G.I.S.D.

8th Grade Social Studies Course Outline

Time Period
First 9 Weeks

Units Covered
Classroom Procedures
CELEBRATE FREEDOM WEEK: BILL OF
RIGHTS HANDS ACTIVITY
Geography Review
Colonial American and Colonies Growth (1587 - 1770)
Road to Independence (1763 - 1776)
American Revolution (1776 - 1783)

Second 9 Weeks

First 9 Weeks:

More Perfect Union (1777 - 1790)

Government
New Nation (1789 - 1800)
Jefferson Era (1800 - 1816)
Growth and Expansion (1790 - 1825)

Classroom Procedures
Third 9 Weeks
Jackson Era (1824 - 1845)
Geography
Review
Manifest
(1818
1853)
Geography vocabulary- terms
from Destiny
geography
section
in book. Five themes of geography.
The Age of Reform (1820 - 1860)
North and
the South
- 1860)
Colonial America and Colonies
Growth
(1587(1820
- 1770)
- Ch. 2, 3, 4
Road
to
Civil
War
(1820

1860)
Reasons for European Exploration, Basic Geography of the U.S., Colonial Settlement
(Jamestown and all 13 colonies), Triangular Trade and the Middle Passage, French and
Indian
War,
Albany Plan ofThe
Union,
1763, William Penn, Thomas Hooker,
Fourth
9 Weeks
CivilProclamation
War (1861 - of
1865)
William Pitt, John Rolfe, Pilgrims,
James Oglethorpe
Reconstruction
and Aftermath (1865 - 1896)
STAAR Review and STAAR Assessment
Road to Independence (1763
- 1776)
Ch. America
5
Making
of Modern
Project:
Sugar Act, Stamp Act, Quartering*Reshaping
Act, Declaratory
Act, Townshend
Acts, Boston Massacre,
the Nation
(1877 - 1929)
st
Tea Act, Boston Tea Party, Sons *The
of Liberty,
Intolerable
Acts,
1 Continental
Congress,
Making
of Modern
America
(1929 Present)
nd
Lexington and Concord, 2 Continental Congress, Bunker Hill, Common Sense, Olive
Branch Petition, Declaration of Independence, Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry, Samuel
Adams, Benjamin Franklin, King George III, Paul Revere and Williams Dawes, John Jay,
John Adams
American Revolution (1776 - 1783) Ch. 6
Patriots and Loyalists, Nathan Hale, Winter at Valley Forge, Battle of Saratoga (turning
point), Guerilla Warfare, Blockade, Nathanael Greene, Battle of Yorktown, Treaty of Paris
1783, John Paul Jones, General Cornwallis, General Washington, Benedict Arnold, John
Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Abigail Adams, Marquis de Lafayette, Friedrich
von Steuben,
Georgetown ISD 2014-15

Second 9 Weeks:
More Perfect Union (1777 - 1790) Ch. 7
Articles of Confederation, Northwest Ordinance of 1787, Shays Rebellion, Constitutional
Convention, New Jersey Plan, Virginia Plan, Great Compromise, 3/5 Compromise, Bill of
Rights, Federalists, Anti-Federalist, Constitution, Magna Carta, Enlightenment, Separation
of Powers, Checks and Balances,
James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Locke, Montesquieu, Judicial Review
Government Ch. 7 and pages 217 - 253
Magna Carta, Virginia House of Burgesses, Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, Olive
Branch Petition, Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, Federalist Papers,
Anti-Federalist Papers, Constitution, Bill of Rights, 13 th, 14th, 15th Amendments, Judicial
Review, John Hancock, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, George Mason, Alexander
Hamilton, James Madison
New Nation (1789 - 1800) Ch. 8
Judiciary Act 1789, Bill of Rights, Hamiltons Plan, Whiskey Rebellion, Washingtons
Farewell Address,
President Washington, Political Parties: Federalists and The Democratic-Republicans, Alien
and Sedition Acts, XYZ Affair, The Kentucky and Virginia Resolution, Alexander Hamilton,
Thomas Jefferson
Jefferson Era (1800 - 1816) Ch. 9
Election of 1800, Louisiana Purchase, Marbury v. Madison, Embargo Act, Neutral Act, War
of 1812, War Hawks, Treaty of Ghent, Star Spangled Banner, Battle of New Orleans,
Andrew Jackson, Lewis and Clark, Sacagawea, John Marshall, Thomas Jefferson,
Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, , Francis Scott Key
Growth and Expansion (1790 - 1825)- Ch. 10
Georgetown ISD 2014-15
Industrial Revolution, Capitalism, Free Enterprise, Cotton Gin, Interchangeable Parts,
Spinning Machine, Factory System, Textile Mill, Steamboat, Erie Canal, Internal
Improvements, Era of Good Feelings, Missouri Compromise, Adams-Onis Treaty, Monroe
Doctrine, Eli Whitney, Samuel Slater, Francis Cabot Lowell, Robert Fulton, Henry Clay,

Third 9 Weeks:
Jackson Era (1824 - 1845) Ch. 11
Presidential Elections (majority, plurality, Spoil System, bureaucracy, nullify, secede, laissezfaire), Tariff Debate, Trail of Tears, Indian Removal Act, National Bank, James K. Polk,
Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, John Quincy Adams.
*Trail of Tears Learning.com lesson in computer lab.
Manifest Destiny (1818 1853) Ch. 12
Oregon Country, Oregon Trail, Manifest Destiny, Texas Independence, Texas Annexation,
Mexican/American War, Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, James K. Polk, Gadsden Purchase,
Gold Rush, Brigham Young, *Expansion Map of the U.S. (13 Colonies, Louisiana Purchase,
Northwest Territory, Mexican Session, Gadsden Purchase, Oregon)
North and the South (1820 - 1860) - Ch. 13
Industrialization, Steam Boat, Telegraph, Railroads, Agriculture (John Deere/Cyrus
McCormick), Factory Job Conditions, Immigration and the Impact, Know-Nothing Party,
Cotton Kingdom, Cotton Gin, Plantation System, Tenant Farmers, Slavery and Slave
Codes, Underground Railroad, Samuel Morse, Eli Whitney, Harriet Tubman, Fredrick
Douglas, Sojourner Truth, Robert Fulton
The Age of Reform (1820 - 1860) Ch. 14
2nd Great Awakening, Utopias, Transcendentalists and Civil Disobedience, Education
Reform, Abolitionists, Special Needs Reform, Womens Rights, Temperance, Howe,
Thomas Gallaudet, Dorthea Dix, Robert Owen, Lyman Beecher, Horace Mann, Samuel
Gridley, Grimke Sisters, Fredrick Douglas, William Lloyd Garrison, David Walker, Sojourner
Truth, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Mott, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Road to Civil War (1820 1860) Ch. 15
Missouri Compromise, Sectionalism, Wilmot Proviso, Compromise of 1850, Fugitive Slave
Georgetown ISD 2014-15
Act, Popular Sovereignty, Kansas-Nebraska Act, border ruffians, Bleeding Kansas,
Republican Party, Dred Scott v. Sanford, Harpers Ferry, Election of 1860, Secession,
States Rights, Ft. Sumter, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, Daniel Webster, John Brown,
James Buchanan, Roger Taney, Abraham Lincoln,

Fourth 9 Weeks:
The Civil War (1861 - 1865) Ch. 16
Border States (Maryland, Missouri, Kentucky, Delaware), Rebels v. Yankees, Ironclads,
Battle of Shiloh, Battle of Antietam, Emancipation Proclamation, Battle of Vicksburg, Battle
of Gettysburg, 13th Amendment, 54th Massachusetts Regiment, Shermans March/Total
Warfare, Appattomax Courthouse
Jefferson Davis, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson,
General McClellan, Red Cross: Dorthea Dix, Clara Barton, and Sally Tompkins,
Reconstruction and Aftermath (1865 - 1896) Ch. 17
Reconstruction, Amnesty, 10% Plan, Radical Republicans, Wade Davis Bill, Freedmans
Bureau, John Wilkes Booth, Lincolns Assassination, Black Codes, 14 th Amendment, Tenure
of Office Act, 15th Amendment, Hiram Rhodes Revels, scalawags and carpet baggers, Ku
Klux Klan, Amnesty Act, Bessemer Steel Process, Jim Crow Laws: Poll Tax, Literacy Test
and Grandfather Clause, Thaddeaus Stevens, Andrew Johnson
STAAR Review and STAAR Assessment
Making of Modern America Project:
ISD 2014-15
*Reshaping the Nation (1877 - 1929) Georgetown
Ch.18
*The Making of Modern America (1929 Present) Ch. 19