Major Concepts: All five of the Unit Content/Concept statements should be considered within this introductory lesson.

Suggested lesson/activities:

1. It is assumed that students have read CROSSROADS Essay XII and are prepared to examine the problems that Americans face today. Spend a few minutes allowing students to define the problems identified in this essay in their own terms.

2. Distribute an outline of the methodology of historical inquiry. Have students select a problem from the first activity of interest to them which they will study during the remainder of the unit. Carefully describe each of the steps in the procedure of historical inquiry.

3. Discuss the ways in which each student can assist other students by providing data related to their study through daily postings on a summary information bulletin board. In this way, students will develop a grasp of collaborative research efforts.

4. Use the remainder of the period for students to use their textbooks and CROSSROADS Essay XII to define their chosen problem more clearly and develop their processes of research and analysis.

5. Remind students that oral history is a valuable methodology, but that it still requires the rigor of overall historical research methodologies.

6. Emphasize that the entire period from 1975 to the present must be the research base from which students will extract data.

7. Although it may not be either necessary or advisable to bring the class together at the period's end each day, it would be a good procedure to establish closure at critical points in the inquiry. One way to do this is as follows: After all problems have been identified, produce a unit schedule when the progress of students in exploring a set of problems can be summarized for the whole class.