Social Studies Curriculum

Grade 8 - United States History
Curriculum Guide

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Expansion & Reform (1801-1861)

Time Frame for Unit:

7 weeks

Content Standards:

National Standards for History:

Era 4 - Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)

Standard 1

1. The student understands the international background and consequences of the Louisiana Purchase, the War of 1812, and the Monroe Doctrine.
2. The student understands federal and state Indian policy and the strategies for survival forged by Native Americans.
3. The student understands the ideology of Manifest Destiny, the nation's expansion to the Northwest, and the Mexican-American War.

Standard 2

1. The student understands how the factory system and the transportation and market revolutions shaped regional patterns of economic development.
2. The student understands the first era of American urbanization.
3. The student understands how antebellum immigration changed American society.
4. The student understands the rapid growth of "the peculiar institution" after 1800 and the varied experiences of African Americans under slavery.
5. The student understands the settlement of the West.

Standard 3

1. The student understands the changing character of American political life in "the age of the common man."
2. The student understands how the debates over slavery influenced politics and sectionalism.

Standard 4

1. The student understands the abolitionist movement.
2. The student understands how Americans strived to reform society and create a distinct culture.
3. The student understands changing gender roles and the ideas and activities of women reformers.

Alaska Content Standards: History:

1. Understand that history is a record of human experiences that links the past to the present and the future.
2. Understand historical themes through factual knowledge of time, places, ideas, institutions, cultures, people, and events.
3. Develop the skills and processes of historical inquiry.
4. Integrate historical knowledge with historical skill to effectively participate as a citizen and as a lifelong learner.

Brief summary of unit:

In the Expansion and Reform unit, students will explore how the new American Republic, prior to the Civil War, experienced dramatic territorial expansion, immigration, economic growth, and industrialization. Students will also demonstrate understanding of how slavery, economic issues, and westward movement led to regional divisions.

Enduring Understandings:

The students will understand that:

1. Expansion and/or change occur whenever a new power reigns.
2. Although slavery was a significant issue that contributed to the outbreak of the Civil War, it was not the only or main issue.
3. States’ rights v. federal authority (strong v. weak central government) have been a contentious point throughout America’s history.

Essential Questions:

1. To what extent did territorial expansion affect Native Americans and international relations?
2. To what extent did economic, geographic, and social forces lure people westward?
3. How do emerging nations grow geographically, economically, socially, politically, and culturally?
4. Why did regional tensions lead to the Civil War?
5. To what extent could the Civil War have been avoided?

Knowledge:

Define and explain the significance of the following terms and events:
Abolitionists, suffrage, War of 1812, The Mexican-American War, The Louisiana Purchase, Bleeding Kansas, Underground Railroad, Lewis and Clark’s Corp of Discovery, Missouri Compromise, Indian Removal Act, Trail of Tears, Seneca Falls, Second Great Awakening, Popular Sovereignty, secession, Dred-Scott Case, Harpers Ferry, Oregon Trail, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Alamo, The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo

Explain the following concepts:

• Manifest Destiny
• Abolitionism
• Nationalism
• Transcendentalism
• Civil Disobedience
• Disenfranchisement
• Industrialization
• Annexation
• Immigration
• The Monroe Doctrine
• Temperance
• The Underground Railroad

Skills:

Students will be able to …

• Investigate the impact and resistance of westward expansion on Native Americans.
• Analyze how the Louisiana Purchase influenced politics, Native American relations, economic development, and the concept of Manifest Destiny.
• Explain President Madison's reasons for declaring war in 1812 and analyze the sectional divisions over the war.
• Identify the origins and provisions of the Monroe Doctrine and how it influenced hemispheric relations.
• Analyze the Industrial Revolution, immigration, and urbanization and how they changed the lives of men, women, and children.
• Describe the plantation system and evaluate how enslaved African Americans used religion and family to counteract the effects of slavery.
• Explore the lure of the West and the reality of life on the frontier. Map key Westward routes.
• Explain the contradictions between the movement for universal white male suffrage and the disenfranchisement of free African Americans as well as women.

Assessment Evidence *

Performance Tasks:

• Research and role-play a character impacted by Manifest Destiny during a simulated public gathering where each character’s perspectives are revealed and discussed.
• Create a quilt that represents concepts from one of the following: Manifest Destiny, Abolitionism, Nationalism, Transcendentalism, Civil Disobedience, Industrialization, Annexation, Immigration, Monroe Doctrine, Temperance, The Underground Railroad. In writing, students reflect upon their research and understanding of this topic.
• Prepare a proposal outlining a solution between White settlers and Native Americans in the Southeast in the early 1800s. Present the proposal to the class and defend it. (McDougal p. 373)
• Create a newsmagazine show that explores the different viewpoints and events that surround the War of 1812. (McDougal p. 403)
• Debate the secession of South Carolina in 1860 from the perspectives of politicians, citizens, free and enslaved people, and neutral western peoples.
• Write a multiple draft research paper on the Missouri Compromise and how tariff policy and issues of states' rights influenced party development and promoted sectional differences (proslavery and antislavery ideologies in the North and South).

Other Evidence:

• Test on facts related to Expansion and Reform.
• Vocabulary quiz.
• Written responses to the Essential Questions.
• Students self-assess their own involvement in class discussions and academic performances, and explain their patterns of participation.
• Flipbooks and graphic organizers of main concepts in Expansion and Reform.

Learning Plan*

Learning Activities:

1. Begin with video to hook students into westward expansion.
2. Introduce the Essential Questions and discuss the culminating unit tasks.
3. Introduce key vocabulary during the various activities and performance tasks.
4. Students read and discuss relevant sections from the sources to support the learning activities and tasks. (McDougal Ch. 10-14)
5. Create a journal of field notes that includes illustrations of plants, animals, terrain, and people found in the students’ neighborhood. Write a comparison article between students’ notes and Lewis and Clark’s field notes. (McDougal p. 320)
6. Design a model for a memorial commemorating the Trail of Tears. (McDougal p. 360)
7. Write articles for publication in Sequoya’s newspaper. (McDougal p. 358)
8. Make an annotated map of the Underground Railroad routes. (McDougal p. 433)
9. On a timeline record significant individuals and events in the historical development of the abolition movement. (McDougal p. 429)
10. Read the poetry of Stephen Vincent Benet, Walt Whitman, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Henry David Thoreau.
11. Choose one of the performance tasks to assess student understanding.
12. Conclude the unit with student self-assessment of their culminating activity.

* These are suggested activities. Other assessments, performance tasks, and learning activities may be implemented.