Social Studies: Civics

Grade 8 Civics Student Overview

In Grade 8, “Social Studies” shifts to Civics.  So what’s the difference?

Civics is technically defined as “the study of the rights and responsibilities of people in a community”, but that’s not super exciting. 

We believe the course is really about one question: 

How can you make change happen?

Throughout this year, we’ll teach you how the government works and how people can use different parts of it to try to make changes to a town, city, state, or nation. 

We’ll also show you that you don’t just have to work inside/with the government to make change--some of the most effective movements have come from outside pressure that forces our leaders to make different choices. Think of the recent  Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement as just one example of how people can push for reform. 

Lastly you’ll get to put this learning into action later in the year, when you pick an issue you want to educate yourself/others about and push for a policy change of your own. This is called a Civics Action Project.  It could be a school rule, or something at the town, state, or maybe even national level.  But, we are getting ahead of ourselves… On the next page, I’ll give you a rough breakdown of how the year will flow.  If you remember nothing else, remember this:

• If you loved “current events days”,  analyzing and debating topics or discussions of equity/justice, you are going to love this class, because almost everything we do connects to these topics.

•  If you didn’t love it in the past, give us a chance! We’ll help you love it by the end of the year or we’ll refund your money!

Grade 8 Civics Unit Guide

Fall:

Topic 1:  Historical Foundations of US Government 

What is a good government? Where did many of the ideas that ended up in our government come from?   Why did our government get set up the way it did?

We'll start the year by picking off where you left off--at the Declaration of Independence. The founders thought breaking away from England was the hard part, but they soon realized they had a bigger challenge: What to do next? What should THEIR government look like?

Did you know that the Constitution was the second draft of a government, so what happened to the first? We’ll examine things going on in the late 1700s that impacted what the founders wanted to do and/or wanted to avoid when they got to try their own hand at creating a nation from scratch!

Topic 2:  Media Literacy

How do you know what’s trustworthy? Why do different news organizations present information the way they do? Throughout the first part of the year, we’ll be working with Ms. Chessman and  the library to help you develop stronger media literacy skills. This is not a specific unit in itself, but something we will focus on from time to time throughout the year.

Fall/Winter:

Topic 3:  Creating the Constitution: The Legislative Branch, the Executive Branch,  the Judicial Branch/Bill of Rights

What does a government with the ”just right” amount of power look like? How do we make sure all people’s rights are protected? This is the biggest topic of the year and will be split into smaller parts. We’ll dig deep into how the branches of power are organized, what powers each branch has, and how they keep watch over others. 

Along the way, we will see that sometimes words which seem really clear to one person  can be interpreted very differently by others. In the second  part of the unit, you may get a choice to take a deeper look at how one group of people (such as Asian Americans, African Americans, Latinos, LGBT people or women) used the Supreme Court both successfully and unsuccessfully  to push for equal rights and/or to protect the rights they felt they had. 

Winter: 

Topic 4:  Current events  connections: How do Elections REALLY work? 

The election process seems simple- people show up and vote!  But the reality is far more complicated. In this part of the year we’ll look at some controversial aspects of our voting system such as how voting districts are set up, how easy/difficult different states make it to vote, and whose voices are heard, missed or even discouraged along the way. We’ll look back into the history of voting rights and  how different groups fought for the right to vote over time. You’ll also write a DBQ essay about whether you think voting should be required. 

Spring:

Topic 5:  Striving for Change in the US

As we get deeper into the year, we look less at the theory of the government and spend more time examining the reality of government as well as ways that ordinary people have pushed for the US to change and come closer to living up to its ideals.  We’ll start by looking  briefly at what we call “strategies for change”--techniques that people have used inside/outside of government to try to change the US.  That leads us to...

Topic 6:  State and Local Government and  Action Civics Project

What’s a local  or state issue you think is important? How do you raise other people’s awareness of it? What are possible ways to make change in this realm? What proposals currently exist that might be worthy of support.? Together, the class will explore pressing current concerns and take steps to try to address them. To do this well, you need to know what state and local government looks like and how it works.  Again, this is not really a unit we will do all at once, but something we will work on  a day or so a week throughout the spring as we work towards a final product. 

Topic 7:  Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior

What was the Holocaust and how could something as horrible have actually happened? How do people’s beliefs about “we and they”  impact their actions?  What makes democracy fragile?

At first glance, this topic might seem out of the blue, but it actually connects to our Civics work really well.  Few adults realize that what happened in Germany started in a democracy that changed over time to be a dictatorship. We want you to know about the anti-semitism and the history of the Holocaust because issues remain today but also becaue this case study asks us to think careful about how  democracies can struggle when rights and norms are be eroded in small steps.