A Crossroads Resource

II. Crossroads Social Studies Methods Syllabus: American History Themes In Historical Inquiry Methods For Teaching The Crossroads Curriculum

Theme I. Geography as the Setting of American History

Rationale: Geography is very much a cognitive developmental issue. In the past, it has often been taught as though students could attend to, and learn, at any level of abstraction. As a result, children often have not had a clue about the meaning of geographical subject matter. This sequence of teaching methods attends to issues of cognitive development, moving from concrete and egocentric notions of place, time, and orientation to gradually more abstract and hypothetico-deductive thinking abilities.

There is a large body of information, research studies, and descriptive work about the psychological development of geographic knowledge and the underpinnings of geography. This body of knowledge has been developed because of recent significant awareness among social scientists that geography has not been taught in previous years, even to a remotely satisfactory degree. It should therefore be assumed that a novice teacher group will have little knowledge or understanding of world geography, its concepts, or its vocabulary. This particular section of the methods course is designed to begin to remedy that situation.

Two major areas of the CROSSROADS curriculum have been selected for focusing on geography because of its pivotal role in these historical periods. The first historical period for geographical knowledge is that of the American continent as Native Americans knew it and Europeans discovered it. The second is the expansion of the United States across its burgeoning boundaries in the period including the Civil War in which America's geography clearly had been crucial. The following are the syllabus assignments for the new teacher of this material. The instructor will serve as a guide for historical and geographical text material to fulfill the requirements.

The course begins with a session in the college library to introduce the students to the layout of the library and the various resources available.

The instructor will also present a developmental framework for the understanding of geography in the young adolescent. In particular for adolescents, the transition from concrete to abstract thinking will be discussed in its implications for thinking about and learning geography. Re-read the Introduction to Bernstein's Essays for the historical and integrated framework of the syllabus.

A. Unit I: The Americas to 1500
Note: An additional resource is the New York State Education Department's Ibero-American Heritage Columbus Quincentennial Curriculum.

  1. Become an expert on one section of North America
    1. Describe the geography as completely as possible from at least four different types of maps. Include what you need to know about the symbolic keys used on the maps.
    2. Describe the geology of the area using appropriate reference materials.
    3. Describe the native peoples in the area and the key aspects of their cultures.
    4. Describe the culture of these people in relation to geography.

  2. Develop a presentation
    1. Develop categories of similarities and differences among the geographical areas and cultures found within the region studied.
    2. Develop causal explanations.

  3. Group activities
    1. What activities will be useful and interesting to adolescents?
    2. What will be difficult? For example, for many middle school students, maps are hard to read since they have had little experience working with maps. Use your own experience in this assignment to guide you in helping your future students. How did you make the transition to map symbolism?
    3. Develop a hierarchy of learning tasks for elementary, middle, or high school as a structure of individualization for one of the assignments in Section A. You should assume that the classes are heterogeneous and therefore learning tasks should be developed at all levels of Bloom's Cognitive Taxonomy.

  4. Develop a bibliography of Indian writing about nature.

B. Unit VI: "Now we are engaged in a great Civil War," 1848-1880
Note: Unit V, "Ambiguous Democracy 1800-1848," could be used in a similar manner.

  1. Geography of the Southern slave economy
    1. Develop an overall profile of Southern agriculture in relation to the geography of the Deep South.
    2. Become an expert on one cash crop, e.g. rice, indigo, cotton, tobacco particularly as it relates to geography.
    3. Develop a portfolio of primary and secondary materials to teach students about this crop (e.g., see National Council for the Social Studies materials on the rice economy and plantations).

  2. Geography and the Northern industrial economy
    1. Map the river systems of the Northeast.
    2. Plot economic development in relation to your map project.

  3. Geography and U.S. expansion "from sea to shining sea"?
    1. The great rivers
    2. The railroad and the Great Plains

  4. How did geography contribute to the results of the Civil War? (There are numerous projects inherent in this question.)

  5. Follow the geographical influences into the post-Civil War period
    1. Encroachment on Native American lands
    2. The American railroad system
    3. The "Robber Barons"
    4. Beginning of the agricultural revolution
    5. Geography and inventions


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