The goal of social studies education is the development of critical thinking and decision-making skills to prepare for responsible citizenship in a democratic society. My goal for social studies students at St. Joseph is content mastery and understand why we study history.
6th Grade- Development of Civilizations: 3500 BCE - 600 CE
6th graders will...
investigate the emergence and development of civilizations in River Valley Civilizations (Ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Ancient India and Ancient China) and Classical Empires between 3500 BCE-600 CE.
explain the origins, functions and structures of governments and how markets exist with exchanging of goods and services.
compare how human and environmental characteristics of a region influence the movement of people goods and ideas.
compare the origins and development of early world religions.
describe how River Valley Civilizations changed to empires.
7th Grade- Growth and Expansion of Civilizations: 600 CE - 1350 CE
7th graders will....
examine how movement and migration impacted the interactions through conquest and trade between expanding civilizations in Afro-Eurasia (North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Europe) and the Americas from 600-1600.
compare political institutions and their impacts on people in empires and how different economic systems choose to allocate the production, distribution and consumption of resources.
examine ways that one culture can have a positive and negative impact on the expansion of empires.
8th Grade- The United States: 1600 - 1877
8th graders will...
investigate how conflict and compromise impacted the founding and development of the United States of America between 1600-1877. This will be studied during the Colonial Era, Revolutionary Period, Early Republic, Western Expansion, Civil War and Reconstruction.
analyze citizen roles in the U.S. political system knowing who is a citizen and how that definition has expanded over time.
assess how regions of the U.S. specialized based on supply and demand because of their geographic location.
explain how global interconnections had an impact on culture, trade and land use and changing political, social and economic viewpoints had on the lives of different groups of people.