The National Humanities Center presents collections of primary resources compatible with the Common Core State Standards - historical documents, literary texts, and works of art - thematically organized with notes and discussion questions. Topics discussed in this unit include the following: Becoming Modern: America in the 1920s: Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the Nineteen Twenties, 1931 (selections) by Frederick Lewis Allen. Appearing only two years after the 1929 crash, Allen's "informal history" offered its readers a sympathetic yet clear-eyed look at the tumultuous decade from which they had been catapulted by the economic collapse.

The National Humanities Center presents collections of primary resources compatible with the Common Core State Standards - historical documents, literary texts, and works of art - thematically organized with notes and discussion questions. Topics discussed in this unit include the following: Becoming Modern: America in the 1920s: Consumerism. Looks at the rise of consumerism in the 1920s with mass production of goods. Presents a collection of commentaries, a painting by Florine Stettheimer, humorists' ideas about salesmanship, and silent commercials for consumer goods.

The National Humanities Center presents collections of primary resources compatible with the Common Core State Standards - historical documents, literary texts, and works of art - thematically organized with notes and discussion questions. Topics discussed in this unit include the following: Becoming Modern: America in the 1920s: Labor Strike. Studying the broad reaction to labor strikes in the early 1920s requires a broad selection of genres - here we consider newspaper coverage of a specific strike, a novelist's portrayal of a strike's polarizing effects, and two cartoon animators' humorous takes on "the strike."

The National Humanities Center presents collections of primary resources compatible with the Common Core State Standards - historical documents, literary texts, and works of art - thematically organized with notes and discussion questions. Topics discussed in this unit include the following: Becoming Modern: America in the 1920s: "The Age We Live In." Here we peruse Twenties' commentary from witty one-liners and contest entries to newspaper editorials and intellectuals' analysis.

Lesson on why Aylmer, the protagonist of Nathaniel Hawthorne's story "The Birthmark," undertakes his fatal experiment. Lesson contents contain literary text, strategies for analysis, and vocabulary.

Primary source material, introductory notes, classroom discussion questions, and supplemental links focussing on the tumultuous times between 1763 and 1775 preceding the American Revolution.

This site presents a general picture of what life was like in the United States at the turn of the century. Content includes compelling images, information, and documents about American life.

The companion site for this PBS profile surveys the life and career of the peanut-farmer-turned-president and peacemaker.

PBS provides a detailed look at World War I and its affect on the world at large. Content includes comprehensive interviews with expert historians, an interactive timeline, an interactive gallery complete with detailed maps, and commentary on the overarching effects of the War on the 20th century and beyond.

An excellent online resource that contains a large collection of links to speeches and rhetorical artifacts all pertaining to September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America. Presented in a timeline of events with material in audio, visual and text formats.

Brilliant look into life on the homefront during World War II. See radio spots rationing and controlling prices, wartime research, defending the homefront, and more. Many of the links are .pdf documents.

This exhibition explores the role of transportation in American history focusing on the way the automobile went from being a plaything of the rich to a major factor in the American transportation landscape.

Exhibition highlights New York's harbor, with stories of the city as a hub of immigration, manufacturing, and culture.

Find background information on the Constitution of the United States of America, and learn the three basic principles upon which the Constitution was written. Additional content includes a look at the text of the Constitution, the events that led up to writing the Constitution, the ways to amend the Constitution, and even Constitution trivia.

Immerse in the campfire stories of the people who defined Texas. Find out about how the two Americas: the Europeans' version, and the American Indians' version, started changing forever.

In this interactive lesson supporting literacy skills, students watch video dramatizations that tell the story of the Spanish explorers who arrived in the Americas with Columbus and introduced European, African, and Asian plants and animals to the Western Hemisphere.

The Our Documents group provides a look at the original, signed Declaration of Independence as well as a print version distributed soon after the original was signed. View and learn about the document and its history. RI.9-10.9 US Documents

Use this resource to explore each state to get facts, maps and symbols; learn about the presidents; read about bald eagles and dinosaur fossils found in the U.S., find fun and exciting patriotic crafts and more.

The 11th grade learning experience consists of 7 mostly month-long units aligned to the Common Core State Standards, with available course material for teachers and students easily accessible online. Over the course of the year there is a steady progression in text complexity levels, sophistication of writing tasks, speaking and listening activities, and increased opportunities for independent and collaborative work. Rubrics and student models accompany many writing assignments.Throughout the 11th grade year, in addition to the Common Read texts that the whole class reads together, students each select an Independent Reading book and engage with peers in group Book Talks. Students move from learning the class rituals and routines and genre features of argument writing in Unit 11.1 to learning about narrative and informational genres in Unit 11.2: The American Short Story. Teacher resources provide additional materials to support each unit.

In this unit, students will take a look at the historical vision of the American Dream as put together by our Founding Fathers. They will be asked: How, if at all, has this dream changed? Is this dream your dream? First students will participate in an American Dream Convention, acting as a particular historical figure arguing for his or her vision of the American Dream, and then they will write an argument laying out and defending their personal view of what the American Dream should be.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Students read and annotate closely one of the documents that they feel expresses the American Dream.
Students participate in an American Dream Convention, acting as a particular historical figure arguing his or her vision of the American Dream.
Students write a paper, taking into consideration the different points of view in the documents read, answering the question “What is the American Dream now?”
Students write their own argument describing and defending their vision of what the American Dream should be.

GUIDING QUESTIONS

These questions are a guide to stimulate thinking, discussion, and writing on the themes and ideas in the unit. For complete and thoughtful answers and for meaningful discussions, students must use evidence based on careful reading of the texts.

What has been the historical vision of the American Dream?
What should the American Dream be? (What should we as individuals and as a nation aspire to?)
How would women, former slaves, and other disenfranchised groups living during the time these documents were written respond to them?

BENCHMARK ASSESSMENT: Cold Read

During this unit, on a day of your choosing, we recommend you administer a Cold Read to assess students’ reading comprehension. For this assessment, students read a text they have never seen before and then respond to multiple-choice and constructed-response questions. The assessment is not included in this course materials.