Social Studies Curriculum - 8th

Eighth Grade

Standard 1: Civics/Government

Civics/Government Vocabulary: affirmative action, amendment, Bill of Rights, Constitution, work ethic, criminal and civil law, checks and balances, legislative/executive/judicial branches, separation of powers, republic, democracy, monarchy, dictatorship

Benchmark 1 : The student understands the rule of law as it applies to family, school, local, state, and national governments.

Met

1. Distinguishes between state and federal law as it applies to individual citizens

2. Distinguishes between civil and criminal law as it applies to individual citizens

3. Explains how juveniles and adults are treated differently under the law.

 Vocabulary: market system, price, cost  

Benchmark 2: The student understands the shared identity and the diversity of American society and political culture.

Met

Indicators

Instructional Activities

1. Defines the rights guaranteed, granted, and protected by the state and federal constitutions and the amendments including the Bill of Rights.

2. Explains the recurring issues and solutions involving the rights and responsibilities of the individual.

3. Explains the importance of the respect for the law, a good education, work ethic, equal opportunity, and volunteerism.

Vocabulary: benefit, trade off, opportunity cost  

Benchmark 3: The student understands how the US Constitution allocates and restricts power and responsibility in the government.

Met

Indicators

Instructional Activities

1. Explains constitutional powers.

2. Compares the US and the Kansas Constitutions to identify the major responsibilities of federal, state and local governments.

3. Explains how powers are distributed among the legislative, executive and judicial branches of the state and national levels.

4. Compares the steps of how a bill becomes a law at the state and national levels.

5. Describes the amendment procedure.

6. Knows budgeting procedures and major areas of government spending.

Benchmark 4: The student identifies and examines the rights, privileges, and responsibilities in becoming and active civic participant.

Met

Indicators

Instructional Activities

1. Identifies criteria and processes to attain naturalized citizenship.

2. Identifies the privileges of U.S. Citizenship.

3. Compares the methods by which we elect government officials.

4. Examines the steps necessary to become and informed voter.

5. Recognizes the rights of citizens in other nations in the world and determines how they are similar to and different from the rights of American Citizens.

Benchmark 5: The student understands various systems of governments and how nations and international governments interact.

Met

Indicators

Instructional Activities

1. Analyzes the basic features of state and national political systems and describes the ways each system meets or fails to meet the needs and wants of its citizens.

Standard 2: Economics

Economics Vocabulary: scarcity, producer, investor, interdependent, inflation, deflation, wages, salaries, rent interest, profit, downsizing, outsourcing, entrepreneur, currency, welfare, non profit organization, union, partnership, corporation, sanction

Benchmark 2: The student understands how the market economy works in the United States.

Met

Indicators

Instructional Activities

1. Describes the four basic types of earned income (wages and salaries, rent, interest, profit.)

2. Explains the factors that cause unemployment (downsizing, outsourcing, seasonal demand for jobs, changes in skills needed by employers, other economic influences.)

Benchmark 3: The student analyzes how different economic systems, institutions, and incentives affect people.

Met

Indicators

Instructional Activities

1. Explains how positive and negative incentives affect the way people behave. (seeking a job for higher wages, drivers ed class to reduce insurance)

2. Describes the types of specialized economic institutions found in market economies. (labor unions)

3. Gives examples of changes that might influence international trade (US Sanctions, weather, exchange rate, war, boycotts, embargoes)

Benchmark 4: The student analyze the role of government in the economy.

Met

Indicators

Instructional Activities

1. Compares and contrasts government revenues and expenditures.

2. Gives examples of choices the government must make with limited resources (i.e. highways, welfare, defense, education, social security).

Benchmark 5: The student makes effective decisions as a consumer, producer, saver, investor and citizen.

Met

Indicators

Instructional Activities

1. Uses product information to identify costs and benefits to make informed choices among alternatives.

2. Uses the concept of trade-offs to make a decision.

Standard 3: Geography

Benchmark 2: The student analyzes the spatial organization of people, places, and environments that form regions on the earth's surface.

Met

Indicators

Instructional Activities

1. Examines the effects of a label on the image of a region. (Rust Belt, Great American Desert)

Standard 4: United States History

U.S. History Vocabulary: Manifest Destiny, Louisiana Purchase, secession, sectionalism, elitism, spoils system, nationalism, society

Benchmark 1: The student uses a working knowledge and understanding of individuals, groups, ideas, developments, and turning points in the beginnings of the Republic. (1800-1850)

Met

Indicators

Instructional Activities

1. Explains the territorial expansion of the United States between 1801-1861, and how it affected relations with external powers and American Indians. (Louisiana Purchase, Manifest Destiny)

2. Analyzes the changes in American lives due to the industrial revolution and the expansion of slavery.

3. Lists how technological developments impacted different parts of American society between 1801-1860. (interchangeable parts, inventions, cotton gin, railroads, steamboats)

4. Defines and gives examples of Jacksonian Democracy. (expansion of suffrage, appeal to the common man, justification of the spoils system, opposition to elitism, opposition to the Bank of the US)

Benchmark 2: The student uses a working knowledge and understanding of individuals, groups, ideas, developments, and turning points in the Civil War through the Industrial era of American History (1850-1900).

1. Retraces the events that led to sectionalism and eventually secession prior to the Civil War. (Compromise of 1820, Compromise of 1850, Kansas-Nebraska Act, Dred Scott v. Sanford)

2. Explains the circumstances that shaped the Civil War and its outcome. (economic, technological, human resources of the North and the South)

3. Compares and contrasts different plans for Reconstruction (plans by Lincoln, Johnson, and congressional leaders)

4. Describes the changes in different regions during Reconstruction (economic, political, social structure)

Benchmark 3: The student engages in historical thinking skills.

Met

Indicators

Instructional Activities

1. Examines historical materials relating to United States history during the 1800s to analyze change over time and make logical inferences concerning cause and effect.

2. Uses basic research skills to conduct and investigation of a historical event.

Standard : Kansas History

Kansas History Vocabulary: era of migration, popular sovereignty, expansion, Jim Crow Law, Populism, Progressive, farm mechanization, agribusiness

Benchmark 1: The student understands individuals, groups, ideas, events, and developments during the period of exploration in Kansas (1541-1820)

Met

Indicators

Instructional Activities

1. Compares and contrasts the foods, housing styles, and arts of Early American Indian nations. (Kansa, Osage, Wichita, Pawnee, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Apache, Commanche, Kiowa)

2. Explains how Long's classification of Kansas as the "Great American Desert" influenced later US government policy on American Indian relocation.

Benchmark 2: The student understands individuals, groups, ideas, events, and developments during the era of migration.

Met

Indicators

Instructional Activities

1. Compares and contrasts the views held by federal and state governments with that of the American Indians over the Kansas frontier.

2. Uses diaries and journals to analyze why families migrated.

Benchmark 3: The student understands individuals, groups, ideas, events, and developments of the territorial period and the Civil War in Kansas.

Met

Indicators

Instructional Activities

1. Explains the concept of popular sovereignty under the Kansas Nebraska Act.

2. Explains why control of the Kansas territorial government was affected by the fight over slavery.

Benchmark 4: The student understands individuals, groups, ideas, events, and developments during the period of expansion and development in Kansas (1860s-1890s)

Met

Indicators

Instructional Activities

1. Explains the migration patterns of the English, French, Germans, German-Russians, and Swedes to Kansas.

2. Describes the reasons for the Exoduster movement out of the south to Kansas. (free land, lynching, Jim Crow laws)

3. Describes the development of Populism in Kansas. (Disillusionment with big Eastern business, railroads, governments corruption, the plight of the farmer.

4. Describes the impact of railroad expansion in Kansas to or upon town development, the cattle industry, and agricultural settlement.

Benchmark/Outcome 5: The student understands individuals, groups, ideas, events and developments in the period of industrialization and modernization in Kansas. (1890s to 1920s)

Met

Indicators

Instructional Activities

1. Explains the accomplishments of the Progressive movement in Kansas. (regulating the sale of stocks and bonds, workman's compensation, inspection of meat processing plants, public health campaigns.)

2. Describes the significance of farm mechanization in Kansas. (increased farm size and outputs)

Benchmark/Outcome 6: The student understands individuals, groups, ideas and developments of the Depression and World War II in Kansas. (1920s-1940s)

Met

Indicators

Instructional Activities

1. Compares agricultural practices before and after the dust storms of the 1930s. (rotation of crops, shelter belts, irrigation, terracing, stubble mulch.)

Benchmark/Outcome 7: The student understands individuals, groups, ideas, events and developments in contemporary Kansas.

Met

Indicators

Instructional Activities

1. Uses a time line to trace the events that led to the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Topeka Board of Education.

Benchmark/Outcome 8: The student engages in historical thinking skills.

Indicators

Instructional Activities

1. Uses basic research skills to conduct and independent investigation of an event in Kansas History.

2. Examines historical documents, artifacts and other materials of Kansas History and analyzes them in terms of credibility, purpose, perspective or point of view.