Unit 6: Ostara

Modern America: 20th Century Transformations

6 weeks (Mar 2 – Apr 10)

4th Principle: Free and responsible search for truth

🌸 Unit Overview

As Ostara celebrates spring's balance, we examine America's 20th century—World Wars, Civil Rights, and the search for truth.

Hearth: Ostara, balance | History: WWI causes, trenches, Treaty of Versailles | Lit: WWI poetry | Math: Arithmetic sequences

Hearth: Cycles of abundance | History: 1920s, Crash, Dust Bowl | Lit: Grapes of Wrath | Math: Geometric sequences

Hearth: Government's role | History: FDR, New Deal, rise of fascism | Lit: Steinbeck | Math: Infinite series

Hearth Circle: Moral complexity—when is war justified? Multiple perspectives on conflict

History: Pearl Harbor, European and Pacific theaters, D-Day, Holocaust, atomic bombs, war's end

Literature: "Night" by Elie Wiesel excerpts; Anne Frank's diary

Math: Review of sequences and series, applications to population growth

Discussion: Japanese internment—examining injustice in American history

Hearth Circle: Standing up for justice—courage in the face of opposition

History: Cold War tensions, McCarthyism, Korean War, Brown v. Board, Montgomery Bus Boycott, MLK Jr.

Literature: MLK's "Letter from Birmingham Jail"; Malcolm X excerpts

Math: Introduction to functions, domain and range, function notation

Primary Sources: Civil Rights speeches, photographs, news footage

Hearth Circle: Change and resistance—how movements create lasting change

History: Vietnam War, counterculture, women's movement, Watergate, end of Cold War preview

Literature: Tim O'Brien "The Things They Carried" excerpts; protest poetry

Math: Composite functions, inverse functions

Assessment: 20th century history essay, math test on sequences/series/functions