Eighth Grade Social Studies Content Standards

Students develop an understanding of society and the ability to describe the past through the eyes and experiences of those who were there.

Students develop an understanding of the history of the world’s many cultures.

Students see the connection between ideas and behavior, between the values and ideals that people hold and the ethical consequences of those beliefs in order to foster the kind of mutual respect, patience, and civic courage required in our increasingly independent world.

Students differentiate past, present and future time. They seek and evaluate evidence, use resources to distinguish bias in text, compare and contrast historical information, interpret the historical record and construct their own historical narratives.

Eighth grade students are expected to:

U. S. History and Geography

• Founding of the nation
  • Review the major events preceding the founding of the nation and relate the significance to the development of American constitutional democracy
    • push/pull factors which lead to European settlement of the Americas
    • the Declaration of Independence and the philosophy of individual rights
    • the emergence of an independent American identity, with an emphasis on democracy
    • the influence of geography on economics and culture
• Political principles
  • Understand the political principles underlying the U.S. Constitution and the foundation of the American political system
  • Individual rights
    • the codification of individual rights (Magna Carta, Mayflower Compact, Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, Constitution, Bill of Rights)
    • the political philosophies of founders, including: Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Paine, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton
  • Role of government, as established by the constitution
    • the role of compromise in American government
    • the Federalist/Anti-Federalist debate
    • the system of checks and balances
    • the law-making process
    • the development of political parties
    • the role of domestic resistance movements
• Growth of the nation
  • Recognize the relationship between the development of regional identity and the outbreak of the Civil War
    • The northeast
      • its geography
      • influence of industrialization, immigration, the abolitionist and women’s suffrage movements and the growth of public education
    • The south
      • its geography
      • agrarian economy (role of cotton and cotton gin), origins and development of the institution of slavery
    • The west
      • its geography
      • concepts of Manifest Destiny and its effects on indigenous peoples
      • role of explorers, such as Lewis and Clark
      • the Mexican-American War
• Civil War and Reconstruction
  • The Road to Civil War
    • Analyze the issues that lead to the civil War
      • the growing abolitionist movement and armed resistance
      • the role of government in terms of Congressional compromises and Supreme Court decisions
  • The Civil War
    • Analyze the multiple causes, key events and complex consequences of the civil War
      • geographic differences between North and South
      • conflicts between state and federal authorities
      • the moral debate on slavery
      • Abraham Lincoln: the man and the legacy
      • technological developments of the war
      • effects of war on landscape and civilians
  • Reconstruction
    • Analyze the character and lasting consequences of reconstruction
      • the original aims of Reconstruction
      • migration of ex-slaves to the North and West
      • Jim Crow laws
      • the rise of the Ku Klux Klan
      • constitutional changes
• Industrialization
  • Analyze the transformation of the American economy in response to the Industrial Revolution
    • patterns of agricultural and industrial development as they relate to climate, natural resource use, markets and trade
    • development of federal Indian policy
    • relationship between government and business
    • renewed immigration
    • rise of the labor movement
    • child labor issues
    • significant inventors and their inventions
    • the growth of cities and the social and economic implications

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