|
|
Essential Question:
1. Read the Preamble to and sections of the Constitution and explain how these writings reflect the following political principles: individual rights and responsibilities, equality, the rule of law, general welfare, limited government, representative democracy. Clarification statement: Teachers may choose the sections of the Constitution that they believe to be most accessible and relevant to their students 2. Explain how the framers of the Constitution divided and shared powers among the three branches of the United States government; describe the function of each branch and the system of checks and balances. 3. Describe the responsibilities of government at the federal, state, and local levels (e.g., protection of individual rights and the provision of services such as law enforcement and the building and funding of schools. 4. Analyze the significance of the major issues debated by members of the Constitutional Convention (e.g., the distribution of political power, the rights of individuals, rights of states, tensions between states with large and smaller populations, the make-up of the Senate and electoral college, slavery and the question of how slaves were to be counted in the Census); explain why the framers agreed to the 3/5 Compromise in order to keep the states united and how the decision reinforced the institution of slavery and the power of states in which slavery was particularly prevalent. 5. Explain that voting rights and property rights did not extend to women in the new Constitution 6. Read the Bill of Rights and explain the freedoms it guarantees; research the historical background of one of the first ten Amendments and make an argument using evidence for its inclusion in the Bill of Rights in 1791. Clarification Statement: These standards are designed to be introductory. Students will study United States government in a Grade 8 Civics course and will revisit principles of government as part of high school courses U. S. History I and II. |
Essential Question:
1. Identify the first three Presidents of the United States (George Washington, 1787-1797, John Adams, 1797–1801, and Thomas Jefferson, 1801–1809); summarize key developments during their time (e.g., the founding of political parties in the 1790s; the first Bank of the U.S., the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798; the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the Haitian Revolution in Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for History and Social Science 76 1804), and evaluate their leadership of the new nation 2. Evaluate the importance to the nation of the Louisiana Purchase and trace the expedition of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, with Sacagawea and the Corps of Discovery, from 1803 to 1806. 3. Describe the causes of the War of 1812 and how events during the war contributed to a sense of American nationalism. a. British restrictions on trade and impressment b. Major battles and events of the war, including the role of the USS Constitution, the burning of the Capitol and the White House, and the Battle of New Orleans 4. On a map of New England, locate cities and towns that played important roles in the development of the textile and machinery industries, whaling, shipping, and the China trade in the 18th and 19th centuries and give examples of the short- and long-term benefits and costs of these industries 5. Explain 19th century conflicts between Native Peoples and national, state, and local governments in the United States over land ownership and rights to self-government. a. Shawnee leader Tecumseh’s call for Native Peoples to unify in resistance to the taking of their land (1810) b. President Andrew Jackson and the Indian Removal Act (1830), which forced native communities to move from their ancestral lands in the Southeast to territory west of the Mississippi River c. the Mashpee Revolt (1833), a dispute over self-government in the Mashpee Indian district in Massachusetts d. the significance of the Trail of Tears (1838) for the Cherokee and other native communities in the Southeast |
Essential Question:
1. Trace the state-by-state abolition of slavery in the Northern states in the 18th and 19th centuries and the expansion of slavery into western states; explain the effects of the 1808 law that banned the importation of slaves into the United States and explain how a robust slave trade nonetheless continued within the United States until the mid-19th century 2. Identify the major reasons for the Civil War (e.g., slavery, political and economic competition in Western territories, the emergence of the Republican Party) and the war’s most important outcomes (e.g., end of slavery, Reconstruction, expanded role of the federal government, industrial growth in the North). Clarification Statement: In Grade 4, students were introduced to the Civil War as they learned about states of the Confederacy and the Union; they will study the Civil War in greater depth in high school. 3. Explain the ideas and roles of some of the people of the pre-Civil War era who led the struggle against slavery (abolitionism) and for voting and property rights for African Americans (e.g., Harriet Tubman, Nat Turner, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Harriet Beecher Stowe). 4. Identify the major military leaders and battles of the Civil War (e.g., Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, William Tecumseh Sherman, Stonewall Jackson; Battles of Bull Run, Shiloh, Fredericksburg, Vicksburg, Gettysburg, Appomattox) 5. Describe the role of Abraham Lincoln in the development of the Republican Party and his actions as President during the Civil War, including the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution 6. Explain the consequences of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments for the rights of African Americans. a. advocacy for women’s rights surrounding the passage of the 14th and 15th Amendments and its relationship to the later movement for women’s rights b. women’s attainment of the right to vote with the passage of the 19th Amendment of 1920 7. Describe living conditions for African Americans following the Civil War, during the Jim Crow era, including limited educational and economic opportunities, separate public facilities (e.g., segregated schools and colleges, neighborhoods, sections in buses, trains, restaurants, and movie theaters), the organized perpetuation of white supremacist beliefs and the threat of violence from extra-legal groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. Describe the role African American churches, civic organizations, and newspapers played in supporting and unifying African American communities 8. Research and analyze one of the people, organizations, events, or legislative acts from the 20th century that contributed to expanding civil rights of African Americans, women, and others in the United States. Clarification Statement: In addressing this standard, students and teachers may choose to focus on any of the following: People such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Ruby Bridges, Thurgood Marshall, Edward Brooke, Jackie Robinson, Marian Anderson, Bayard Rustin, Eleanor Roosevelt, Frances Perkins, Lorraine Hansberry, Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, Geraldine Ferraro, César Chávez, Dolores Huerta, Sandra Day O’Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg Organizations such as the National Organization for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) the National Organization for Women (NOW) Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for History and Social Science 78 events such as the 1963 March on Washington, efforts of the 1960s and 1970s to desegregate city public school systems in Massachusetts legislation such as the Equal Pay Act (1963), the campaign for, and eventual defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment (1970s), the enactment of Title IX (prohibition of discrimination on the account of gender, 1972) 9. Explain how the 20th century African American Civil Rights movement served as a model for other movements for civil rights (e.g., the second phase of the women’s movement in the 1960s and 1970s, the disability rights movement, the LGBTQ movement). Clarification Statement: These 20th century standards are designed to make students aware that the movement to extend equality to all has roots in 18th century ideas and is the reason the foundational documents are relevant to all periods of United States history. The links among liberty, justice, and equality remain central in the collective civic life of the nation today. |