Framingham Public Schools

Eighth Grade Curriculum Outcomes

Language Arts | Math | Science | Social Studies | Art | Music, Choral & Instrumental
Physical & Health Education | World Languages | Technology & Engineering

Social Studies

Texts:

• America’s Story, Houghton Mifflin
• America Is, Merrill Publishing
• America’s Past and Promise, McDougal Littell/Houghton Mifflin
• Nueva Historia de los Estados Unidos, Minerva Books, (Two-way Bilingual and Transitional Bilingual Education)

Brief Statement of Subject Matter:

The eighth grade curriculum focuses on United States History. It begins with a review of the Constitution and continues to the advent of Modern America.

Major Topics:

Taken from The Massachusetts History and Social Science Curriculum Framework

UNITED STATES HISTORY

Creating a New Nation (Review)

• The Anglo-American political heritage; founding documents; the Constitution
• The early Republic: birth of party politics
• Expansion and conflict: the Louisiana Purchase; War of 1812

Expansion, Reform and Economic Growth (1800-1861)

• Evolution of the Supreme Court
• Industrialization in New England
• The Northern economic system: capital, industry, labor, trade
• The Southern economic system: land, agriculture, slavery, trade
• Jacksonian Democracy and pre-Civil War reformers
• The emergence of distinctly American arts
• New immigrants; migration patterns
• Westward migration

The Civil War and Reconstruction

• Enslavement: families and resistance in the American South
• A nation divided; the failed attempts to compromise
• Abraham Lincoln: secession and war
• The use of primary documents to understand life at home and on the battlefields
• Massachusetts soldiers
• Leaders, deciding factors, turning points
• Emancipation Proclamation: the 13th, 14th, and 15 Amendments
• Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, Second Inaugural, and assassination
• Reconstruction

The Advent of Modern America

• African American life after the Civil War
• Industrial expansion; inventions, resources, government supports
• Modern business
• Organizing 19th century labor
• New immigration/migration; life in growing cities
• The west, southwest, Pacific coast, Alaska; settlements
• Crises and losses on American farms; the Populist movement

* This curriculum alignment will be assessed each year and will be revised as necessary.