Course Description
Social 8 features geography as the lead discipline with a strong secondary emphasis on contemporary world history. Like all other social studies classes K–12, content is drawn from citizenship and government and economics. This is what gives the class the actual title of Global Studies. Students will explore the regions of the world through a variety of resources and participate in civic discussion, research, and presentations. Global Studies aligns with and covers the Minnesota Academic Standards.
Proficiency Targets
Civic Skills Proficiency
As evidenced based on classroom assessments, the student is able to:
- Exhibit civic discourse skills: listening, speaking, respecting diverse viewpoints, evaluate arguments
- Demonstrate respect for people or groups that have different perspectives and reach consensus
- Participate in a civic discussion on issues in the contemporary world
Economics Proficiency
As evidenced based on classroom assessments, the student is able to:
- Apply reasoned decision-making techniques in making choices. Ex. PACED (8.2.1.1.1)
- Explain why different governments faced with the same alternatives make different choices (8.2.1.1.1)
- Identify factors which affect economic growth that leads to different standards of living in different countries/regions (8.2.3.4.1)
- Explain why trade is mutually beneficial to countries (8.2.5.12.1)
- Define and apply absolute and comparative advantage with respect to international trade (8.2.5.12.1)
Geographic Proficiency
As evidenced based on classroom assessments, the student is able to:
- Obtain and analyze geographic information from a variety of sources including print and electronic sources and use the information to investigate places or answer specific geographic questions (8.3.1.1.1)
- Create and use various types of maps and incorporate the TODALSS map basics (8.3.1.1.2)
- Describe the human populations and cultural characteristics of:
- United States and Canada (8.3.3.5.1)
- Latin America (8.3.3.5.2)
- Europe and Russia (8.3.3.5.3)
- Southwest Asia and North Africa (8.3.3.5.4)
- East Asia and Southeast Asia (8.3.3.5.5)
- South and Central Asia (8.3.3.5.6)
- Sub-Saharan Africa (8.3.3.5.7)
- Australia and Oceania (8.3.3.5.8)
- Describe how physical and environmental features affect human activity and settlement (for the above regions) (8.3.3.6.1–8)
Historical Thinking Skills
As evidenced based on classroom assessments, the student is able to:
- Pose questions about a topic in world history
- Gather and organize a variety of primary and secondary sources related to the topic
- Analyze sources for credibility and bias
- Write a thesis statement
- Use sources to draw conclusions and support the thesis
- Present supported findings and cite sources (8.4.1.2.1)
World Religions
As evidenced based on classroom assessments, the student is able to:
- Describe varieties of religious beliefs in the contemporary world including: Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Shamanism/Animism.
Materials Used
- Refugee, a novel by Alan Gratz (used in an interdisciplinary unit with Language Arts)
- UpFront Magazine by Scholastic (various topics concerning current events on national and global scales)
- ArcGIS mapping
- Curated materials from a variety of sources
