Online American Studies Activities
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"Friendly cynics and fierce enemies alike often underestimate or ignore the strong thread of moral purpose which runs through the fabric of American history." Lyndon B. Johnson.

The United States History

The US History Hot Links

You can access the links below to read more about the US history.

The WebQuest on the Key Events in the US History

Introduction Introduction
T

he history of settlement of the territory which is currently named as the United States of America did not begin with Christopher Columbus, an Italian seaman, who discovered the way to the land in 1492 and thought it was India. It was not another person either, a Viking Leif Eriksson, who had stepped onto the land's soil nearly five centuries earlier in 1000. These dates are only true for European explorations.

In fact the history of settlement is much longer. It started more than 20,000 years ago and connected with the peoples who inhabited Siberia. Scientists believe that they crossed the Bering Strait and commenced living in the vast areas of the continent. These peoples and their descendants are known as Native Americans or American Indians [Amerind].

Later when clashed with Europeans, the New World had to yield to new realities.

In this WebQuest you and your groupmates will explore some historic events that are related to European/British colonization and appearance of the United States of America as a country.

Question / Task Question

To answer this question the group will be divided into two teams. Each of the teams will have assignments to complete. Read carefully the Process and Resources below.

Process and Resources Process and Resources

Being assigned to a team or choosing the team you like, you are to complete the tasks below.

Although the articles are from VOA Special English, they might challenge you in terms of unknown words. Please, feel free to use one of the online dictionaries or one at hand.
The links below are in blue and become underlined when the cursor is over them.

Here are the step-by-step instructions to use when looking into your tasks.

  1. BACKGROUND. The whole group should read and/or listen to the articles about the English colonization of North America and then try to find answers to these questions:

  2. LOOKING DEEPER. Click the envelope that belongs to your team. The envelopes contain the task to complete.
TEAM ONE TEAM TWO
Team ONETeam TWO
  1. LOOKING DEEPER INTO ONE MORE EVENT. The whole group should read/listen to the articles below and come up with another event that was also important in the US history.
Conclusion Conclusion
O

n the way to discovering some historic events that are related to the formation of the United States of America, you have completed some tasks on reading and/or listening to the offered texts about the US history and had a chance to combine two formats of working: individual and group.

Both of the formats required your language skills. But the main criterion of assessment for your performance is the content of your answers. Yet you should not neglect linguistics as it affects your presentation and you may sound incomprehensible.

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© 2006-2014 Developed by Erdem Dugarov.
Department of English Language for Intercultural Communication (DELIC ESSTU).