American History 8

 

Course Homepage

 

Course Description:

 

The eighth grade social studies course is the second year of a two-year program.  It is based on the social studies standards and is chronologically organized.  Topics to be studied include Reconstruction, Business and Industry, Immigration, The Progressive Era, Imperialism, World War I, the 1920s, the Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War, and the Civil Rights Movement.  Document Based questions are integrated into the coursework. Students are required to take the New York State Grade Eight Social Studies Exam in June.

 

Grade Level: 8

 

1. Reconstruction- Beginning of first quarter

q       Presidential Reconstruction

q       Radical Reconstruction

q       Impeachment of Andrew Johnson

q       Effect on African Americans: Jim Crown and Plessy vs. Ferguson

 HYPERLINK "http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/~ljones/Jimcrow/" http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/~ljones/Jimcrow/    Jump Jim Crow

 HYPERLINK "http://chnm.gmu.edu/us/search.taf?_function=detail&layout_0_uid1=33202&_UserReference=AF42390EA8AEA5A3BEE9D906" http://chnm.gmu.edu/us/search.taf?_function=detail&layout_0_uid1=33202&_UserReference=AF42390EA8AEA5A3BEE9D906  Johnson’s Impeachment

 HYPERLINK "http://www.harpweek.com" www.harpweek.com  Harper’s Weekly

 


 

2.  Business and Industry- End of first quarter

q       Growth and power of business

q       Impact of industrialization on workers and farmers

q       Rise of the labor movement

q       Inventions

 HYPERLINK "http://www.history.ohio-state.edu/projects/HomesteadStrike1892/" http://www.history.ohio-state.edu/projects/HomesteadStrike1892/  Homestead Strike

 HYPERLINK "http://www.chicagohistory.org/hadc/index.html" http://www.chicagohistory.org/hadc/index.html  Haymarket Affair

 HYPERLINK "http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/" http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/  Triangle Fire

 HYPERLINK "http://www.history.ohio-state.edu/projects/Lessons_US/Gilded_Age/Coal_Mining/default.htm" http://www.history.ohio-state.edu/projects/Lessons_US/Gilded_Age/Coal_Mining/default.htm  miners’ lives

 HYPERLINK "http://library.thinkquest.org/C002942/home.shtml?tqskip=1" http://library.thinkquest.org/C002942/home.shtml?tqskip=1  Greatest Inventions

 


 

3.  Immigration- Beginning of second quarter

q       Push and pull factors

q       The “New” immigrants

q       Ethnic groups and neighborhoods

q       Growth and change in cities

q       Assimilation and citizenship

 HYPERLINK "http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/activity/port/start.html" http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/activity/port/start.html  Port of Entry Webquest

 HYPERLINK "http://www.tenement.org/" http://www.tenement.org/ Lower East Side Tenement Museum


 

4.  Progressive Era- Middle of second quarter

q       Suffrage, temperance and the growing role of women in American society

q       Muckrakers examine and fight to change social ills

q       Scandals and progressive change in government and society

 HYPERLINK "http://www.pbs.org/wnet/newyork/laic/episode3/topic6/e3_topic6.html" http://www.pbs.org/wnet/newyork/laic/episode3/topic6/e3_topic6.html  Tammany Hall

 HYPERLINK "http://www.cohums.ohio-state.edu/history/projects/prohibition/Contents.htm" http://www.cohums.ohio-state.edu/history/projects/prohibition/Contents.htm  Temperance

 HYPERLINK "http://www.huntington.org/vfw/index.html" http://www.huntington.org/vfw/index.html  Votes for Women

 HYPERLINK "http://www.wpl.lib.oh.us/AntiSaloon/" http://www.wpl.lib.oh.us/AntiSaloon/  AntiSaloon League

 HYPERLINK "http://lcweb2.loc.gov:8081/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/99/suffrage/intro.html" http://lcweb2.loc.gov:8081/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/99/suffrage/intro.html  Women, the Vote, and Nothing Less

 HYPERLINK "http://www.boondocksnet.com/gallery/suf_intro.html" http://www.boondocksnet.com/gallery/suf_intro.html  Suffrage Cartoons


 

5.  Imperialism- End of second quarter

q       Isolation

q       Imperialism

q       Spanish-American War

q       US acquires Alaska, Hawaii

q       Panama Canal

q       Big Stick Policy/Roosevelt Corollary

 HYPERLINK "http://www.smplanet.com/imperialism/toc.html" http://www.smplanet.com/imperialism/toc.html  Imperialism

 HYPERLINK "http://www.pbs.org/crucible/" http://www.pbs.org/crucible/  The Crucible of Empire: The Spanish American War

 HYPERLINK "http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/intro.html" http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/intro.html  The World of 1898

 HYPERLINK "http://home.earthlink.net/~srduncombe/imp.htm" http://home.earthlink.net/~srduncombe/imp.htm Imperialism Primary sources

 


 

6.  World War I- Beginning of third quarter

q       Immediate causes of war

q       Allied and Central Powers

q       Causes of U.S. involvement

q       The Home Front

q       Fighting in Europe

q       Plans for peace: 14 Points, Treaty of Versailles, League of Nations

 HYPERLINK "http://www.worldwar1.com/" http://www.worldwar1.com/  Trenches on the Web

 HYPERLINK "http://www.people.virginia.edu/~egl2r/wwi.html" http://www.people.virginia.edu/~egl2r/wwi.html  In the Trenches (links)

 HYPERLINK "http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/" http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/  WWI Document Archive

 


 

7.  The 1920s- Middle of third quarter

q       Return to Normalcy

q       The booming economy

q       The “Jazz Age”

 HYPERLINK "http://www.pbs.org/jazz/biography/" http://www.pbs.org/jazz/biography/  Jazz

 HYPERLINK "http://www.louisville.edu/~kprayb01/1920s.html" http://www.louisville.edu/~kprayb01/1920s.html The 1920s

 HYPERLINK "http://www.geocities.com/flapper_culture/" http://www.geocities.com/flapper_culture/  Flapper culture and style

 


 

8.  The Great Depression- End of third quarter

q       Stock Market Crash of 1929

q       Other causes of the Great Depression

q       Effects on America

q       FDR and the New Deal

 HYPERLINK "http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dustbowl/" http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dustbowl/  Surviving the Dustbowl

 HYPERLINK "http://www.nara.gov/exhall/picturing_the_century/galleries/greatdep.html" http://www.nara.gov/exhall/picturing_the_century/galleries/greatdep.html  Picturing the Century: The Great Depression and the New Deal

 HYPERLINK "http://newdeal.feri.org/" http://newdeal.feri.org/  The New Deal Network

 


 

9.  World War II- Beginning of fourth quarter

q       Underlying causes of World War II 

q       U.S. foreign policy before and at the beginning of the war

q       Pearl Harbor and U.S. entry into World War II

q       Home Front preparations and impact

q       D-Day and the war in Europe 

q       War in the Pacific

q       Hiroshima and Nagasaki

q       The Holocaust

 HYPERLINK "http://www.nara.gov/education/teaching/posters/poster.html" http://www.nara.gov/education/teaching/posters/poster.html  Powers of Persuasion

 HYPERLINK "http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/wwii/wwii.htm" http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/wwii/wwii.htm World War II: Documents

 HYPERLINK "http://www.nara.gov/exhall/people/people.html" http://www.nara.gov/exhall/people/people.html  A People at War


 

10.  The Cold War- Middle of fourth quarter

q       Vietnam War

q       Korean War

q       McCarthyism

q       Cuban Missile Crisis

q       Arms Race and nuclear proliferation

q       End of the cold War

 HYPERLINK "http://www.pbs.org/battlefieldvietnam/" http://www.pbs.org/battlefieldvietnam/  Battlefield: Vietnam

 HYPERLINK "http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam/" http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam/ Vietnam Online

 HYPERLINK "http://webcorp.com/mccarthy/" http://webcorp.com/mccarthy/  Senator Joe McCarthy

 HYPERLINK "http://history.acusd.edu/gen/20th/coldwar0.html" http://history.acusd.edu/gen/20th/coldwar0.html  Cold War Politics


 

11.  The Civil Rights Movement- End of fourth quarter

q       Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka

q       Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and passive resistance

q       Increasing rights for minority groups and women

 HYPERLINK "http://www.tolerance.org" http://www.tolerance.org 

 HYPERLINK "http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart9.html" http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart9.html  The Civil Rights Era

 HYPERLINK "http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/" http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/ The Martin Luther King, Jr., Papers Project