Teacher “Guide”
This project follows the textbook directly. Choosing to utilize additional sources will enhance student understanding and the depth of the final product, but is not necessary in covering the required TEKS.
Chapter 13 is divided into five conceptually structured lessons. Because it is not organized chronologically, the events in the lessons will involve overlap. This provides an opportunity for students to more clearly understand that history is not simply a series of events, people, and dates. It is, instead, many interdependent events involving the lives of many people.
Creating a movable timeline as part of this project will help to illustrate this concept.
Class Project: An Era of Change Bulletin Board or Big Book
Using Harcourt Horizons: United States History , Chapter 13, as a guide, read and discuss each lesson. As each lesson is covered, have the class develop a quality summary of the topic discussed and point out the m ain ideas. Students then decide how they will “illustrate” these main ideas on their class bulletin board (or big book). Students could begin to work on these as decisions are made or once all of the lessons have been read and discussed.
The Activity Book (in your teaching materials) provides activity pages which accompany each of the lessons in the chapter. These will help with grading the students’ progress as well as to review the main ideas and skills with the students.
As students work on the bulletin board or big book, keep these objectives and specific events/dates in mind:
Reconstruction :
Vocabulary : Reconstruction, assassinate, black codes, acquittal, impeachment, inaugural address, cabinet, senator, ratified
Focus Dates :
1865- Abraham Lincoln is assassinated
Thirteenth Amendment is ratified
1868- Fourteenth Amendment is approved
1870- Fifteenth Amendment is ratified
Lesson Objectives :
 Describe events surrounding President Lincoln’s death.
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Analyze plans for the Reconstruction of the United States.
Analyze the reactions of both Southerners and Northerners to Reconstruction efforts.
 Identify problems with Reconstruction governments.
The South After the War:
Vocabulary : freedmen, sharecropping, scalawag, carpetbagger, secret ballot, segregation, Freedmen’s Bureau
Focus Dates :
1865- Freedmen’s Bureau is founded.
1877- Reconstruction ends.
Lesson Objectives :
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Identify challenges facing the South after the Civil War.
Analyze Reconstruction efforts to help freed slaves.
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Describe carpetbaggers and scalawags and their roles in Reconstruction.
Analyze segregation and how it affected the lives of African Americans.
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Settling the Last Frontier:
Vocabulary : boom, refinery, prospector, bust, long drive, homesteader, open range, reservation, mineral wealth
Focus Dates :
1862- The Homestead Act is passed by Congress.
1867- The Battle of Little Bighorn.
Lesson Objectives :
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Explain the reasons people settled the West.
Analyze the Homestead Act of 1862 and how it affected settlement in the
West.
 Analyze conflicts between Native Americans and settlers.
The Rise of New Industries:
Vocabulary : free enterprise, transcontinental railroad, entrepreneur, petroleum, capital, human resource, industry
Focus Dates :
1869- The transcontinental railroad is completed.
1876- The telephone is invented.
1882- Thomas Edison’s first power station is set up.
Lesson Objectives :
 Analyze how new industries, including the transcontinental railroad, led to economic growth in t he late 1800’s.
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Describe the contributions of entrepreneurs to the economy.
Analyze the effect of Thomas Edison’s inventions on life in the U.S.
A Changing People:
Vocabulary : old immigration, new immigration, advertisement, tenement, prejudice, regulation
Focus Dates :
1882- Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act.
1890- A period of new immigration begins.
1915- The Great Migration begins.
Lesson Objectives :
 Analyze how the population grew and changed after the Civil War.
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Compare new and old immigrants and describe the challenges they both faced.
Explain how prejudice against immigrants led to regulations on immigration.
Analyze the Great Migration of African Americans to the North in the early
1900’s.
© Liz Canales 2003
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