Massachusetts

History and Geography

• 1 Apply the skills of prekindergarten through grade seven.

• 2 Identify multiple ways to express time relationships and dates (for example, 1066 AD is the same as 1066 CE, and both refer to a date in the eleventh or 11th century, which is the same as the 1000s). Identify countries that use a different calendar from the one used in the U.S. and explain the basis for the difference.

• 3 Interpret and construct timelines that show how events and eras in various parts of the world are related to one another.

  • Reading and creating timelines with BCE and CE (8-U.1)

• 4 Interpret and construct charts and graphs that show quantitative information.

  • Identify shortage and surplus with graphs (8-F.5)
  • Identify shortage and surplus with data (8-F.6)

• 5 Explain how a cause and effect relationship is different from a sequence or correlation of events.

• 6 Distinguish between long-term and short-term cause and effect relationships.

• 7 Show connections, causal and otherwise, between particular historical events and ideas and larger social, economic, and political trends and developments.

  • The ancient Silk Road: geography and transportation (7-S.1)
  • The ancient Silk Road: goods and ideas (7-S.2)
  • The medieval Silk Road (7-S.3)
  • The Roman Republic: part II (7-V.5)
  • Caesar and the end of the Roman Republic (7-V.6)
  • Pax Romana (7-V.8)
  • The fall of the Western Roman Empire (7-V.9)
  • Feudal Europe (7-Z.1)
  • The Middle Ages after 1100 (7-Z.3)
  • The Reformation (7-AA.3)
  • French and English expeditions: part I (7-DD.4)
  • French and English expeditions: part II (7-DD.5)
  • The Columbian Exchange (7-DD.6)
  • The Enlightenment: origins and natural rights (8-I.5)
  • The Enlightenment: influences on government (8-I.6)
  • The Age of Exploration: origins (8-J.1)
  • Portuguese and Spanish expeditions: part I (8-J.2)
  • Portuguese and Spanish expeditions: part II (8-J.3)
  • The Articles of Confederation (8-M.1)
  • Washington's presidency: part I (8-M.3)
  • Washington's presidency: part II (8-M.4)
  • Jacksonian Democracy (8-N.1)
  • Tariff, nullification, and bank war (8-N.2)
  • Indian Removal and the Trail of Tears (8-N.3)
  • Industrial and Transportation Revolutions (8-O.1)
  • Antebellum reform movements (8-O.3)
  • Texas independence and annexation (8-O.7)
  • Causes of the Civil War: Missouri Compromise to Bleeding Kansas (8-O.9)
  • Causes of the Civil War: Dred Scott to secession (8-O.10)
  • Source analysis: the Gettysburg Address (8-P.5)

• 8 Interpret the past within its own historical context rather than in terms of present-day norms and values.

  • Ancient Egypt: the Old Kingdom (6-C.1)
  • Foundations of Maya civilization (7-BB.1)
  • Renaissance origins (8-I.1)
  • Portuguese and Spanish expeditions: part I (8-J.2)
  • Portuguese and Spanish expeditions: part II (8-J.3)
  • French and English expeditions: part I (8-J.4)
  • French and English expeditions: part II (8-J.5)
  • The Articles of Confederation (8-M.1)
  • The Constitutional Convention (8-M.2)
  • Washington's presidency: part I (8-M.3)
  • The first party system: Federalists and Democratic-Republicans (8-M.5)
  • The Marshall Court (8-M.6)
  • The Louisiana Purchase (8-M.7)
  • Comparing the North and the South (8-O.2)
  • Slavery in the South (8-O.5)
  • The abolitionists (8-O.6)
  • Texas independence and annexation (8-O.7)
  • Causes of the Civil War: Missouri Compromise to Bleeding Kansas (8-O.9)
  • Causes of the Civil War: Dred Scott to secession (8-O.10)
  • The Civil War: Bull Run to the Emancipation Proclamation (8-P.2)
  • The Civil War: Gettysburg to the election of 1864 (8-P.3)
  • The Civil War: the conclusion of the war (8-P.4)
  • Radical Reconstruction (8-Q.1)
  • The end of Reconstruction and the rise of Jim Crow (8-Q.2)

• 9 Distinguish intended from unintended consequences.

• 10 Distinguish historical fact from opinion.

  • Identify facts and opinions (8-T.2)

• 11 Using historical maps, locate the boundaries of the major empires of world history at the height of their powers.

Civics and Government

• 12 Define and use correctly the following words and terms: Magna Carta, parliament, habeas corpus, monarchy, and absolutism.

  • Roman government: monarchy to republic (7-V.3)
  • The Middle Ages after 1100 (7-Z.3)

General Economic Skills

• 13 Define and use correctly mercantilism, feudalism, economic growth, and entrepreneur.

  • Feudal Europe (7-Z.1)

• 14 Explain how people or communities examine and weigh the benefits of each alternative when making a choice and that opportunity costs are those benefits that are given up once one alternative is chosen.

  • Costs and benefits (8-E.2)
  • Opportunity cost (8-E.3)

• 15 Explain how financial markets, such as the stock market, channel funds from savers to investors.

• 16 Define and use correctly gross domestic product, economic growth, recession, depression, unemployment, inflation, and deflation.

• 17 Explain how opportunity costs and tradeoffs can be evaluated through an analysis of marginal costs and benefits.

• 18 Explain how competition among sellers lowers costs and prices, and encourages producers to produce more.

  • What is a market? (8-E.5)

• 19 Describe the role of buyers and sellers in determining the equilibrium price, and use supply and demand to explain and predict changes in quantity and price.

  • What is a market? (8-E.5)
  • Understand quantity supplied and quantity demanded (8-F.1)
  • Understand overall supply and demand (8-F.2)
  • Create and use supply and demand curves (8-F.3)
  • Identify shortage and surplus (8-F.4)
  • Identify shortage and surplus with graphs (8-F.5)
  • Identify shortage and surplus with data (8-F.6)

• 20 Describe how the earnings of workers are affected by the market value of the product produced and worker skills.

• 21 Identify the causes of inflation and explain who benefits from inflation and who suffers from inflation.

• 22 Define and distinguish between absolute and comparative advantage, and explain how most trade occurs because of comparative advantage in the production of a particular good or service.

• 23 Explain how changes in exchange rates affect balance of trade and the purchasing power of people in the United States and other countries.

• 24 Differentiate between fiscal and monetary policy.

U.S. Economic Skills

• 25 Explain the basic economic functions of the government in the economy of the United States.

• 26 Examine the development of the banking system in the United States, and describe the organization and functions of the Federal Reserve System.

  • Banks (8-G.1)
  • Washington's presidency: part II (8-M.4)
  • Tariff, nullification, and bank war (8-N.2)

• 27 Identify and describe laws and regulations adopted in the United States to promote economic competition.

• 28 Analyze how federal tax and spending policies affect the national budget and the national debt.