CURRICULUM MAP
Course: US History 2
School: Richmond Hill High School (C. Pierre)
UNIT TITLE: UNIT 1 – PROBLEMS OF LABOR, FARMERS, IMMIGRANTS
ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS:
Students will be able to correctly cite evidence attending to details
Students will be able to analyze the sequence and relationships of events (cause and effect)
Students will be able to define key terms using contextual evidence
Students will be able to compare various points of view
Students will be able to integrate and evaluate information from various sources
Students will be able to assess author’s arguments/views
Students will be able to compare and contrast various sources on a topic
Students will be able to use evidence, reasoning, and historical context to write persuasively
Students will be able to use expository writing within the framework of history to inform
SOCIAL STUDIES STANDARDS:
LITERACY STANDARDS:
1.1
CCRS 1
1.2
CCRS 3
1.3
CCRS 4
1.4
CCRS 6
5.2
CCRS 7
5.3
CCWS 1
CCWS 2
ESSENTIAL QUESTION(S):
1. Focus: Was government during the “Gilded Age” responsive to the needs of the people?
2. Focus: Was the development of unions necessary to protect the rights of workers?
3. Focus: Why were some unions more successful than others in their fight for workers’
rights?
4. Focus: Why did the Populist Party fail to create a viable third party?
5. Focus: How were cities transformed by the forces of industrialization and immigration?
6. Focus: Did nineteenth century America welcome its immigrants?
CONTENT/KNOWLEDGE:
Topics: corruption in government; Civil Service reform & the Pendleton Act; failure to achieve
tariff reform; failure to grant women suffrage.
Topics: problems of labor; National Labor Union; Great Railway Strike of 1877; weapons of
capital.
Topics: Knights of Labor & Haymarket Affair; American Federation of Labor; American
Railway Union & Pullman Strike; Industrial Workers of the World.
Topics: Demands for inflationary fiscal policy (greenbacks and “bimetallism”; Farmer’s
Alliances; Populist party platform; elections of 1892 & 1896
Topics: Problems of urbanization: tenements & slums; Tammany Hall & Tweed Ring
Topics: “New Immigrants”; reasons for immigration (“push” vs. “pull” factors); problems faced
by immigrants; revival of nativism; Chinese Exclusion Act (1882); Gentlemen’s
Agreement (1907)
SKILLS
Analyze political cartoons (e.g. role of Tammany Hall, Tweed Ring, Nativism)
Analyze pictures to understand social problems of time period (Urbanization, Immigration)
Analyze date (tables, charts, and graphs) to formulate conclusions (Urbanization, Immigration)
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CURRICULUM MAP
Course: US History 2
School: Richmond Hill High School (C. Pierre)
Identify differing perspectives and argument (e.g. Populism, Immigration)
Explain the sequence of events to understand the causes and effects of key historical events (e.g.
problems of labor causing the development of labor unions)
VOCABULARY:
Civil service
Collective bargaining
Emigration
Graduated (progressive) income tax
Grange
Immigration
Inflation
Melting Pot
Nativism
Patronage
Political machine
Populism
Progressive
Slum
Strike
Tariff
Tenement
Trust
Union
Urbanization
ASSESSMENT / EVIDENCE
Regents multiple choice questions
Regents Document Based Question or Thematic Essays
Projects
Unit One Pager
ACTIVITIES / LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES:
 Create a poster for an actual union meeting addressing labor problems or a poster
advising the benefits of joining a labor union
 Create a pamphlet to distribute to potential members of the Populist Party
 Analyze / creative writing assignment in response to Jacob Riis photographs “How the
Other Half Lives”
 Chronicle the journey of an immigrant from their homeland to America through journal
writing
 Create a time capsule with items that immigrants might have carried to America
RESOURCES:
Political cartoons from U.S. History and Government Regents
Statistical data, including tables, graphs, and charts from Center for Learning Resource Books
Jacob Riis photographs
ASHP videos:
 Grand Army of Starvation
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CURRICULUM MAP
Course: US History 2
School: Richmond Hill High School (C. Pierre)
 Heaven will Protect the Working Girl
 Gangs of New York
TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION
Students will create a wiki, webquest, blog to serve as a summary for the unit
Use of Ellis Island website to research family histories and understand the passage of immigrants
into the U.S.
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