An intricate part of the Teaching American History Teacher-Scholars Program was linking the local history of Norfolk and Portsmouth with the actual Standards of Learning (SOL) for the elementary, middle and high school levels. The Curriculum Guide, which was prepared by the Norfolk-based Tidewater Community College History Department, demonstrates that our nation’s history can be enhanced by viewing it through a local lens.

One of the many program goals was to encourage teachers to incorporate local history to increase interest and to offer historical relevance to their students, and the Curriculum Guide is intended as a resource tool to demonstrate how that can be accomplished. Obviously, there is much more historical data that can be incorporated beyond that presented in the Guide, but the goal is to assist the teachers in how to link specific SOL content with the history of Norfolk and Portsmouth.

The local historical information contained in the Curriculum Guide is primarily derived from the outstanding work done by historians Thomas C. Parramore, Peter C. Stewart and Tommy L. Bogger in their publication Norfolk, The First Four Centuries and secondarily from Marshall W. Butt’s Four Flags Over Portsmouth 1752-1970, Helen C. Roundtree’s Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough: Three Indian Lives Changed by Jamestown, and Alfred Mapp’s The Virginia Experiment, for which full credit is due and hereby given.

The pages that follow are Virginia’s Standards of Learning Curriculum Guide, with an additional column devoted to local historical narrative. In some cases where the local connections are difficult to make, the guide offers proposed activities, and/or online resources. The reader is encouraged to review all curriculum guides, elementary, middle and high for an all encompassing view of what our local history has to offer.

STANDARD USII.1 a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h

The student will demonstrate skills for historical and geographical analysis, including the ability to

a) analyze and interpret primary and secondary source documents to increase understanding of events and life in United States history from 1877 to the present;

b) make connections between past and present;

c) sequence events in United States history from 1877 to the present;

d) interpret ideas and events from different historical perspectives;

e) evaluate and debate issues orally and in writing;

f) analyze and interpret maps that include major physical features;

g) use parallels of latitude and meridians of longitude to describe hemispheric location;

h) interpret patriotic slogans and excerpts from notable speeches and documents.

The skills identified in standard USII.1a-h are cited in the “Essential Skills” column of each chart for United States History: 1877 to the Present with the exception of “e” (evaluate and debate issues orally and in writing). Students should have opportunities to practice speaking and writing, but these skills will not be assessed on the Standards of Learning test. All other skills will be assessed on the Standards of Learning test. Teachers should incorporate these skills into instruction throughout the year.

STANDARD USII.2a

The student will use maps, globes, photographs, pictures, and tables for

a) explaining how physical features and climate influenced the movement of people westward.

Essential Understandings

Essential Questions

Essential Knowledge

Essential Skills

During the nineteenth century, people’s perceptions and use of the Great Plains changed.

Technological advances allowed people to live in more challenging environments.

How did people’s perceptions and use of the Great Plains change after the Civil War?

How did people adapt to life in challenging environments?

Physical features/climate of the Great Plains

· Flatlands that rise gradually from east to west

· Land eroded by wind and water

· Low rainfall

· Frequent dust storms

Because of new technologies, people saw the Great Plains not as a “treeless wasteland” but as a vast area to be settled.

Inventions/adaptations

· Barbed wire

· Steel plows

· Dry farming

· Sod houses

· Beef cattle raising

· Wheat farming

· Windmills

· Railroads

Analyze and interpret primary and secondary source documents to increase understanding of events and life in United States history. (USII.1a)

Analyze and interpret maps that include major physical features. (USII.1f)

STANDARD USII.2b

The student will use maps, globes, photographs, pictures, and tables for

b) explaining relationships among natural resources, transportation, and industrial development after 1877.

Essential Understandings

Essential Questions

Essential Knowledge

Essential Skills

Advances in transportation linked resources, products, and markets.

Manufacturing areas were clustered near centers of population.

How did advances in transportation link resources, products, and markets?

What are some examples of manufacturing areas that were located near centers of population?

Transportation of resources

· Moving natural resources (e.g., copper and lead) to eastern factories

· Moving iron ore deposits to sites of steel mills (e.g., Pittsburgh)

· Transporting finished products to national markets

Examples of manufacturing areas

· Textile industry—New England

· Automobile industry—Detroit

· Steel industry—Pittsburgh

Make connections between past and present. (USII.1b)

Sequence events in United States history. (USII.1c)

Analyze and interpret maps that include major physical features. (USII.1f)

STANDARD USII.2c

The student will use maps, globes, photographs, pictures, and tables for

c) locating the 50 states and the cities most significant to the historical development of the United States.

Essential Understandings

Essential Questions

Essential Knowledge

Essential Skills

A state is an example of a political region. States may be grouped as part of different regions, depending upon the criteria used.

Cities serve as centers of trade and have political, economic, and cultural significance.

What is one way of grouping the 50 states?

What are some examples of cities that historically have had political, economic, and/or cultural significance to the development of the United States?

States grouped by region

Northeast: Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania

Southeast: Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas

Midwest: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota

Southwest: Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona

Rocky Mountains: Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho

Pacific: Washington, Oregon, California

Noncontiguous: Alaska, Hawaii

Make connections between past and present. (USII.1b)

Analyze and interpret maps that include major physical features. (USII.1f)

Use parallels of latitude and meridians of longitude to describe hemispheric location. (USII.1g)

STANDARD USII.2c (continued)

The student will use maps, globes, photographs, pictures, and tables for

c) locating the 50 states and the cities most significant to the historical development of the United States.

Essential Understandings

Essential Questions

Essential Knowledge

Essential Skills

Cities

Northeast: New York, Boston, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia

Southeast: Washington, D.C., Atlanta, New Orleans

Midwest: Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit

Southwest: San Antonio, Santa Fe

Western (Rocky Mountains): Denver, Salt Lake City

Pacific: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle

Noncontiguous: Juneau, Honolulu

STANDARD USII.3a

The student will demonstrate knowledge of how life changed after the Civil War by

a) identifying the reasons for westward expansion.

Essential Understandings

Essential Questions

Essential Knowledge

Essential Skills

New opportunities and technological advances led to westward migration following the Civil War.

Why did westward expansion occur?

Reasons for westward expansion

· Opportunities for land ownership

· Technological advances, including the Transcontinental Railroad

· Possibility of wealth created by the discovery of gold and silver

· Adventure

· A new beginning for former slaves

Interpret ideas and events from different historical perspectives. (USII.1d)

STANDARD USII.3b

The student will demonstrate knowledge of how life changed after the Civil War by

b) explaining the reasons for the increase in immigration, growth of cities, new inventions, and challenges arising from this expansion.

Essential Understandings

Essential Questions

Essential Knowledge

Essential Skills

Population changes, growth of cities, and new inventions produced interaction and often conflict between different cultural groups.

Population changes, growth of cities, and new inventions produced problems in urban areas.

Inventions had both positive and negative effects on society.

Why did immigration increase?

Why did cities develop?

What inventions created great change and industrial growth in the United States?

What challenges faced Americans as a result of those social and technological changes?

Reasons for increased immigration

· Hope for better opportunities

· Religious freedom

· Escape from oppressive governments

· Adventure

Reasons why cities developed

· Specialized industries including steel (Pittsburgh), meat packing (Chicago)

· Immigration from other countries

· Movement of Americans from rural to urban areas for job opportunities

Inventions that contributed to great change and industrial growth

· Lighting and mechanical uses of electricity (Thomas Edison)

· Telephone service (Alexander Graham Bell)

Make connections between past and present. (USII.1b)

Sequence events in United States history. (USII.1c)

Interpret ideas and events from different historical perspectives. (USII.1d)

Analyze and interpret maps that include major physical features. (USII.1f)

STANDARD USII.3b (continued)

The student will demonstrate knowledge of how life changed after the Civil War by

b) explaining the reasons for the increase in immigration, growth of cities, new inventions, and challenges arising from this expansion.

Essential Understandings

Essential Questions

Essential Knowledge

Essential Skills

Rapid industrialization and urbanization led to overcrowded immigrant neighborhoods and tenements.

Efforts to solve immigration problems

· Settlement houses, such as Hull House founded by Jane Addams

· Political machines that gained power by attending to the needs of new immigrants (e.g., jobs, housing)

Interaction and conflict between different cultural groups

· Indian policies and wars

– Reservations

– Battle of Little Bighorn

– Chief Joseph

· Discrimination against immigrants

– Chinese

– Irish

Challenges faced by cities

· Tenements and ghettos

· Political corruption (political machines)

STANDARD USII.3c

The student will demonstrate knowledge of how life changed after the Civil War by

c) describing racial segregation, the rise of “Jim Crow,” and other constraints faced by African Americans in the post-Reconstruction South.

Essential Understandings

Essential Questions

Essential Knowledge

Essential Skills

Discrimination against African Americans continued after Reconstruction.

“Jim Crow” laws institutionalized a system of legal segregation.

African Americans differed in their responses to discrimination and “Jim Crow.”

What is racial segregation?

How were African Americans discriminated against?

How did African Americans respond to discrimination and “Jim Crow”?

Racial segregation

· Based upon race

· Directed primarily against African Americans, but other groups also were kept segregated

“Jim Crow” laws were passed to discriminate against African Americans.

“Jim Crow” laws

· Made discrimination practices legal in many communities and states

· Were characterized by unequal opportunities in housing, work, education, government

African American response

· Booker T. Washington—Believed equality could be achieved through vocational education; accepted social separation

· W.E.B. Du Bois—Believed in full political, civil, and social rights for African Americans

Analyze and interpret primary and secondary source documents to increase understanding of events and life in United States history. (USII.1a)

Make connections between past and present. (USII.1b)

Sequence events in United States history. (USII.1c)

Interpret ideas and events from different historical perspectives. (USII.1d)

STANDARD USII.3d

The student will demonstrate knowledge of how life changed after the Civil War by

d) explaining the rise of big business, the growth of industry, and life on American farms.

Essential Understandings

Essential Questions

Essential Knowledge

Essential Skills

Between the Civil War and World

War I, the United States was transformed from an agricultural to an industrial nation.

What created the rise in big business?

What factors caused the growth of industry?

How did industrialization and the rise in big business influence life on American farms?

Reasons for rise and prosperity of big business

· National markets created by transportation advances

· Captains of industry (John D. Rockefeller, oil; Andrew Carnegie, steel; Henry Ford, automobile)

· Advertising

· Lower-cost production

Factors resulting in growth of industry

· Access to raw materials and energy

· Availability of work force

· Inventions

· Financial resources

Examples of big business

· Railroads

· Oil

· Steel

Postwar changes in farm and city life

· Mechanization (e.g., the reaper) had reduced farm labor needs and increased production.

· Industrial development in cities created increased labor needs.

· Industrialization provided access to consumer goods (e.g., mail order).

Make connections between past and present. (USII.1b)

Sequence events in United States history. (USII.1c)

Analyze and interpret maps that include major physical features. (USII.1f)

STANDARD USII.3e

The student will demonstrate knowledge of how life changed after the Civil War by

e) describing the impact of the Progressive Movement on child labor, working conditions, the rise of organized labor, women’s suffrage, and the temperance movement.

Essential Understandings

Essential Questions

Essential Knowledge

Essential Skills

The effects of industrialization led to the rise of organized labor and important workplace reforms.

How did the reforms of the Progressive Movement change the United States?

How did workers respond to the negative effects of industrialization?

Negative effects of industrialization

· Child labor

· Low wages, long hours

· Unsafe working conditions

Rise of organized labor

· Formation of unions—Growth of American Federation of Labor

· Strikes—Aftermath of Homestead Strike

Progressive Movement workplace reforms

· Improved safety conditions

· Reduced work hours

· Placed restrictions on child labor

Women’s suffrage

· Increased educational opportunities

· Attained voting rights

– Women gained the right to vote with passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.

– Susan B. Anthony worked for women’s suffrage.

Analyze and interpret primary and secondary source documents to increase understanding of events and life in United States history. (USII.1a)

Make connections between past and present. (USII.1b)

Sequence events in United States history. (USII.1c)

Interpret ideas and events from different historical perspectives. (USII.1d)

STANDARD USII.3e (continued)

The student will demonstrate knowledge of how life changed after the Civil War by

e) describing the impact of the Progressive Movement on child labor, working conditions, the rise of organized labor, women’s suffrage, and the temperance movement.

Essential Understandings

Essential Questions

Essential Knowledge

Essential Skills

Temperance Movement

· Composed of groups opposed to the making and consuming of alcohol

· Supported 18th Amendment prohibiting the manufacture, sale, and transport of alcoholic beverages

STANDARD USII.4a

The student will demonstrate knowledge of the changing role of the United States from the late nineteenth century through World War I by

a) explaining the reasons for and results of the Spanish American War.

Essential Understandings

Essential Questions

Essential Knowledge

Essential Skills

The United States emerged as a world power as a result of victory over Spain in the Spanish American War.

Economic interests and public opinion often influence U.S. involvement in international affairs.

What were the reasons for the Spanish American War?

What were the results of the Spanish American War?

Reasons for the Spanish American War

· Protection of American business interests in Cuba

· American support of Cuban rebels to gain independence from Spain

· Rising tensions as a result of the sinking of the U.S.S. Maine in Havana Harbor

· Exaggerated news reports of events (Yellow Journalism)

Results of the Spanish American War

· The United States emerged as a world power.

· Cuba gained independence from Spain.

· The United States gained possession of the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico.

Analyze and interpret primary and secondary source documents to increase understanding of events and life in United States history. (USII.1a)

Sequence events in United States history. (USII.1c)

STANDARD USII.4b

The student will demonstrate knowledge of the changing role of the United States from the late nineteenth century through World War I by

b) explaining the reasons for the United States’ involvement in World War I and its leadership role at the conclusion of the war.

Essential Understandings

Essential Questions

Essential Knowledge

Essential Skills

The United States involvement in World War I ended a long tradition of avoiding involvement in European conflicts and set the stage for the United States to emerge as a global superpower later in the 20th century.

There were disagreements about the extent to which the United States should isolate itself from world affairs.

What were the reasons for the United States becoming involved in World War I?

Who were the Allies?

Who were the Central Powers?

In what ways did the United States provide leadership at the conclusion of the war?

Reasons for U.S. involvement in war

· Inability to remain neutral

· German submarine warfare— sinking of Lusitania

· U.S. economic and political ties to Great Britain

Allies

· Great Britain

· France

· Russia

· Serbia

· Belgium

Central Powers

· Germany

· Austria-Hungary

· Bulgaria

· Ottoman Empire

U.S. leadership as the war ended

· At the end of World War I, President Woodrow Wilson prepared a peace plan that called for the formation of the League of Nations, a peace-keeping organization.

· The United States decided not to join the League of Nations.

Analyze and interpret primary and secondary source documents to increase understanding of events and life in United States history. (USII.1a)

Sequence events in United States history. (USII.1c)

Interpret ideas and events from different historical perspectives. (USII.1d)

STANDARD USII.5a

The student will demonstrate knowledge of the social, economic, and technological changes of the early twentieth century by

a) explaining how developments in transportation (including the use of the automobile), communication, and electrification changed American life.

Essential Understandings

Essential Questions

Essential Knowledge

Essential Skills

Technology extended progress into all areas of American life, including neglected rural areas.

How was social and economic life in the early twentieth century different from that of the late nineteenth century?

Results of improved transportation brought by affordable automobiles

· Greater mobility

· Creation of jobs

· Growth of transportation-related industries (road construction, oil, steel, automobile)

· Movement to suburban areas

Invention of the airplane

· The Wright brothers

Use of the assembly line

· Henry Ford

Communication changes

· Increased availability of telephones

· Development of the radio (role of Guglielmo Marconi) and broadcast industry (role of David Sarnoff)

· Development of the movies

Ways electrification changed American life

· Labor-saving products (e.g., washing machines, electric stoves, water pumps)

· Electric lighting

· Entertainment (e.g., radio)

· Improved communications

Make connections between past and present. (USII.1b)

Interpret ideas and events. (USII.1d)

STANDARD USII.5b

The student will demonstrate knowledge of the social, economic, and technological changes of the early twentieth century by

b) describing the social changes that took place, including Prohibition, and the Great Migration north.