Period 4: Historical Problems/Issues and Time Line activity

1. Historical Problems to explore in Period 4:

• 1. What is the new American identity thats been been forged by the mid 1800s?
  2. How do beliefs about democracy and freedom change in the United States during the period 1800-1860?

1. divide students into groups of four and assign each foursome a decade, in which they should accomplish the following:
1. first, break themselves into subdivisions of two,
1. each group of two should make a time-line of the five or six most important events or people of that decade;
2. second, the two twosomes should get back together and merge their lists into not more than five or six items, explaining to each other (and then ultimately reporting to the full class) why they chose those five or six items, and how they decided to eliminate the others.
2. Before we start, we do need to brainstorm and discuss some general expectations for the activity!!