7th grade Social Studies: how to help at home
What your child learns in 7th grade social studies in the Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards, and simple things to try at home.
Focus areas this year
- Theme: United States Studies
- The Civil War and Reconstruction
- Industry, reform and the right to vote
- The world wars, the Great Depression, the Cold War and civil rights
Easy ways to practice social studies at home
- Follow a current event together and ask who is affected and why people see it differently.
- Build a timeline of a family event or a historical topic they are studying.
- Use an atlas or online map to trace a trade or travel route.
- Ask “Whose voice is missing from this story?” when reading about the past.
What each unit covers
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.
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.
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.
Rights & Amendments
What the first ten amendments protect, the Reconstruction Amendments, and why rights come with limits and responsibilities.
World War I
The causes of World War I, why the United States entered in 1917, trench warfare, limits on civil liberties at home, and the debate over the peace and the League of Nations.
Depression & New Deal
The causes of the crash and the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, how families and farmers coped, and Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal and its lasting programs.
World War II
The road to war and the rise of fascism, the US entry after Pearl Harbor, D-Day and the Pacific, the Holocaust, the home front including the forced removal of Japanese Americans, and the war's results.
The Cold War
The rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union, containment from the Truman Doctrine to Vietnam, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the space race and the end of the Cold War, from more than one perspective.
Civil Rights
The Long Civil Rights Movement from Brown v. Board of Education to the Voting Rights Act, its leaders and methods, and the movements it inspired, including the women's movement and the American Indian Movement, founded in Minneapolis in 1968.
The Civil War
Practices the causes of the Civil War, the Union and the Confederacy, key battles and leaders, emancipation, and the war's impact on different groups of people, including Minnesota's soldiers.
What the report card levels look like at home
- Beginning
- Just getting started with this idea. Short, regular practice with lots of support helps most.
- Approaching
- Understands parts of it and is building confidence. Keep practicing the tricky parts.
- Meeting
- Has it! Mixed review now and then keeps it strong.
- Exceeding
- Applies it confidently, even in new or harder situations. Try challenge mode and real-life problems.
Your child’s teacher decides the level on the report card. Read the Minnesota report card guide.
Common questions
Follow a current event together and ask who is affected and why people see it differently. Build a timeline of a family event or a historical topic they are studying. Keep sessions short, about 10 to 15 minutes, and stop on a success.
The Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards 7th grade social studies units include Reconstruction, Industrial America, Factories & Reformers, Rights & Amendments, World War I, Depression & New Deal.
Free printable 7th grade social studies practice sheet
Questions from every unit, with an answer key.