political regions that developed after WWII?
• How did conflict influence division and control of Earth's surface?
• What reasons were used as justification for U.S. involvement in Vietnam? What was the impact of the counterculture and anti-war protests in American culture?
• What are the significant events of the Civil Rights movement?
• How can events from the Civil Rights era be viewed from multiple perspectives?
• How were minority cultures integrated into U.S. society? What actions occurred to facilitate change within society?

Standards and Benchmarks

• Standard H1: Students understand the chronological organization of history and know how to organize events and people into major ears to identify and explain historical relationships.
  Benchmark B: Students use chronology to organize historical events and people.
  Benchmark C: Students use chronology to examine and explain historical relationships.
  Standard  H2: Students know how to use the processes and resources of historical inquiry.
  Benchmark A: Students know how to formulate questions and hypotheses regarding what happened in the past and how to obtain and analyze historical data to answer questions and test hypotheses.
  Benchmark B: Students know how to interpret and evaluate primary and secondary sources of historical information.
  Benchmark C: Students apply knowledge of the past to analyze present day issues and events from multiple, historically objective perspectives.
• Standard H3: Students understand that societies are diverse and change over time.
  Benchmark A: Students know how various societies were affected by contracts and exchanges among diverse peoples.
  Benchmark B: Students understand the history of social organization in various societies. 
• Standard H4: Students understand how science, technology and economic activity have developed, changed affected societies throughout history.
  Benchmark A: Students understand the impact of scientific and technological developments on individuals and societies.
  Benchmark B: Students understand how economic factors influenced historical events.
• Standard H5: Students understand political institutions and theories that developed and changed over time.
  Benchmark A: Students understand how democratic ideas and institutions in the United States have developed, changed, and/or maintained.
  Benchmark C: Students know how political power has been acquired, maintained, used, and/or lost throughout history.
  Benchmark D: Students know the history of relationships among different political powers and the development of international relations.
• Standard H6: Students know that religious and philosophical ideas have been powerful forces throughout history.
  Benchmark B: Students know how societies have been affected by religions and philosophies.
  Benchmark C: Students know how various forms of expression reflect religious beliefs and philosophical ideas.
• Standard G1: Students know how to use and construct maps, globes, and other geographic tools to locate and derive information about people, places, and environments.
  Benchmark A: Students know how to ups maps, globes, and other geographic tools to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective.
• Standard G2: Students know how the physical and human characteristics of places, and use this knowledge to define and study regions and their patterns of change.
  Benchmark A: Students know the physical and human characteristics of places.
• Standard G4: Students understand the economic, political, cultural, and social processes interact to shape patterns of human populations, interdependence, cooperation and conflict.
  Benchmark D: Students know the process, patterns, and functions of human settlements.
  Benchmark E: Students know how cooperation and conflict among people influence the division and control of earth's surface.
• Standard G5: Students understand the effects of interactions between human and physical systems and changes in meaning, use, distribution, and importance of resource.
  Benchmark B: Students know how physical systems affect human systems.
  Benchmark C: Students know the changes that occur in the meaning, use, location, distribution, and importance of resources.

D-11 Social Studies Indicators 
History

• Chronology/Cause & Effect: Determine cause and effect relationships based on organizing major historical and/or current events chronologically.
• Historical Inquiry: Utilizing multiple perspectives, analyze and question historical data from primary and secondary sources during major historical eras.
• Diverse and Changing Societies: Evaluate the impact of interactions and contributions of diverse peoples and cultures on past and current societies.
• Science, Technology, and Economic Activity:  Evaluate the impact of economic, scientific and technological developments on human interactions.
• Political Institutions and Theories: Analyze how political power has been acquired, maintained, used and/or lost among various cultures throughout history.
• Religious and Philosophical Ideas: Determine how societies have been affected by religious and philosophical ideas.
  Geography
• Use and Construction of Geographic Tools: Analyze maps, globes, charts, graphs, and databases to acquire, process and report information about people, places and environments. [G1]
• Characteristics of Place and Region: Use physical and human characteristics to define regions important in human history.[G2]
• Patterns of Human Population and Interaction: Analyze the physical and cultural impact of human migration.[G4]
• Human and Physical Systems: Evaluate how human and physical systems interact and impact one another.[G5]