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These are ALL of the 8th Grade Content Standards. However it would be impossible to
teach all of them in one year. As a result, we have identified the most historically
significant standards (which are preceeded by a double asterick **) that we will cover this
year.
GRADE 8
UNITED STATES HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY: GROWTH AND CONFLICT
Students in grade eight study the ideas, issues and events from the framing of the
Constitution up to World War I, with an emphasis on Americas role in the war. After
reviewing the development of Americas democratic institutions founded in the Judeo-
Christian heritage and English parliamentary traditions, particularly the shaping of the
Constitution, students trace the development of American politics, society, culture and
economy and relate them to the emergence of major regional differences. They learn
about the challenges facing the new nation, with an emphasis on the causes, course and
consequences of the Civil War. They make connections between the rise of
industrialization and contemporary social and economic conditions.
8.1 Students understand the major events preceding the founding of the nation and relate
their significance to the development of American constitutional democracy, in terms of:
** 1) the relationship between the moral and political ideas of the Great Awakening
and the development of revolutionary fervor
** 2) the philosophy of government expressed in the Declaration of Independence
with an emphasis on government as a means of securing individual rights (e.g., key
phrases such as "...all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable Rights")
3.the significance of the American Revolution as it affected other nations especially
France
4.its blend of civic republicanism, classical liberal principles, and English
parliamentary traditions
8.2 Students analyze the political principles underlying the U.S. Constitution and compare
the enumerated and implied powers of the federal government, in terms of:
** 2) the significance of the Magna Carta, the English Bill of Rights, and the
Mayflower Compact
** 2) the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution, and the success of each in
implementing the ideals of the Declaration of Independence
** 3) the major debates that occurred during the development of the Constitution
and their ultimate resolutions on areas such as shared power among institutions, divided
state-federal power, slavery, the rights of individuals and states (later addressed by the
addition of the Bill of Rights), and the status of American Indian nations under the
commerce clause
** 4) the political philosophy underpinning the U.S. Constitution as specified in The
Federalist (authored by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay) and the role of
such leaders as James Madison, George Washington, Roger Sherman, Gouverneur Morris,
and James Wilson in the writing and ratification of the Constitution
5.the significance of Jeffersons Statute for Religious Freedom as a forerunner of the
First Amendment, and the origins, purpose and differing views of the founding fathers on
the issue of the separation of church and state
** 6) the powers of government enumerated in the Constitution and the fundamental
liberties ensured by the Bill of Rights
** 7) the principles of federalism, dual sovereignty, separation of powers, checks and
balances, the nature and purpose of majority rule, and how the American idea of
constitutionalism preserves individual rights
8.3 Students understand the foundation of the American political system and the ways in
which citizens participate in it, in terms of:
1.the principles and concepts codified in the state constitutions between 1777 and
1781 that create the context out of which American political institutions and ideas
developed
** 2) how the ordinances of 1785 and 1787 privatized national resources and
transferred federally owned lands into private holdings, townships and states
3.the advantages of a "common market" among the states as foreseen and
protected by the Constitutions clauses on interstate commerce, common coinage, and
full-faith and credit
4.the conflicts between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton that resulted in
the emergence of two political parties (e.g., view of foreign policy, Alien and Sedition acts,
economic policy, National Bank, funding and assumption of the revolutionary debt)
** 5) the significance of domestic resistance movements and ways in which the
central government responded to such movements (e.g., Shays Rebellion, the Whiskey
Rebellion)
** 6) the basic law-making process and how the design of the U.S. Constitution
provides numerous opportunities for citizens to participate in the political process and to
monitor and influence government (e.g., function of elections, political parties, interest
groups)
** 7) the function and responsibilities of a free press
8.4 Students analyze the aspirations and ideals of the people of the new nation, in terms
of:
** 1) its physical landscapes and political divisions and the territorial expansion of
the U.S. during the terms of the first four presidents
** 2) the policy significance of famous speeches (e.g., George Washingtons Farewell
Address, Jeffersons Inaugural, John Q. Adams Fourth of July 1821 Address)
3.the rise of capitalism and the economic problems and conflicts that arose (e.g.,
Jacksons opposition to the National Bank; early decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court that
reinforced the sanctity of contracts and a capitalist economic system of law)
4.the daily lives of people, including the traditions in art, music, and literature of
early national America (e.g., writings by Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper)
8.5 Students analyze U.S. foreign policy in the early Republic, in terms of:
** 1) the political and economic causes and consequences of the War of 1812 and
the major battles, leaders, and events leading to a final peace
2.the changing boundaries and the principal relationships between the United
States, its neighbors (current Mexico and Canada) and Europe, including the influence of
the Monroe Doctrine, and how those relationships influenced westward expansion and the
Mexican American War
3.the major treaties with Indian nations during the administrations of the first four
presidents and their varying outcomes
8.6 Students analyze the divergent paths of the American people from 1800 to the mid
-1800's and the challenges they faced, with emphasis on the Northeast, in terms of:
1.the influence of industrialization and technological developments on the region,
including human modification of the landscape and how physical geography shaped
human actions (e.g., growth of cities, deforestation, farming, mineral extraction)
2.the physical obstacles to, and the economic and political factors in (e.g., Henry
Clays American System), building a network of roads, canals and railroads
3.the reasons for the wave of immigration from Northern Europe to the U.S. and
growth in the number, size, and spatial arrangements of cities (e.g., Irish immigrants and
the Great Irish Famine)
4.the lives of black Americans who gained freedom in the North and founded
schools and churches to advance black rights and communities
5.the development of the American education system from its earliest roots,
including the role of religious and private schools, Horace Mann's campaign for free public
education, and its assimilating role in American culture
6.the women's suffrage movement (e.g., biographies, writings, and speeches of
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Margaret Fuller, Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony)
7.common themes in American art as well as Transcendentalism and individualism
(e.g., writings about and by Emerson,Thoreau, Melville, Alcott, Hawthorne, Longfellow)
8.7 Students analyze the divergent paths of the American people from 1800 to the mid
-1800s and the challenges they faced, with emphasis on
the South, in terms of:
** 1) the development of the agrarian economy in the South, the location of the
cotton producing states and the role of cotton and the cotton gin
** 2) the origins and development of the institution of slavery; its effects on black
Americans and on the region's political, social, religious, economic, and cultural
development; and the various attempted strategies to both overturn and preserve it (e.g.,
biographies of Nat Turner, Denmark Vesey)
** 3) the different characteristics of white Southern society and how the physical
environment influenced events and conditions prior to the Civil War
4.the lives and opportunities of free-blacks in the North as compared with free-
blacks in the South
8.8 Students analyze the divergent paths of the American people from 1800 to the mid
-1800's and the challenges they faced, with emphasis on the West, in terms of:
** 1) the election of Andrew Jackson in 1828, the importance of Jacksonian
democracy and his actions as president (e.g., spoils system, veto of National bank, policy
of Indian removal, opposition to Supreme court)
** 2) the purpose, challenges and economic incentives associated with westward
expansion including the concept of Manifest Destiny (e.g., Lewis and Clark expedition,
accounts of the removal of Indians and the Cherokees "Trail of Tears," settlement of the
Great Plains) and the territorial acquisitions that spanned numerous decades
3.the role of pioneer women and the new status that western women achieved (e.g.,
biographies, journals, diaries and other original documents on Laura Ingalls Wilder, Annie
Bidwell, slave women gaining freedom in the West, Wyoming granting
suffrage to women in 1869)
4.the role of the great rivers and the struggle over water rights
5.Mexican settlements (i.e., their locations, cultural traditions, attitudes toward
slavery, land-grant system, the economies they established)
6.the Texas War for Independence and the Mexican-American War (i.e., territorial
settlements, the aftermath of the wars and the effect on the lives of Americans, including
Mexican-Americans today)
8.9 Students analyze the early and steady attempts to abolish slavery and realize the
ideals of the Declaration of Independence, in terms of:
** 1) the leaders of the movement (e.g., biographies and other literature on John
Quincy Adams and his proposed constitutional amendment, John Brown and the armed
resistance, Harriet Tubman and the underground railroad, Benjamin Franklin,Theodore
Weld, William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass)
** 2) how early state constitutions abolished slavery
** 3) the role of the Northwest Ordinance in education and in banning slavery in new
states north of the Ohio River
4.the slavery issue as raised by the annexation of Texas and the effect of California
coming into the union as a free state as part of the Compromise of 1850
** 5) the significance of the States' Rights Doctrine, Missouri Compromise (1820),
Wilmot Proviso (1846), the Compromise of 1850, Henry Clays role in the Missouri
Compromise and the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854), Dred Scott v.
Sandford (1857), and the Lincoln-Douglas debates (1858)
6.the lives of free blacks and the laws that curbed their freedom and economic
opportunity
8.10 Students analyze the multiple causes, key events and complex consequences of the
Civil War, in terms of:
1.the conflicting interpretations of state and federal authority as emphasized in the
speeches and writings of statesman such Daniel Webster and John C. Calhoun
** 2) the boundaries constituting "the North" and "the South", the geographical
differences between the two regions, and the differences between agrarians and
industrialists
3.the constitutional issues posed by the doctrine of nullification and secession and
the earliest origins of that doctrine
** 4) Abraham Lincoln's presidency and his significant writings and speeches and
their relationship to the Declaration of Independence such as his "House Divided" speech
(1858), the Gettysburg Address (1863), the Emancipation Proclamation 1863), his
inaugural addresses (1861 and 1865)
** 5) the views and lives of leaders and soldiers on both sides of the war, including
black soldiers and regiments (e.g., biographies of Ulysses S. Grant, Jefferson Davis, Robert
E. Lee)
** 6) critical developments in the war, including the major battles, geographical
advantages and obstacles, technological advances, and Lee's surrender at Appomattox
** 7) how the war affected combatants, with the largest death toll of any war in
American history, and the physical devastation, the effect on civilians, and the effect on
future warfare
8.11 Students analyze the character and lasting consequences of Reconstruction, in terms
of:
** 1) the original aims of Reconstruction and the effects on the political and social
structure of different regions
2.the push-pull factors in the movement of former slaves to the cities in the North
and to the West, and their differing experiences in those regions (e.g. the experiences of
Buffalo Soldiers)
** 3) the effects of the Freedmans Bureau and the restrictions on the rights and
opportunities of freedman, including racial segregation and "Jim Crow" laws
** 4) the rise and effects of the Ku Klux Klan
** 5) the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments to the Constitution, and
their connection to Reconstruction
8.12 Students analyze the transformation of the American economy and the changing
social and political conditions in the United States in response to the Industrial Revolution,
in terms of:
1.patterns of agricultural and industrial development as they relate to climate,
natural resource use, markets, and trade, including their location on a map
2.the reasons for the development of federal Indian policy and the Plains wars with
American Indians and their relationship to agricultural development and industrialization
3.how states and the federal government encouraged business expansion through
tariffs, banking, land grants, and subsidies
4.entrepreneurs, industrialists, and bankers in politics, commerce, and industry
(e.g., Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Leland Stanford)
5.the location and effects of urbanization, renewed immigration, and
industrialization (e.g., effects on social fabric of cities, wealth and economic opportunity,
and the conservation movement)
6.child labor, working conditions, laissez-faire policies toward big business and the
leaders of (e.g., Samuel Gompers) and the rise of the labor movement, including collective
bargaining, strikes, and protests over labor conditions
7.the new sources of large-scale immigration and the contribution of immigrants to
the building of cities and the economy; the ways in which new social and economic
patterns encouraged assimilation of newcomers into the mainstream amidst growing
cultural diversity; and the new wave of nativism
8.the characteristics and impact of Grangerism and Populism
9.the significant inventors and their inventions (e.g., biographies of Thomas Edison,
Alexander Graham Bell, Orville and Wilbur Wright) and the incentives that prompted the
quality of life (e.g., inventions in transportation, communication, agriculture, industry,
education, medicine)
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