8th Grade US History
Fall Semester | |||||
Unit Title | Exploration & Colonization | American Revolution | Constitution | Early Republic | Industrialization |
Time | 5 weeks | 3 weeks | 5 weeks | 4 weeks | 1 week Fall/3 weeks Spring |
Understandings | European exploration and colonization motivations and international competition and the effect on native populations
Physical geography of 3 colonial regions and its impact on settlement patterns and economic activities
Establishment of colonies as refuges from religious persecution as a catalyst for the development of religious freedom
The physical distance from England and the practice of salutary neglect as an engine for the development of self-government | American Revolution caused by restrictive British policies
Colonists addressed their grievances by using civil disobedience
The Declaration of Independence established the American belief of unalienable rights and listed the colonial grievances
Key military victories and the alliance with France after the Battle of Saratoga resulted in the Treaty of Paris 1783, which formally recognized U.S. independence | The weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation and the government's inability to address civil unrest demonstrated the need to restructure the government and led to the Constitutional Convention
Major conflicts at the Constitutional Convention led to the Great Compromise and the Three-Fifths Compromise
The U.S. Constitution established a system of limited government with 7 guiding principles: federalism, limited government, individual rights, popular sovereignty, republicanism, checks and balances, separation of powers
The ratification debate pitted Federalists against Anti-Federalists, and led to the addition of the Bill of Rights | George Washington established the initial role of the presidency by setting precedents. His Farewell Address established foundational guidance for foreign and domestic policy
Early domestic issues focused on economic stability and federal power
The first American political parties (Federalists and Democratic-Republicans) originated from disagreements over the extent of federal power and the interpretation of the Constitution
The power of the judicial branch expanded with the establishment of the principle of judicial review in the case of Marbury v. Madison | How the War of 1812, new transportation infrastructure, and immigrant labor triggered rapid industrialization and urbanization in the U.S.
Social conflicts and human modification of the environment due to industrialization and urbanization
Geographic differences created three distinct economic regions, leading to sectional divisions and influenced where different immigrant groups settled
Free Enterprise System replaced mercantilism, and promoted industrial growth, profit motive, private ownership, and encouraged minimal government regulation
Innovations enabled mass production, while the cotton gin drastically increased cotton production and the spread of the plantation system |
TEKS | 8.1A, 8.1B, 8.2A, 8.2B, 8.3A, 8.3B, 8.10B, 8.11A, 8.12A, 8.12B, 8.15E, 8.23A, 8.23B, 8.23C, 8.25A, 8.25B
| 8.1A, 8.4A, 8.4B, 8.4C, 8.15C, 8.19A, 8.20B, 8.22B
| 8.1A, 8.1B, 8.4D, 8.6A, 8.15A, 8.15B, 8.15C, 8.15D, 8.15E, 8.16A, 8.17A, 8.19B, 8.19C, 8.25A, 8.25C, 8.31A | 8.1A, 8.5A, 8.5D, 8.5E, 8.5F, 8.13A, 8.18A, 8.18B, 8.21A, 8.22A, 8.26A, 8.31B
| 8.1A, 8.1B, 8.11A, 8.12B, 8.12C, 8.13A, 8.13B, 8.14A, 8.14B, 8.23A, 8.23B, 8.27A, 8.27B., 8.27C, 8.28B
|
Skills TEKS | 8.29 A-H, 8.30 A-D, 8.31 A-B | ||||
Spring Semester | |||||
Unit Title | Age of Jackson | Westward Expansion | Reform | Civil War | Reconstruction |
Time | 1 week | 2 weeks | 1 week | 4 weeks | 1 week |
Understandings | Jackson's 1828 election expanded suffrage, increasing the political influence of the "common man"
Jackson formalized the Democratic Party and used the Spoils System to reward supporters with political appointments
The Nullification Crisis raised the constitutional issue of states' rights
The link between protective tariffs and sectionalism between the North and South
Georgia farmers' desire for land led to the Indian Removal Act and the Trail of Tears, despite Jackson ignoring the ruling in Worcester v. Georgia | Manifest Destiny-that Americans were divinely destined to occupy all land from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean
U.S. significantly expanded its borders through major land acquisitions, which secured valuable resources and ports
Westward expansion intensified existing sectional conflict over slavery, leading to agreements such as the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850
Manifest Destiny reflected in American art and literature, such as the Hudson River School
Henry David Thoreau's use of civil disobedience to protest American policy | Second Great Awakening promoting the need for social reform movements
Abolitionists used propaganda (e.g., Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Frederick Douglass’s North Star newspaper) to expose the moral ills of slavery
Key reforms included Abolition, Suffrage, Educational Reform, the Temperance Movement, and Prison Reform
The Women's Rights Movement, led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, fought for suffrage and organized the pivotal Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 | Three core disputes that led to the Civil War: sectionalism, the expansion of slavery, and states’ rights
Sectionalism arose from economic differences and was heightened by protective tariffs that benefited the North but harmed Southern cotton exports
The Dred Scott decision, which ruled the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional and denied African Americans citizenship, intensified conflict
Conflicts over states’ rights centered on the South's view that they could secede if federal power became excessive
Key Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg served as turning points, while the Emancipation Proclamation shifted the war’s focus to freedom and strengthened the Union cause | Reconstruction was the post-Civil War era focused on rebuilding the North and South, enforced by dividing the South into military districts
13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments guaranteed African Americans freedom, citizenship and equal protection, and suffrage for males
Southern states implemented Black Codes to limit African American freedom and later used requirements like poll taxes and literacy tests to deny African American men suffrage
Radical Reconstruction Congress created military districts, barred Confederate leaders from office, and established public schools and equitable tax systems in the South
Southern economic failures led to sharecropping by formerly enslaved persons |
TEKS | 8.1A, 8.5D, 8.5C, 8.5G, 8.10A, 8.17B, 8.23C | 8.1A, 8.6B, 8.6C, 8.7D, 8.10A, 8.10B, 8.11A, 8.11B, 8.20B, 8.23C, 8.23D, 8.26A, 8.26B | 8.1A, 8.22B, 8.24A, 8.24B, 8.25B | 8.1A, 8.7A, 8.7B, 8.7C, 8.7D, 8.7E, 8.8A, 8.8B, 8.8C, 8.8D, 8.10A, 8.12A, 8.12C, 8.17B, 8.18C, 8.19C, 8.21A, 8.21C, 8.22A, 8.22B, 8.23E | 8.1A, 8.9A, 8.9B, 8.9C, 8.16A, 8.16B, 8.26B |
Skills TEKS | 8.29 A-H, 8.30 A-D, 8.31 A-B | ||||