Eighth Grade Social Studies:

 United States History

Student Goals

Students will develop a better understanding of political, social, economic and cultural developments in American history.

Student Outcomes

• Trace the evolution of the Supreme Court’s powers during the 1790s and early 19th century and appraise John Marshall’s precedent-setting decisions.

• Explain how the development of various modes of transportation increased economic prosperity and promoted national unity.

• Examine the economic and social impact of the cotton gin on the nation’s regions

• Explore Southern commitment to the plantation system as the driving force behind the Southern way of life.

• Understand the social, political, and economic changes and challenges of the Age of Jackson (1824-1840).

• Examine Jackson’s policy toward the Native Americans and assess its significance

• Explain the development of the second American party system.

• Explain how tariff policy, issues of states’ rights, and debates over slavery influenced politics and sectionalism between 1820 and 1840.

• Describe the economic responses to industrialization and the emergence of the American labor movement

• Describe the problems of the American worker in the 1800s and how they attempted to bring about change.

• Identify the political and religious roots of reform

• Explain how Americans improved public education in the mid-1800’s

• Examine the major events in the labor struggle of the late 1800s (e.g. the Haymarket event and the Homestead and Pullman strikes).

• Explain the United States territorial expansion between 1801 and 1861 and identify internal and external conflicts.

• Examine the challenges of building the transcontinental railroads

• Explain how major geographical and technological influences (e.g. mechanized farming, hydraulic engineering, and barbed wire) affected farming, mining, and ranching.

• Evaluate the careers and contributions of prominent industrial and financial leaders of the Gilded Age (e.g. Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Rockefeller and Morgan).

• Identify motives for continued immigration to the United States

• Account for the migratory patterns of people from farms to cities, including the migration of African Americans from the South, and explain the factors that led to the rapid growth of cities.

• Illustrate the challenges, opportunities, and contributions of different immigrant groups.

Student Goals

Students will trace the United States’ expansion and growth from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Student Outcomes

• Evaluate the significance of Jefferson’s election to the presidency.

• Outline the causes and consequences of the Louisiana Purchase.

• Examine the political and economic causes and effects of the War of 1812; explain the reasons for, and consequences of, Native American support for Britain; and analyze the sectional divisions caused by the war.

• Analyze the concept of Manifest Destiny and its impact on American Indians and the development of the United States.

• Explore the lure of the West and the reality of life on the frontier.

• Evaluate the role of the federal government, non-native settlers, and Native Americans in the development of the West

• Contrast the causes and character of the rapid settlement of California, Oregon, and Utah in the late 1840s and 1850s.

• Map the territorial expansion and major westward trails of the United States from 1803-1853.

• Identify the causes and results of the Mexican War

• Describe how cultures blended in the new United States territories

• Explain the peaceful resolution of the Oregon dispute with Great Britain in 1846.

• Examine the causes of the Texas War for Independence and the Mexican War and evaluate the provisions and consequences of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

• Assess the role of compromise in the decades prior to 1850 (e.g. Missouri Compromise, Tariff of 1833).

Student Goals

Students will evaluate the causes and consequences of the Civil War and the difficulties of Reconstruction.

Student Outcomes

• Understand the sources, character, and effects of cultural, religious, and social reform movements in the antebellum period.

• Identify factors that led to antebellum reform movements (e.g. the Great Awakening, temperance, abolition, prison reform, education reform, and women’s rights).

• Characterize reform movements and evaluate their impact on American society

• Describe the sufferings of African Americans under slavery

• Explain the growth of the abolitionist movement and the public response in both the North and South.

• Analyze how the debates over the extension of slavery strained national unity and fostered sectionalism.

• Explain the specific impact that one significant historical figure (e.g. Nat Turner, William Lloyd Garrison, Harriet Beecher Stowe) had on the issue of slavery in American society.

• Explain why the Compromise of 1850 did not provide permanent remedy to sectional tensions.

• Explain how events after the Compromise of 1850 (e.g. the Kansas-Nebraska Act, growing free labor ideology in the North, and the Dred Scott decision) contributed to increasing sectional polarization

• Chart the secession of the southern states and explain the process and reasons for secession.

• Compare the human and material resources of the Union and the Confederacy at the beginning of the Civil War and assess the tactical advantages of each side.

• Identify events and turning points of the war (e.g. division of loyalties within states such as Virginia and Tennessee, the draft riots, the election of 1864, battles such as Antietam and Gettysburg) and evaluate how political, military, and diplomatic leadership affected the outcome of the conflict.

• Evaluate provisions of the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln’s reasons for issuing it, and its significance.

• Explore the role and impact of blacks on the war effort in the North and the South

• Contrast the Reconstruction policies of Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, and Congress, while assessing these policies as responses to changing events (including Lincoln’s assassination).

• Explain the provisions of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments and the political forces supporting and opposing each.

• Analyze how the Civil War and Reconstruction affected men’s and women’s roles and status in American society.

• Assess the successes and failures of Reconstruction

• Explain the emergence of Jim Crow laws and analyze their impact on the lives of Americans.