SS

UNITED STATES HISTORY SINCE 1860 


In fifth grade, students continue their formal study of United States history. As with fourth grade, the strands of history, geography, civics, and economics are fully integrated. Students study United States history beginning with the Civil War and continue to the present. The geography strand emphasizes the influence of geography on U. S. history. The civics strand emphasizes concepts and rights as outlined in amendments to the U. S. Constitution. The economics strand uses material from the historical strand to further understanding of economic concepts.

Historical Understandings

SS5H1 The student will explain the causes, major events, and consequences of the
Civil War.

1. Identify  Uncle  Tom’s  Cabin  and  John  Brown’s  raid  on  Harper’s  Ferry, and explain how each of these events was related to the Civil War.
   
2. Discuss  how  the  issues  of  states’  rights  and  slavery  increased  tensions  between the North and South.
   
3. Identify major battles and campaigns: Fort Sumter, Gettysburg, the Atlanta Campaign,  Sherman’s  March  to  the  Sea,  and  Appomattox  Court  House.
   
4. Describe the roles of Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Jefferson  Davis,  and  Thomas  “Stonewall”  Jackson.
   
5. Describe the effects of war on the North and South.
   

SS5H2 The student will analyze the effects of Reconstruction on American life.

1. Describe the purpose of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments.
   
2. Explain  the  work  of  the  Freedmen’s  Bureau.
   
3. Explain how slavery was replaced by sharecropping and how African-Americans
   were prevented from exercising their newly won rights; include a discussion of Jim Crow laws and customs.
   

SS5H3 The student will describe how life changed in America at the turn of the century.

1. Describe the role of the cattle trails in the late 19th century; include the Black Cowboys of Texas, the Great Western Cattle Trail, and the Chisholm Trail.
   
2. Describe the impact on American life of the Wright brothers (flight), George Washington Carver (science), Alexander Graham Bell (communication), and Thomas Edison (electricity).
   
3. Explain  how  William  McKinley  and  Theodore  Roosevelt  expanded  America’s role in the world; include the Spanish-American War and the building of the Panama Canal.
   
4. Describe the reasons people emigrated to the United States, from where they emigrated, and where they settled.
   
5. Describe the impact of westward expansion on Native Americans; include the Battle of the Little Bighorn and the relocation of Native Americans to reservations. 

SS5H4 The student will describe U.S. involvement in World War I and post-World War I America.

1. Explain how German attacks on U.S. shipping during the war in Europe (1914- 1917) ultimately led the U.S. to join the fight against Germany; include the sinking of the Lusitania and concerns over safety of U.S. ships, U.S. contributions to the war, and the impact of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.
   
2. Describe the cultural developments and individual contributions in the 1920s of the Jazz Age (Louis Armstrong), the Harlem Renaissance (Langston Hughes), baseball (Babe Ruth), the automobile (Henry Ford), and the airplane (Charles Lindbergh).
   

SS5H5 The student will explain how the Great Depression and New Deal affected the lives of millions of Americans.

1. Discuss the Stock Market Crash of 1929, Herbert Hoover, Franklin Roosevelt, the Dust Bowl, and soup kitchens.
   
2. Analyze the main features of the New Deal; include the significance of the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Works Progress Administration, and the Tennessee Valley Authority.
   
3. Discuss important cultural elements of the 1930s; include Duke Ellington, Margaret Mitchell, and Jesse Owens.
   

SS5H6  The  student  will  explain  the  reasons  for  America’s  involvement  in  World
War II.

1. Describe  Germany’s  aggression  in  Europe  and  Japan’s aggression in Asia.
   
2. Describe major events in the war in both Europe and the Pacific; include Pearl
   Harbor, Iwo Jima, D-Day, VE and VJ Days, and the Holocaust.
   
3. Discuss  President  Truman’s  decision  to  drop  the  atomic  bombs  on  Hiroshima and
   Nagasaki.
   
4. Identify Roosevelt, Stalin, Churchill, Hirohito, Truman, Mussolini, and Hitler.
   
5. Describe the effects of rationing and the changing role of women and African-
   Americans;;  include  “Rosie  the  Riveter”  and  the  Tuskegee  Airmen.
   
6. Explain the U.S. role in the formation of the United Nations.
   

SS5H7 The student will discuss the origins and consequences of the Cold War.

1. Explain  the  origin  and  meaning  of  the  term  “Iron  Curtain.”
   
2. Explain how the United States sought to stop the spread of communism through
   the Berlin airlift, the Korean War, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
   
3. Identify Joseph McCarthy and Nikita Khrushchev. 

SS5H8 The student will describe the importance of key people, events, and developments between 1950-1975.

1. Discuss the importance of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War.
   
2. Explain the key events and people of the Civil Rights movement; include Brown
   v. Board of Education (1954), the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the March on Washington, Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act, and civil rights activities of Thurgood Marshall, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King, Jr.
   
3. Describe the impact on American society of the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr.
   
4. Discuss the significance of the technologies of television and space exploration.
   

SS5H9 The student will trace important developments in America since 1975.

1. Describe U. S. involvement in world events; include efforts to bring peace to the Middle East, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Persian Gulf War, and the War on Terrorism in response to September 11, 2001.
   
2. Explain the impact the development of the personal computer and the Internet has had on American life.
   
   
   
   Geographic Understandings

SS5G1 The student will locate important places in the United States.

1. Locate important physical features; include the Grand Canyon, Salton Sea, Great Salt Lake, and Mojave Desert.
   
2. Locate important man-made places; include the Chisholm Trail; Pittsburgh, PA; Gettysburg, PA; Kitty Hawk, NC; Pearl Harbor, HI; and Montgomery, AL.
   

SS5G2 The student will explain the reasons for the spatial patterns of economic activities.

1. Explain how factors such as population, transportation, and resources influenced industrial location in the United States between the end of the Civil War and 1900.
   
2. Locate primary agricultural and industrial locations since the turn of the 20th century and explain how factors such as population, transportation, and resources have influenced these areas.
   Government/Civic Understandings
   

SS5CG1  The  student  will  explain  how  a  citizen’s  rights are protected under the
U.S. Constitution.

1. Explain the responsibilities of a citizen.
   
2. Explain the freedoms granted and rights protected by the Bill of Rights.
   
3. Explain the concept of due process of law and describe how the U.S. Constitution
   protects a citizen’s  rights  by  due  process.
   

SS5CG2 The student will explain the process by which amendments to the U.S. Constitution are made.

1. Explain the amendment process outlined in the Constitution.
2. Describe the purpose for the amendment process.
   

SS5CG3 The student will explain how amendments to the U. S. Constitution have maintained a representative democracy.

1. Explain the purpose of the 12th and 17th amendments.
   
2. Explain how voting rights were protected by the 15th, 19th, 23rd, 24th , and 26th
   amendments.
   
   
   
   Economic Understandings 

SS5E1 The student will use the basic economic concepts of trade, opportunity cost,
specialization, voluntary exchange, productivity, and price incentives to illustrate historical events.

1. Describe opportunity costs and their relationship to decision-making across time (such as decisions to ration goods during WWII).
   
2. Explain  how  price  incentives  affect  people’s  behavior  and  choices  (such  as   decisions to participate in cattle trails because of increased beef prices).
   
3. Describe how specialization improves standards of living, (such as how specific economies in the north and south developed at the beginning of the 20th century).
   
4. Explain how voluntary exchange helps both buyers and sellers (such as how specialization leads to the need to exchange to get wants and needs).
   
5. Describe how trade promotes economic activity (such as how the Panama Canal increases trade between countries).
   
6. Give examples of technological advancements and their impact on business productivity during the continuing development of the United States (such as the development of the personal computer and the internet).
   

SS5E2 The student will describe the functions of four major sectors in the U. S. economy.

1. Describe the household function in providing resources and consuming goods and services.
   
2. Describe the private business function in producing goods and services.
   
3. Describe the bank function in providing checking accounts, savings accounts, and
   loans.
   
4. Describe the government function in taxation and providing certain goods and
   services.
   

SS5E3 The student will describe how consumers and businesses interact in the U. S. economy.
a. Describe  how  competition,  markets,  and  prices  influence  people’s  behavior.

2. Describe how people earn income by selling their labor to businesses.
   
3. Describe how entrepreneurs take risks to develop new goods and services to start
   a business.
   

SS5E4 The student will identify the elements of a personal budget and explain why personal spending and saving decisions are important.