Teaching Content, Themes, and Skills in the High School AP U.S. History Course: Conservative Responses to Immigration in the U.S. During the Twentieth Century

This paper will focus on the difficult task for A.P. U.S. History teachers in deciding how to teach immigration as described in the revised A.P. United States History curriculum framework.  Because of time constraints, many high school teachers spend limited time on the study of immigration.  This instruction is usually not commensurate with the heavy emphasis on immigration in a U.S. history survey course at the college level.  Student analysis of the topic is crucial to understanding the social, political and economic components in an AP U.S. course.   This paper will explore how high school history teachers can promote the teaching of  content, themes, and historical thinking skills by using the example of how conservatives in the United States responded to the issues related to immigration in the twentieth century.  This subject will relate to several components of the revised AP framework, including the themes of America and the world, identity, beliefs, and culture, and politics and power and the historical thinking skill of change and continuity over time. 
Race has played a part in American history and immigration history since the first naturalization law of 1790 that limited citizenship to white persons.  The paper will promote the historical thinking skill of analyzing change over time through comparing and contrasting post-World War II conservative responses to immigration issues with responses of conservatives in the 1920s.
The paper will analyze several primary sources to explore factors contributing to conservative responses to immigration.