8th Grade Social Studies Unit 8

Big Idea:

Identify the causes and effects of the Civil War politically, economically, militarily and culturally.

Student Expectations:

Priority TEKS

8.8(A) [Supporting] explain the roles played by significant individuals during the Civil War, including Jefferson Davis, Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, and Abraham Lincoln, and heroes such as congressional Medal of Honor recipients William Carney and Philip Bazaar;

8.8(B) [Readiness] explain the causes of the Civil War, including sectionalism, states' rights, and slavery, and significant events of the Civil War, including the firing on Fort Sumter; the battles of Antietam, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg; the announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation; Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House; and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln;

8.8(C) [Supporting] analyze Abraham Lincoln's ideas about liberty, equality, union, and government as contained in his first and second inaugural addresses and the Gettysburg Address and contrast them with the ideas contained in Jefferson Davis's inaugural address.

Focus TEKS

8.10(B) [Readiness] compare places and regions of the United States in terms of physical and human characteristics;

8.10(C) [Readiness] analyze the effects of physical and human geographic factors on major historical and contemporary events in the United States.

8.11(A) [Readiness] analyze how physical characteristics of the environment influenced population distribution, settlement patterns, and economic activities in the United States during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries;

8.11(B) [Supporting] describe the positive and negative consequences of human modification of the physical environment of the United States;

8.12(A) [Readiness] identify economic differences among different regions of the United States;

8.22(A) [Supporting]analyze the leadership qualities of elected and appointed leaders of the United States such as George Washington, John Marshall, and Abraham Lincoln; and

8.22(B) [Supporting] describe the contributions of significant political, social, and military leaders of the United States such as Frederick Douglass, John Paul Jones, James Monroe, Stonewall Jackson, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

Ongoing TEKS

8.1(A) [Readiness] identify the major eras and events in U.S. history through 1877, including colonization, revolution, drafting of the Declaration of Independence, creation and ratification of the Constitution, religious revivals such as the Second Great Awakening, early republic, the Age of Jackson, westward expansion, reform movements, sectionalism, Civil War, and Reconstruction, and describe their causes and effects

8.1(B) [Supporting] apply absolute and relative chronology through the sequencing of significant individuals, events, and time periods

8.10(A) [Supporting] locate places and regions of importance in the United States during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries;

8.10(B) [Readiness] compare places and regions of the United States in terms of physical and human characteristics;

8.10(C) [Readiness] analyze the effects of physical and human geographic factors on major historical and contemporary events in the United States.

8.11(A) [Readiness] analyze how physical characteristics of the environment influenced population distribution, settlement patterns, and economic activities in the United States during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries;

8.11(B) [Supporting] describe the positive and negative consequences of human modification of the physical environment of the United States;

8.12(A) [Readiness] identify economic differences among different regions of the United States;

8.21(A) [Readiness] identify different points of view of political parties and interest groups on important historical and contemporary issues;

8.23(D) [Supporting] analyze the contributions of people from various racial, ethnic, and religious groups to our national identity.

8.29(A) [Readiness] differentiate between, locate, and use valid primary and secondary sources such as computer software, databases, media and news services, biographies, interviews, and artifacts to acquire information about the United States;

8.29(B) [Readiness] analyze information by sequencing, categorizing, identifying cause-and-effect relationships, comparing, contrasting, finding the main idea, summarizing, making generalizations and predictions, and drawing inferences and conclusions;

8.29(C) [Readiness] organize and interpret information from outlines, reports, databases, and visuals, including graphs, charts, timelines, and maps;

8.29(F) [Readiness] identify bias in written, oral, and visual material;

8.29(H) [Readiness] use appropriate mathematical skills to interpret social studies information such as maps and graphs;

8.29(I) [Readiness] create thematic maps, graphs, charts, models, and databases representing various aspects of the United States; and

8.29(J) [Readiness] pose and answer questions about geographic distributions and patterns shown on maps, graphs, charts, models, and databases

8.31(A) use a problem-solving process to identify a problem, gather information, list and consider options, consider advantages and disadvantages, choose and implement a solution, and evaluate the effectiveness of a solution

Student Learning Targets:

• I will identify the effects of key battles of the Civil War.
• I will compare and contrast Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis.
• I will explain advantages and disadvantages that both sides had.
• I will explain the Northern strategy to win the war.
• I will explain the impact of the Emancipation Proclamation and Gettysburg Address.
• I will describe how the Battles of Gettysburg and Vicksburg impacted the eventual Union victory.
• I will identify and sequence events during the Civil War.

Essential Questions:

• If the war was a football game, make a case for both sides to win at the beginning of the war.
• How does the Emancipation proclamation contradict Lincoln’s position when he began his presidency?
• Why is the Gettysburg Address considered one of the most important speeches in American history?
• How could the Battle of Gettysburg and Vicksburg affect the outcome of the war?
• What are Lincoln and Davis’s ideas on liberty, equality, union, and government?

Extra Information:

Adopted Textbook: Texas US History: Early Colonial - Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

District Grading Policy

Texas Gateway Online Resource Center