Subscribe

8th grade · Social Studies · Unit 2 of 9

Founding Ideas

Rome, Athens, the Enlightenment and 1787

What your child practices

Ideas the Founders drew from Greece and Rome, the Enlightenment and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, why the Articles of Confederation failed, and the compromises and debates of the Constitution.

Alaska content standards learning standard: SS.8.4.21.3; SS.8.4.6.1 · Enlightenment ideas and the writing of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. The founders borrowed ideas from Athens (democracy), Rome (a republic) and the Enlightenment (John Locke’s natural rights, which shaped the Declaration).
  2. Federalism means power is divided between national and state governments.
  3. The 1787 Constitution included compromises, like the Three-Fifths Compromise, which counted enslaved people as three-fifths of a person.

Example: What does federalism mean? The US has a national government. Each state also has its own government. Power is divided between them. Answer: Power is divided between national and state governments.

Founding Ideas in Alaska

In the Alaska content standards, this is unit 2 of 9 in 8th grade Social Studies, after Exploration & Exchange and before A New Nation.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alaska Department of Education and Early Development

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Federalism means…

    • power is divided between national and state governments
    • only states have power
    • only the national government has power

  2. Question 2

    Who wrote the Federalist Papers?

    • Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay
    • Thomas Jefferson and John Adams
    • George Washington and Benjamin Franklin

  3. Question 3

    Which idea did the Founders borrow from ancient Rome?

    • a council of shoguns
    • a republic with elected representatives and a senate
    • rule by a pharaoh

  4. Question 4

    Rule of law means…

    • leaders are above the law
    • everyone, including leaders, must follow the law
    • laws are optional

  5. Question 5

    The Constitution created the Electoral College to…

    • choose the President
    • run the courts
    • write laws

  6. Question 6

    In Federalist No. 10, which founder argued that a large republic can control factions?

    • James Madison
    • Thomas Paine
    • Patrick Henry

More 8th grade