Students in grade eight study
ideas, issues, and events from the framing of the Constitution up to World War
I, with and emphasis on America’s
role in the war. After reviewing
the development of America’s
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
term 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.
5. Pursuit of religious
freedom by Protestants and Catholics contributed to freedom of religious
guarantees by the government.
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:
1. The significance of the
Magna Carta, the English Bill of Rights, and the
Mayflower Compact.
2. The Articles of the
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, and the rights of individuals and states (later
addressed by the addition of the Bill of Rights).
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 Jefferson’s Statute for Religious Freedom as a
forerunner of the First Amendment, and the origins, purpose and differing views
of the founding fathers on the separation of church and state doctrine.
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. The impact of
Revolutionary War era religious leaders. E.g. Bishop John
Carroll of Baltimore, on internal structure of
that religion in America
and its relationship to government.
8.3 Students
understand the foundation of the American political system and the ways in
which citizens participate in it, in term 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
Constitution’s 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., Shay’s 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 Washington’s Farewell Address, Jefferson’s Inaugural, John Q. Adams Fourth of July
1821 Address).
3. The rise of capitalism
and the economic problems and conflicts that arose (e.g., Jackson’s 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 the aspirations and ideals of the people of the new nation, 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 principle 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 importance of, and
the geographic factors faced in building a network of roads, canals and
railroads.
3. The reasons of 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 potato
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
American public education from its earliest roots, including Horace
Mann’s campaign for free public education and its unifying 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 1880 to the mid 1880s
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 of 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 Vessy).
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 1880 to the mid 1800s
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 Sacagawea, 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).
7. The significance of the
second Great Awakening to California.
8.9 Students
analyze the early and steady attempts to abolish slavery and realize the ideals
of the Declaration of Independence,
in term s of:
1. The leaders of the
movement (e.g., biographies and other literature on John Qunicy
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, Fredrick
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, the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854), the Dred Scott case (1857), and the Lincoln-Douglas debates
(1858).
6. The lives of free
blacks and the laws that curbed their freedom and economic opportunity.
7. The position of various
religious denominations on the issue of slavery and a comparison to the US
Bishops pastoral letter, 1997, on racism, “Brothers and Sisters to
Us.”
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 as Dainel 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 (1860), the Gettysburg Address (1863), the Emancipation
Proclamation (1863), his inaugural address (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 war.
8.11 Students
analyze the character and lasting consequences of Reconstruction, in terms of:
1. The original aims of Reconstruction
and the effects of 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
differing experiences in those regions (e.g., the experiences of Buffalo
Soldiers).
3. The effects of the Freedman’s
Bureau and the restrictions on the rights and opportunities of freedmen,
including racial segregation and “Jim Crow” laws; comparison of
discrimination in post-construction period with more current Catholic social
teachings on life and dignity of the human person.
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 agriculture 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 Mellon, John D.
Rockefeller)
5. The location and effects of urbanization,
renewed immigration, and industrialization (e.g., effects on social fabric
cities, wealth and economic opportunity, and the conservation movement)
6. Child labor, working conditions,
laissez-faire policies toward big business 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) and the
incentives that prompted the quality of life (e.g., inventions in
transportation, communication, agriculture, industry, education, medicine)
10. Catholic social teaching regarding the poor and
vulnerable and the dignity of work and the rights of workers, especially Pope
Leo XIII’s “Rerum
Novarum”, 1891
11. Religious denominations’ response to
social evils as resulting from personal failings and sin
12. The Social Gospel focus on improving living
conditions rather than saving souls
13. Growth of charitable organizations such as the
Society of St. Vincent de Paul, YMCA (1851), Salvation Army (1880), Jane Adams
of Hull House, the Catholic Worker Movement, Catholic Brownson
House in Los Angeles for Mexican immigration.
History
Tracking Sheet – Eighth Grade
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