Grade 11, All Subjects (Digital Edition) · 2,908 pages · 431 lessons · PDF, print at home
Every subject of the Grade 11 year in one printable PDF: Science, Math, Reading and Writing, Bible, Reading and Writing, social studies, social studies. 431 lessons across 7 courses, with the parent script, student pages, worked examples, practice and answer keys for each, exactly as taught online. King James throughout.
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What is inside
Every unit and lesson in this year, in order. The same lessons are taught online at lettersanddevotion.com, so a family can move between paper and screen.
Science: Algebra-Based Physics: Modeling Matter, Motion, and Energy
A full-year, algebra-based survey of mechanics, energy, waves, and electricity designed for students who have completed Algebra I and Geometry. Students build physical models from household-material experiments (carts, springs, pendulums, circuits made from batteries and bulbs) and use algebraic representations, not calculus, to describe and predict motion, forces, energy transformation, wave behavior, and electric circuits. The course treats each unit as a chain: each new topic is forced by an unanswered question from the one before it, so momentum arises from an unresolved collision question, energy arises from a limitation of force-and-motion accounting, and so on. Emphasis throughout is on distinguishing genuine causal/conceptual understanding from procedural pattern-matching, consistent with known findings from physics education research (Hestenes' FCI, Hake's normalized-gain studies).
Unit 1: Describing Motion: Kinematics in One and Two Dimensions10 lessons
1.Relative motion and reference frames
2.Scalar vs. vector quantities
3.The relationship between slope of a position-time graph and velocity
4.The correspondence between position-time and velocity-time graph features
5.Average vs. instantaneous velocity
6.Constant-acceleration kinematics equations
7.Selection among constant-acceleration kinematics equations based on known/unknown quantities
8.Independence of horizontal and vertical components of projectile motion
9.Physical plausibility of graphed motion
10.Prediction of future motion from experimentally derived velocity-time data
Unit 2: Forces and Newton's Laws9 lessons
11.Free-body diagrams representing forces acting on a single object
12.Newton's first law (inertia) as it applies to motion without a sustaining force
13.Newton's first law applied to scenarios engineered to trigger impetus misconceptions
14.The F = ma relationship as a proportional statement linking net force, mass, and acceleration
15.The proportional (not merely computational) relationship between force, mass, and acceleration
16.Newton's third law interaction pairs versus balanced forces acting on one object
17.Static and kinetic friction and the transition between them, evidenced by measured force and acceleration data
18.The distinction between mass (invariant) and weight (dependent on local gravitational field)
19.Argumentation defending a Newtonian prediction against an explicitly stated impetus-theory counterclaim
Unit 3: Momentum and Collisions8 lessons
20.Momentum as the product of mass and velocity
21.Impulse-momentum theorem (J = FΔt = Δp)
22.Derivation of momentum conservation from Newton's third law
23.Conservation of momentum applied to real, imperfect experimental data
24.The qualitative distinction between elastic and inelastic collisions
25.The isolated-system criterion for conservation of momentum
26.Impulse-momentum reasoning applied to injury-reduction engineering (crumple zones, airbags)
27.System definition and its effect on whether conservation applies
Unit 4: Work, Energy, and Power9 lessons
28.Work as force times displacement, with angle/component consideration
29.Kinetic energy (1/2 mv^2) and gravitational potential energy (mgh)
30.Conservation of mechanical energy and energy dissipation as heat/sound/deformation
31.The distinction between conditions for momentum conservation (always, isolated system) versus mechanical energy conservation (only without dissipation)
32.Power as rate of energy transfer (P = W/t = ΔE/t)
33.Experimental verification of conservation of mechanical energy using height and speed measurements
34.Application of energy and momentum conservation reasoning to novel multi-stage mechanical systems
35.Quality of justification for conservation-law selection in mechanical scenarios
36.Real-world energy transformation processes described in technical/informational text
Unit 5: Waves: Energy Transport Without Matter Transport10 lessons
37.The parts of a transverse wave (amplitude, wavelength, crest, trough)
38.The distinction between transverse and longitudinal wave motion
39.The wave equation v = fλ and its relationship to T = 1/f
40.Wave speed as a property of the medium, independent of amplitude or frequency of the source
41.Superposition of two overlapping wave pulses
42.Constructive and destructive interference as outcomes of superposition
43.The difference between a medium particle's local oscillation and the wave's propagation
44.Superposition reasoning applied to an untaught interference context
45.An experimental procedure for measuring wavelength, frequency, and computing wave speed from household materials
46.Wave-based energy transport vs. object-based energy transport
Unit 6: Light, the Electromagnetic Spectrum, and Fields10 lessons
47.The wave equation v=fλ applied to electromagnetic waves
48.The electromagnetic spectrum and the energy-frequency relationship
49.The law of reflection and ray-diagram notation
50.Refraction as a consequence of a wave's speed change at a boundary
51.The set of wave properties that generalize across mechanical and electromagnetic waves versus those that do not
52.The field model as a description of influence at every point in space independent of whether a test object occupies that point
53.Prediction of interference behavior for untaught EM-wave scenarios using the field model
54.Inference of relative wave speed in an unknown medium from observed refraction angle
55.Scattering versus specular reflection as distinct light-matter interaction mechanisms
56.The student's own reflection lab data and its relationship to the law of reflection
Unit 7: Electricity and Circuits8 lessons
57.Conservation of charge in a single-loop series circuit
58.The proportional relationship V=IR among voltage, current, and resistance
59.The structural difference between series and parallel circuit topology and its effect on current and voltage distribution
60.Electrical power and energy dissipation using the P=IV relationship
61.Inferring internal circuit structure from external voltage-current measurements
62.Circuit diagrams and free-body diagrams as structurally analogous modeling abstractions
63.A measurement-based strategy for characterizing an unknown circuit from external inputs and outputs only
64.The distinction between voltage (energy per charge) added by series batteries and current capacity added by parallel batteries
Unit 8: Capstone: Engineering Design Under Constraint9 lessons
65.Criteria versus constraints in an engineering design brief
66.Model selection among kinematics, force, energy, momentum, and circuit models
67.Pre-build quantitative prediction using energy or circuit equations
68.Discrepancy between predicted and measured design performance
69.Diagnosis of design failure as reasoning error versus construction error
70.Iterative redesign informed by discrepancy diagnosis
71.Integration of concepts from at least three prior units in a design rationale
72.Qualitative prediction of design outcome under an unrehearsed parameter change
73.Equation forms for KE, PE, F=ma, and P=IV from Units 2, 4, and 7
Math: Algebra II: Functions, Structure, and Modeling
A full-year Algebra II course for grade 11 that extends the linear and quadratic function work of Algebra I into polynomial, rational, radical, exponential, logarithmic, and trigonometric functions, with a statistics unit grounding inference in the algebra of distributions. The course treats "function" as the unifying object of study: every unit asks how a family of functions is built, what its graph and equation reveal about each other, and where it models a real quantitative situation. Algebraic structure (factoring, completing the square, rewriting expressions) is taught as a tool for seeing hidden structure, not as isolated procedure. Aligned to the CCSS conceptual categories for high school mathematics.
Unit 1: Quadratic Functions Revisited: Structure and Complex Numbers10 lessons
1.Completing the square as a rewriting procedure on x^2+bx+c
2.The discriminant as a predictor of root type
3.The derivation of the quadratic formula from completing the square
4.Representation choice among standard, factored, and vertex form of a quadratic
5.Arithmetic of complex numbers in a+bi form
6.Complex numbers as a closure extension of the real number system
7.Quadratics disguised in non-standard form (substitution-reducible or literal-coefficient equations)
8.Reconstructing multiple equivalent forms of a quadratic from a graph, including the ambiguity of scale
9.The definition of the imaginary unit i
10.The three algebraic forms of a quadratic and their visible features
Unit 2: Polynomial Functions: Zeros, Behavior, and the Structure of Degree n11 lessons
11.Multiplicity of a zero as the exponent on its linear factor
12.Polynomial long division algorithm
13.The logical equivalence between a zero of p and (x-a) being a factor (Remainder/Factor Theorem)
14.The Rational Root Theorem as a search-space-narrowing tool
15.Factoring by grouping for higher-degree polynomials
16.The graphical signature of even vs. odd multiplicity
17.End behavior as a function of degree parity and leading coefficient sign
18.A polynomial's graph as the joint product of zeros-with-multiplicity and end behavior
19.Reverse-construction of a polynomial equation from graphical/verbal constraints
20.Expansion as a check on a factored-form construction
21.Factored form vs. standard form as different windows onto the same polynomial
Unit 3: Rational Expressions and Functions: When Division Doesn't Finish9 lessons
22.Domain restrictions of a rational expression, found before simplifying
23.The distinction between a hole (removable discontinuity) and a vertical asymptote in a rational function
24.Multiplication and division of rational expressions
25.Addition and subtraction of rational expressions with unlike denominators
26.The relationship between algebraic equivalence of two rational expressions and their domains
27.Solving rational equations and identifying extraneous solutions
28.Horizontal asymptote behavior as a ratio of leading-term end behaviors
29.Structural justification of hole versus asymptote using factored form, independent of graphical appearance
30.Construction of a rational function from specified structural features
Unit 4: Radical Functions, Rational Exponents, and Inverse Functions10 lessons
31.The definition of a rational exponent as an extension of integer exponent rules
32.Simplification of radical/rational-exponent expressions and denominator rationalization
33.Radical equations and the extraneous-solution check
34.The non-reversibility of squaring as the mechanism producing extraneous solutions
35.The horizontal line test and the formal definition of a one-to-one function
36.The structural distinction between one-to-one and many-to-one functions as it determines invertibility
37.The algebraic procedure for finding and verifying an inverse function by composition
38.Domain restriction as the method for creating an invertible piece of a non-one-to-one function
39.Invertibility determined from algebraic structure alone, generalized beyond graphed function families
40.Discriminant interpretation and rational-equation extraneous solutions, as long-retention targets
Unit 5: Exponential and Logarithmic Functions: Two Kinds of Change8 lessons
41.The distinguishing tests for linear, quadratic, and exponential tables (constant difference, constant second difference, constant ratio)
42.Exponential growth/decay models built from a stated percent rate
43.The logarithm as the inverse function of an exponential
44.Logarithm properties (product, quotient, power) as restatements of exponent rules
45.Exponential equations solved via logarithms
46.Logarithmic equations and their domain restrictions
47.Model selection and construction among linear, quadratic, and exponential families for an unfamiliar context
48.The long-run divergence of linear versus exponential processes despite short-run similarity
Unit 6: Trigonometric Functions: Modeling Periodic Behavior8 lessons
49.Radian measure as arc length on the unit circle
50.Unit circle definition of sine and cosine as coordinates
51.Periodicity as a structural property, contrasted against monotonic exponential behavior
52.Amplitude, midline, and period as vertical stretch, vertical shift, and horizontal stretch of sine/cosine
53.Fitting a sine/cosine model to features of periodic data
54.Extrapolation from a periodic model versus a monotonic model
55.The Pythagorean identity derived from the unit circle
56.Recognizing and modeling an unfamiliar periodic context using the unit-circle-derived sine/cosine schema
Unit 7: Sequences and Series: Discrete Growth as a Special Case8 lessons
57.The structural distinction between arithmetic (constant additive difference) and geometric (constant multiplicative ratio) sequences
58.The explicit formula for arithmetic and geometric sequences
59.The correspondence between sequence formulas and their parent continuous functions (linear and exponential)
60.The conversion between recursive and explicit representations of arithmetic and geometric sequences
61.The finite geometric series sum formula and the multiply-and-subtract structure that produces it
62.Arithmetic vs. geometric sequence models applied to unfamiliar real-world contexts
63.Convergence of an infinite geometric series when |r| < 1 and the sum formula S = a/(1-r)
64.Discrimination between arithmetic and geometric sequence structure under confusable surface conditions
Unit 8: Statistics: Modeling and Trusting Data10 lessons
65.The empirical (68-95-99.7) rule for normal distributions
66.Appropriateness conditions for the normal-distribution model
67.The constant-difference/constant-ratio diagnostic for choosing a regression family
68.Residuals and residual plots as evidence of model fit
69.Function-family selection and extrapolation risk for a novel data set
70.Sampling method and its relationship to bias
71.The distinction between correlation and causation
72.Conditional probability from two-way tables
73.Evaluation criteria for reports based on data
74.Structural discrimination between quadratic and exponential fit given similar-looking scatter data
Reading: American Voices, American Arguments: Literature and Rhetoric in Context
A year-long American literature and rhetoric course that traces how writers from the Puritans to the present have argued about identity, power, and the meaning of "American." Students read foundational and contemporary texts closely, analyze rhetoric in historical and literary nonfiction alongside fiction and poetry, and write extended arguments and syntheses grounded in textual evidence. The course builds toward independent literary-rhetorical analysis and a substantial research-based argument. CCSS-aligned, on grade level.
Unit 1: Origins: Puritan Rhetoric and the American Errand8 lessons
1.Archaic and theological vocabulary in 'A Model of Christian Charity'
2.The three-part structure of the jeremiad form
3.The argumentative function of the 'city upon a hill' metaphor in 'A Model of Christian Charity'
4.The relationship between plain style and Puritan theological belief about ornamentation and truth
5.The jeremiad form applied to a non-Puritan, contemporary rhetorical text
6.The relationship between a specific rhetorical structure and the persuasive purpose it serves for a named historical audience
7.The reuse and transformation of the 'city on a hill' / 'errand into the wilderness' metaphor beyond its original Puritan argumentative context
8.The distinction between content summary and rhetorical purpose
Unit 2: Founding Arguments: Revolution and the Rhetoric of Independence8 lessons
9.Ethos, pathos, and logos as categories of rhetorical appeal
10.The Declaration of Independence's construction of shared ethos with its intended 18th-century audience
11.The logos structure of the Declaration of Independence's list of grievances
12.Concession-and-rebuttal structure in Paine's Common Sense
13.The relationship between intended audience and the balance of rhetorical appeals across two Revolutionary texts
14.Rhetorical appeals and concession-rebuttal structure in an unfamiliar Revolutionary-era primary source
15.Repurposing of Puritan covenant language and typology for political argument in Revolutionary-era rhetoric
16.The general principle that appeal selection is a function of audience persuadability across historical contexts
Unit 3: Contested Selves: Individualism, Slavery, and the Unreliable Narrator10 lessons
17.Emerson's central claim in 'Self-Reliance' about individual authority versus social conformity
18.Ethos/pathos/logos as applied to short excerpts of Douglass's Narrative
19.The difference between testimonial ethos (Douglass) and assertive/philosophical ethos (Emerson)
20.Jacobs's rhetorical purpose and audience-specific disclosure choices in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
21.Constrained narration as evidence of the narrator's social/legal situation, using slave narrative conventions
22.Points of convergence and divergence between Emerson's and Thoreau's arguments about self-reliance and social withdrawal
23.Inferring unstated meaning from a constrained narrator's silences in a genuinely new text
24.The interdependence of self-reliant authority and enslaved/constrained labor across two independently-argued texts
25.Essay planning: evidence selection and organization for a comparative authority-construction argument
26.Evidence-claim alignment in a comparative rhetorical-analysis paragraph
Unit 4: Reading Argument Closely: Rhetorical Analysis of Nonfiction11 lessons
27.Audience, purpose, and context as analytic categories applied to a nonfiction passage
28.The claim-evidence-warrant relationship, using a provided sentence frame on a previously modeled passage
29.The functional effect of a rhetorical appeal on a specified audience
30.Rhetorical arrangement as a structural choice with argumentative consequences
31.Diction and syntax as argumentative choices, not decoration
32.The distinction between claim, evidence, and warrant
33.Comparison of warrants across two texts addressing the same issue
34.Integrated rhetorical analysis of a nonfiction passage
35.Independent rhetorical analysis of an unseen nonfiction text
36.The soundness of a warrant, independent of whether the procedure for locating a warrant was executed correctly
37.The relationship between rhetorical skill and factual soundness of a claim
Unit 5: Arguing With Sources: Synthesis Across Multiple Texts10 lessons
38.Conflicting claims about individual authority in Transcendentalist and slave-narrative texts
39.The definition of synthesis as claim-construction versus summary as sequential restatement
40.A source-conflict map showing agreement, disagreement, and talking-past among two sources, using the modeled pair and structure
41.A source-conflict map showing agreement, disagreement, and talking-past among three sources
42.The concession-without-surrender move in argumentative paragraphs
43.The evidentiary status of a chart or social-media post used within a written argument
44.An original synthesis claim built from four previously unseen but topically related sources
45.The difference between describing source conflict and resolving it into an original claim
46.Argument-based (versus source-based) organizational structure for a multi-source essay
47.Collaborative extension and challenge of peer claims about source conflicts
Unit 6: Twentieth-Century Voices: Fiction, Drama, and the Argument Over Identity8 lessons
48.The distinction between a character's/narrator's stated claim and the text's structural treatment of that claim
49.Form (narrative structure or dramatic staging) as a vehicle for an implicit argument about individual authority
50.The differential function of mythology-invocation (strengthening belonging vs. exposing exclusion) across contrasting textual moments
51.Deliberate authorial irresolution between competing narrators as a structural argument about whose authority the reader can trust
52.The terms persona, dramatic irony, and mythology revision/inversion
53.The core text's formal architecture as the vehicle for its claim about American identity
54.Transfer of the form-as-argument analytic move to unseen prose and dramatic excerpts
55.Ambiguous or mixed authorial stance toward founding mythology invocation
Unit 7: Compressed Arguments: Contemporary American Poetry and Voice8 lessons
56.Line break as a meaning-bearing choice, not a formatting artifact
57.The gap between persona voice and poet identity in dramatic monologue
58.Persona as a device that varies argumentative distance between speaker and reader
59.Omission as a rhetorical choice that implies an unstated claim
60.Allusion as a compressed argumentative borrowing of another text's authority or meaning
61.Form-to-argument connection in contemporary poetry, applied through discussion
62.Comparative argument construction across two unfamiliar contemporary poems using form-based evidence
Thirty-six weeks on what Christians believe and why, and on the strongest objections: the problem of evil, faith and science, the historical case for the resurrection, other religions and other worldviews described as their own believers would describe them, and how to disagree well.
Unit 1: What a Worldview Is9 lessons
1.Everyone is standing somewhere
2.The four questions
3.Origin
4.Meaning
5.Morality
6.Destiny
7.How anybody knows anything
8.Nobody comes to the table empty
9.Three tests, applied to us too
Unit 2: The Hard Objections9 lessons
10.The problem of evil, no answer this week
11.What the answers do and do not cover
12.Divine hiddenness
13.Where the Old Testament text came from
14.Manuscripts and variants
15.Miracles
16.Faith and science, deep time, and evolution
17.The moral objections to the Bible itself
18.Write the case against
Unit 3: The Case for Christ9 lessons
19.What history can and cannot show
20.The earliest source
21.He died
22.The tomb was empty
23.They saw him
24.The ones who had no reason to
25.The alternatives, taken seriously
26.If it happened
27.Write the case for
Unit 4: Other Worldviews, and How to Disagree9 lessons
28.Judaism
29.Islam
30.Hinduism
31.Buddhism
32.Secular humanism and atheism
33.The pluralism objection
34.How to disagree well
35.How to hold doubt
36.What you actually believe
Reading: Craft and Revision: A Creative Writing Workshop
A semester course in which students write, critique, and revise original fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction using explicit craft criteria rather than intuition alone. Because the course runs without a peer workshop, students learn a repeatable self-critique protocol and a set of specific questions to pose to a parent acting as first reader. Each unit pairs close study of short mentor texts with a full-process piece: draft, diagnose against criteria, revise, and reflect. By the end, students hold a portable toolkit for evaluating and improving their own writing in any genre.
Unit 1: The Image Made of Words: Poetry and the Line8 lessons
1.The distinction between an abstract statement of feeling and a concrete image that implies feeling
2.Line break as a meaning-making unit, specifically enjambment creating momentary double meaning
3.The self-critique protocol applied to image specificity
4.The effect of line-break placement on emphasis and pacing independent of word choice
5.Reader feedback as a basis for targeted (not global) revision
6.The gap between a poem's literal paraphrase and its interpreted meaning
7.Formal risk-taking justified by its effect on meaning, not by novelty alone
8.The three-way distinction between abstract statement, concrete image, and image-as-implicit-statement
Unit 2: Scene, Summary, and the Shape of a Story8 lessons
9.The distinction between scene and summary in short fiction
10.Show-vs-tell revision of an emotion-naming sentence into concrete sensory detail
11.The effect of narrative reveal order on reader inference
12.Application of the self-critique protocol to structural criteria (scene/summary, show/tell) on one's own draft
13.The diagram of reveal order versus chronological event order in a student's own story
14.Authorial withholding of information as a structural choice in an unfamiliar text
15.Generation of a structurally alternative version of one's own story and articulation of the resulting change in meaning
16.Definitions of scene, summary, and the three-step self-critique protocol
Unit 3: Writing What Actually Happened11 lessons
17.Scene vs. summary in a true-event narrative
18.The definition of concrete detail
19.The taught R/J test applied to the exact sentence pairs used in direct instruction
20.The mechanism by which scene vs. summary changes reader experience of true material
21.Self-reflection vs. self-justification in first-person narrative writing
22.Divergence between personal memory and a neutral factual record
23.The self-critique protocol applied to a personal-essay draft
24.Ethical defensibility of a passage about a real person in the student's own true-event draft
25.Structural ordering choices for a novel true-event narrative and their interpretive effects
26.A complete revision cycle on a personal essay draft
27.Reflection vs. justification in an unfamiliar published text
Unit 4: The Portfolio: Revision as Argument8 lessons
28.The genre-specific criteria sets from Units 1-3 applied diagnostically to one's own prior drafts
29.The self-critique protocol and its genre-conditional application
30.Revision priority-setting under a scarcity constraint
31.Criteria-based defense versus preference-based justification
32.A reflective essay defending named revision choices with criterion and evidence
33.The parent-reader question sets, generalized to an untaught genre
34.Transfer of the self-critique protocol to an unfamiliar piece and unstated criteria
35.Portfolio assembly format and completeness requirements
Social Studies: Psychology: Mind, Brain, and Behavior
A full-year survey of psychology as an empirical science. Students learn how psychologists ask and answer questions about behavior and mental processes, then apply that methodological lens to biological foundations, sensation and perception, learning, cognition, development, and mental health. Throughout, students distinguish claims that replicate under scrutiny from popular claims that do not, and they practice reading primary research alongside media coverage of it. Mental health content is taught at an educational level, what conditions are, how they are studied and classified, and why diagnosis and treatment require licensed professionals, never as a self-diagnosis tool. The course is evidence-based and excludes human sexuality content entirely.
Unit 1: Thinking Like a Psychologist: Research Methods and the Replication Crisis8 lessons
1.Operational definitions of abstract psychological constructs
2.Experimental, correlational, and case study research designs and their tradeoffs
3.The distinction between correlation and causation, and third-variable/confound reasoning
4.The relationship between statistical significance and effect size
5.The replication crisis and the methodological features that predict replicability (using the Open Science Collaboration 2015 project as the anchor case)
6.The link between research ethics (informed consent, debriefing, coercion) and data validity in classic psychological studies
7.Warrant judgments and methodological critique applied to unfamiliar research write-ups
8.The generalized standard for evaluating trustworthiness of any claim about mind or behavior
Unit 2: Biological Foundations of Behavior9 lessons
9.The neuron action potential as an all-or-none electrochemical event
10.Neurotransmitter action (reuptake, agonist/antagonist effects) at the synapse
11.Brain structure-function correspondence
12.Structure-function inference from lesion evidence
13.Capabilities and limits of lesion studies, EEG, and fMRI as brain-research methods
14.Causal versus correlational support for brain-behavior claims in media reporting
15.The biopsychosocial model applied to a specific behavior
16.Heritability estimates and gene-environment interaction, distinguished from genetic determinism
17.Appropriately hedged causal language for brain-behavior claims
Unit 3: Sensation and Perception9 lessons
18.The transduction sequence from physical energy to neural signal to cortical interpretation
19.Absolute threshold and difference threshold as distinct, definable concepts
20.The interaction of bottom-up sensory data and top-down expectation in producing a single perceptual experience
21.Inattentional blindness as a consequence of limited attentional capacity applied to a novel real-world scenario
22.Categories of visual illusion (depth, motion, constancy) defined by underlying perceptual mechanism
23.Cross-cultural research on the Müller-Lyer illusion as evidence that experience shapes perception
24.A student-generated mini-experiment testing a selective-attention or illusion effect
25.Methodological limitations (sample size, confound) applied to a novel student-designed perception study
26.Results of the student's own selective-attention or illusion mini-study
Unit 4: Learning: Conditioning and Beyond10 lessons
27.The four-term structure of classical conditioning (US, UR, CS, CR)
28.The extinction/spontaneous recovery pattern in classical conditioning
29.Biological constraints on conditioning: taste aversion and preparedness (Garcia effect)
30.The four-quadrant operant contingency table (reinforcement/punishment x positive/negative)
31.Schedules of reinforcement and their characteristic response patterns
32.Documented limitations of punishment as a behavior-change strategy
33.Bandura's observational learning model (modeling, and the attention-retention-reproduction-motivation sequence)
34.Integrated application of classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning to a novel real-world scenario, including evaluation of claims against research limits
35.The terms extinction, generalization, and discrimination across both conditioning types
36.Popular misuse of 'positive reinforcement' and 'conditioned' versus the technical operant/classical definitions
Unit 5: Cognition: Memory, Thinking, and Problem-Solving12 lessons
37.The multi-store (sensory/STM/LTM) model of memory and encoding-storage-retrieval
38.The role of the hippocampus in memory consolidation
39.The misinformation effect on eyewitness recall (Loftus)
40.Reconstructive memory and the mechanism of the misinformation effect
41.Forgetting: interference, decay, and retrieval failure
42.Availability heuristic and confirmation bias as distinct but confusable cognitive shortcuts
43.Heuristics and biases applied to an unfamiliar decision context
44.Expert-novice differences in metacognitive access to procedural knowledge
45.The relationship (or lack of it) between confidence and accuracy in recall
46.Proof versus suggestive evidence, applied to a classroom demonstration
A full-year survey of United States history from the close of Reconstruction to the present day, built around recurring questions of federal power, economic opportunity, citizenship, and America's role abroad. Students read primary and secondary sources, build a chronological and causal knowledge base, and practice constructing evidence-based historical arguments in writing. The course is delivered through an adaptive learning app with a parent-facilitator, so each unit opens with a gated diagnostic of prerequisite knowledge and closes with both an immediate and a delayed assessment. Emphasis throughout is on connecting causes across eras rather than memorizing isolated events.
Unit 1: Industrial America and the Gilded Age9 lessons
1.The distinguishing features of a trust versus a monopoly
2.The gap between the Sherman Antitrust Act's text and its actual enforcement in the Gilded Age
3.The robber baron vs. captain of industry interpretive framework applied to the same historical actor
4.The mixed and group-dependent effects of industrialization on wages, immigration, and urban living conditions
5.The pattern of government intervention favoring employers in Gilded Age labor disputes
6.The builder-versus-destroyer historical debate over Gilded Age big business, evaluated across a mixed document set
7.The chronological sequence of major Gilded Age economic and labor events, 1877-1900
8.The role of government policy (tariffs, land grants, court injunctions) in enabling industrial growth, against a purely self-made narrative
9.The transferability of the builder/destroyer interpretive framework to market concentration in an unstudied historical or contemporary context
Unit 2: The Progressive Response9 lessons
10.Muckraking journalism as a documentary genre exposing specific industrial/urban conditions
11.The causal relationship between a specific documented industrial/economic abuse and a specific Progressive-era regulatory response
12.The legal distinction in antitrust law between firm size and anticompetitive practice
13.The dual character of Progressive-era reform legislation as simultaneously protective and controlling
14.The internal contradictions and shared underlying motives (social control, efficiency, moral order) within the Progressive coalition
15.The conservation-versus-preservation distinction in Progressive-era federal land policy
16.The multi-decade organizational campaign (state campaigns, NAWSA strategy, wartime leverage) leading to constitutional ratification
17.The general procedure of matching a documented abuse's specific mechanism to a reform's specific legal provision
18.The recurring, generalizable tension between market freedom and government regulatory authority as a pattern across historical periods, not a fact specific to 1900-1916
Unit 3: World War II and the Reordering of Society9 lessons
19.The transition from New Deal relief spending to wartime deficit spending as the mechanism that ended the Depression
20.Categories of home-front wartime measures (economic mobilization, social control, civil liberties restriction)
21.The legal/political justification mechanisms behind Japanese American incarceration versus military segregation
22.The persuasive intent embedded in a specific piece of wartime government propaganda
23.Corroboration of an unseen primary source against previously studied unit evidence on the home front
24.An argument evaluating U.S. fidelity to its stated WWII war aims using home-front and incarceration/segregation evidence
25.The generalizable legal pattern of 'military necessity' reasoning as applied beyond the Japanese American incarceration case
26.The chronological sequence of events from U.S. neutrality to the Pearl Harbor attack
27.The Double V campaign's dual-victory framing and its logic
Unit 4: The Sixties: Vietnam, Rights, and Backlash8 lessons
28.The chronological sequence of Great Society legislation and Vietnam escalation, 1963-1972
29.The mechanism differences between Great Society programs and New Deal agencies
30.The four-part social movement mechanics frame applied to post-1965 civil rights organizing
31.The shared organizing/media/legal-strategy structure across the women's liberation and environmental movements
32.The applicability and limits of the movement-mechanics frame when applied to the anti-war student movement
33.Evidence of a credibility gap between official statements and battlefield reality in Vietnam-era primary sources
34.The relative causal weight of Vietnam versus domestic unrest in damaging public trust in government, 1963-1972
35.The containment doctrine as applied to the strategic logic of Vietnam intervention
Unit 5: Conservative Resurgence and the End of the Cold War10 lessons
36.Stagflation as a crisis of the Keynesian policy consensus
37.Supply-side and monetarist economic policy versus Keynesian demand management
38.The continuity and change in the regulation-vs-market argument across 100+ years of U.S. history
39.The composition of the New Right political coalition
40.Social movement mechanics (organizing, media strategy, backlash) applied to the New Right
41.Continuity and change in containment doctrine from Truman/Kennan through Vietnam to the Reagan Doctrine
42.Competing historical explanations for the Soviet collapse (internal weakness vs. external/U.S. pressure)
43.A defensible causal argument about the primary cause of Soviet collapse, structured to rebut the counter-argument
44.Transfer of the regulation-vs-market and engagement-vs-restraint frameworks to an unstudied case
45.Single-cause claims about Soviet collapse versus multi-causal historical explanation
Unit 6: Globalization and a Post-Cold War World10 lessons
46.The shift from containment to a post-Cold War foreign policy without a single organizing rival
47.Competing candidate organizing logics for post-Cold War U.S. foreign policy
48.Humanitarian intervention decisions in the 1990s
49.The inconsistency of humanitarian intervention criteria across 1990s cases
50.The domestic wage and employment effects of trade liberalization in the 1990s-2000s
51.The regulation-vs-market thread as a transferable analytic framework
52.September 11th and the war on terror as a turning point in U.S. foreign policy organization
53.Post-Cold War foreign policy patterns as competing frameworks for evaluating new cases
54.The tech and information economy's economic effects in the 1990s
55.A data-supported argument about globalization's domestic economic effects
Unit 7: The Twenty-First Century: Security, Recession, and Renewed Movements8 lessons
56.Post-9/11 security legislation and institutions
57.The causal chain of the 2008 financial crisis
58.Deregulatory reasoning across the Gilded Age and pre-2008 periods