St. Joseph Catholic School: Middle School (6-8)

GRADES SEVEN AND EIGHT
Grade Level Expectations for Social Studies

These are the core grade level expectations based on the McRel standards and benchmarks that should be taught during seventh and eighth grades and represent what a student will learn. They are written from the student point of view. Local sites may add additional grade level expectations to correspond with their curriculum. These grade level expectations are aligned with McRel standards. The number listed is in reference to McRel 3rd edition. The grade level expectations that are aligned with and developed by ITBS/ITED are noted in italics. Not all standards are addressed at every grade level which is appropriate considering a student’s development.

Knowing that there are programs that are K-5, K-6, K-8, 6-8, 7-12, the approach for the social studies component of the grade level expectations is as follows: grade 7 focuses on world regions and grade 8 focuses on American History up to the Civil War. Knowing this, there will need to be adjustments at the local level. This planning was based on the assumption that specific courses are taught at the high school in the areas of global studies, geography, American history and government, economics, psychology, and sociology.

SOCIAL STUDIES - listed by strands

1. Civics

(1.1) Knows the world is divided into nation-states that claim sovereignty over a defined territory and jurisdiction over everyone within it, and understands why the nation-state is the most powerful form of political organization at the international level
(1.2) Knows the purposes and functions of major governmental international organizations (e.g., UN, NATO, OAS, World Court) and non governmental international organizations, e.g., International Red Cross, Amnesty International
(1.3) Knows the most important powers the United States Constitution gives to the Congress, President, and Federal Judiciary in foreign affairs (e.g., Congress can declare war, President is Commander in Chief and can make treaties and appoint ambassadors)
(1.4) Understands the impact of major demographic trends on the United States (e.g., population growth, increase in immigration and refugees)
(1.5) Understands the impact that current political developments around the world have on the United States (e.g., conflicts within and among other nations, efforts to establish democratic governments)
(1.6) Understands major ideas about why government is necessary
(1.7) Knows some of the restraints placed on a limited government’s power
(1.8) Understands the possible consequences of the absence of a rule, e.g., anarchy, arbitrary and capricious rule, disregard for established and fair procedures
(1.9) Knows some basic uses of constitutions and how they have been used to protect individual rights and promote the common good and specifically understands the American Constitution
(1.10) Understands the primary responsibilities of each branch of government in a system of shared powers
(1.11) Knows volunteer opportunities that exist in one’s own school and community
(1.12) Knows how diversity encourages cultural creativity
(1.13) Knows sources of political conflict that have arisen in the United States
(1.14) Knows some important American ideals

2. Economics

(2.1) Knows that exports are goods and services produced in one nation, but sold to buyers in another nation
(2.2) Knows that imports are goods and services bought from sellers in another nation
(2.3) Knows that despite the advantages of international trade, (e.g., broader range of choices in guying goods and services) many nations restrict the free flow of goods and services through a variety of devices known as “barriers to trade” (e.g., tariffs, quotas for national defense reasons or because some companies or workers are hurt by free trade)
(2.4) Understands that increasing labor productivity is the major way in which a nation can improve the standard of living of its people
(2.5) Knows that inflation refers to a sustained increase in the average price level of the entire economy
(2.6) Understands that international trade is the exchange of goods and services between people and institutions in different nations

3. Geography

(3.1) Uses the tools and concepts of geography including technology-related resources, e.g., variety of internet resources available
(3.2) Understands the patterns and processes of migration and diffusion (spread of language, religion, and customs from one culture to another; spread of a contagious disease through a population; global migration patterns of plants and animals)
(3.3) Understands distributions of physical and human occurrences with respect to spatial patterns, arrangements, and associations (e.g., why some areas are more densely settled than others, relationships and patterns in the kind and number of links between settlements)

(3.4) Knows the human and physical characteristics of places
(3.5) Understands the criteria that give a region identity (e.g., its central focus, such as Amersterdam as a transportation center)
(3.6) Knows how places and regions serve as cultural symbols (e.g., Tower Bridge in London)
(3.7) Knows the ways in which human movement and migration influence the character of a place (e.g., the impact of Indians settling in South Africa)
(3.8) Understands the primary geographic causes for world trade

(3.9) Knows similarities and differences in various settlement patterns of the world (e.g., agricultural settlement types such as plantations, urban settlement types such as governmental centers, port cities)
(3.10) Understands the factors that affect the cohesiveness and integration of countries (e.g., language and religion in Belgium, the elongated shapes of Italy and Chile)
(3.11) Knows how the physical environment affects life in different regions
(3.12) Knows world patterns of resource distribution and utilization (e.g., petroleum, coal, diamonds, gold)
(3.13) Knows how physical and human geographic factors have influenced major historic events and movements, (e.g., the forced transport of Africans to North and South America)
(3.14) Understands patterns of land use in urban, suburban, and rural areas
(3.15) Knows the causes and effects of changes in a place over time
(3.16) Knows types of regions such as formal regions, functional regions, and perceptual regions
(3.17) Knows the ways in which culture influences the perception of places and regions, e.g., religion and other belief systems, language and traditions
(3.18) Knows the processes that produce renewable and nonrenewable resources, e.g., fossil fuels
(3.19) Understands demographic concepts and how they are related to population characteristics of a country or region
(3.20) Knows the ways in which human systems develop in response to conditions in the physical environment, (e.g., patterns of land use, flow of traffic)
(3.21) Knows historic and current conflicts and competition regarding the use and allocation of resources
(3.22) Understands the possible impact that present conditions and patterns of consumption, production and population growth might have on the future spatial organization of earth

4. Historical Understanding

(4.1) Understands patterns of change and continuity in the historical succession of related events (in American history)
(4.2) Knows how to periodize events of the nation into broadly defined eras (in American history)
(4.3) Understands that specific individuals, ideas, events, and decisions had a great impact on (American) history
(4.4) Understands cultural and ecological interactions resulting from early European exploration and colonization and/or ancient civilizations
(4.5) Understands the basic patterns of human settlement and their causes (in American history)
(4.6) Understands cultural and ecological interactions in American history
(4.7) Understands the cultural and environmental impacts of European settlements in North America
(4.8) Understands the role of religion in English colonies
(4.9) Understands mercantilism and how it influenced patterns of economic activity
(4.10) Understands the creation of the Declaration of Independence
(4.11) Understands how the ideals of the American Revolution influenced the goals of various groups of people during and after the war (e.g., women, loyalists, Native Americans, enslaved and free African Americans, etc. )
(4.12) Understands the development and impact of the American party system
(4.13) Understands the significance of the Lewis and Clark expedition
(4.14) Understands how major technological and economic influences impacted various groups
(4.15) Understands political issues that were influenced by slavery
(4.16) Understands events and perspectives that influenced slavery in the ante-bellum period
(4.17) Understands the impact of social, economic, and cultural differences between the North and South and how the free labor system differed