Middle School Live American History, Spring Semester (Part 2)

This is an annual course that has been divided into semesters for payment purposes. Part 1 and Part 2 are meant to be taken together. Both semesters must be taken in the same school year, and Part 1 is a prerequisite to take Part 2.

History is not about raw memorization of names, dates, and events. In the WriteAtHome Middle School American History course, the details of history are used to make cause-and-effect sense of why our world is the way it is. This class will focus on giving students a timeline frame of reference for major events and introduce some of the people involved in those events. This course surveys American History from the Exploration of the New World to the late 20th Century, with a strong emphasis on the American Founding through the Civil War and Reconstruction. Each semester is 16 weeks long.

We will cover such topics as

• Types of North American colonies and their interaction with Native communities
• The contrast of colonial life and culture and European culture
• The First Great Awakening, the path to Independence and the Revolutionary War
• The framing of the Constitution, presidents and major events
• Westward expansion, the Industrial Revolution, the Second Great Awakening, divisions in the country before the Civil War
• Secession and the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Age of Industry
• The turn of the Twentieth Century, World War I, the 1920s before the stock market crash, The Great Depression, World War II, societal change in America during the Cold War

This class meets on Wednesdays at 4 pm, Eastern Standard Time.

Note: Space is limited. Be sure to enroll early to secure your spot.

Student Expectations for Live Classes:

• attend and participate in weekly live discussion; this is the heart of the course (recordings will be available after each session)
• do weekly required reading
• take weekly quizzes and answer the discussion questions meant to promote critical thinking
• write two short, historical figure papers

Required Reading:

The weekly required reading will be assembled from various articles, primary sources, and textbooks available for free online, with links provided in the weekly required reading section of Canvas. The reading will be mostly synchronous with the weekly lessons.

Suggested Booklist:

If you prefer a physical copy of a book in addition to the online resources provided, we will also give weekly reading suggestions from the WriteAtHome High School History class textbook, Paul Johnson’s A History of the American People.