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Middle school


6th Grade

In 6th Grade Social Studies, we travel to different countries. Along the way, we stop and do presentations and hands on projects. We use technology for personal learning and research, watch videos, read from the text and other books and we have rich discussions.

Resources:

Weeks 1-3 Chapters 1and 2 in the textbook (Tools of History Essential questions)

Resources: https://www.socialstudiescms.com/humanorigins

  • How did the environment influence the migrations of early humans?
  • How did early humans adapt to new environments and climate changes? n
  • How did people live by the gathering and hunting way of life? n
  • Why did some people develop agriculture and pastoral nomadism?
  • What were the effects of these new ways of life?
Weeks 4-6 Chapter 10 in the textbook (Hebrews Essential questions)

Resources: https://www.socialstudiescms.com/ancient-israel

  • What were the beliefs and religious practices of the ancient Israelites?
  • How did the religious practices of Judaism change and develop over time? n
  • How did the environment, the history of the Israelites, and their interactions with other societies shape their religion? n
  • How did early Judaism support individuals, rulers, and societies?
Weeks 7-9, 10-12, 13-15 Chapters 3 and 4 Mesopotamia, Chapter 5 Egypt, Chapter 6 Kush in textbook (Mesopotamia, Kush, Egypt Essential questions)

Resources:

  • How did civilizations—complex urban societies—develop in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Kush?
  • What environmental factors helped civilizations grow?
  • What impact did civilizations have on the surrounding environment? n
  • How did people’s lives change as states and empires took over these areas (increase in social differences, rule by monarchs, laws)? n
  • From 4000 BCE to 500 BCE, how did contact, trade, and other links grow among the urban societies of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Kush, India, and the eastern Mediterranean?
Weeks 16-18 Chapters 11-12 in textbook (Greece Essential questions)

Resources: https://www.socialstudiescms.com/ancient-greece

  • How did the environment of the Greek peninsula and islands, the Anatolian coast, and the surrounding seas affect the development of Greek societies? n
  • What were the differences in point of view and perspective between the Persians and the Greeks, and between Athenians and Spartans?
  • What were the political forms adopted by Greek urban societies? What were the achievements and limitations of Athenian democracy? n
  • How did Greek thought (a cultural package of mythology, humanistic art, emphasis on reason and intellectual development, and historical, scientific, and literary forms) support individuals, states, and societies? n
  • How did Greek trade, travel, and colonies, followed by the conquests of Alexander the Great and the spread of Hellenistic culture, effect increasing connections among regions in Afroeurasia?
Weeks 19-21 Chapter 7 in textbook (India Essential questions)

Resources: https://www.socialstudiescms.com/ancient-india

  • How did the environment influence the emergence and decline of the Indus civilization?
  • How did religions of Ancient India, including, but not limited to early Hinduism, support individuals, rulers, and societies? n
  • How did the religion of Buddhism support individuals, rulers, and societies? n
  • During the Indus civilization, the Vedic period, and the Maurya Empire, how did the connections between the Indian subcontinent and other regions of Afroeurasia increase?
Weeks 22-24 Chapter 8 in textbook (China essential questions)

Resources: https://www.socialstudiescms.com/ancient-china

  • How did the environment influence the development of civilization in China? n
  • How did the philosophical system of Confucianism support individuals, rulers, and societies? 26. What factors helped China unify into a single state under the Han Dynasty?
  • What social customs and government policies made the centralized state so powerful? n
  • How did the establishment of the Silk Road increase trade, the spread of Buddhism, and the connections between China and other regions of Afroeurasia?
Weeks 25-27 Chapters 13-15 in textbook (Rome essential questions)

Resources: https://www.socialstudiescms.com/ancient-rome

  • What were the strengths and weaknesses of the Roman Republic?
  • Why did the Roman Republic fall? n
  • How did the Romans advance the concept of citizenship? n
  • How did the environment influence the expansion of Rome and its integrated trade networks? n
  • How did other societies (the Greeks, Hellenistic states, Han China, Parthian Persia) influence and affect the Romans?
Weeks 28-30 Chapter 9 in textbook (America using the textbooks objectives)
  • Geography of America
  • Early civilizations of America
  • Olmec civilization
  • Mayan civilization
Weeks 31-33 (Done with textbook) Using research to answer essential questions.

Students will present projects detailing questions 1-33.


7th Grade

In 7th grade social studies we travel to different countries. Along the way we stop and do presentations and hands on projects. We use technology for personal learning and research, watch videos, read from the text and other books and we have rich discussions.

Resources:

Weeks 1-2 The World in 300 C.E. (Chapter 1 in textbook) (Essential questions)
  • How interconnected were the distant regions of the world in 300 CE?
Weeks 3-4 Rome (Chapter 2 in textbook) (Essential questions)

Resources: https://www.socialstudiescms.com/fall-of-the-roman-empire

  1. How did the environment and technological innovations affect the growth and contraction of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, and medieval Christendom?
  2. What impact did human expansion have on the environment?
  3. How was Rome a site of encounter?
  4. How did the Roman Empire gain and maintain power over people and territories?
  5. How did the religion of Christianity develop and change over time?
  6. How did Christianity spread through the empire and to other cultures?
  7. Did the Roman Empire fall?
  8. How did the decentralized system of feudalism control people but weaken state power?
Weeks 5-8 Islam (Chapters 3-4 in textbook) (Essential quesions)

Resources: https://www.socialstudiescms.com/islamic-world

  1. How did the environment affect the development and expansion of the Persian Empire, Muslim empires, and cities?
  2. What impact did this expansion have on the environment?
  3. How did Islam develop and change over time?
  4. How did Islam spread to multiple cultures?
  5. What were the multiple ways people of different cultures interacted at the sites of encounter, such as Baghdad?
  6. Why was Norman Sicily a site of encounter?
  7. What were the effects of the exchanges at Cairo?
  8. How did the Muslim empires and institutions help different regions of Afroeurasia become more interconnected?
Weeks 9-10 South Asia (Chapter 8 in textbook) (Essential questions)
  1. Under the Gupta Empire, how did the environment, cultural and religious changes, and technological innovations affect the people of India? n
  2. How did Indian monks, nuns, merchants, travelers, and empires from what is now modern India and other parts of South Asia spread religious ideas and practices and cultural styles of art and architecture to Central and Southeast Asia? n
  3. How did the religions of Hinduism and Buddhism spread and change over time?
Weeks 11-12 China (Chapter 7 in textbook) (Essential questions)

Resources:

  1. How did the Tang and Song Dynasties gain and maintain power over people and territories?
  2. How did the environmental conditions and technological innovations cause the medieval economic revolution?
  3. What were the effects of this revolution?
  4. Why was Quanzhou such an important site of encounter?
  5. How did Chinese culture, ideas and technologies, and Buddhism influence Korea and Japan?
  6. What influence did samurai customs and values have on the government and society of medieval Japan?
Weeks 13-16 The Americas (Chapters 11-12 in textbook) (Essential questions)

Resources: https://www.socialstudiescms.com/age-of-exploration

  1. How did the environment affect the expansion of agriculture, population, cities, and empires in Mesoamerica and the Andean region?
  2. Why did the Maya civilization, the Aztec Empire, and the Inca Empire gain power over people and territories?
  3. How did Mesoamerican religion develop and change over time?
  4. Under the Aztecs, why was Tenochtitlán a site of encounter?
Weeks 17-18 West Africa (Chapter 5 in textbook) (Essential questions)

Resources: https://www.socialstudiescms.com/africa

  1. How did the environment affect the development and expansion of the Ghana and Mali Empires and the trade networks that connected them to the rest of Afroeurasia?
  2. Why was Mali a site of encounter?
  3. What were the effects of the exchanges at Mali?
  4. How did Arab/North African and West African perspectives differ on West African kingdoms?
Weeks 19-20 Medieval Europe (Chapter 9 in textbook) (Essential questions)

Resources https://www.socialstudiescms.com/middle-ages-in-western-europe

  1. How did the Mongol Empire destroy states and increase the interconnection of Afroeurasia?
  2. What were the effects of the exchanges at Majorca and Calicut?
  3. How did increasing interconnection and trade, competition between states (and their people), and technological innovations lead to voyages of exploration?
Weeks 21-23 Ottoman Empire (Chapter 10 in textbook) (Essential questions)

Resources:

  1. What impact did human expansion in the voyages of exploration have on the environment, trade networks, and global interconnection?
  2. What were the causes of colonialism?
  3. What were the effects of colonialism on the colonized people?
  4. What were the effects of exchanges at Tenochtitlán/Mexico City in the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries?
  5. Was slavery always racial?
  6. How did the gunpowder empires (Ming/Manchu China, Mughal India, Safavid Persia, Ottoman Empire, Russia, Spain, later in France and England) extend their power over people and territories?
Weeks 24-31 Europeans (Chapters 13-16 in textbook) (Essential questions)

Resources:

  1. How did the Reformation divide the Christian Church, millions of people, and European states? How did world religions change and spread during the early modern period?
  2. What were the effects of the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution?
  3. Why were natural rights, the social contract, and other ideas of the Enlightenment revolutionary?
Weeks 32-34 Presentations on the essential questions.
Weeks 36-40 Inventions presentations

8th Grade

In 8th grade social studies we learn the history of the United States. Along the way we stop and do presentations and hands on projects. We use technology for personal learning and research, watch videos, read from the text and other books and we have rich discussions.

8th grade: U.S. History

Resources:

Before the Europeans: Chapters 1-2 (pages 24-76) (Not essential questions)

Weeks 1-3

Colonial America: Chapter 3-5 (pages 82- 146) (Not essential questions)

Weeks 4-6

https://www.socialstudiescms.com/colonialism

American Revolution: Chapters 6-7 (Pages 156-214) (Essential questions)

Weeks 7-9

Resources: https://www.socialstudiescms.com/development-of-new-nation

  1. Why was there an American Revolution?
  2. How did the American Revolution develop the concept of natural rights?
  3. What were the legacies of the American Revolution?

A new America: (Chapters 9-11 pages 290-360) (Essential questions)

Weeks 10-12

Resources: https://www.socialstudiescms.com/constitution-and-foundation-of-america

  1. How much power should the federal government have, and what should the government do?
  2. How did the government change during the Early Republic?
  3. Was the Louisiana Purchase constitutional?

Divergent America: (Chapters 12-14 pages 366-450) (Essential questions)

Weeks 13-18

Resources:

  1. What was life like in the Early Republic?
  2. How did individual regions of the United States become both more similar and different?
  3. What was family life like in each region?
  4. How did work change between 1800 and 1850?
  5. What was the impact of slavery on American politics, regional economies, family life, and culture?
  6. What did the frontier mean to the nation in the first half of the nineteenth century?

Civil War: (Chapters 15-18 pages 454-545) (Essential questions)

Weeks 19-24

Resources: https://www.socialstudiescms.com/civil-war

  1. Why was there a Civil War? n
  2. How was the United States transformed during the Civil War?
  3. How was the Civil War conducted militarily, politically, economically, and culturally?
  4. How was slavery abolished through the Civil War?

Industrial America: (Chapters 19-21 pages 554-632) (Essential Questions)

Weeks 25-28

Resources: https://www.socialstudiescms.com/reconstruction

  1. How did America’s economy, industries, and population grow after the Civil War? n
  2. Who came to the United States at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century?
  3. Why did they come?
  4. What was their experience like when they arrived? n
  5. How did the federal government affect the country’s growth in the years following the Civil War?
Answer Essential questions projects Weeks 29-32