TOPICS and sub-topics:

CALIFORNIA 8th Grade History/Social Science Standards:  Convert these to questions for your QuAD chart and be sure to include this information in your exhibit (or performance).

Revolutionary War:
AM- Brian W, James W, Khoa, Sean
Causes, effects, major battles, Declaration of Independence, Thomas Paine's Common Sense, Who's Who (key players like George Washington, Marquis de Lafayette, Burgoyne, Cornwallis), French allies, Treaty of Paris (1783), etc.

1.1 Describe the relationship between the moral and political ideas of the Great Awakening and the development of revolutionary fervor.
1.3 Analyze how the American Revolution affected other nations, especially France.
Create an illustrated timeline of the pre-Revolution (1763-1775) and the Revolution (1775-1783).  Include labels and captions to explain each event.
Describe the causes of the Revolutionary War, starting with the Proclamation of 1763. 
Analyze important leaders (American, British, and French), major battles (e.g. Lexington & Concord, Bull Run, Saratoga, Yorktown), strategies (e.g. seige, guerilla warfare, etc.), advantages and disadvantages (Americans v. British), and the outcomes of the Revolutionary War, including the Treat of Paris, 1783, and its terms.

U. S. Constitution:
AM: Brett, Chris, Hieu, Katrina

Weakness of the Articles of Confederation, Philadelphia Convention, Underlying Principles, Who's Who (Founding Fathers), Three Branches of Government, Separation of Powers, Checks & Balances, Ratification, Bill of Rights, Other Amendments

2 Students analyze the political principles underlying the U.S. Constitution and compare the enumerated and implied powers of the federal government:

1. Discuss the significance of the Magna Carta, the English Bill of Rights, and the May-flower Compact, e.g. roots of American government. 
2. Analyze ...the Constitution and the success... in implementing the ideals of the Declaration of Independence, (e.g., key phrases such as "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights").
3. Evaluate the major debates that occurred during the development of the Constitution and their ultimate resolutions...(e.g. New Jersey Plan, Virginia Plan, Great Compromise, 3/5 Compromise).
4. Describe the political philosophy...in the Federalist Papers (authored by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay) and the role of such leaders as James Madison, George Washington, Roger Sherman, Gouverneur Morris...in the writing and ratification of the Constitution.
5. Enumerate the powers of government set forth in the Constitution and the fundamental liberties ensured by the Bill of Rights.
6. Describe the principles of federalism, dual sovereignty, separation of powers, checks and balances.
7. Describe the basic law-making process and how the Constitution provides numerous opportunities for citizens to participate in the political process and to monitor and influence government (e.g., rights and responsibilities of citizens).

War of 1812:
AM- Kyle, Grant, Andrew T, Taylor
Causes (political and economic), major battles, strategies, advantages/disadvantages (British v. Americans), role of Native Americans, Hartford Convention, Treaty of Ghent, consequences/outcomes

5.1   Understand the political (Federalist v. Republican position) and economic causes  and consequences of the War of 1812. 
a.  Discuss efforts to avoid a war with Britain (or France) e.g. Non-Intercourse Act, Trade Embargo.
b.  Describe the Alien and Sedition Acts (cause & effects) and their constitutionality.
b.  Describe and analyze the major battles, leaders, and events that led to a final peace.
c.  Analyze the decline of the Federalist party at the end of the war.

Manifest Destiny:  
Impact on Native Americans
Sally, Alyssa, Raquel, Adriana

5.3 Outline the major treaties with American Indian nations during the administrations of the first four presidents and the varying outcomes of those treaties.

8.1  Discuss the election of Andrew Jackson as president in 1828, ...policy of Indian removal, opposition to the Supreme Court).
8.2  Describe the purpose, challenges, and economic incentives associated with westward expansion, including the concept of Manifest Destiny (e.g.... accounts of the removal of Indians, the Cherokees' "Trail of Tears," settlement of the Great Plains) and the territorial acquisitions that spanned numerous decades. Also...
a. Compare treatment of Native Americans by English, French, and Spanish in early America.
b. Describe the Trail of Tears, the Navaho Long Walk, and other forced migrations of native Americans.  Analyze the causes and effects of these events.
c. Analyze the effects of the Texas Revolution and Mexican American War on Mexican-Americans and indigenous. 
12.2  Identify the reasons for the development of federal Indian policy and the wars with American Indians and their relationship to agricultural development and industrialization.

Westward Expansion:  
Trails & Travelers:
 PM- Brandon H, Andrew B, Danikko, Christian

Refer to the Adventure Tales handout in your SS spiral: "Westward Ho.. and cover each trail and traveler in depth. 
Include the role of women, also: Describe the role of pioneer women and the new status that western women achieved...

Manifest Destiny:  Westward Expansion (Land Acquisition by War, Treaties, Purchases):
PM- Jake, Brian H, Tim, Domonique

4. Students analyze the aspirations and ideals of the people of the new nation. 4.1  Describe the country's physical landscapes, political divisions, and territorial expansion during the terms of the first four presidents.

5.  Students analyze U.S. foreign policy in the early Republic.
5.2  Know the changing boundaries of the United States and describe the relationships the country had with 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.

8. Students analyze the divergent paths of the American people in the West from 1800 to the mid-1800s and the challenges they faced.
8.2  Describe the purpose, challenges, and economic incentives associated with westward expansion, including the concept of Manifest Destiny (e.g., the Lewis and Clark expedition, accounts of the removal of Indians,... settlement of the Great Plains) and the territorial acquisitions that spanned numerous decades.

Texas Revolution:
PM- Brian A, Todd, Anthony, Mike

Causes,  advantages/disadvantages (Mexicans v. Texans), major battles (e.g. Alamo, San Jacinto), strategies, major players (e.g. Santa Anna, Sam Houston, Davy Crockett), consequences/outcomes

8.6 Describe the Texas War for Independence ...including territorial settlements, the aftermath of the wars, and the effects the wars had on the lives of Americans, including Mexican Americans today.

Mexican-American War : 
AM  Dean, Greg, Austin

Causes,  opposition, advantages/disadvantages (Mexicans v. Americans), chronology of the war (timeline), major battles , strategies, major players (e.g. President Polk, Santa Anna, Stephen Kearny, Zachary Taylor, Winfield Scott) consequences/outcomes

5.2  Know the changing boundaries of the United States and describe the relationships the country had with its neighbors (current Mexico...) ... and how those relationships influenced westward expansion and the Mexican-American War.

8.6  Describe the Mexican-American War, including territorial settlements, the aftermath of the wars, and the effects the wars had on the lives of Americans, including Mexican Americans today.

Reform Movements: 
Abolition , Women's Suffrage
  PM- Amy, Trisha, Casey, Nicole G

Abolition & Abolitionists (Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, etc), Women's Suffrage & Suffragettes (Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Margaret Fuller, the Grimke sisters, Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony), 13th, 14th Amendment (ERA), 15th, and 19th Amendments

6.6 Examine the women's suffrage movement (e.g., biographies, writings, and speeches of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Margaret Fuller, Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony).
8.3.  Describe ...the new status that western women achieved...Wyoming granting suffrage to women in 1869).
7.1 Trace the origins and development of slavery; its effects on black Americans and on the region's political, social, religious, economic, and cultural development; and identify the strategies that were tried to both overturn and preserve it (e.g., through the writings and historical documents on Nat Turner, Denmark Vesey).
6.4 Study the lives of black Americans who gained freedom in the North and founded schools and churches to advance their rights and communities.
8.9 Students analyze the early and steady attempts to abolish slavery and to realize the ideals of the Declaration of Independence.

1. Describe the leaders of the movement (e.g., John Quincy 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, Frederick Douglass).
2. Discuss the abolition of slavery in early state constitutions.
3. Describe the significance of the Northwest Ordinance in education and in the banning of slavery in new states north of the Ohio River.
4. Discuss the importance of the slavery issue as raised by the annexation of Texas and California's admission to the union as a free state under the Compromise of 1850.
5. Analyze the significance of the States' Rights Doctrine, the Missouri Compromise (1820), the Wilmot Proviso (1846), the Compromise of 1850, Henry Clay's role in the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854), the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision (1857), and the Lincoln-Douglas debates (1858).
6. Describe the lives of free blacks and the laws that limited their freedom and economic opportunities.

American Art and Artists (and Music?): 1700-1920*
AM: Carina, Emma S, Jackie, Andra

American artists (mini-biographies) with samples of their art, common themes, styles, traditions, influences

4 Students analyze the aspirations and ideals of the people of the new nation.
4.1 Discuss daily life, including traditions in art, music, and literature, of early national America (e.g., through writings by Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper).

6.7 Identify common themes in American art as well as transcendentalism and individualism (e.g., writings about and by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Herman Melville, Louisa May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow).

The American Civil War:
AM- Ying, Grace, Amy, Viki, Kelsey
1. Critical developments and events in the war, including the major battles: First Bull Run/Manassas, Antietam, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Sherman's March to the Sea, and General Lee's surrender at Appomattox.  Analyze geographical advantages and obstacles in each one,  (2) Technological advances used in the Civil War, e.g. rifled canon, ironclad ships, hot air balloons, etc., (3) Strategies and effectiveness of key players, e.g. Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, McClellan, Sherman.

8.10 Students analyze the multiple causes, key events, and complex consequences of the Civil War.

1. Compare the conflicting interpretations of state and federal authority as emphasized in the speeches and writings of statesmen such as Daniel Webster and John C. Calhoun.
2. Trace the boundaries constituting the North and the South, the geographical differences between the two regions, and the differences between agrarians and industrialists.
3. Identify the constitutional issues posed by the doctrine of nullification and secession and the earliest origins of that doctrine.
4. Discuss Abraham Lincoln's presidency and his significant writings and speeches and their relationship to the Declaration of Independence, such as his "House Divided" speech (1858), Gettysburg Address (1863), Emancipation Proclamation (1863), and inaugural addresses (1861 and 1865).
5. Study the views and lives of leaders (e.g., Ulysses S. Grant, Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee) and soldiers on both sides of the war, including those of black soldiers and regiments.
6. Describe critical developments and events in the war, including the major battles, geographical advantages and obstacles, technological advances, and General Lee's surrender at Appomattox.
7. Explain how the war affected combatants, civilians, the physical environment, and future warfare.

Reconstruction & Segregation (1865-1910):
 PM- Fatima, Jessica, Jason, William Aftermath of Civil War (problems that needed solving), Reconstruction Plans (Lincoln's, Radical Republican's, Johnson's), Freedmen's Bureau, Jim Crow Laws, Buffalo Soldiers, Terrorism (Redeemers, KKK), Constitutional Amendments, Carpetbaggers & Scalywags,  Corruption, Accomplishments, End of Reconstruction, etc.

8.11 Students analyze the character and lasting consequences of Reconstruction.

1. List the original aims of Reconstruction and describe its effects on the political and social structures of different regions.
2. Identify the push-pull factors in the movement of former slaves to the cities in the North and to the West and their differing experiences in those regions (e.g., the experiences of Buffalo Soldiers).
3. Understand the effects of the Freedmen's Bureau and the restrictions placed on the rights and opportunities of freedmen, including racial segregation and "Jim Crow" laws.
4. Trace the rise of the Ku Klux Klan and describe the Klan's effects.
5. Understand the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution and analyze their connection to Reconstruction.

The Judicial Branch and Landmark Supreme Court Cases (1800- present)* 
PM- Amanda, Fifi, Jen, Makela
Include the powers and role of the JB, an outline of federal courts and their jurisdictions, brief bios of SC justices,  and analyses/evaluations of important SC cases. 

4.3  Analyze the rise of capitalism and the economic problems and conflicts that accompanied it (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).

SEE ME for a list of SC cases that you must include in your project.

*American Civil Rights Movements* (1865 - 2007):
 PM- Lisa, Andrew D, James Y, Kevin

1.  Explain civil rights gained by African-Americans and other groups during and after the Civil War, e.g. Emancipation Proclamation; 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments.
2.  Discuss the loss of civil rights as Reconstruction came to an end.  Interpret and analyze the words of civil rights leader W.E.B. DuBois:  "The slave went free, stood a brief moment in the sun, then moved back again toward slavery."  (How were these newly-gained rights taken away?)
3.  Describe and evaluate events, acts/laws, and Supreme Court decisions that increased civil rights for American citizens of any race, religion, or culture, in the modern civil rights movement (1854 to 2007). Create an illustrated timeline of the movement with captions and brief bios of civil rights leaders.
 

World War II and the Holocaust (and Japanese Internment)*
 PM- Tara, Emma S, Nicole L, Katie

  See me.

Industrial Revolution
 (NOT ASSIGNED)

6.1  Discuss 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).
6.2  Outline the physical obstacles to and the economic and political factors involved in building a network of roads, canals, and railroads (e.g., Henry Clay's American System).
7.1  Describe the development of the agrarian economy in the South, identify the locations of the cotton-producing states, and discuss the significance of cotton and the cotton gin.
12.5  Examine the location and effects of urbanization, renewed immigration, and industrialization (e.g., the effects on social fabric of cities, wealth and economic opportunity, the conservation movement).
12.9  Name the significant inventors and their inventions and identify how they improved the quality of life (e.g., Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Orville and Wilbur Wright).

Immigration and Immigration Laws:  1600- 2007* (NOT ASSIGNED)

6.3 List the reasons for the wave of immigration from Northern Europe to the United States and describe the growth in the number, size, and spatial arrangements of cities (e.g., Irish immigrants and the Great Irish Famine).
12.5  Examine the location and effects of urbanization, renewed immigration, ... (e.g., the effects on social fabric of cities, wealth and economic opportunity, the conservation movement).
12.7  Identify the new sources of large-scale immigration and the contributions of immigrants to the building of cities and the economy; explain the ways in which new social and economic patterns encouraged assimilation of newcomers into the mainstream amidst growing cultural diversity; and discuss the new wave of nativism.