Grade 8 · Social Studies · Unit 4 of 4
Rights, Reform & Taking Action
How people have won fairness, and how youth can help.
What your child practises
Practises the idea of empowerment, the development of rights and social reform movements in Canada, and how young people can take age-appropriate action. It follows the Grade 8 social studies skill descriptors on empowerment, rights and civic engagement in the New Brunswick curriculum.
New Brunswick Curriculum skill descriptor: Civics: Rights and Responsibilities, Civics: Civic Engagement, Economics: Sustainability · empowerment, the development of rights and social reform movements in Canada, and taking action on youth issues
Sample questions
A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.
Question 1
Why do people sometimes join groups to speak up for a cause?
- Only one person can speak
- A group can be louder and stronger than one person
- Groups cannot do anything
- Groups are always wrong
A group can be louder and stronger than one person
Hint: Collective action can create change.
Question 2
Which action shows advocacy?
- ignoring a problem
- complaining without a plan
- waiting for someone else
- writing to a mayor to ask for a safe crosswalk
writing to a mayor to ask for a safe crosswalk
Hint: Advocacy means speaking up for a cause.
Question 3
What does empowerment mean?
- gaining the strength, confidence and power to make your own choices
- being told what to do
- losing your voice
- staying silent
gaining the strength, confidence and power to make your own choices
Hint: Empowerment can be personal or can belong to a whole community.
Question 4
What is a strike?
- a bowling score
- workers stopping work to ask for fairer pay or conditions
- a baseball call
- a kind of storm
workers stopping work to ask for fairer pay or conditions
Hint: Workers’ strikes helped win rules about safe workplaces.
Question 5
Which right did women across Canada win in the early 1900s?
- the right to choose a prime minister
- the right to drive on ice
- the right to vote
- the right to free fish
the right to vote
Hint: Most women gained the federal vote in 1918.
Question 6
Why might a community want to own and run its own businesses?
- to stop trade
- to avoid all customers
- to close the shops
- to keep jobs and profits in the community
to keep jobs and profits in the community
Hint: Local ownership can strengthen a community.