Welcome to 8th Grade!

Course Syllabus

September The Constitution and The Civil War

• Classroom Constitutions
• 9/11 and current issues
• Causes and Effects of the Civil War
• The Constitution and the Bill of Rights

October Reconstruction

• Lincoln's Assassination
• From Slaves to Freedmen
• Plans for Reconstruction & their effects

November The Gilded Age

• Growth of the West and Manifest Destiny
• Transcontinental Railroad
• Native American relocation
• Growth of urban areas
• Immigration, quotas, & effects on society

December The Progressive Era

• Technological inventions and the impact on society
• Captains of Industry & Growth of Captialism
• Abuses of Big Businesses & Political Machines
• Populist Movement

January Imperialism

• Theodore Roosevelt
• Rise of social & government reformers
• Spanish American War and acquiring territories
• Big Stick Diplomacy/International Police Power
• Annexation of Hawai'i
• Anti-Imperialism

February World War I

• Causes of the Great War
• US Neutrality & Isolationism
• Events leading US to War
• Rise of Communism and Global conflict
• Failures of the League of Nations & 14 Points

March Roaring 20's/Great Depression

• Women's suffrage
• Prohibition
• Harlem Renaissance and Changes in Leisure Time
• Stock Market Crash and effects
• FDR and The New Deal
• Dust Bowl and its effects
• Treaty of Versailles & the rise of dictators

World War II

• Final Solution and the Holocaust
• Pearl Harbor & US involvement in the War

April Cold War & Beyond

• Wartime powers and Japanese Americans
• Nuremburg trials and rise of the UN
• Communism & Containment

MAY

• Civil Rights Movement
• Vietnam War & social changes
• Superpowers Space & Arms Race
• US foreign peacekeeping
• current environmental & social reforms

June 2013 Field Trip:TBA!