8th Grade history- Social Science Curriculum

Critical Thinking Skills

CCSS.ELA.-Literacy.RH.6-8.2 Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.

CCSS.ELA.-Literacy.RH.6-8.9 Analyze the relationship between a primary and secondary source on the same topic.

CCSS.ELA.-Literacy.WHST.6-8.7 Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration.

Basic Study Skills

CCSS.ELA.-Literacy.WHST.6-8.4 Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

CCSS.ELA.-Literacy.WHST.6-8.2 Write informative/explanatory texts, including the narration of historical events, scientific procedures/ experiments, or technical processes.

CCSS.ELA.-Literacy.RH.6-8.5 Describe how a text presents information (e.g., sequentially, comparatively, causally).

Participation Skills

CCSS.ELA.-Literacy.WHST.6-8.5 With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed.

CCSS.ELA.-Literacy.RH.6-8.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary specific to domains related to history/social studies.

CCSS.ELA.-Literacy.RH.6-8.7 Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs, photographs, videos, or maps) with other information in print and digital texts.

National identity

8.3.1 Analyze the principles and concepts codified in state constitutions between 1777 and 1781 that created the context out of which American political institutions and ideas developed.

8.3.5. Know the significance of domestic resistance movements and ways in which the central government responded to such movements (e.g., Shays' Rebellion, the Whiskey Rebel-lion).

8.8.2 Describe the purpose, challenges, and economic incentives associated with westward expansion, including the concept of Manifest Destiny (e.g., the Lewis and Clark expedition, accounts of the removal of Indians, the Cherokees' "Trail of Tears," settlement of the Great Plains) and the territorial acquisitions that spanned numerous decades.

Constitutional Heritage

8.1.2 Analyze the philosophy of government expressed in the Declaration of Independence, with an emphasis on government as a means of securing individual rights (e.g., key phrases such as "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights").

8.1.4 Describe the nation's blend of civic republicanism, classical liberal principles, and English parliamentary traditions.

8.2.1 Discuss the significance of the Magna Carta, the English Bill of Rights, and the May-flower Compact.

Civic Values, Rights and Responsibilites

8.2.6 Enumerate the powers of government set forth in the Constitution and the fundamental liberties ensured by the Bill of Rights.

8.3.6 Describe the basic law-making process and how the Constitution provides numerous opportunities for citizens to participate in the political process and to monitor and influence government (e.g., function of elections, political parties, interest groups).

8.6.5 Trace the development of the American education system from its earliest roots, including the roles of religious and private schools and Horace Mann's campaign for free public education and its assimilating role in American culture.

SOCIOPOLITICAL
LITERACY

8.1.3 Analyze how the American Revolution affected other nations, especially France.

8.3.4 Understand how the conflicts between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton resulted in the emergence of two political parties (e.g., view of foreign policy, Alien and Sedition Acts, economic policy, National Bank, funding and assumption of the revolutionary debt).

8.4.2 Explain the policy significance of famous speeches (e.g., Washington's Farewell Address, Jefferson's 1801 Inaugural Address, John Q. Adams's Fourth of July 1821 Address).

Conflict with Mexico became highly likely following the granting of statehood to
A Texas.
B Missouri.
C Arizona.
D Louisiana.

ECONOMIC LITERACY

8.3.3 Enumerate the advantages of a common market among the states as foreseen in and protected by the Constitution's clauses on interstate commerce, common coinage, and full-faith and credit.

8.4.3. Analyze the rise of capitalism and the economic problems and conflicts that accompanied it (e.g., Jackson's opposition to the National Bank; early decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court that reinforced the sanctity of contracts and a capitalist economic system of law).

8.12.3 Explain how states and the federal government encouraged business expansion through tariffs, banking, land grants, and subsidies.

What is one reason for the dramatic decreases in exports in 1807 and from 1810 to 1812?
A a decline in industrial output
B competition from French merchants
C military and economic conflicts with Great Britain
D an increase in production and transportation costs

GEOGRAPHIC LITERACY

8.4.1 Describe the country's physical landscapes, political divisions, and territorial expansion during the terms of the first four presidents

8.5.2 Know the changing boundaries of the United States and describe the relationships the country had with its neighbors (current Mexico and Canada) and Europe, including the influence of the Monroe Doctrine, and how those relationships influenced westward expansion and the Mexican-American War.

8.6.2 Outline the physical obstacles to and the economic and political factors involved in building a network of roads, canals, and railroads (e.g., Henry Clay's American System).

Which of the following acquisitions secured control of North America’s longest river, added substantially to the Native American, Spanish, and French populations of the country, and essentially doubled the size of the United States?
A purchase of Alaska
B Gadsden Purchase
C Louisiana Purchase
D purchase of Florida

CULTURAL LITERACY

8.4.4 Discuss daily life, including traditions in art, music, and literature, of early national America (e.g., through writings by Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper).

8.6.4 Study the lives of black Americans who gained freedom in the North and founded schools and churches to advance their rights and communities.

8.6.7 Identify common themes in American art as well as transcendentalism and individualism (e.g., writings about and by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Herman Melville, Louisa May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow).

During the 1800s, the movement of large numbers of immigrants from many different countries into large American cities resulted in the rapid growth of
A effective public health programs.
B ethnic neighborhoods.
C public parks and recreation areas.
D plentiful and affordable public housing.

ETHICAL LITERACY

8.3.7 Understand the functions and responsibilities of a free press.

8.6 1 Discuss the influence of industrialization and technological developments on the region, including human modification of the landscape and how physical geography shaped human actions (e.g., growth of cities, deforestation, farming, mineral extraction).

8.6.6 Examine the women's suffrage movement (e.g., biographies, writings, and speeches of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Margaret Fuller, Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony).

The slave-based agricultural system in the
South encouraged the development of
A economic self-reliance.
B a rigid social class system.
C an urban middle class.
D small independent businesses.

HISTORICAL LITERACY

8.1.1. Describe the relationship between the moral and political ideas of the Great Awakening and the development of revolutionary fervor.

8.3.2 Explain how the ordinances of 1785 and 1787 privatized national resources and transferred federally owned lands into private holdings, townships, and states.

8.5.1 Understand the political and economic causes and consequences of the War of 1812 and know the major battles, leaders, and events that led to a final peace.

8.5.3 Outline the major treaties with American Indian nations during the administrations of the first four presidents and the varying outcomes of those treaties.

8.6.3 List the reasons for the wave of immigration from Northern Europe to the United States and describe the growth in the number, size, and spatial arrangements of cities (e.g., Irish immigrants and the Great Irish Famine).

What agricultural invention, designed to increase production, had the effect of increasing the number of slaves needed for labor in the Deep South?
A the wheat reaper
B the cotton gin
C the steel plow
D the rice mill