7th grade Social Studies
13 units matched to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS).
Focus areas
- Texas history by era, from Natural Texas and its People to Contemporary Texas
- Revolution and Republic, the Civil War, reform and civil rights movements
- Texas geography, population and an economy tied to the nation and the world
- The Texas Constitution, state and local government, and citizenship
Units
Unit 1
Eras of Texas History
The eras of Texas history as the TEKS name them, from Natural Texas and its People to Contemporary Texas, the key dates (1519, 1718, 1821, 1836, 1845, 1861, 1876, 1901), and history skills: primary and secondary sources, bias, credibility and citing sources.
TEKS student expectation: 7.1(A); 7.1(B); 7.20(A); 7.20(B); 7.20(C); 7.20(D); 7.20(F); 7.21(A); 7.22(B) · the eras and key dates of Texas history, chronology, and evaluating and using sources
Unit 2
Natural Texas & Contact
The Gulf, Plains, Puebloan and Southeastern cultures of Texas before European colonization, and the Age of Contact: Álvarez de Pineda, Cabeza de Vaca, the search for gold and the conflicting claims of France and Spain. American Indian nations are described as many distinct peoples; those living today are in the present tense.
TEKS student expectation: 7.2(A); 7.2(B) · American Indian cultures in Texas before colonization, and European exploration of Texas
Unit 3
Spanish Colonial Texas
Missions, presidios, towns and ranches, Massanet, Margil de Jesús and Francisco Hidalgo, the founding of San Antonio, Spanish, Mexican and Anglo purposes for settlement, and Spanish influence on Texas culture. Told plainly: the missions harmed many American Indian people through disease, forced labor and the loss of land and culture.
TEKS student expectation: 7.2(C); 7.2(F); 7.18(C) · Spanish colonization, missions and settlements, purposes and methods of settlement, and Spanish influence on Texas
Unit 4
Mexican National Texas
Mexico's independence and its impact on Texas (Hidalgo, Gutiérrez de Lara, the Battle of Medina, the Constitution of 1824, Coahuila y Tejas, the colonization law of 1825 and slavery), the empresarios, and the chain of events toward revolution: the Fredonian Rebellion, the Mier y Terán Report, the Law of April 6, 1830, the Turtle Bayou Resolutions and Austin's arrest.
TEKS student expectation: 7.2(D); 7.2(E); 7.2(F); 7.3(A) · Mexican independence and its impact on Texas, the empresarios, and the events leading to the Texas Revolution
Unit 5
The Texas Revolution
The people and events of the Texas Revolution: Gonzales, the siege of the Alamo and Travis's letter, the diverse defenders, the Convention of 1836 at Washington-on-the-Brazos, Goliad, the Runaway Scrape and San Jacinto, with Childress, de Zavala, Fannin, Houston, Santa Anna, Seguín and Travis, and different points of view.
TEKS student expectation: 7.3(B); 7.3(C); 7.20(D) · the roles of individuals and the issues surrounding the major events of the Texas Revolution
Unit 6
Republic & Early Statehood
The Republic under Houston, Lamar and Jones (the Texas Navy and Rangers, Jack Coffee Hays, Chief Bowles, William Goyens, Mary Maverick, José Antonio Navarro, the Córdova Rebellion, the Council House Fight, the Santa Fe Expedition, slavery), the causes of annexation, and early statehood: the U.S.-Mexican War, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, slavery and the Compromise of 1850.
TEKS student expectation: 7.4(A); 7.4(B); 7.4(C) · the Republic of Texas, annexation, and early Texas statehood
Unit 7
Civil War & Reconstruction
The central role of slavery in Texas's secession, the battles of Galveston, Sabine Pass and Palmito Ranch, Juneteenth, and the political, economic and social effects of the war and Reconstruction, through the Constitution of 1876. Told factually and neutrally.
TEKS student expectation: 7.5(A); 7.5(B); 7.5(C) · slavery and Texas's role in the Civil War, Civil War events in Texas, and the effects of the war and Reconstruction
Unit 8
Cotton, Cattle & Railroads
The expansion of the frontier and its effects on American Indians, the Buffalo Soldiers and Quanah Parker, the cattle industry from its Spanish beginnings, the railroads and James Hogg, and how farming changed West Texas.
TEKS student expectation: 7.6(A); 7.6(B); 7.6(C); 7.6(D) · the frontier, the cattle industry, railroads, and the agricultural development of West Texas
Unit 9
Oil & the Modern Economy
How oil industrialized Texas, boom-and-bust cycles, the Depression and World War II, urbanization and changing jobs, national and world markets, supply, demand, profit and competition, and the aerospace, medical and computer industries.
TEKS student expectation: 7.7(A); 7.7(B); 7.7(E); 7.11(A); 7.11(B); 7.12(A); 7.12(B); 7.12(C) · the oil industry and industrialization, boom-and-bust cycles, urbanization, and the Texas economy in national and world markets
Unit 10
Reform & Civil Rights
Populism, progressivism, women's suffrage, labor reform and the late-20th-century conservative movement; civil rights and equal rights movements and leaders (LULAC, Hector P. Garcia, James L. Farmer Jr., Lulu Belle Madison White, Oveta Culp Hobby, Lyndon B. Johnson, Jane McCallum) and court cases such as Smith v. Allwright, Sweatt v. Painter and Hernández v. Texas; Texas leaders such as Barbara Jordan, Henry B. González and Sam Rayburn; parties, interest groups and a free press.
TEKS student expectation: 7.7(C); 7.7(D); 7.16(A); 7.16(B); 7.17(A); 7.17(B) · reform and civil rights movements in Texas, points of view in a democracy, and Texas leaders
Unit 11
Texas Places & People
The four regions and key places of Texas, how geography shaped events (the 1900 Galveston Hurricane, the Dust Bowl, limited water, wind energy), how Texans changed the environment, immigrant groups and where they settled, and population growth, age distribution and its effects.
TEKS student expectation: 7.8(A); 7.8(B); 7.8(C); 7.9(A); 7.9(B); 7.10(A); 7.10(B); 7.10(C); 7.10(D); 7.21(A); 7.21(B) · regions and places of Texas, human-environment interaction, and population and migration
Unit 12
Texas Constitution & Government
The principles of the Texas Constitution compared with the US Constitution, the legislature, plural executive and courts, county, city and special-district government, state and local revenue, and citizens' rights and responsibilities, including voting, due process and caucuses.
TEKS student expectation: 7.13(A); 7.13(B); 7.14(A); 7.14(B); 7.15(A); 7.15(B); 7.23(A) · principles of the Texas Constitution, the structure of state and local government, revenue, and citizens' rights and responsibilities
Unit 13
Culture, Science & Technology
Diversity within unity in Texas celebrations and heritage, Texas artists and writers such as Scott Joplin, Elisabet Ney and J. Frank Dobie, and Texas leaders in science and technology (DeBakey, Cooley, Cunningham, Brooks, Dell, Hughes) and how innovation changed farming, energy, medicine and aerospace.
TEKS student expectation: 7.18(A); 7.18(B); 7.18(D); 7.19(A); 7.19(B); 7.19(C); 7.19(D); 7.19(E) · cultural diversity and the arts in Texas, and the effects of science and technology on Texas
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