Social Studies Curriculum: Grade 8, 10, and 11 Blueprint

There are 5 identical social studies TAKS objectives throughout grades 8, 10, and 11.

The TAKS social studies objectives, the student expectations, and the number of questions assessed from each objective at the exit level, are listed below. This blueprint will give everyone an idea of what needs to be taught and learned by the 11th grade. Grades 8, 10, and 11, social studies information is listed below.

• Major eras through 1877
• Absolute and relative chronology
• Identify 1607, 1776, 1787,1803, and 1861-1865, 1898, 1914-1918, 1929, 1941-1945

• Reasons for establishing 13 colonies.

• Causes of American Revolution
• Roles of significant individuals
• Events of the Revolution
• Issues of Constitutional Convention

• Political parties
• War of 1812
• Foreign policies of Washington and Monroe
• Election of Jackson and formation of Democratic Party
• Federal Indian policies and relocation of Cherokees

• Northwest Ordinance and orderly expansion
• Roots of Manifest Destiny
• Mexican War

• Tariff policies
• Factors affecting slaves on different sections
• Congressional conflicts and compromises

• Significant individuals
• Significant events
• Lincoln’s ideas in speeches

• Events that lead to the US to a world power
• Factors that led to US involvement in WWI
• Fourteen Points and Treaty of Versailles

• Reasons for US involvement in WWII
• Analyze the issues and events of WWII.
• Responses to Soviet Aggression
• Effects of Korea and Vietnam Wars

Objective 1 Main Ideas: Students must understand

• How dates specifically listed are essential to understanding American History.
• How and why the original 13 colonies were established.
• Why and how the American Revolution and the drafting of the US Constitution occurred.
• How the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution, and the Bill of Rights are connected to one another.
• Why westward expansion occurred and how it influenced the development of the US
• How issues contributed to tensions between the North and the South.
• How individuals, issues, and events contributed to the outcome of the Civil War.
• How specific individuals helped move the US into the position of a world power.
• How specific individuals, events, and issues were involved in the prosperity of the 1920s.
• Why the US was involved in WWII.
• How the US dealt with major issues of WWII.
• How the US responded to Soviet aggression after WWII and during the Korean and Vietnam conflicts.

• Identify areas acquired to form the United States.

• Geographic distribution using maps, charts, and graphs

• 18th and 19th Century locations
• Comparison of physical and human characteristics
• Effects of physical and human characteristics on historical events.
• Trace spatial diffusion of a phenomenon and describe its effects on regions.
• Patterns of settlement

• Influence of physical characteristics on population distribution, settlement patterns, and economic activities.

• Effects of migration and immigration in the US
• Effects of population growth

Objective 2 Main Ideas: Students must understand

• How questions about geography can be answered by interpreting maps, graphs, and charts.
• How regions with unique geographic traits were acquired by the US during the era of westward expansion.
• How different regions of the US possess distinct physical and human characteristics and how these helped shape events during the 18th and 19th centuries.
• How physical and environmental conditions have influenced the movement of people
• How physical and human geographic factors have influenced historical events.
• How population movement patterns have caused an exchange and diffusion of ideas, material goods, and diseases.
• How different regions of the world possess distinct physical and human characteristics and how they shape the world.
• How technological innovations have affected the ways in which people interact with the physical environment.

• Arguments regarding tariffs and taxation

• Economic difference among different regions
• Growth of plantation system, slave trade, and slavery
• Analyze cultural patterns and characteristics in various places and regions

• Economic factors that brought on rapid industrialization and urbanization

• Reasons for development of free enterprise system
• Causes of economic growth during the 1920s.
• Causes of the Great Depression, decline of world trade, stockmarket crash, and bank failures
• New Deal agencies and the affects on US citizen’s lives.
• Effects of WWII on the home front
• Relationship between US trade policy and US free enterprise system
• Ways people satisfy their basic needs

• Contributions of individuals
• Contributions of women
• Analyze major social issues
• Actions taken to expand economic and political opportunities in the US
• How cultures change and maintain continuity

• Abolitionist movement
• Public education, temperance, and women’s movement
• Impact of reform leaders
• Civil Rights and leaders

• Effects of steamboat and cotton gin
• Impact on transportation systems on growth, development, and urbanization
• Innovations that changed the way goods were manufactured and marketed
• Technological innovations that led to rapid industrialization
• How technological innovations and scientific discoveries have changed the standard of living

• How industrialization has changed life in the United States

Objective 3 Main Ideas: Students must understand

• How to interpret maps, graphs, and other demographic data to determine the level of development of different groups of people.
• How to compare different methods of production of goods.
• How people satisfy their needs
• How leaders dealt with various economic issues during the early years of the republic and during the 20th century.
• How and why different regions of the US developed distinct economic features.
• How the free-enterprise system of economics developed in the US after Reconstruction
• How various scientific and technological innovations have changed the standard of living in the US and how it affected daily life
• How various groups have contributed to political, social, and economic life in the US
• How various reform movements affected American politics and society.
• How various scientific and technological innovations contributed to industrialization and the development of national markets in the US

• Growth of representative government in the colonies
• Impact of Mayflower Compact and Virginia House of Burgesses on representative government

• Influence of historic documents on the U.S. system of government
• Strengths and weaknesses of Articles of Confederation
• Grievances in the Declaration of Independence that are addressed in the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights
• Limited government, republicanism, checks and balances, federalism, separation of powers, popular sovereignty, and individual rights

• Identify purposes for and process of changing the US Constitution
• Identify impact of 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendment

• Identify arguments of Federalists and Anti-Federalists
• Identify states’ rights issues involved in the Nullification Crisis and Civil War

• Summarize Marbury v Madison
• Identify impact of Dred Scott v Sanford
• Analyze effects of Brown v Board of Education

• Define and enumerate examples of unalienable rights
• Summarize guarantees in Bill of Rights
• Evaluate the impact of 19th, 24th, and 26th amendment on achieving equality of political rights.

• Identify importance of free speech and press

• Impact of Progressive Era reforms including the 16th and 17th Amendments
• Development of the American Civil Rights Movement

• Identify contributions of significant US political and social leaders

Objective 4 Main Ideas: Students must understand

• How representative institutions developed during the colonial period
• How the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights addressed colonial grievances listed in the Declaration of Independence
• How various documents influenced American political leaders as they created the US Constitution
• How the US Constitution reflects basic democratic principles
• How and why the US Constitution can be amended
• How political leaders negotiated balance of power between the federal and state governments
• How all citizens possess certain rights and responsibilities
• How individual rights of US citizens are protected
• How the Civil Rights movement developed
• How the democratic process expanded through constitutional amendments
• How US Supreme Court decisions work within the democratic process

• Locate and use primary and secondary sources
• Explain and apply different methods that historians use to interpret the past
• Analyze information by
• Sequencing
• Categorizing
• Identifying cause and effect relationships
• Comparing, contrasting, finding the main idea, summarizing
• Making generalizations
• Drawing inferences and conclusions
• Interpret information from visuals
• Graphs
• Charts
• Timelines
• Maps
• Identify points of view from a historical context
• Identify bias in written and visual material
• Compare ways that human depend on, adapt to, and modify the physical environment

Objective 5 Main Ideas: Students must understand

• How to use primary and secondary sources to learn about American history
• How to analyze information using critical-thinking strategies
• How to interpret information from visual sources
• How to identify points of view
• How to identify bias in written and visual sources