8th$GRADE$SOCIAL$
STUDIES$STANDARDS$
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Close Reading
The process of careful and purposeful reading and rereading of a text to illicit thoughtful analysis of
the text to develop the following critical thinking skills:
Multiple Perspectives
May include representing
cultural, racial, political,
economic, or gender
points of view
• Whose perspective is
presented in this
document or event?
• Whose voice is left out,
i.e. missing information?
• Is there misinformation?
• What individual or
group might agree or
disagree with this point
of view?
Sourcing
Identify the author, main
idea, tone, and bias
• Who created this
document?
• What is the main idea?
• When was the document
created?
• Who is the intended
audience?
• What is the tone?
• Is there evidence of
bias?
• Is this a credible
(believable) source?
Contextualization
Identify how a document
fits into a time period,
event, or situation
• What events took place
that influenced the
creation of this source?
• What was the same
then? What was
different?
• What does this
document tell you about
the individual, society,
time period, and American
history?
Corroboration
Strengthen or support with
other text evidence
• Do the main ideas of the
sources examined support
each other?
• What text evidence
supports or refutes the
main idea of this
document?
• What are other possible
documents that could be
used for text evidence?
The following additional skills should be included when planning lessons:
Cause/Effect, Compare/Contrast,
Drawing inferences, Supporting a
point of view, Problem solving
Summarize, Categorize, Identify bias,
main idea, key details
Comprehend and use appropriately
Read, label, interpret
8th Grade History Nebraska State Standards:
SS 8.4.1 (US) Students will analyze how major past and current US events are chronologically connected, and evaluate their impact(s) upon
one another.
SS 8.4.2 (US) Students will analyze the impact of people, events, ideas, and symbols upon US history using multiple types of sources.
SS 8.4.3 (US) Students will analyze and interpret historical and current events from multiple perspectives.
SS 8.4.4 (US) Students will identify causes of past and current events, issues, and problems.
SS 8.4.5 Students will develop historical research skills.
LPS Unit of Study: Early Contact
(3 Weeks)
Essential Understandings
What were the positive and negative results
of contact between explorers, settlers, and
indigenous peoples of the Americas?
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Key Terms/Individuals
Christopher Columbus
Columbian Exchange
Western Hemisphere
Eastern Hemisphere
Mestizos
Push/Pull Factors
Jamestown
Powhatan
Captain John Smith
Colonies (Review New England,
Middle, and Southern)
Historical Thinking Lessons
• What were the positive and negative
results of the Columbian Exchange?
• Why did Jamestown Fail?
LPS Unit of Study: Slave Trade
(3 Weeks)
Essential Understandings
What was the motivation for and impact of
the slave trade?
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Key Terms/Individuals
Indentured Servant
West African Cultures
Triangular Trade
Middle Passage
Slavery
Olaudah Equiano
Plantation
Cash Crops
Historical Thinking Lessons
• What was the Middle Passage?
• Who benefitted from the slave trade?
LPS Unit of Study: American Revolution
(4 Weeks)
Essential Understandings
What were the causes and results of the
Revolutionary War?
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Key Terms/Individuals
Treaty of Paris of 1763
Proclamation of 1763
King George III
Parliament
George Washington
Benjamin Franklin
Taxation without Representation
Acts/Laws angering Colonists
Declaration of Independence
Boston Massacre
Crispus Attucks
Boston Tea Party
Loyalists
Patriots
John Adams
Thomas Jefferson
Samuel Adams
Patrick Henry
Sons and Daughters of Liberty
Indigenous peoples- experiences and
contributions to the war effort
Women- experiences and
contributions to the war effort
African Americans- experiences and
contributions to the war effort
Military conflicts
Treaty of Paris 1783
Historical Thinking Lessons
• Why were the colonists upset?
• Were the colonists justified in breaking up
with England?
• Why did some colonists support England
and oppose independence?
• How did women reformers break gender
barriers? (Intro Lesson)
• How did women contribute to the
Revolution?
• How did women reformers break gender
barriers? (Focus on Abigail Adams)
LPS Unit of Study: Establishing a Government
(2 Weeks)
Essential Understandings
What influenced the creation of the U.S.
Constitution?
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Key Terms/Individuals
Articles of Confederation
Native American governments
Constitution
Preamble
Representation
The Great Compromise
Executive, Judicial, and Legislative
Branches
Three-fifths Compromise
Federalism
Republic
Ratification
Amendments
Bill of Rights
Historical Thinking Lessons
• Why did the founders protect slavery in the
Constitution?
LPS Unit of Study: War of 1812
(2 Weeks)
Essential Understandings
What were the causes and outcomes of the
War of 1812?
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Key Terms/Individuals
Monroe Doctrine
Impressment
Embargo
Nationalism
Treaty of Ghent
James Madison
Tecumseh
James Monroe
Francis Scott Key
Historical Thinking Lessons
LPS Unit of Study: Expansion and Change
(5 Weeks)
Essential Understandings
How did the United States expand across the
North American continent and what was the
impact of that expansion on different groups
of people?
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Key Terms/Individuals
Manifest Destiny
U.S. citizens
European immigrants
Land Acquisitions
o Louisiana Purchase
o Florida
o Texas Annexation
o Oregon Country
o Mexican Cession
o Gadsden Purchase
Thomas Jefferson
Lewis and Clark
Sacagawea
Native Americans
Sequoya
Assimilation
Indian Removal Act
Trail of Tears
Andrew Jackson
Santa Anna
Sam Houston
Mexicans
Gold Rush
Chinese Immigrants
Historical Thinking Lessons
• Lewis and Clark
• Indian Removal Act
• Rewards and Risks in the West
• Mexican War
• How did Americans justify expansion?
LPS Unit of Study: Slavery in America
(3 Weeks)
Essential Understandings
What was the impact of slavery as an
institution in America?
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Key Terms/Individuals
Institutional Slavery
Racism
Plantation Systems
House slave
Field slave
Agriculture
Cotton Gin
Eli Whitney
Cotton Kingdom
Nat Turner
Slave Codes
Abolitionists
Underground Railroad
Harriet Tubman
Frederick Douglass
Historical Thinking Lessons
• What was life like on a plantation?
• Cotton King
• Slave Resistance Plan
• Enslaved Men and Women
• Nat Turner
LPS Unit of Study: Causes of the Civil War
(2 Weeks)
Essential Understandings
What were the causes of the American Civil
War?
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Key Terms/Individuals
Missouri Compromise
Henry Clay
States’ rights
Compromise of 1850
Popular sovereignty
Sectionalism
Fugitive Slave Act
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Stephen Douglas
Dred Scott Decision
John Brown
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Frederick Douglass
William Lloyd Garrison
Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Election of 1860
Secession
Historical Thinking Lessons
• Division in the 1850s?
• How did women reformers break gender
barriers? (Focus on Angelina Grimke)
• Why did southern states secede?
• John Brown
LPS Unit of Study: The Civil War
(4 Weeks)
Essential Understandings
What happened when Americans fought each
other in the Civil War?
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Key Terms/Individuals
Civil War
Confederate States of America
Union
Border States
Fort Sumter
Bull Run/Manassas (first battle)
Gettysburg Address
Antietam
Emancipation Proclamation
Vicksburg
Gettysburg
Sherman’s March
Appomattox Court House
54th Massachusetts
Contributions and experiences of
women
Contributions and experiences of
African Americans
Contributions and experiences of
Native Americans
Contributions and experiences of
Latinos/Latinas
Contributions and experiences of
recent European immigrants
Abraham Lincoln
Jefferson Davis
Robert Lee
Ulysses Grant
Stonewall Jackson
George McClellan
William Sherman
Clara Barton
Harriet Tubman
Historical Thinking Lessons
• Did the Emancipation Proclamation free
the slaves?
• African American Involvement in the War
• Strategies
LPS Unit of Study: Reconstruction
(2 Weeks)
Essential Understandings
What were the successes and failures of
Reconstruction?
Key Terms/Individuals
Historical Thinking Lessons
• Were African Americans free during
Reconstruction
Reconstruction?
Costs of War (Physical, Emotional,
Social)
• Northern Attitudes During Reconstruction
• Amendments 13, 14, 15
• Abraham Lincoln
• Lincoln’s Assassination
• Andrew Johnson
• Radical Republicans
• Segregation
• Freedmen’s Bureau
• Migration of Freed Women and Men
• Black Codes
• Jim Crow Laws
• Sharecropper
• Ku Klux Klan
• Plessey v. Ferguson
• Civil Rights
LPS Unit of Study: Native Americans After the Civil War
(2 Weeks)
Essential Understandings
What were the motivations for territorial
expansion and the impact on Native
Americans after the Civil War?
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Key Terms/Individuals
Laramie Treaty 1868
Reservations
Dawes Act
Battle of Little Big Horn
Wounded Knee Massacre
Buffalo Soldiers
Geronimo
G. Custer
Crazy Horse
Sitting Bull
Chief Joseph
Standing Bear
Historical Thinking Lessons
• Battle of Little Bighorn
LPS Unit of Study: Immigration, Industrialization, and Urbanization
(2 Weeks)
Essential Understandings
What was the impact of immigration,
industrialization, and urbanization on U.S.
culture?
Key Terms/Individuals
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Prejudice
Discrimination
Nativism
Immigration
Chinese Exclusion Act
Push-pull factors
Ellis Island
Angel Island
Cultural groups:
- Mexican
- Native American
- Chinese
Industrialists
Assembly line
Mass production
Hull House
Women’s Suffrage
Labor Unions
The Jungle
Workplace reform
Child Labor Laws
Muckrakers
Sojourner Truth
Susan B. Anthony
T. Roosevelt
Booker T. Washington
W.E.B. DuBois
Thomas Edison
Henry Ford
Andrew Carnegie
George W. Carver
Jane Addams
Mother Jones
Historical Thinking Lessons
• Immigration Lesson
• Chinese Immigration
• Chinese Labor Lesson
• Big Money Men
• How did women reformers break gender
barriers? (Focus on Ida B. Wells)
• Pullman Strike
• Homestead Strike
• How did the “other half” live?
Additional Teaching Resources are still available at Grade 8 Social Studies CSAs and Resources.