Welcome to Crossroads!

Since 1995, the American Studies Crossroads Project has provided a comprehensive and integrated platform for pedagogical, scholarly, and institutional information for the international American Studies community.

As Crossroads celebrates more than a decade of online innovation and collaboration, the Crossroads team has redesigned the site to better reflect the range of resources and information available to students and educators of American Studies. We hope you enjoy the changes.

National Resource Guide to American Studies in the Secondary Schools

Sponsored by the ASA Secondary School Committee

Course Units -- 11th Grade: Elgin, IL

Information about the Elgin Program Development and Organization is also available.

Course Outline

District U-46 American Studies Curriculum

Elgin HS Larkin HS Streamwood HS Bartlett HS (Opening 1997)

The American Studies course will:

• Provide an interdisciplinary framework for the study of the history and culture of the United States
• Promote individual inquiry and small and large group interaction in meeting the course objectives
• Nurture critical and creative thinking skills
• Approach the American experience thematically
• Focus on the analysis of events, movements, groups and individuals who have shaped and continue to shape American culture and history

Students in the American Studies course will:

• Identify the major periods and associated persons in the development of United States culture and history
• Discover relationships between the past and present, between and among the disciplines, and between course content and themselves
• Demonstrate a mastery of effective oral, written and visual communication of ideas related to American culture
• Explore, through inquiry and research, the interdisciplinary nature of a topic, as well as make a critical response to that inquiry

The content of the American Studies course is organized thematically. Of course, not every one of the themes will be treated with equal weight / equal time. Available materials, current events, student interest and teacher discretion should determine the order and length of each unit. The chosen themes attempt to provide an accurate cross-section of the American experience what it has been, what it is, and what it may become.

The Individual
This unit will investigate an interesting dichotomy in American society: we value individualism and admire those who stand and act on principle, yet, at times, there is a price to be paid for such self-expression: alienation. Some of our laws enable individuals to decide for themselves, and other laws protect the whole of society. American literature, arts, and history are rife with examples of individualism its praises and its conflicts.

The Frontier
Frontiers are not merely physical edges of open space. In addition to a look at the expansion of U.S. territory, the frontiers of artistic, literary and social change should be explored. The myth of the frontier plays an immense role in defining American culture and society; how much is fact? How much is fiction?

Technology and the Future
Americans are enamored with "state of the art" anything. Their inventions have changed their lifestyles; their lifestyles have brought about more inventions. This unit investigates many technological changes, the Americans who invented and/or developed them, and the effects of these innovations on the American character, American history, and American culture.

Foreign Policy: Isolationism to World Leadership
An option for this unit is dividing it into Part I. (centered around the policy of isolation) and Part II. (centered around the role of world leader). Attitudes such as "Americans always win," "the U.S. is always right," "democracy is the best policy," and "good neighbors make good friends" can be compared and contrasted to the realities.

Violence in America
Even though violence is not unique to American society, it does occur in myriad circumstances in American culture and plays a critical role in the definition of the American character. Americans seek to preserve the rights of the individual as well as maintain social and political order. An understanding of the violent responses to various conditions may be reached by studying cause/effect relationships.

Persuasion, Propaganda and Censorship
In a free society, citizens must possess the critical thinking skills to process information, to determine facts from opinion, to determine facts from fiction. This unit will focus on the use of propaganda in American history and society for both its benefit and negative effects. Students need to be aware of the cause and effect relationships among propaganda and censorship and events in U.S. history and culture.

Rural, Urban, Suburban America
This unit presents the positive and negative effects on American society as it progressed from its agrarian beginnings through its urban industrialization to its suburban, information-based form. Many American values stem from these three forms of "sense-of-place," which then affect American history and culture.

Protest and Reform
The people of the United States have a bedrock belief that protest is the catalyst for addressing inequalities in American economic, social, political and environmental systems, and that individuals acting in concert are the architects of reform in these, and other, areas. This "grassroots" effort is an important part of the American character and experience, and much American history--and culture--is defined by efforts at reform.

Race and Ethnicity
As early as the colonial era, the pluralism of American society has been evident but not always accepted. This unit provides the opportunity for students to explore the unique multicultural mix of the American public the ways that pluralism has contributed to American culture and history.

The American Dream
A mythology exists that there is one "American Dream" which all Americans share. This unit promotes the discussion of various interpretations of this dream. Students will be able to analyze its perpetuation in American culture, its perception world-wide, and its affects on American--and world--history.

The Soldier
Since Americans have been involved in military service to their country, students should perceive the experiences of individual soldiers and their families. This unit presents a humanistic view of the American soldier in the larger historical context of wars and military service. The effects of these experiences on all of American society and culture will be explored as well.