South Dakota

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Skills available for South Dakota eighth-grade social studies standards

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America: 1877-2008

  • 8.SS.1 Building upon skills learned in previous grades, the student learns the skills to complete the following tasks, completing each task with relative ease by the end of 8th grade.

    • 8.SS.1.A The student can find a location on a map using latitude and longitude, and determine the latitude and longitude of an absolute location on a map, along with its applications.

    • 8.SS.1.B The student can form an argument surrounding the indications of a historical photograph, political cartoon, chart, or graph and cite evidence from the image to support the argument.

    • 8.SS.1.C The student can write a persuasive essay of 4–5 paragraphs based on class notes, including a main argument (thesis), topic sentences, supporting evidence from history and class, and clear attempts to explain how the evidence proves the topic sentences and overall thesis.

  • 8.SS.2 The student demonstrates knowledge and understanding of the Gilded Age.

    • 8.SS.2.A The student explains the economic principles and practices that corresponded with America's industrial and economic growth after the Civil War, including: the free market, patent law, economies of scale, mass production, division of labor, big business, monopoly, philanthropy.

    • 8.SS.2.B The student explains the reasons for and origins of those who immigrated to America after the Civil War and the extent to which they assimilated, including opposition to new immigration such as the Chinese Exclusion Act.

    • 8.SS.2.C The student describes the challenges that accompanied industrialization and immigration.

    • 8.SS.2.D The student describes the various responses to poor working conditions and standards of living, including: charity, the social gospel, populism, unionization, violence, and socialism and communism.

    • 8.SS.2.E The student explains Karl Marx's main ideas on the following: a spiritual reality beyond material things; the belief that middle class wealth necessitates working class poverty; the resulting conflict between the proletariat and the middle class; the communist revolution, including the use of violence; the dictatorship of the proletariat.

    • 8.SS.2.F The student describes the style of and identifies pieces from the Hudson River School art movement.

    • 8.SS.2.G The student explains the role of the railroad, the Black Hills gold rush, federal land policy such as the Homestead Act, and open-range cattle ranching on South Dakota history.

    • 8.SS.2.H The student describes the life of pioneers and immigrants in South Dakota during the late 1800s, including their cultural heritage.

    • 8.SS.2.I The student explains instances of conflict, cooperation, and duplicity among Native Americans (including select standards from Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings 2 and 6), settlers, and governing bodies in the Dakota Territory during the late 19th Century, including: Wounded Knee Massacre, the work of the Indian Bureau, Agreement of 1877, Dawes Act, 1889 Sioux Treaty, Meriam Report.

    • 8.SS.2.J The student explains the extent to which treaties made between the U.S. government and Native Americans were followed and broken, including the historical and contemporary effects of the Agreement of 1877.

    • 8.SS.2.K The student tells of the effects of boarding schools on Native Americans, including the U.S. government's enactment of compulsory attendance of Native American children and its enforcement on reservations in South Dakota.

    • 8.SS.2.L The student identifies the targets of the Ku Klux Klan and lynching, and explains the ways in which different governments did or did not attempt to protect them.

    • 8.SS.2.M The student tells the story of how South Dakota became a state, explains the basic structure and functioning of its government, and explains the symbols of the Great Seal of the State of South Dakota.

    • 8.SS.2.N The student tells of the school's local political community or a larger neighboring political community, including its founding, history, and the structure and functioning of its current government, e.g., mayor, council, tribal council, school board, etc.

    • 8.SS.2.O The student explains the meaning and historical significance of the following terms and topics: Robber Barons, Captains of Industry, Dawes Act, Ku Klux Klan Acts, and the Free Silver Movement.

  • 8.SS.3 The student demonstrates knowledge and understanding of American history at the turn of the 20th Century.

    • 8.SS.3.A The student identifies the laws in different states that inhibited African Americans from voting, including the Supreme Court's federal ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson.

    • 8.SS.3.B The student tells the biography of Booker T. Washington, including: his upbringing and education, his views on the betterment of African Americans, his founding of the Tuskegee Institute.

    • 8.SS.3.C The student reads and discusses the meaning of selections from Booker T. Washington's Atlanta Exposition Address.

    • 8.SS.3.D The student tells the biography of Susan B. Anthony, including: her upbringing, her time teaching, her work for abolition, her friendship with Frederick Douglass, her work for temperance, her work for women's suffrage.

    • 8.SS.3.E The student explains the arguments and efforts of the suffragist movement and its major figures culminating in the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, including Susan B. Anthony, Alice Paul, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, Ida B. Wells, and the early successes and failures of the suffragist movement in South Dakota, including the efforts of Mamie Shields Pyle.

    • 8.SS.3.F The student tells of the major events in William McKinley's presidency, including: annexation of Hawaii, Spanish-American War, Philippine-American War, Open Door Policy in China.

    • 8.SS.3.G The student reads and discusses the meaning of selections from Woodrow Wilson's "What Is Progress?"

    • 8.SS.3.H The student explains the ways in which certain Progressive ideas were different from the ideas of the American founding.

    • 8.SS.3.I The student names and explains the various progressive policies that were implemented in law, including: bans on child labor; the administrative state; workplace safety regulation; trust busting; initiative, referendum, and recall; food regulation; economic regulation through the Federal Reserve Act; 16th, 17th, and 18th amendments to the Constitution.

    • 8.SS.3.J The student tells the biography of Theodore Roosevelt, including: his upbringing; his life outside of politics, especially in the West; his fighting in the Spanish-American War; his presidency; his corollary to the Monroe Doctrine; his efforts at conservation.

    • 8.SS.3.K The student explains the ideas and efforts for the betterment of African Americans around 1900, including: Anna Julia Cooper, Niagara Movement, W.E.B. DuBois, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

    • 8.SS.3.L The student reads and discusses the meaning of Niagara's Declaration of Principles in its entirety.

    • 8.SS.3.M The student explains the lifestyle and contributions of Native Americans at the turn of the century, including the role of boarding schools, allotment policy, the life and work of Charles Eastman, Standing Bear v. Crook, and the Major Crimes Act of 1885.

  • 8.SS.4 The student demonstrates knowledge and understanding of World War I and the Roaring Twenties.

    • 8.SS.4.A The student explains why America declared war on the Central Powers in World War I.

    • 8.SS.4.B The student tells the stories and explains the effects of major military events, figures, and common soldiers from World War I.

    • 8.SS.4.C The student tells the story of the Bolshevik Revolution.

    • 8.SS.4.D The student explains why the Allied Powers won World War I and the American role in the victory.

    • 8.SS.4.E The student explains the development of organized crime during Prohibition.

    • 8.SS.4.F The student explains the practice of lynching and other forms of violence targeting African Americans, including the Tulsa Massacre.

    • 8.SS.4.G The student tells the biography of Calvin Coolidge.

    • 8.SS.4.H The student describes and identifies the Art Deco style of art and architecture.

    • 8.SS.4.I The student explains the tenets and effects of the Snyder Act of 1924 (Indian Citizenship Act) granting citizenship to all Native Americans born in the United States.

    • 8.SS.4.J The student explains the origins and main ideas of the Harlem Renaissance as well as the Jazz style of music, including Jazz's origins and major musicians.

    • 8.SS.4.K The student explains the meaning and historical significance of the following terms and topics: Black Wall Street, unrestricted submarine warfare, the Lusitania, Zimmerman Telegram, Spanish Flu, the Great Migration and the 19th Amendment.

  • 8.SS.5 The student demonstrates knowledge and understanding of the Great Depression and World War II.

    • Skills covering this topic are not currently available on IXL.

  • 8.SS.6 The student demonstrates knowledge of post-war America and the Civil Rights Movement.

    • Skills covering this topic are not currently available on IXL.

  • 8.SS.7 The student demonstrates knowledge and understanding of America surrounding the Vietnam War and the cultural revolution.

    • Skills covering this topic are not currently available on IXL.

  • 8.SS.8 The student demonstrates knowledge and understanding of America at the turn of the 21st Century.

    • Skills covering this topic are not currently available on IXL.