Library Resources
ABC-CLIO American History
Biography Reference Bank Select
Biography Reference Bank Select
Issues and Controversey in American History
Academic Integrity
TOPIC: EFFECTS OF WESTWARD EXPANSION
GROUP #1 -Moving West
TASK: To create a tri-fold display board that provides detailed information on the assigned topic.
CRITERIA/(Grading): All display board must contain the following elements:
• Title: (10 points)
o Group topic
o Group #
o Class Period
o Group Members - Alphabetical
• Information: (40 points – Individual grade)
o clearly organized
o answers each question in a detailed and creative manner.
• Images: 7 – minimum – with captions (30 Points)
o 1 map/diagram/chart
o 1 political cartoon
o 4 photographs or images
o 1 primary source document
• Worksheet (10 points)
o 5 regents multiple choice questions
o 5 short answer
o Blank copy & Answer key
• Works Cited: (10 points)
o MLA format
• Organization & Mechanics
o Up to 10 Points can be deducted
EFFECTS OF WESTWARD EXPANSION
1. CH 15 –Section 1 Moving West– 433 – 435
• Include: Maps, Photographs, Diagrams, and Primary Sources.
• Describe what inspired the many groups that participated in the great migration into the West?
o Gold Rush
o Oregon Trail
o Mormons
o Exodusters
o Immigrants
• Compare the Wagon Train journey to the journey by railroad. Describe the costs, advantages, and disadvantages of both.
• How did Railroads and the U.S. government promote the migration of immigrants to the west?
• Explain the benefits and drawbacks of the Homestead Act of 1862.
TOPIC: EFFECTS OF WESTWARD EXPANSION
GROUP # 2 - Farming, Mining, & Ranching
TASK: To create a tri-fold display board that provides detailed information on the assigned topic.
CRITERIA/(Grading): All display board must contain the following elements:
• Title: (10 points)
o Group topic
o Group #o Class Period
o Group Members - Alphabetical
• Information: (40 points – Individual grade)
o clearly organized
o answers each question in a detailed and creative manner.
• Images: 7 – minimum – with captions (30 Points)
o 1 map/diagram/chart
o 1 political cartoon
o 4 photographs or images
o 1 primary source document
• Worksheet (10 points)
o 5 regents multiple choice questions
o 5 short answer
o Blank copy & Answer key
• Works Cited: (10 points)
o MLA format
• Organization & Mechanics
o Up to 10 Points can be deducted.
EFFECTS OF WESTWARD EXPANSION
2. CH 15 – Section 3 Farming, Mining, & Ranching– 440 – 445
• Include: Maps, Photographs, Diagrams, and Primary Sources.
• Compare and contrast the following:
o Small Farms and Bonanza Farms
What were some of the disadvantages of farming the Great Plains?
What new technology developed to help farmers?
Were Bonanza Farms a success or failure? Explain.
How did the invention of barbed wire affect life (positive and negative) in the west?
o Pan Miners and Corporation Miners
Describe the mining techniques and the life of miners from 1849 – 1860.
How did mining techniques and technology change after 1860 and how did it effect the environment?
How did cooperate mines treat their workers?
o Open Range Ranching and Sheep Herding
Explain how the “open range” system worked and describe the lives of the cowboy (vaqueros) on the cattle trails.
Describe the “Cow Towns” of the west. Include details on the lawmen and outlaws and weapons that gave rise to the “Wild West”.
Explain how the introduction of sheep and barbed wire affected the Cattle Kingdom.
Why did the frontier close in 1900?
TOPIC: EFFECTS OF WESTWARD EXPANSION
GROUP # 3 - Populism
TASK: To create a tri-fold display board that provides detailed information on the assigned topic.
CRITERIA/(Grading): All display board must contain the following elements:
• Title: (10 points)
o Group topic
o Group #
o Class Period
o Group Members - Alphabetical
• Information: (40 points – Individual grade)
o clearly organized
o answers each question in a detailed and creative manner.
• Images: 7 – minimum – with captions (30 Points)
o 1 map/diagram/chart
o 1 political cartoon
o 4 photographs or images
o 1 primary source document
• Worksheet (10 points)
o 5 regents multiple choice questions
o 5 short answer
o Blank copy & Answer key
• Works Cited: (10 points)
o MLA format
• Organization & Mechanics
o Up to 10 Points can be deducted
EFFECTS OF WESTWARD EXPANSION
3. CH 15 – Section 4 Populism – 446 – 451
• Include: Maps, Photographs, Diagrams, and Primary Sources.
• What led to the rise of the Populist Movement and what effects did it have?
• What were the major grievances (complaints) of the farmers of the west and south between 1870 and 1895?
• How did organizations like “The Grange” and the “Farmers Alliance” help the farmers?
• Explain the debate between the “Gold Standard” and “Free Silver”
• What was the purpose of the Populist Party and describe its FIVE goals.
• Compare the campaigns of William Jennings Bryan and William McKinley in the presidential election of 1896 and explain how the results affected the Populist Party.
TOPIC: INDUSTRIALIZATION
GROUP #4 - Technological Revolution
TASK: To create a tri-fold display board that provides detailed information on the assigned topic.
CRITERIA/(Grading): All display board must contain the following elements:
• Title: (10 points)
o Group topic
o Group #
o Class Period
o Group Members - Alphabetical
• Information: (40 points – Individual grade)
o clearly organized
o answers each question in a detailed and creative manner.
• Images: 7 – minimum – with captions (30 Points)
o 1 map/diagram/chart
o 1 political cartoon
o 4 photographs or images
o 1 primary source document
• Worksheet (10 points)
o 5 regents multiple choice questions
o 5 short answer
o Blank copy & Answer key
• Works Cited: (10 points)
o MLA format
• Organization & Mechanics
o Up to 10 Points can be deducted
INDUSTRIALIZTION
4. Ch 14 – Section 1 – Technological Revolution 407 – 413
• Include: Maps, Photographs, Diagrams, and Primary Sources.
• Transportation:
o Describe the role the US government played in the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad.
o Explain the significance of Promontory Point, Utah.
o Analyze the benefits and drawbacks of the railroad construction projects.
o How did the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad impact the growth of business? How did it affect the Native Americans?
• Communication:
o Analyze the inventions of the telegraph and the telephone. How did they transform American?
• Electric Power
o Why are Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse credited with transforming American society?
o How did the introduction of electricity impact the growth of business and industry?
• Bessemer Process
o Explain how the Bessemer Process worked and why it can be called “Revolutionary”?
o How did the invention of cheep, strong steel, affect American industry?
TOPIC: GROWTH OF BIG BUSINESS
GROUP #5 - The Growth of Big Business
TASK: To create a tri-fold display board that provides detailed information on the assigned topic.
CRITERIA/(Grading): All display board must contain the following elements:
• Title: (10 points)
o Group topic
o Group #
o Class Period
o Group Members - Alphabetical
• Information: (40 points – Individual grade)
o clearly organized
o answers each question in a detailed and creative manner.
• Images: 7 – minimum – with captions (30 Points)
o 1 map/diagram/chart
o 1 political cartoon
o 4 photographs or images
o 1 primary source document
• Worksheet (10 points)
o 5 regents multiple choice questions
o 5 short answer
o Blank copy & Answer key
• Works Cited: (10 points)
o MLA format
• Organization & Mechanics
o Up to 10 Points can be deducted
GROWTH OF BIG BUSINESS
5. CH 14 – Section 2 - The Growth of Big Business– 414-418
• Include: Maps, Photographs, Diagrams, and Primary Sources.
• Explain the strategies corporations and trusts used to decrease costs and increase profits. (Corporations, Trusts, Vertical Integration, Horizontal Integration).
• Explain how EACH of the following individuals were BOTH “Robber Barons” and “Captains of Industry”. Analyze their business practices and effects those practices had on both industrial growth and workers.
o Cornelius Vanderbilt – New York Central Rail Company
o Andrew Carnegie – Carnegie Steel
o John D. Rockefeller – Standard Oil
• Explain the idea behind Laissez-Faire government policy and how it helped big business grow.
• Evaluate the success and failures of the Interstate Commerce Commission and Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
TOPIC: GROWTH OF BIG BUSINESS
GROUP #6 - Politics (and Economics) in the Gilded Age
TASK: To create a tri-fold display board that provides detailed information on the assigned topic.
CRITERIA/(Grading): All display board must contain the following elements:
• Title: (10 points)
o Group topic
o Group #
o Class Period
o Group Members - Alphabetical
• Information: (40 points – Individual grade)
o clearly organized
o answers each question in a detailed and creative manner.
• Images: 7 – minimum – with captions (30 Points)
o 1 map/diagram/chart
o 1 political cartoon
o 4 photographs or images
o 1 primary source document
• Worksheet (10 points)
o 5 regents multiple choice questions
o 5 short answer
o Blank copy & Answer key
• Works Cited: (10 points)
o MLA format
• Organization & Mechanics
o Up to 10 Points can be deducted
GROWTH OF BIG BUSINESS
6. CH 16 – Section 1 Politics (and Economics) in the Gilded Age– 461-466
• Include: Maps, Photographs, Diagrams, and Primary Sources.
• Why are the years 1878-1889* called the “Gilded Age”? *Note some sources use 1900)
• How did the government’s policy of laissez-faire lead to increased corruption in the U.S. Congress?
• How did the Spoils System affect the presidencies of: Rutherford B. Hayes (1877), James Garfield (1880), Chester Arthur (1881), and Grover Cleveland (1884)?
• Describe the role political cartoonists such as Tomas Nast and Joseph Keppler play in Gilded Age politics? Why were their methods successful?
• Much of the corruption in the Gilded Age was due to economic prosperity. Analyze the acts that were designed to stop this corruption and explain them in terms of being a success or a failure?
o Pendelton Civil Service Act (1883)
o Interstate Commerce Act (1887) - Railroads
o Tariff of 1888 - Taxes
o Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890) - Monopolies
TOPIC: IMMIGRATION
GROUP #7 - People on the Move -Working Conditions & the Rise of Labor Unions
TASK: To create a tri-fold display board that provides detailed information on the assigned topic.
CRITERIA/(Grading): All display board must contain the following elements:
• Title: (10 points)
o Group topic
o Group #
o Class Period
o Group Members - Alphabetical
• Information: (40 points – Individual grade)
o clearly organized
o answers each question in a detailed and creative manner.
• Images: 7 – minimum – with captions (30 Points)
o 1 map/diagram/chart
o 1 political cartoon
o 4 photographs or images
o 1 primary source document
• Worksheet (10 points)
o 5 regents multiple choice questions
o 5 short answer
o Blank copy & Answer key
• Works Cited: (10 points)
o MLA format
• Organization & Mechanics
o Up to 10 Points can be deducted
IMMIGRATION
7. CH 16 - Section 2 People on the Move– 467 – 472
CH 14 – Section 3 Industrialization and Workers– 419 – 422
CH 14 – Section 4 – The Great Strikes – 423 -428
• Include: Maps, Photographs, Diagrams, and Primary Sources.
• Who were the “New Immigrants” and what were the Push and Pull factors that brought them to America.
• Compare the experiences of immigrants at Ellis Island and Angel Island and explain why they were treated differently.
• Why did entire families need to work in factories?
• What were “Company Towns” and how did the conditions there exploit the workers? Why were people willing to work there?
• Describe the working conditions in factories.
• Compare the goals and strategies of the labor organization of the late 1800s
• Analyze the causes and effects of strikes (Haymarket, Homestead, Pullman
• Why did labor unions have a difficult time gaining public support?
TOPIC: GROWTH OF CITIES
GROUP #8 - The Challenge of the Cities
TASK: To create a tri-fold display board that provides detailed information on the assigned topic.
CRITERIA/(Grading): All display board must contain the following elements:
• Title: (10 points)
o Group topic
o Group #
o Class Period
o Group Members - Alphabetical
• Information: (40 points – Individual grade)
o clearly organized
o answers each question in a detailed and creative manner.
• Images: 7 – minimum – with captions (30 Points)
o 1 map/diagram/chart
o 1 political cartoon
o 4 photographs or images
o 1 primary source document
• Worksheet (10 points)
o 5 regents multiple choice questions
o 5 short answer
o Blank copy & Answer key
• Works Cited: (10 points)
o MLA format
• Organization & Mechanics
o Up to 10 Points can be deducted
GROWTH OF CITIES
8. CH 16 –Section 3 – The Challenge of the Cities - 473-478
• Include: Maps, Photographs, Diagrams, and Primary Sources.
• Why did immigrants and rural migrants (farmers) move into the cities?
• How did skyscrapers reflect technology merged with art?
• Explain the inventions that made skyscrapers a more practical form of construction.
• Why were commuter rail lines (mass transit) that were powered by electricity and improvement over earlier commuter rail lines
• Why did the cities of the late 1900s have so many problems? What solutions did city planners develop to combat these problems?
o Tenements and housing conditions
o Overcrowding
o Water and Sanitation
o Fire
o Crime
• How did city planners help make cities safer, more functional and beautiful? (Frederick Law Olmsted)
• How did the increase in Newspaper (NY World & NY Journal) and Magazine (McClures & Cosmopolitan) circulation affect the American public?
• Describe the new forms of entertainment that urban centers began to offer?
Amusement Parks
o Wild West Shows
o Vaudeville Shows
o Ragtime and Jazz
o Baseball and other sporting events.
TOPIC: MINORITY GROUPS
GROUP #9 - Conflict with Native Americans
TASK: To create a tri-fold display board that provides detailed information on the assigned topic.
CRITERIA/(Grading): All display board must contain the following elements:
Title: (10 points)
o Group topic
o Group #
o Class Period
o Group Members - Alphabetical
• Information: (40 points – Individual grade)
o clearly organized
o answers each question in a detailed and creative manner.
• Images: 7 – minimum – with captions (30 Points)
o 1 map/diagram/chart
o 1 political cartoon
o 4 photographs or images
o 1 primary source document
• Worksheet (10 points)
o 5 regents multiple choice questions
o 5 short answer
o Blank copy & Answer key
• Works Cited: (10 points)
o MLA format
• Organization & Mechanics
o Up to 10 Points can be deducted
MINORITY GROUPS
9. Native Americans – CH 15 Section 2 Conflict with Native Americans– 436 – 439
• Include: Maps, Photographs, Diagrams, and Primary Sources.
• How did the pressures of westward expansion impact the lives of Native Americans
• How did the differing view of land and disease lead to the establishment of reservations?
• What impact did white people have on the buffalo herds of the west? How did it affect the lives of the Native Indians of the Great Plains?
• Analyze the Sand Creek Massacre (1864) and the Sioux Wars (1868) and explain why peace treaties such as the Forth Laramie Treaty, failed.
• Compare and contrast the actions of Sitting Bull and Chief Joseph and the effects of those actions on the Native Americans. Analyze: Was the United States government justified in their actions against the native tribes? Explain.
• How did the Dawes Act (1887) change the way Indians were treated?
TOPIC: MINORITY GROUPS
GROUP #10 – African Americans and the World of Jim Crow
TASK: To create a tri-fold display board that provides detailed information on the assigned topic.
CRITERIA/(Grading): All display board must contain the following elements:
• Title: (10 points)
o Group topic
o Group #
o Class Period
o Group Members - Alphabetical
• Information: (40 points – Individual grade)
o clearly organized
o answers each question in a detailed and creative manner.
• Images: 7 – minimum – with captions (30 Points)
o 1 map/diagram/chart
o 1 political cartoon
o 4 photographs or images
o 1 primary source document
• Worksheet (10 points)
o 5 regents multiple choice questions
o 5 short answer
o Blank copy & Answer key
• Works Cited: (10 points)
o MLA format
• Organization & Mechanics
o Up to 10 Points can be deducted
MINORITY GROUPS
10. African Americans – CH 17 – Section 3 World of Jim Crow 498 – 402
• Include: Maps, Photographs, Diagrams, and Primary Sources.
• Why did Southern states limit the rights of African Americans despite the passage of the 15th Amendment to the US Constitution?
• Explain the restrictions imposed on African Americans under “Jim Crow” (1830) and the defeat in Plessy vs. Ferguson (1883).
• Why did lynching become an accepted, and in many ways, an unpunished violent crime in the south?
• How did Frederick Douglas, W.E.B. DuBois, and Booker T. Washington all strive to improve the lives of African-Americans in the United States?
• Explain “de facto segregation” and why it existed in the North?
• Despite restrictions, several African Americans made their mark on U.S History.
o George Washington Carver
o Granville T. Woods
TOPIC: MINORITY GROUPS
GROUP #11 – People on the Move and Growing Divisions – Asians and Irish in America.
TASK: To create a tri-fold display board that provides detailed information on the assigned topic.
CRITERIA/(Grading): All display board must contain the following elements:
• Title: (10 points)
o Group topic
o Group #
o Class Period
o Group Members - Alphabetical
• Information: (40 points – Individual grade)
o clearly organized
o answers each question in a detailed and creative manner.
• Images: 7 – minimum – with captions (30 Points)
o 1 map/diagram/chart
o 1 political cartoon
o 4 photographs or images
o 1 primary source document
• Worksheet (10 points)
o 5 regents multiple choice questions
o 5 short answer
o Blank copy & Answer key
• Works Cited: (10 points)
o MLA format
• Organization & Mechanics
o Up to 10 Points can be deducted
MINORITY GROUPS
11. Asian Americans – CH 16 – Section 2 – People on the Move 469 – 471
& Irish Americans – CH 9 – Section 2 – Growing Divisions – 279 – 281
• Include: Maps, Photographs, Diagrams, and Primary Sources.
• Explain the idea behind “Nativism” and why some American’s wanted to restrict immigration.
• What was the Know Nothing Party and what were it’s goals
• Why did the Transcontinental Railroads companies (Union Pacific and Central Pacific) recruited immigrants as workers?
• Compare and contrast the reasons why the Irish and Chinese came to America and how their goals differed from each other
• Analyze and compare how each rail company treated their workers (hours, salary, etc.)
• Explain the goal of the Chinese Exclusion Act 1882 and how it affected Asian immigrants and the jobs that were available to them?
• Explain how and why were the Irish were discriminated against in many eastern cities such as New York and Boston? What jobs were available to them?
• How were the Chinese and Irish portrayed in political cartoons? Why? (Thomas Nast)
TOPIC: MINORITY GROUPS
GROUP #12 – Women and Suffrage in the late 1800s and early 1900s
TASK: To create a tri-fold display board that provides detailed information on the assigned topic.
CRITERIA/(Grading): All display board must contain the following elements:
• Title: (10 points)
o Group topic
o Group #
o Class Period
o Group Members - Alphabetical
• Information: (40 points – Individual grade)
o clearly organized
o answers each question in a detailed and creative manner.
• Images: 7 – minimum – with captions (30 Points)
o 1 map/diagram/chart
o 1 political cartoon
o 4 photographs or images
o 1 primary source document
• Worksheet (10 points)
o 5 regents multiple choice questions
o 5 short answer
o Blank copy & Answer key
• Works Cited: (10 points)
o MLA format
• Organization & Mechanics
o Up to 10 Points can be deducted
MINORITY GROUPS
12. Women CH 17 – Section 4 Women in the late 1800s – 403 – 406
CH 19 – Section 4 – Suffrage at last – 557 - 560
• Include: Maps, Photographs, Diagrams, and Primary Sources.
• Was the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 a success? Explain the outcome.
• How did the Civil War derail the Women’s Rights Movement?
• Explain the strategies employed by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton in their efforts to gain the right to vote for women.
• How was the Women’s Christian Temperance Movement (Francis Willard) connected to the Suffrage Movement?
• Explain how Carrie Chapman Catt reenergized the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NASWA) by comparing her strategies to Anthony and Stanton.
• Compare the actions of Alice Paul and Lucy Burns and the National Women’s Party (NWP) during World War I to Anthony and Stanton’s actions during the Civil War.
• Was the passage of the 19th Amendment and simple process? Explain.
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