🌎 8th grade Social Studies

Units

1. Unit 1

   🗽Rights & Amendments

   What the first ten amendments protect, the Reconstruction Amendments, and why rights come with limits and responsibilities.

   Learning standard: 8.2.6 · the powers of government in the Constitution and the liberties the Bill of Rights ensures

2. Unit 2

   🏗️Reconstruction

   Reconstruction from 1865 to 1877 as a bridge to high school US history: the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, Black officeholders, the violence that opposed them and how gains were later rolled back.

   Learning standard: 8.11.1; 8.11.3; 8.11.4; 8.11.5 · the aims and effects of Reconstruction, the Freedmen's Bureau, the Klan, and the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments

3. Unit 3

   📜Founding Ideals

   The Magna Carta, English Bill of Rights and Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, the debates of 1787, the Federalist Papers, and the principles of the Constitution.

   Learning standard: 8.1.2; 8.2.1; 8.2.2; 8.2.3; 8.2.4; 8.2.7 · the Declaration of Independence, the roots and principles of the Constitution, and the debates over it

4. Unit 4

   🦅A New Nation

   The first presidents and parties, judicial review, the Louisiana Purchase, Lewis and Clark, the War of 1812 and early foreign policy.

   Learning standard: 8.3.4; 8.3.5; 8.4.1; 8.4.2; 8.5.1; 8.5.2 · the first political parties, early resistance movements, territorial growth, famous speeches, the War of 1812 and early foreign policy

5. Unit 5

   🐂Westward Expansion

   Jackson and Indian removal, Manifest Destiny, Mexican California and the land grants, Texas and the Mexican-American War, and the Gold Rush, told accurately for the people who moved and the nations who lost their lands.

   Learning standard: 8.8.1; 8.8.2; 8.8.4; 8.8.5; 8.8.6 · Jacksonian democracy and Indian removal, westward expansion, water rights, Mexican settlements, and the Texas and Mexican-American wars

6. Unit 6

   ⚙️Factories & Reformers

   The Industrial Revolution in the North, canals, roads and railroads, immigration, public schools, and the abolition and women's rights movements before 1861.

   Learning standard: 8.6.1; 8.6.2; 8.6.3; 8.6.5; 8.6.6 · industrialization, transportation networks, immigration, the American education system and the women's suffrage movement

7. Unit 7

   ⚔️The Civil War

   How the conflict over slavery led to secession and war, Lincoln's leadership, key events and people from Fort Sumter to Appomattox, and how enslaved people helped win their own freedom.

   Learning standard: 8.10.1; 8.10.2; 8.10.3; 8.10.4; 8.10.5; 8.10.6; 8.10.7 · state and federal authority, the geography of North and South, secession, Lincoln, the war's leaders and major battles, and its effects

8. Unit 8

   🧭A Nation Divided

   Cotton and slavery in the South, the resistance of enslaved people, free Black Americans in the North and South, abolitionists, and the compromises and conflicts from the Missouri Compromise to the Dred Scott decision.

   Learning standard: 8.7.1; 8.7.2; 8.7.4; 8.9.1; 8.9.2; 8.9.3; 8.9.4; 8.9.5; 8.9.6 · the South's economy and slavery, free Black Americans, the abolition movement, and the compromises and conflicts over slavery's spread

9. Unit 9

   🏭Industrial America

   Industry, railroads and inventors after the Civil War, big business and monopolies, new immigrants and growing cities, child labor and unions, farmers' movements, and federal Indian policy on the Plains.

   Learning standard: 8.12.1; 8.12.2; 8.12.3; 8.12.4; 8.12.5; 8.12.6; 8.12.7; 8.12.8; 8.12.9 · the transformation of the economy after the Civil War: industry, federal Indian policy, business, immigration and cities, labor, farmers' movements and inventors