Frameworks for America's Past is a 200 page interactive learning guide with a matching Internet site for middle school U.S. history students.  It closely tracks the well regarded Virginia USII history Standards of Learning (SOL), covering the period from Reconstruction to the present.

   Frameworks for America's Past uses a graphics-rich and interactive design that helps students of all backgrounds build a solid foundation of knowledge and skills.  It has been used in hundreds of classrooms by thousands of students across Virginia and in other states.
 
   The project was developed by a veteran history teacher eager to make the subject more engaging and personally meaningful for students.  It favors a strategy that blends direct instruction of core knowledge with wide opportunities for student directed learning and skills development.


What academic skills does the book emphasize?

   Frameworks for America's Past emphasizes active student engagement in:

• developing a core vocabulary of essential names, terms, and concepts.
• developing skills for using Internet technology in historical studies.
  
• developing geographic knowledge and map skills.
• developing skills for learning from primary source documents.
• developing higher level thinking skills and historical perspective.

Why do students enjoy working with this so much?

   Most students are interested in American history, but they want to be involved in the trip to explore the events and people of the past.

   With Frameworks for America's Past, students feel involved.  Students learn and practice taking concise notes, on graphics-rich pages that help them visualize their lessons.  They finish maps with color pencils, and make graphs of important historical trends using statistical data.

   With the matching Internet support site, they also explore an engaging collection of historical photographs, videos, primary source readings, and other resources.

   You, of course, are the classroom leader, and the lessons you build around the pages and topics in Frameworks for America's Past are an essential ingredient for student success.

What support is available for teachers and students using this?

   The Internet support site has a full set of Teacher Key pages in each section.  These are sized so they can be projected on a large screen for the note taking parts of your classes, and for activities and class discussion based on the pages.

Does it match the 2023 USII revised Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL)?

   Our Second Edition is largely based on the 2015 Virginia SOL for this subject approved in the spring of 2016.  Like our earlier edition, it also includes additional material to flesh out certain topics more effectively.  This edition does include the broad topics listed in the 2023 revised USII SOL, but doesn't include every specific item added by the revision committee.

   Unfortunately, the 2023 revision committee process resulted in participants stuffing a large number of new items into the USII SOL.  If given as optional topics / names / events / issues for teachers to consider adding a few of to their lessons, the new items would be considered good suggestions. Taken all together as the mandatory list of required instructional items, however, the new USII SOL strikes many teachers as badly overstuffed and an unrealistic fantasy.  It would be, in our opinion, a challenging list even for an AP level high school class to cover in any meaningful depth.

   Overstuffed Standards of Learning lists may look impressive on paper to some people, but they don't improve instruction. Instead, they tie teachers up and result in a tedious, boring dash through the content list, leaving little time for engaging activities, projects, independent exploration, and class discussions.  As every traveler knows, pack the essentials in your bag and you enjoy a really good trip.  Overpack your luggage, and it becomes a constant drag that ruins the whole trip.

   In our opinion, the 2023 revised USII SOL needs a serious review and trimming to make it a reasonable, realistic guide for teachers - and students - who actually are in our classrooms.  Until that happens, we will stick with the generally reasonable framework the 2008 / 2015 SOL documents established for this subject.  We encourage all teachers to add content and activities that you think your students would find interesting and meaningful on their trip through America's past.

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