To be productive members of society, students must be critical consumers of information they read, hear, and observe
and communicate effectively about their ideas. They need to gain knowledge from a wide array of sources and examine
and evaluate that information to develop and express an informed opinion, using information gained from the sources
and their background knowledge. Students must also make connections between what they learn about the past and
the present to understand how and why events happen and people act in certain ways.
To accomplish this, students must:
1. Use sources regularly to learn content.
2. Make connections among people, events, and ideas across time and place.
3. Express informed opinions using evidence from sources and outside knowledge.
Teachers must create instructional opportunities that delve deeply into content and guide students in developing and
supporting claims about social studies concepts.
In U.S. History, students explore the evolution of the American identity and its role in the global community as they
learn about the industrialization, consolidation, and corporatization of the United States; foreign policy from
imperialism to intervention in World War I; economic prosperity and decline between the world wars; the reassertion of American exceptionalism following World War II and during the Cold War; and the shifting role of the
United States in the increasingly intertwined modern global community. The key themes in U.S. History highlight the
connections among the GLES
