Welcome to - Religious Movements and the Republic- A Unit for 11th Grade
This unit covers a course of study on the role of Religion in the founding of America in accordance with 11th grade California State Standards.
CA Content Standard/Common Core Standard:
11.3
Students analyze the role religion played in the founding of America, its lasting moral, social, and political impacts, and issues regarding religious liberty.
- Describe the contributions of various religious groups to American civic principles and social reform movements
(e.g., civil and human rights, individual responsibility and the work ethic, antimonarchy and self-rule, worker protection, family-centered communities). - Analyze the great religious revivals and the leaders involved in them, including the First Great Awakening, the Second Great Awakening, the Civil War revivals, the Social Gospel Movement, the rise of Christian liberal theology in the nineteenth century, the impact of the Second Vatican Council, and the rise of Christian fundamentalism in current times.
- Cite incidences of religious intolerance in the United States (e.g., persecution of Mormons, anti-Catholic sentiment,
anti-Semitism). - Discuss the expanding religious pluralism in the United States and California that resulted from large-scale
immigration in the twentieth century. - Describe the principles of religious liberty found in the Establishment and Free Exercise clauses of the First
Amendment, including the debate on the issue of separation of church and state.
Essential Historical Questions:
-What Relationship existed between religious thought and movements and the founding of the Republic and how did this change over time?
-How did the early republic integrate the freedom of religion with deep held beliefs and the plethora of religious beliefs in a pluralistic society?
-How did Immigration effect the expansion of religious pluralism in the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty first century?
Big Ideas:
This unit will focus on the following big ideas:
-Religious movements that shaped American civic and social values and expectations.
-The effects of these movements on the founding documents and concepts of separation of church and state.
-The expanding definition of religious freedom due to a variety of factors (e.g., social change, immigration, expansion of civil liberties).
-Religious intolerance and the changing face of American values and religious beliefs.
Assessment Plan:
-A timeline that lays out the various religious movements and their effect on the republic.
-A quick-write on the first amendment and separation of church and state.
-A graphic organizer displaying the effects of immigration on religious pluralism and American society.
-A short quiz on the effects of religious intolerance and the stifling of religious freedoms.