Eighth Grade Social Studies

Year at a Glance
Throughout the year, 8th grade historians will develop and apply the understanding that:

Democracy drives the decisions of Americas citizens and

government
Unit
1

Pacing
6
weeks

Unit Topic

Key Understandings

American
Democracy

Overview of the U.S. Constitution

James Madison
Founders view of human nature
Concept of popular sovereignty,
Preamble
Rule of law
Separation of powers
Checks and balances
Enumeration of powers
Separation of church and state
Civilian control of the military
Bill of Rights
Amendments protecting individual rights from
infringement (1-3)
Amendments protecting those accused of crimes
(5-8), Miranda ruling
Amendments reserving powers to the people and
states (9 and 10)
Amendment process Amendments 13 and 19
Legislative branch
Role and powers of Congress
Legislative and representative duties
Structure of the Congress, committee system, how
a bill is passed Budget authority, power of the
purse Power to impeach the president or federal
judge
Executive branch:
role and powers of the presidency Chief executive
cabinet departments
executive orders Chief diplomat
commander-in-chief of the armed forces
Chief legislator, sign laws into effect, recommend

6
weeks

Immigratio
n/Migration

7
weeks

The Rise
and Fall of
the US
Economy

laws, veto power Appointment power, cabinet

officers, federal judges
Judiciary:
Supreme Court as Constitutional interpreter
Loose construction (interpretation) vs. strict
construction of U.S. Constitution
Concepts of due process of law,
equal protection Marbury v. Madison,
principle of judicial review of federal law,
Chief Justice John Marshall
Immigration
Ellis Island
Push and pull factors
Obstacles faced
Opportunities
The Great Migration--North and West
Push and pull factors
Urbanization
Labor Conditions
Growing Influence of Big Business
Innovative Ideas that Impacted the American Economy
Transportation
Airplane
(Pioneers of flight Amelia Earhart, Charles
Lindbergh)
The Model-T (Henry Ford)
Efficiency
The assembly line
The traffic light
World Wide WebY2K
Communication
Radio
Computer
Scientific and Medical Advances:
Penicillin
Blood Transfusion
Atomic Bomb
Hydrogen Bomb
Space Exploration
Walk on the Moon
Neil Armstrong
Impact of Climatic Occurrences on the US Economy
Dust Bowl
Hurricane Andrew
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Sandy

9
weeks

Movements
and Reform

Economic Decisions
The Stock Market Crash
The Great Depression
The New Deal
Reagonomics
Black Monday
Disaster such as: Exxon Valdez, Love Canal,
Chernobyl, Three Mile Island
The Progressive Era
Muckracking
Jane Addams: Settlement houses
Jacob Riis
President Teddy Roosevelt: conservation and trustbusting
Womens Suffrage Movement
19th amendment
Harlem Renaissance
African Americans in music, art, and dance
Marcus Garvey, black separatist movement
Prohibition
Repeal the 18th amendment
21st amendment
Rise of Organized crime
Sacco and Vanzetti
Feminism movement, womens liberation
Betty Friedan, National Organization for Women
Failure of Equal Rights Amendment
Cesar Chavez, United Farm Workers
Civil Rights Movement
Brown v. Board of Education
Southern Massive Resistance:
Little Rock, AR,
Murder of Medgar Evars
Governor George Wallace
Non-violent challenges to Segregation
Sit-Ins
Freedom Writers
CORE
Black Voter Registration drives
Martin Luther King
SCLC
March on Washington
Letter from a Birmingham Jail
Selma to Montgomery March
African American Militance: Malcolm X, Black
Power, Black Panthers, Watts and Newark Riots
Assassination of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King

10
weeks

The Impact
of War on
the United
States

Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act of 1965,

affirmative action
Hippie Movement
Woodstock Festival
Education Reform
IDEA
NCLB
CCSS
WWI
Sinking of the Lusitania
Assassination of Archduke Ferdinad
Neutrality
Propaganda
Trench warfare
WWII
Bombing of Pearl Harbor
Holocaust
Japanese Internment Camps
Baby Boom
Winston Churchill
Women in the workforce
Second Red Scare
Harry S. Truman
Tuskegee Airmen
Cold War
Cuban Missile Crisis, Fidel Castro, Bay of Pigs
US and Soviet Union relations
McCarthyism, House Un-American Activities
Committee
Eisenhower years: secret operations, CIA, FBI,
Counterespionage, J. Edgar Hoover, U-2 Incident
Kennedy Assassination in 1963Lee Harvey
Oswald, Warren Commission
Vietnam War
Selective Service
Stalemate
Anti-war protest, Kent State, The Pentagon Papers,
hawks v. doves
American disengagement, Nixons Vietnamization
policy, Kissinger, War Powers Act
Watergate
Desert Storm