American History – “I Can” Statements

• I can recognize important figures in big business, such as Rockefeller and Carnegie, and describe their impact on the American economy.

• I can identify major labor unions of the late 1800s and discuss their role in eventually changing the American workplace

• I can explain how industrialization changed the way Americans worked

th • I can define social Darwinism and apply its principles to find examples in 19 century America

• I can identify different integrations of businesses, trusts, monopolies, and explain their impact on the economy

• I can identify why immigrants came to the US and the problems they faced once they arrived

• I can describe why urbanization occurred in the late 1800s

• I can explain the negative impact rapid industrialization had on Americans in big cities

• I can discuss programs and measures that were put in place to try to help combat the evils of industrialization.

• I can describe examples of corruption within national, state and local levels of government in the late 1800s

• I can explain how President Garfield's assassination led to calls for reform and the creation of the Civil Service System

• I can identify differences in Republican and Democratic political policies in the late 1800s

th • I can describe the plight of late 19 century farmers, and relate to that the programs such as the Grange and the Populist movement attempted to help them.

• I can identify the parts of the business cycle and demonstrate understanding of the implications for each part on the economy

• I can explain the impacts of inflation and deflation on the economy

• I can make the arguments for and against the gold standard

• I can define socialism and describe why some Americans thought it had a place in our society in the late 1800s

• I can identify reasons for the temperance movement, and understand its ties to women's suffrage

• I can describe the pre-Civil War isolationist foreign policy of the United States

• I can explain how that policy slowly started to change up to the turn of the century

• I can further explain how the US rapidly became an imperialist power following the Spanish American War

• I can identify the causes of the Spanish American War, and understand the impact of yellow journalism before, and during the war

• I can give examples of US policy that favored imperialist thought in the early 1900s

• I can identify problems of industrialization as they relate to the common American worker

• I can describe government reforms such as initiative and referendum that extended more power to the people.

• I can explain the impact the Progressive Era had on the common American worker

• I can explain specific problems in the workplace, and with living conditions at the turn of the century, and identify the government measures (if any) put in place to address the problems during the progressive era

• I can describe the plight of African Americans at the turn of he century, including implications of Jim Crow Laws, and Plessy v Ferguson.

• I can identify measures by which African Americans attempted to better their situations, such as the founding of the NAACP and the Tuskgee Institute

• I can describe why Prohibition was created

th • I can chronicle women's journey to the 19 Amendment

• I can identify the platforms of Republicans, Democrats, and Progressives in the 1910s

• I can reason why the Democrats were able to win the election of 1912, when they had previously had a difficult time taking the White House

• I can describe why the Federal Reserve System was needed, and the basic principles of how it functions

• I can understand the reasons for strained relations between the US and Mexico prior to WWI • I can analyze the causes of WWI, and how Archduke Ferdinand's assassination brought them all to a head

• I can describe Wilson's policy toward the war, early in the war, and give examples of his diplomatic efforts

• I can explain why the US finally entered the war and the impact our entry had on the situation between the Allied and Central powers

• I can describe the reasons for and the implications of the Great Migration

• I can describe how the US entry into the war changed the tide of the war

• I can identify significant components of Wilson's Fourteen Points

• I can discuss the purpose of the League of Nations and describe reasons why it was doomed early on

• I can recognize the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles and identify how the reparations and US failure to ratify set up a condition in Europe ripe for economic and political distress

• I can identify cases of increased discrimination against African Americans and immigrants in the 1920s

• I can explain why the 1920s was dubbed the "Roaring Twenties"

• I can describe the impact of Prohibition on American society; crime, social clubs and status, and corruption

• I can recognize how purchasing methods and buying power changed Americans in the 1920s

• I can explain the connection between government's lassaize faire economic policy, risky stock market speculation, banking practices, and the stock market crash

• I canxplain at least four situations that led to the Great Depression

• I can describe how the Depression affected the common American worker

• I can describe President Hoover's policies, his reasoning behind them, and how he was viewed by the American public because of those policies

• I can identify the conditions that caused the Dust Bowl and how it affected that region of the country

• I can explain how Franklin Roosevelt's policies toward the Depression differed from those of Herbert Hoover

• I can identify specific problems of the Depression and the New Deal programs that were meant to attack those problems

• I can determine how the New Deal impacted the American economy, in both positive and negative ways

• I can identify criticisms of the New Deal and what Roosevelt did to counter those charges

• I can describe how and why FDR's focus shifted from domestic to foreign policy in the late 1930s

• I can identify reasons for Japanese aggression in the 1930s and 40s

• I can understand the social and economic situations that allowed for the rise of dictators in Europe in the 1930s

• I can describe ways Europe and America tried to avoid war

• I can explain how after Europe erupted into war, America tried to help the Allies without entering the war

• I can explain why the Japanese attacked us at Pearl Harbor, and the implications for America

• I can identify ways Americans hat home helped the war effort

• I can describe how America's entry into the war affected the war as a whole

• I can explain the implications and importance of the D-Day invasion

• I can identify the significance of the Battle of the Bulge • I can describe the situation that led to the end of the war in Europe

• I can chronicle the events that led America through island hopping in the Pacific

• I can analyze the situation with the war in the Pacific in 1945 and determine whether or not the atomic bomb should have been used

• I can describe how decisions and compromises made at the end of WWII would impact policy in Eastern Europe

• I can identify reasons for the formation of the United Nations and provisions that made it different from the League of Nations

• I can explain how post war Alliances such as NATO and the Warsaw Pact led to new tensions

• I can explain the impact returning soldiers had on the economy, including changes in living patterns, such as suburbs

• I can explain the fear spread through the red scare, and how McCarthyism affected lives of targeted individuals

• I can analyze the tense relationship between the United States and Soviet Union between 1945 and 1991.

• I can describe how that tension translated to the development of rival space programs.

• I can explain the concept of containment and identify examples within US policy.

• I can identify the reason US troops got involved in the Korean Conflict.

• I can identify the reason US troops were committed to Vietnam.

• I can illustrate examples of how protests of our involvement in Vietnam played out in the American public.

• I can describe reasons for the development of the counterculture movement in the 1960s and 1970s

• I can explain how the relationship between the US and Soviet Union changed and progressed in the 1980s.

• I can identify reasons the Cold War ended.

• I can explain the impact of Brown v Board of Education on domestic race relation policy.

• I can trace the influence of cultural groups on political policy, such as NOW, AIM, NAACP and the United Farm workers.

• I can create a timeline of specific events throughout the 1950s and 1960s that led to the passage of major civil rights legislation in the mid 1960s.

• I can describe the impact of political and cultural assassinations of the 1960s on the movements those people promoted.