James,

Was this your first year teaching? If so, I congratulate you on your 
achievement. When I taught history, as a high school teacher (to special ed 
students), US History was a one year course and the curriculum was rather 
dependent on the textbook rather than the SOLs which weren't yet developed 
or were in their infancy and rather "recommended" rather than required. At 
that time, social studies in the elementary and middle school levels were 
pretty much up to whatever the teacher had resources to do. When the SOLs 
were started, teachers had no materials to teach the Famous Americans, or 
much else, and that is why I started the site: 
http://www.educationalsynthesis.org/famamer

If you scroll down that page, you will see the grades/titles for K-5 
Virginia as to who they are to study. I was never able to pull a list of 
Famous Americans out of the US History II for sixth grade, but it you would 
like to suggest a list, since you have taught it, I will be happy to add it 
to what I already have.

Georgia O'Keefe was not much of a problem for me, but Harry F. Byrd was. 
There just wasn't much good to say about the man, and I do prefer to keep my 
website on the positive side. Jefferson Davis was also problematical, but 
Harry Byrd did really mean things to folks who are now the grandparents of 
the children learning about him in school. Even, "Pay as you go", which I 
thought was a nifty idea when I first moved to Virginia, turned out to be 
the cause of a lot of backwardness in the state especially in regards to 
roads, highways, and bridges, which we now all pay for at today's higher 
prices.

The reason the Famous Americans site is so much more than the SOLs is 
because I believe children should have many more "heroes" to choose among to 
learn about than those listed on the SOLs. So, they are there, in the simple 
summaries which can be read by a third grader, with links to more 
information that could be useful (and, according to my email is) useful to 
high schoolers.

I'm not sure if it was you who said that originally, Virginia encompassed 
most of the country. But, according to works I've read recently, the 
original northern border of the land euphemistically "claimed" as Virginia 
did not include New England. The Pilgrim site in Massachusetts was on 
another, unclaimed piece of land, which they claimed for themselves. The 
Dutch settled New York, which was just inside the northern border of 
Virginia, and of course, William Penn was given the rights to Pennsylvania, 
which then formed the northern border of Virginia. In the book I was reading 
two weeks ago about the negotiations between Pennsylvania and the Natives, 
mention was made of the claim of Virginia to the Ohio Country, and that one 
or two of the treaties were compound, in that they included the New York, 
Pennsylvania and Virginia colonists dickering with the Indians.

I have an old website on the Battle of Five Forks in Virginia. If you can't 
find it with google, let me know and I'll give you the link. I think it is 
easy to find since I get several inquiries a year from the site, usually 
from descendents who find that their ancestor was omitted from the list of 
those wounded at the battle. To my surprise, I found out that my sister, who 
was teaching history in Michigan, was teaching Five Forks as an important 
and pivotal battle in the Civil War. Right up there with Gettysburg, Bull 
Run, Antietam and the rest of the biggies.

Anne

Anne Pemberton
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http://www.erols.com/apembert
http://www.educationalsynthesis.org