Teaching U.S. History Thematically

Rosalie Metro is an assistant teaching professor in the Department of Learning, Teaching, and Curriculum at the University of Missouri-Columbia and author of Teaching World History Thematically: Essential Questions and Document-Based Lessons to Connect Past and Present.

• Contents (Tentative)AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Why Use a Thematic,Document-Based Approach for Teaching U.S. History?Why Thematic?Why Document Based?Meeting Common Core and and Other State and National StandardsWhat Do We Mean When We Say "We"?Structure of a UnitStructure of a LessonAssessmentAccounting for Grade Level and Differentiating InstructionClassroom ClimateDesigning Your Own Thematic Units0. Historians' Skills: Why and How Study History?Lesson 0.1: Who Are You in History?Lesson 0.2: Who Are We Together?Lesson 0.3: How Do We Want to Work Together?Lesson 0.4: Why Study History?1.  American Democracy:What Is American Democracy, and What Should It Be?Lesson 1.1: What Did Kamala Harris Believe Were the Greatest Threats to Democracy in the US?Lesson 1.2: How Did Native American Traditions Influence American Democracy?Lesson 1.3: How Did Thomas Paine Argue for Independence from Britain?Lesson 1.4: What Was James Madison's Argument for Representative Democracy?Lesson 1.5: What Did Thomas Jefferson Believe Were the Main Responsibilities of Government?Lesson 1.6: How Did Andrew Jackson Represent the "Common Man"?Lesson 1.7: How Did Frederick Douglass Criticize American Democracy?Lesson 1.8: How Did Abraham Lincoln Define Democracy?Lesson 1.9: How Did Susan B. Anthony Interpret the Constitution?Lesson 1.10: What Did John F. Kennedy Believe the United States Should Do for the World?Lesson 1.11: Why Did Ronald Reagan Believe America Was Great?Lesson 1.12: Why Did Barack Obama Think the United States Was Not Yet a Perfect Union?2.  Diversity and Discrimination: What Does Equality Mean?Lesson 2.1: What Was the Supreme Court's Argument for Allowing Same-Sex Marriage?Lesson 2.2. How did the Virginia Slave Codes Change Race Relations?Lesson 2.3: What Did the Constitution Say About Slavery?Lesson 2.4: How Did Native Americans Argue for Equal Rights?Lesson 2.5: How Did Sojourner Truth Define Equality?Lesson 2.6: What Was the Supreme Court's Rationale for Denying Black People Citizenship?Lesson 2.7: Why Did John Brown Think Violence Was Justified to End Slavery?Lesson 2.8: What Was the Supreme Court's Reasoning for "Separate but Equal" Facilities?Lesson 2.9: Why Did Elizabeth Cady Stanton Believe Women Deserved the Same Rights as Men?Lesson 2.10: What Was the Supreme Court's Argument for Excluding Chinese People from U.S. Citizenship?Lesson 2.11: What Was the Ku Klux Klan's Argument for White Supremacy?Lesson 2.12: How Did the Supreme Court Explain Its Decision to Overturn the "Separate but Equal" Doctrine?Lesson 2.13: How Did Malcolm X Think Racial Equality Could Be Achieved?Lesson 2.14: How did Judy Heumann Oppose Discrimination on the Basis of Disability?3.  States' Rights and Federal Power: How Should Power BeDistributed Among Local, State, and Federal Governments?Lesson 3.1: How did Donald Trump Try to Challenge the Authority of State Election Officials?Lesson 3.2: What Was the Balance of Power Between the States and Congress in the Articles of Confederation?Lesson 3.3: How Did the Constitution Compare with the Articles of Confederation?Lesson 3.4: How Did George Washington Explain His Decision to Suppress the Whiskey Rebellion?Lesson 3.5: How Did States' Rights and Federalist Interpretations of the Constitution Differ?Lesson 3.6: Is the State or Federal Government Responsible for Protecting Native American Nations?Lesson 3.7: How Did Daniel Webster Argue That States Couldn't Nullify Federal Laws?Lesson 3.8: How Did the Southern States Explain Their Decision to Secede from the Union?Lesson 3.9: Why Did Dwight Eisenhower Enforce Desegregation?Lesson 3.10: How Did Orval Faubus Argue for Segregation as a "State's Right"?Lesson 3.11: Does the State or Federal Government Protect Individuals from Environmental Harm?4.  Government, Business, and Workers: What Role ShouldGovernment and Business Play in Promoting Citizens' Well-Being?Lesson 4.1: Why Did Some Amazon Workers Unionize?Lesson 4.2: What Were Christopher Columbus's Economic and Social Goals?Lesson 4.3: Why Did John Calhoun Define Slavery as a "Positive Good"?Lesson 4.4: Why Did the Lowell Mill Women Go on Strike?Lesson 4.5: How Did W. E. B. Du Bois Think That the Government Succeeded and Failed in Helping Formerly Enslaved People?Lesson 4.6: What Was Andrew Carnegie's Argument for Social Darwinism?Lesson 4.7: How Did the "Other Half" Live as Shown in Jacob Riis's Photos?Lesson 4.8: How Did Upton Sinclair Want to Change the Meatpacking Industry?Lesson 4.9: What Was Henry Ford's Plan for Ending Poverty?Lesson 4.10: How and Why Was Tulsa's Black Wall Street Destroyed?Lesson 4.11: What Were the Aims of the New Deal?Lesson 4.12: Why Did Lyndon Johnson Launch a War on Poverty?Lesson 4.13: Why Did Cesar Chavez Believe Farmworkers Should Unionize?Lesson 4.14: What Was Reaganomics?5.  Foreign Policy: Under What Circumstances Should the United States Intervene in World Events?Lesson 5.1: Why Did Anthony Blinken Consider Climate Change Relevant to National Security?Lesson 5.2: Why Did George Washington Believe the United States Should Stay Neutral?Lesson 5.3: How Did the Monroe Doctrine Change U.S. Foreign Policy?Lesson 5.4: How Was the Idea of Manifest Destiny Used to Justify Taking Over Foreign Lands?Lesson 5.5: Why Did Mark Twain Oppose U.S. Colonization of the Philippines?Lesson 5.6: How Did Woodrow Wilson Try to Convince Americans to Stay Neutral in World War I?Lesson 5.7: How Did Franklin D. Roosevelt Explain His Decision to Involve the United States in World War II?Lesson 5.8: How Did Eleanor Roosevelt Explain the Purpose of the United Nations?Lesson 5.9: How Did the Truman Doctrine Change U.S. Foreign Policy?Lesson 5.10: Why Did Martin Luther King Jr. Oppose the Vietnam War?Lesson 5.11: On What Basis Did Henry Kissinger Advise Richard Nixon to Oppose Chilean President Salvador Allende?Lesson 5.12: How Did Bill Clinton Explain His Decision to Intervene in the Genocide of Bosnian Muslims?Lesson 5.13: What Was George W. Bush's Strategy in the War on Terror?6.  Civil Liberties and Public Safety: Under What Conditions,If Any, Should Citizens' Freedoms Be Restricted?Lesson 6.1: Why did Ted Cruz Oppose COVID-19 Vaccine and Mask Mandates?Lesson 6.2: How Did the United States Explain Its Decision to Declare Independence from Britain?Lesson 6.3: What Does the Bill of Rights Guarantee?Lesson 6.4: How Did John Adams Restrict Freedom of the Press?Lesson 6.5: What Was Abraham Lincoln's Argument for Suspending Habeas Corpus Rights During the Civil War?Lesson 6.6: Was Carrie Nation's Temperance Activism Protected by the Constitution?Lesson 6.7: How Did Herbert Hoover Explain His Decision to Disperse the Bonus Army?Lesson 6.8: How Did Franklin D. Roosevelt Justify the Internment of Japanese Americans?Lesson 6.9: How Did Paul Robeson Defend Himself Against Joseph McCarthy's Accusation That He Was a Communist?Lesson 6.10: How Did COINTELPRO Justify Its Surveillance of U.S. Citizens?Lesson 6.11: What Rights Did the Black Panther Party Demand, and Why?Lesson 6.12: How Did the U.S. Government Defend the USA PATRIOT Act?Lesson 6.13: What Was Barack Obama's Plan to Reduce Gun Violence?7.  Identity: What Do We Mean When We Say "We"?Lesson 7.1: Great Law of Peace, Dekanawida, c. 1500Lesson 7.2: An Act Concerning Servants and Slaves, Virginia House of Burgesses, 1705Lesson 7.3: Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, 1776Lesson 7.4: Our Hearts Are Sickened, John Ross, 1838Lesson 7.5: Scott v. Sanford, 1856Lesson 7.6: Declaration of Immediate Causes, South Carolina Legislature, 1860Lesson 7.7: The Souls of Black Folk, W. E. B. Du Bois, 1903Lesson 7.8: Investigation of Labor Conditions, Massachusetts House Document 50, 1845Lesson 7.9: On Women's Right to Vote, Susan B. Anthony, 1872192Lesson 7.10: Appeal for Neutrality, Woodrow Wilson, 1914 193Lesson 7.11: My Life and Work, Henry Ford, 1922Lesson 7.12: The Klan's Fight for Americanism, Hiram W. Evans, 1926 193Lesson 7.13: The New Deal, Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1936Lesson 7.14: Day of Infamy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1941 193Lesson 7.15: By Any Means Necessary, Malcolm X, 1964Lesson 7.16: Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam, Martin Luther King, Jr., 1967Lesson 7.17: A Shining City on a Hill, Ronald Reagan, 1974 194Lesson 7.18: The War on Terror, George W. Bush, 2001Lesson 7.19: A More Perfect Union, Barack Obama, 2008AppendicesAppendix A: Quick Reference GuideAppendix B: Course Entry SurveyAppendix C: Course Exit SurveyAppendix D: Unit Entry SurveyAppendix E: Biographical Research Paper InstructionsAppendix F: Summit Research WorksheetAppendix G: Unit Exit SurveyAppendix H: 21st-Century Issue Letter InstructionsAppendix I: Designing Your Own Thematic UnitsAppendix J: Online ContentReferencesIndexAbout the Author