Students will explore the Vietnam War era by creating a timeline. Students will also get a more personal look at the war by interviewing someone and writing a story about their experience.
This unit is an introduction to immigration to the United States from 1840-1920 or so. This time period saw a record number of immigrants come to the US as many were fleeing persecution and poor economic conditions in their home countries.
The unit is designed for fairly capable 5th and 6th grade students. Students will be reading and analyzing primary source documents to discover what the immigrant experience was like. At the end, students will do a project that will allow them to share their learning about the immigrant experience, as well as take a formal assessment on what they learned.
This unit does not cover the more recent waves of immigration from the 1970s to the present day. It is recommended that students get the opportunity to study more recent immigrant groups -- Hmong, Mexicans, Laotians, Vietnamese, Somali, etc. -- with the goal of finding similarities and differences in the experiences of these groups and those that came in the late 19th and early 20th century.
Finally, for reasons of time and space and age level, this is not considered to be an all-encompassing unit. Immigration is a complex and controversial topic, and in our history there were many laws made to both encourage and discourage immigration. These laws and this aspect of our history are not covered here but could be an additional area of learning for students.
Tim Kaari
Bloomington Public Schools
Bloomington, MN
tkaari@bloomington.k12.mn
This online unit will look at the events leading up to December 7th, 1941 and allow students to study the WWII era and it's impact on the countries of the Pacific Rim today.
Online Political Portfolio Unit. Designed for students working in Government, Civics, or Senior Social Studies at Prairie Center Alternative Program. This unit looks at the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution and students are asked to create their own views and analysis on these important documents, the state of our state and union, and how they can get involved.
For nearly nine years the United States has had a military presence in Afghanistan.
For over seven years the United States has had a military presence in Iraq.
The wars in these two countries have left thousands of Americans dead and will have cost over $1 trillion by the end of 2010.
For years, debate has raged in this country about whether or not military intervention in these two countries has proven successful and whether or not indefinite financial and military aid to these countries is necessary.
Complicating matters in the Middle East is the seemingly never-ending battle between Israelis and Arab Palestinians for control of the Holy Land. Many experts agree that a genuine, long lasting peace between Israelis and Arabs would be beneficial to the long term stability for the entire Middle East region, but is peace achievable?
An answer to that question is not easy, nor is the rebuilding process currently underway in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, through in-depth research, analysis, and discussion on these topics, by the end of this unit, students will have the basic knowledge and understanding to make critical, educated decisions about the appropriate role the United States should play in encouraging a long and lasting peace in these three regions.