Grade 8 Social Studies Arkansas standards Standards

Arkansas History

Geography

Economics

Civics

Understand the impact of origins, structures, and functions of institutions and laws on society and citizens. This includes personal civic rights, roles, responsibilities, and processes by which laws are made and amended.

Examine the functions and powers of the three branches of government in Arkansas as outlined in the Arkansas Constitution.

Examine features of the Arkansas Constitution that distinguish it from the U.S. Constitution<ul><li>Differences in power of legislative vs. executive branches</li><li>Voter-approved constitutional amendments</li><li>Election of Supreme Court justices</li><li>Balanced budget requirement</li></ul>

Analyze the political process in Arkansas, including the voting and election processes, party politics, the role of media, and term limits.

Examine the rights and responsibilities of citizenship as outlined by the Arkansas Constitution (e.g., Amendment 88 - Right to Hunt, Fish, Trap, and Harvest Wildlife).

Demonstrate proper etiquette for interacting with the Arkansas and American flags and analyze the history and meaning of the Arkansas flag.

Analyze the response of state government and the role of public policy on social concerns in Arkansas such as unemployment, education, poverty, immigration, and culture.

Understand the impact of economic decision-making. This includes the exchange of goods and services; role of producers, consumers, and government in the marketplace; and growth, stability, and interdependence within a global economy.

Evaluate the impact of natural resources on the economics and development of each geographic region of the state:<ul><li>Arkansas River Valley (e.g., agriculture, coal, natural gas, water)</li><li>Crowley's Ridge (e.g., agriculture)</li><li>Mississippi Alluvial Plain (Delta) (e.g., agriculture, waterfowl, fish)</li><li>Ouachita Mountains (e.g., thermal springs, timber, quartz)</li><li>Ozark Mountains (e.g., minerals, natural gas)</li><li>West Gulf Coastal Plain (Timberlands) (e.g., bromine, diamonds, timber, bauxite, oil, wild game)</li></ul>

Analyze the economic impact of transportation systems in Arkansas, including rivers, railroads, airports, and highways.

Analyze how the six geographic regions of Arkansas developed and have changed economically.

Examine contributions of Arkansas entrepreneurs on local, regional, national, and global economic development.

Analyze the local, regional, national, and global economic impact of Arkansas businesses and industries, including agriculture, tourism, timber, technology, medical and scientific research, and finance.

Investigate Arkansas's global economic contributions through educational and humanitarian efforts such as the Fulbright Institute, Clinton School of Public Service, Heifer International, Walton Family Foundation, Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, and other corporate and private foundations.

Understand the purpose of geographic tools (e.g., maps, globes, charts, graphs) to understand, analyze, and explain human interaction with each other and with the environment. This includes the spatial characteristics and patterns of human settlement and connections between global regions.

Compare and contrast the six geographic regions of Arkansas using geographic representations and available geospatial technologies (e.g., Global Positioning System, Geographic Information System).

Analyze the availability of resources and their effects on the geographic development of each region of the state<ul><li>Arkansas River Valley (e.g., agriculture, coal, natural gas, water)</li><li>Crowley's Ridge (e.g., agriculture)</li><li>Mississippi Alluvial Plain (Delta) (e.g., agriculture, waterfowl, fish)</li><li>Ouachita Mountains (e.g., thermal springs, timber, quartz)</li><li>Ozark Mountains (e.g., minerals, natural gas)</li><li>West Gulf Coastal Plain (e.g., bromine, diamonds, timber, bauxite, oil, wild game)</li></ul>

Evaluate the human impact on water systems in Arkansas over time, including the use of aquifers for agriculture and the use of rivers and lakes for trade, transportation, recreation, and flood control such as the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System.

Analyze the natural phenomena on the environment of specific regions such as Tornado Alley, New Madrid earthquakes, Flood of 1927, Drought of 1930, Arkansas River Flood of 2019.

Analyze the impact of geographic features on settlement and movement patterns around the state. This may include the Louisiana Purchase survey, the impact of swamps in east and south Arkansas hindering migration and settlement; the mountains in north and west Arkansas hindering migration and prohibiting large-scale farming; and the impact of rivers and bayous throughout the state facilitating travel and transportation of goods.

Analyze relationships between the geography of Arkansas and economic development over time.

Examine how the geography of different communities and regions affects Arkansas's cultural characteristics, including songs, stories, legends, and oral traditions.

Understand chronology, patterns of continuity, and change over time. This includes the contextualization of historical events and ways people gather, view, construct, and interpret historical evidence.

Evaluate the significance of historical events and periods in early Arkansas:<ul><li>Presence of Indigenous people</li><li>European exploration</li><li>Territorial Arkansas period, including settlement and early government</li><li>Indian Removal</li><li>Early statehood period</li></ul>

Examine the social, economic, and political effects of the Great Depression and the New Deal on various regions and segments of the population in Arkansas, including unemployment and the role of federal programs in the state.

Investigate social, economic, and political effects of World War II on various segments of the population in Arkansas, including soldiers off to war, war casualties, women at work, Japanese-American internment camps, victory, and war production plants.H.1.ARH.12

Analyze social, economic, and political effects of the Civil Rights Movement on various regions in Arkansas.

Examine the social and cultural transformations in Arkansas in the areas of music, art, clothing, culture, and demographics.

Research contributions made by Arkansans in the fields of art, business, medicine, science, and technology in the 20th and 21st centuries<ul><li>Art (e.g., Johnny Cash, Jimmy Driftwood, Maya Angelou)</li><li>Medicine (e.g., Dr. Samuel Lee Kountz Jr., Ruth Beall)</li><li>Business (e.g., Don Tyson, J.B. Hunt, Sam Walton, William Dillard, Jackson T. Stephens)</li><li>Science and technology (e.g., Isaac T. Gillam IV, Raye Jean Montague)</li></ul>

Research contributions made by various political, military, and social movement leaders in Arkansas

Examine the cultural characteristics of Indigenous populations in Arkansas, both pre-Columbian (e.g., Mississippians) and Historic (e.g., Caddo, Osage, and Quapaw).

Summarize the events of Arkansas territorial and early statehood period, including the Hunter-Dunbar Expedition, early government, move of the capitol from Arkansas Post to Little Rock, establishment of the General Assembly, and the process by which Arkansas achieved statehood.

Analyze the historical significance of and reasons for Arkansas's involvement in the Civil War, including events, battles, and people (including the Sultana Disaster) in various regions of Arkansas:<ul><li>Events (e.g., the Little Rock arsenal incident, the Secessionist Convention, split loyalties, Sultana Disaster)</li><li>Battles (e.g., Pea Ridge, Prairie Grove, Pine Bluff, Little Rock, Helena, Camden Expedition, guerrilla warfare)</li><li>People (e.g., Henry Rector, Isaac Murphy, David O. Dodd)</li></ul>

Examine the effects of emancipation and Reconstruction in Arkansas, including the Freedmen's Bureau, sharecropping system, Brooks-Baxter War, Constitution of 1874, election of black legislators, restoration of Confederate voting rights, and subsequent Jim Crow laws.

Analyze social, economic, and political reforms of the Progressive Era in Arkansas, including women's suffrage, growth and development of railroads, industrialism, and reform of the convict lease system.

Discuss social events and issues in Arkansas surrounding discrimination and marginalization, including Jim Crow laws, rise of the Ku Klux Klan, Elaine Race Massacre, and school segregation.

Discuss the social and cultural changes in Arkansas during the turn of the century, including music (e.g., spirituals, blues, jazz), food, and the influx of immigrants and immigrant communities (e.g., Little Italy, Altus, Catholic Point).

Investigate the social, economic, and political effects of World War I on various segments of the population in Arkansas, including soldier casualties and the impact of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic.

Eras 5-7: United States History 1850-1930

Understand key historical periods from Civil War and Reconstruction, 1850-1877 (Era 5), to the Emergence of a Modern America, 1890-1930 (Era 7). This includes the patterns of social, economic, and political change over time and the ways people view, construct, and interpret the history of the United States.

Demonstrate proper etiquette for interacting with the Arkansas and American flags and evaluate the use of various flags between the 1850 and 1930 (e.g., flags used in the Civil War, development of the Arkansas flag).

Analyze economic, geographic, and technological growth associated with the Second Industrial Revolution and its impact on American society:<ul><li>Entrepreneurship: (e.g., John Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, Henry Ford, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, Madam C.J. Walker)</li><li>Energy: (e.g., oil, electricity, inventions/discoveries by Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla)</li><li>Transportation: (e.g., growth of railroads and steel, Wright brothers, automobile and assembly line)</li></ul>

Examine the causes and effects of immigration after 1870, including push-pull factors, ethnic enclaves, the assimilation process, and rise of nativism through law (e.g., Chinese Exclusion Act, Johnson-Reed Act).

Analyze the historical significance of the women's suffrage movement, including key individuals, groups, and events that contributed:<ul><li>Individuals: (e.g., Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, Ida Wells, Grimké sisters)</li><li>Groups: abolition and temperance movements groups</li><li>Events: (e.g., passage of married women's property acts in states, Seneca Falls Convention, passage of the 19th Amendment)</li></ul>

Examine government policies and laws that addressed the escalating labor conflicts and the creation, purpose, and rise of labor unions:<ul><li>Factory system</li><li>Immigrant and child labor</li><li>Convict leasing</li><li>Union tactics (e.g., strikes, negotiations)</li></ul>

Evaluate federal policy toward Indigenous nations, westward expansion, and the resulting struggles and issues that arose.

Analyze the development of regional tensions prior to the Civil War:<ul><li>Economic development: (e.g., effects of cotton gin invention, Industrial Revolution, growth of manufacturing and railroads in northern states)</li><li>Political actions: (e.g., tariffs, nullification crisis, compromises, disenfranchisement of free blacks)</li><li>Expansion of slavery, immigration, and westward migration</li></ul>

Evaluate key laws and decisions addressing the issue of slavery prior to the Civil War:<ul><li>Missouri Compromise on the admittance of free and slave states</li><li>Compromise of 1850, including the Fugitive Slave Act, and its impact on the abolition movement</li><li>Popular sovereignty movement and Bleeding Kansas</li><li>Dred Scott vs. Sanford decision</li></ul>

Evaluate the historical significance of key individuals, groups, and events leading to the Civil War<ul><li>Individuals: (e.g., Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Abraham Lincoln)</li><li>Groups: (e.g., Free-Soil Party, Republican Party, Northern and Southern Democrats)</li><li>Events: (e.g., John Brown's raid, Nat Turner's rebellion, Underground Railroad, election of Abraham Lincoln, state secessionist conventions)</li></ul>

Develop historical arguments and explanations of causes of the Civil War:<ul><li>Role of Congress and states' rights (e.g., power to admit new states, tariff debate, Supremacy Clause, nullification crisis)</li><li>Debates on the issue of slavery (e.g., expansion vs. popular sovereignty vs. free soil anti-slavery vs. total abolition)</li><li>Sectionalism (e.g., cultural and economic differences between the North and South)</li></ul>

Explain ways economic development of the North and South created certain advantages and disadvantages during the course of the Civil War:<ul><li>Union/Northern states: (e.g., largely industrialized, manufacturing, extensive railroad network)</li><li>Confederacy/Southern states: (e.g., largely agricultural, dependence on chattel slavery, less extensive transportation system)</li></ul>

Analyze political, social, and economic effects of the Civil War on America including destruction of property and infrastructure, a weakened economy, a stronger federal government, and loss of life and livelihoods.

Analyze the historical significance of key Civil War battles, events, and people:<ul><li>Battles: Fort Sumter, Bull Run, Gettysburg, Sherman's March, Shiloh, Vicksburg, Appomattox</li><li>Events: Lincoln presidency, Emancipation Proclamation, Gettysburg Address, Second Inaugural Address, assassination, Sultana disaster</li><li>People: various Union and Confederate leaders and generals</li></ul>

Evaluate political, social, and economic impacts of Reconstruction:<ul><li>Political: (e.g., black voting rights, African-American role in government, military occupation of Southern states, Freedmen's Bureau, Reconstruction Amendments, election of Rutherford B. Hayes, restoration of Confederate voting rights, subsequent passage of Jim Crow laws and Black Codes)</li><li>Social: (e.g., public education and dramatic increase of literacy rates, rise of the Ku Klux Klan)</li><li>Economic: (e.g., sharecropping system and crop liens, African-American economic positions, Southern economy)</li></ul>

Explain the origins, development, and impact of American expansionism, including the geographic effects of acquiring new territories, the expansionist foreign policy under William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, and William Taft, and the role of the Spanish-American War:<ul><li>Annexation of Alaska, Hawaii, Panama Canal</li><li>Acquisition of federally protected land such as national parks</li><li>Role of yellow journalism</li><li>Treaty of Paris: annexation of Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam</li><li>Open Door Policy with East Asia</li></ul>

Analyze motives for and significance of America's entry into World War I, including the sinking of the RMS Lusitania, the Zimmerman Telegram, unrestricted submarine warfare, the Argonne Offensive, and key military leaders (e.g., General John J. Pershing and Alvin York).

Investigate political, social, and technological outcomes of World War I on American society:<ul><li>New weapons in warfare</li><li>Women entering the workforce</li><li>Espionage and Sedition Acts</li><li>Wilson's Fourteen Points and the ratification debate of the Treaty of Versailles</li></ul>

Analyze the changing role of the United States in the world from 1890-1930 and the effects on future eras.

Investigate the impact of Progressive Era reformers and ideas:<ul><li>Booker T. Washington vs. W.E.B. DuBois on civil rights</li><li>John Dewey on education</li><li>Jane Addams on social work</li><li>Rise of religious liberalism, Social Darwinism, and the eugenics movement</li></ul>

Analyze short- and long-term effects of Progressive Era reforms at the local, state, and national levels:<ul><li>Food safety laws (e.g., Pure Food and Drug Act, Meat Packing Act)</li><li>Industry and labor regulations (e.g., bans against child labor, Sherman Anti-Trust Act, Clayton Anti-Trust Act)</li><li>Progressive legislation (e.g., adoption of initiative, referendum, recall, 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th Amendments)</li><li>Social and labor movements (e.g., populism, civil service reform, temperance, the Granger Movement)</li></ul>

Evaluate the effects of key political issues of the 1910s and 1920s:<ul><li>Nativism and cultural assimilation: (e.g., Emergency Quota Act, Sacco and Vanzetti)</li><li>Racial discrimination and civil rights: (e.g., continued presence of Ku Klux Klan, founding of NAACP, Elaine Race Massacre, Tulsa Race Massacre)</li><li>Indigenous rights: (e.g., Indian Citizenship Act, United States vs. Winans)</li><li>Rise of Communism/Marxism: (e.g., First Red Scare, J. Edgar Hoover)</li></ul>

Examine reasons for and effects of social, economic, political, and cultural changes during the 1920s, including the Harlem Renaissance, Great Migration, Prohibition, and financial and consumer trends such as the rise of the automobile, buying on credit, advertising, household products, sports, and the arts.