History Standard One - Grades 9-12

Sample Activities

Students could trace and analyze the trends in immigrations to the United States during the past century. They would collect immigration statistics from census data in order to determine at ten-year intervals the main sources of foreign immigration into the United States, and compare this data with narratives of U.S. history in order to find out when major events occurred which either stimulated or discouraged immigration, as well as examining the histories of the countries providing the largest number of immigrants in a given decade in order to find out what might have been occurring in that country to make people want to leave. This data could be collected and presented in a series of maps of charts, accompanied by an oral or written presentation of the findings [Chronology; analysis; content].

This activity would lend itself to linkage with a geography activity, given the need to use geographic principles to assist in the analysis of the data, and maps to make the presentation.

Parent Partnership Project: Students might also perform the activity listed above and relate it to the immigration and travels of their own families [Chronology].

Students could develop a series of parallel time-lines to compare the experiences of various ethnic groups (African-American, Native-American, Asian-American) in American history; then they could write an analysis which generalizes about both a common heritage and underlying cultural differences [Chronology; analysis]

Students might compile a representative collection of quotations, essays, narratives, and other documents concerning the women suffrage and women's rights movements and write an essay tracing the evolution of the major political arguments and strategies employed at various times to acquire the right to vote for women [Chronology].

to History Standard One.