History · Grade 11

US History SEL activities

36 ready to use activities that teach US History content and build one Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) skill, about 20 minutes each.

Matched to textbook chapters: American History: Reconstruction to the Present, History Alive! Pursuing American Ideals.

Founding Ideals, Faith, and Reconstruction

• Becoming a Citizen Historian Self-awareness · Week 1Students explore the Enlightenment ideas behind the nation's founding and name the questions about belonging and fairness they bring to the American story.
• Unalienable Rights, Unfinished Promises Social awareness · Week 2Students read the Declaration of Independence alongside the experiences of enslaved people, women, and Native nations and consider how promises look different from different places.
• Debating the Constitution Relationship skills · Week 3Students compare Federalist and Antifederalist arguments over ratification and practice deliberating respectfully with someone who sees an issue differently.
• Freedom of Conscience Responsible decision-making · Week 4Students examine the Establishment and Free Exercise clauses and the ongoing debate over church and state, weighing several perspectives before forming a view.
• Faith and Reform Self-management · Week 5Students study how religious revivals energized abolition and other reform movements and identify the sense of purpose that keeps them working toward a goal.
• Rebuilding After the Civil War Relationship skills · Week 6Students learn how freedpeople rebuilt families, founded schools and churches, and voted during Reconstruction and consider what real repair after deep harm requires.

Industrialization, Immigration, and Reform

• The Jungle and the Factory Floor Social awareness · Week 7Students read excerpts from Upton Sinclair's The Jungle about working conditions and food safety and practice imagining daily life from a worker's point of view.
• Cities Built by Newcomers Social awareness · Week 8Students map how immigrants and migrants built growing industrial cities divided by race, ethnicity, and class and practice noticing who might feel left out in a group.
• Americanization and Identity Self-awareness · Week 9Students examine the Americanization movement's pressure on immigrants to give up language and customs and reflect on the parts of their own identity they carry proudly.
• Titans of Industry Responsible decision-making · Week 10Students weigh whether leaders like Carnegie and Rockefeller were captains of industry or robber barons and practice judging evidence rather than labels.
• Social Darwinism or Social Gospel Self-awareness · Week 11Students compare Social Darwinism and the Social Gospel as explanations for poverty and success and examine their own beliefs about why some people struggle.
• Progressives Take Action Relationship skills · Week 12Students learn how Progressives, including Hiram Johnson in California, won reforms such as the initiative, referendum, and recall and plan how a group can improve their school.

World Power and the 1920s

• Becoming a World Power Responsible decision-making · Week 13Students map the Spanish American War and expansion in the Pacific, including Filipino and Native Hawaiian perspectives, and weigh the costs of a choice for everyone it affects.
• The Home Front in the Great War Self-management · Week 14Students examine wartime propaganda, limits on speech, and the Great Migration and practice managing stress when pressure to conform runs high.
• Fear and Civil Liberties Self-awareness · Week 15Students analyze the Palmer Raids, the Ku Klux Klan, and immigration quotas alongside the responses of the ACLU, NAACP, and Anti Defamation League and learn to recognize fear driven thinking in themselves.
• Winning the Vote Self-management · Week 16Students trace the long campaign for the Nineteenth Amendment and set a personal goal that will require steady effort over time.
• Harlem Renaissance Voices Self-awareness · Week 17Students read poems by Langston Hughes and work by Zora Neale Hurston and use writing to express an emotion and an identity of their own.
• Radio, Movies, and Mass Culture Self-management · Week 18Students compare the arrival of radio and movies with today's media and build a plan for managing how media shapes their mood.

The Great Depression and World War II

• The Crash and the Human Toll Self-management · Week 19Students examine the causes of the Great Depression and how families coped and identify healthy ways to handle stress about money and the future.
• Dust Bowl Migrants Come to California Social awareness · Week 20Students study Dorothea Lange's photographs of Dust Bowl families arriving in California and consider how communities can welcome people in crisis.
• New Deal Debates Responsible decision-making · Week 21Students weigh arguments for and against New Deal programs, including the Central Valley Project that reshaped California water, and practice evaluating a policy by its intended and unintended effects.
• Sacrifice and Service Self-management · Week 22Students learn about the Tuskegee Airmen, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, and the Navajo Code Talkers who served a nation that often denied them equal rights and reflect on what motivates service.
• Japanese American Incarceration Relationship skills · Week 23Students examine the forced removal of Japanese Americans, Korematsu v. United States, and the 1988 apology and redress, and consider what a sincere apology requires.
• The Atomic Decision Responsible decision-making · Week 24Students weigh the arguments made for and against dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and practice holding a difficult decision with care and humility.

Postwar America and Civil Rights

• Braceros and the Valley Harvest Social awareness · Week 25Students learn how the Bracero Program brought Mexican workers to California farms, including in the Coachella Valley, and express gratitude for the hands that feed the nation.
• Students Who Faced the Mob Self-management · Week 26Students connect Brown v. Board of Education and California's earlier Mendez v. Westminster case to the courage of the Little Rock Nine and name what helps them stay steady under pressure.
• Letter From Birmingham Jail Relationship skills · Week 27Students analyze how Martin Luther King Jr. answered his critics with reason and restraint and practice responding to criticism without losing their temper.
• Huelga: The Farmworker Movement Relationship skills · Week 28Students learn how Filipino and Mexican American farmworkers led by Larry Itliong and Dolores Huerta, with the union cofounded with César Chávez, organized from Delano to the Coachella Valley and practice building unity across differences.
• Every Vote Counts Responsible decision-making · Week 29Students analyze how the Voting Rights Act and the Twenty Fourth Amendment opened access to the ballot and decide how they will take part in civic life.
• Women's Rights and Differing Views Self-awareness · Week 30Students compare differing perspectives on the roles of women, from Stanton and Anthony to activists and opponents in the 1960s and 1970s, and reflect on the expectations that shape their own choices.

The Cold War and Contemporary America

• Cold War Fears at Home Self-management · Week 31Students examine McCarthyism, blacklisting, and duck and cover drills and practice separating real evidence from fear when they hear an accusation.
• Vietnam and a Divided Nation Social awareness · Week 32Students hear perspectives from veterans, protesters, and Vietnamese refugees who later settled in California and practice listening across deep disagreement.
• Watergate and Public Trust Self-awareness · Week 33Students examine the constitutional crisis of Watergate and how the press, courts, and Congress responded, then reflect on choosing integrity when no one is watching.
• New Neighbors After 1965 Social awareness · Week 34Students learn how the Immigration Act of 1965 transformed communities across California and interview a partner about a journey from a source or an imagined family.
• Protecting Land and Water Responsible decision-making · Week 35Students weigh the views of conservation and property rights advocates on issues like the Salton Sea and Colorado River water and propose a fair solution for the Coachella Valley.
• Gratitude and the Next Chapter Relationship skills · Week 36Students reflect on how Americans across generations widened democracy and write a note of gratitude to someone who helped them grow this year.

RoseThread Connect activities are drafted with the help of AI and shaped by educators. Students never have to share anything personal. Our five SEL skills are informed by CASEL's SEL Framework; RoseThread Learning is not affiliated with or endorsed by CASEL.