2020 Colorado Academic Standards Online
Use the options below to create customized views of the 2020 Colorado Academic Standards. For all standards resources, see the Office of Standards and Instructional Support.
Current selections are shown below (maximum of five)
clear Content Area: Social Studies // Grade Level: Eighth Grade // Standard Category: All Standards Categories
Social Studies
Eighth Grade, Standard 1. History
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Prepared Graduates:
- 1. Understand the nature of historical knowledge as a process of inquiry that examines and analyzes how history is viewed, constructed, and interpreted.
Grade Level Expectation:
1. Investigate and evaluate primary and secondary sources about United States history from the American Revolution through Reconstruction to formulate and defend a point of view with textual evidence.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Use and interpret documents and other relevant primary and secondary sources pertaining to United States history from multiple perspectives.
- Analyze evidence from multiple sources including those with conflicting accounts about specific events in United States history.
- Critique data for point of view, historical context, distortion, or propaganda and relevance to historical inquiry.
- Construct a written historical argument supported by evidence demonstrating the use or understanding of primary and secondary sources.
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Interpret information as historians and draw conclusions based on the best analysis using primary and secondary sources. (Entrepreneurial Skills: Critical Thinking/Problem Solving)
- Synthesize ideas as historians in original and surprising ways examining multiple perspectives from the American Revolution through Reconstruction. (Entrepreneurial Skills: Creativity/Innovation)
- Make predictions as historians and design data/information collection to analyze conflicting perspectives. (Entrepreneurial Skills: Inquiry/Analysis)
Inquiry Questions:
- How has the Declaration of Independence influenced other nations?
- Which primary documents have had the greatest impact on the people of the United States?
- Should and can historians be completely impartial when writing about history?
Nature and Skills of History:
- Historical thinkers interpret history through the use of primary and secondary sources to cite specific evidence to support analysis.
- Historical thinkers use primary and secondary sources to evaluate and create hypotheses of historical events and include supporting evidence to defend their claim.
- Historical thinkers analyze modern and historical maps, through geographic tools, to explain how historical events are shaped by geography.
- Historical thinkers use technology to produce and present primary and secondary sources clearly and efficiently.
- Historical thinkers use the context and content from the past to make connections to the present. For example: connecting the Civil War to current social and political issues, and the boom and bust cycle of economics with the Gold Rush and railroads.
- Historical thinkers use the historical method of inquiry to interpret and refine history and serves as a model for inquiry. For example, historians and communities preserve historical documents, artifacts, and buildings.
Disciplinary, Information, and Media Literacy:
- Seek information from varied sources and perspectives to develop informed opinions and creative solutions.
- Answer a historical question through the interpretation of primary sources.
- Develop a clear sense of historical time, past, present and future in order to identify the sequence in which events occurred.
- Conduct research by locating, gathering and organizing information to present orally and in writing by using appropriate technology resources to support learning.
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Prepared Graduates:
- 2. Analyze historical time periods and patterns of continuity and change, through multiple perspectives, within and among cultures and societies.
Grade Level Expectation:
2. The historical eras, individuals, groups, ideas and themes from the origins of the American Revolution through Reconstruction.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Determine and explain the historical context of key people and events from the origins of the American Revolution through Reconstruction including the examination of different perspectives. For example: grievances from the colonists against Parliament, the Constitutional Convention, causes and effects of the Civil War.
- Evaluate continuity and change over the course of United States history by examining various eras and determining major sources of conflict and compromise.
- Examine factors that motivated the military and economic expansion from the American Revolution through Reconstruction.
- Evaluate the impact of gender, age, ethnicity and class during this time period and the impact of these demographic groups on the events of the time period.
- Analyze causes and effects of major conflicts from the origins of the American Revolution through Reconstruction.
- Analyze ideas that are critical to the understanding of American history. For example: ideals involved in major events and movements, such as representative democracy, federalism, capitalism, abolition, temperance, nativism, and expansionism.
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Interpret information as historians and draw conclusions based on multiple perspectives about the United States. (Entrepreneurial Skills: Critical Thinking/Problem Solving)
- Synthesize ideas as historians in original and surprising ways about historical eras, individuals, groups, ideas and themes. (Entrepreneurial Skills: Creativity/Innovation)
- Make predictions as historians and design data/information collection and analysis strategies to recognize continuity and change through time. (Entrepreneurial Skills: Inquiry/Analysis)
Inquiry Questions:
- How have the basic values and principles of American democracy changed over time and in what ways have they been preserved?
- To what extent are the ideas of the American Revolution and the United States Constitution still affecting the world today?
- What would the United States be like if the British had won the American Revolution?
- To what extent was the Civil War an extension of the American Revolution?
Nature and Skills of History:
- Historical thinkers interpret history through the use of primary and secondary sources to cite specific evidence to support analysis.
- Historical thinkers use primary and secondary sources to evaluate and create hypotheses of historical events and include supporting evidence to defend their claim.
- Historical thinkers analyze modern and historical maps, through geographic tools, to explain how historical events are shaped by geography.
- Historical thinkers use technology to produce and present primary and secondary sources clearly and efficiently.
- Historical thinkers use the context and content from the past to make connections to the present.
- Historical thinkers use the historical method of inquiry to interpret and refine history and serves as a model for inquiry. For example: historians and communities preserve historical documents, artifacts, and buildings.
Disciplinary, Information, and Media Literacy:
- Seek information from varied sources and perspectives to develop informed opinions and creative solutions.
- Answer a historical question through the interpretation of primary sources.
- Develop a clear sense of historical time, past, present and future in order to identify the sequence in which events occurred.
- Conduct research by locating, gathering and organizing information to present orally and in writing by using appropriate technology resources to support learning.
Social Studies
Eighth Grade, Standard 2. Geography
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Prepared Graduates:
- 3. Apply geographic representations and perspectives to analyze human movement, spatial patterns, systems, and the connections and relationships among them.
Grade Level Expectation:
1. Use geographic tools to research and analyze patterns in human and physical systems in the United States.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Interpret maps and other geographic tools as a primary source to analyze a historic issue.
- Describe the nature and spatial distribution of cultural patterns.
- Recognize the patterns and networks of economic interdependence.
- Explain the establishment of human settlements in relationship to physical attributes and important regional connections.
- Calculate and analyze population trends.
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Interpret information and draw conclusions using demographic information based on the best analysis to understand patterns of change in human and physical systems. (Entrepreneurial Skills: Critical Thinking/Problem Solving)
- Synthesize ideas in original and surprising ways to demonstrate understanding of demographic patterns of movement and their impact upon the physical systems of the United States. (Entrepreneurial Skills: Creativity/Innovation)
- Organize geographic information through the use of technologies to develop greater understanding of a historical event or action. (Professional Skills: Use Information and Communication Technologies).
- As a geographer, demonstrate ways to adapt and reach workable solutions as a geographer when considering the use of limited resources and their impact upon political and historical events. (Personal Skills: Adaptability/Flexibility).
Inquiry Questions:
- How has human settlement including migration influenced and been influenced by changes in physical systems and culture?
- How can geographic tools help explore patterns in human and physical systems?
- How have people and the environment interacted to produce changes over time?
- How is human activity limited by the environment?
- How has the environment influenced human activity?
Nature and Skills of Geography:
- Spatial thinkers use habits of mind which include recognition of concepts of space, interpretation, and analysis of spatial representations.
- Spatial thinkers apply spatial reasoning to understand historical events and recognize patterns.
- Spatial thinkers use cognitive skills fundamental to spatial thinking by combining spatial visualization, spatial orientation, and spatial relation including recognition of spatial distributions and patterns to connect locations and associate and correlate spatially distributed phenomena.
- Geographic thinkers respond to historical and spatial literature to understand issues from a spatial perspective.
Disciplinary, Information, and Media Literacy:
- Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs, photographs, videos, or maps) with other information in print and digital texts.
- Apply reading and writing strategies to construct and express knowledge.
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Prepared Graduates:
- 4. Examine the characteristics of places and regions, and the changing nature among geographic and human interactions.
Grade Level Expectation:
2. Competition for control of space and resources in early American history.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Analyze how economic, political, cultural, and social processes interact to shape patterns of human population, interdependence, cooperation and conflict.
- Compare how differing geographic perspectives apply to a historic issue.
- Interpret from a geographic perspective the expansion of the United States by addressing issues of land, security, access, and sovereignty.
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Interpret information and draw conclusions as geographers based on the best analysis to recognize and understand the processes that interact in shaping human population patterns and historical events. (Entrepreneurial Skills: Critical Thinking/Problem Solving).
- Synthesize ideas in original and surprising ways while comparing differing geographic perspectives. (Entrepreneurial Skills: Creativity/Innovation)
- Act on creative ideas to make a tangible and useful contribution to analyze and explain interdependence, cooperation and conflict over space and resources in early American history. (Entrepreneurial Skills: Informed Risk Taking)
- Demonstrate ways to adapt and reach workable solutions in understanding differing perspectives over use of resources and space. (Personal Skills: Adaptability/Flexibility)
Inquiry Questions:
- How will the location of resources lead to cooperation or conflict in the future?
- How has conflict over space and resources influenced human migration?
- How have differing perspectives regarding resource and land use, occupancy, and ownership led to cooperative policies or conflict?
- How would human settlement patterns be different if people did not trade resources with others?
Nature and Skills of Geography:
- Geographic thinkers evaluate the allocation of resources and the use of space to understand relationships.
- Geographic thinkers recognize that different perspectives affect cooperation and conflict over space and resources.
Disciplinary, Information, and Media Literacy:
- Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources.
- Distinguish among fact, opinion, and reasoned judgment in a text.
- Read to identify cause-and-effect relationships, compare and contrast information, fact vs. opinion, and author bias.
- Evaluate the accuracy, relevance, appropriateness, and bias of online and print sources.
- Identify propaganda, censorship, and bias in the media.
Social Studies
Eighth Grade, Standard 3. Economics
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Prepared Graduates:
- 5. Understand the allocation of scarce resources in societies through analysis of individual choice, market interaction, and public policy.
Grade Level Expectation:
1. Economic freedom, including free trade was important for economic growth in early American history.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Give examples of international and regional differences in resources, productivity, and costs that provide a basis for trade.
- Describe the factors that lead to a nation or a region having a comparative and absolute advantage in trade.
- Explain effects of domestic policies on international trade.
- Explain why nations sometimes restrict trade by using quotas, tariffs, and nontariff barriers.
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Make predictions and design data/information collection and analysis strategies concerning economic policy through evaluation of historical events. (Entrepreneurial Skills: Inquiry/Analysis)
- Apply knowledge and skills as an economist and citizen to implement sophisticated, appropriate, and workable solutions to address complex global problems using interdisciplinary perspectives independently or with others in order to inform public policy. (Civic/Interpersonal Skills: Global/Cultural Awareness).
- Educate and inspire others using sound economic understandings to evaluate economic policy and inform economic decisions based upon consideration of past experiences. (Professional Skills: Leadership)
Inquiry Questions:
- How do societies benefit from trade and exchange?
- Why is it important for nations to control trade and exchange?
- What are the benefits and challenges of trade at the international, national, state, local, and individual levels?
- How does where and how you purchase products affect the social, economic, and environmental conditions?
- What impact upon productivity results from taxation?
- What concerns do citizens have with taxation?
Nature and Skills of Economics:
- Economic thinkers choose wisely to get the most from limited resources. They understand that trade and collaboration within a market economy is important to business and individual success.
- Economic thinkers understand that economic actions have indirect as well as direct effects and it is important to analyze positive and negative impacts of trade agreements as critical to a nation’s success.
- Economic thinkers understand that technological advances aid businesses in operating efficiently.
- Economic thinkers analyze the components of economic growth in market economies because economic theories can be used to predict consequences.
Disciplinary, Information, and Media Literacy:
- Gather information by taking notes, making outlines, and creating graphic organizers.
- Read texts by using reading strategies (i.e., prior knowledge, key vocabulary words, context clues, main ideas, supporting details, and text features: pictures, maps, text boxes).
- Formulate appropriate research questions.
- Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis reflections, and research.
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Prepared Graduates:
- 6. Apply economic reasoning skills to make informed personal financial decisions (PFL).
Grade Level Expectation:
2. Examine the role of consumer decisions and taxes within the market economies of early American history (PFL).
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Calculate how the value of money has changed over time impacting earning, spending, borrowing, and investing. For example: inflation and recession.
- Explain factors that have impacted borrowing and investing over time. For example: currency stability, war, and banking practices.
- Analyze the changes in the development of human capital over time. For example: gaining knowledge and skill through education, apprenticeship, and work experience.
- Analyze the impact of taxes on the people of the United States over time.
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Investigate to form hypotheses, make observations and draw conclusions. (Entrepreneurial Skills: Inquiry/Analysis)
- Interpret information and draw conclusions based on the best analysis. (Entrepreneurial Skills: Critical Thinking/Problem Solving)
Inquiry Questions:
- What role did taxes play in the birth of our nation?
- What would countries look like without taxes?
- How has the value of money changed over time and what is the impact on consumerism?
- How did inventions impact personal financial options?
Nature and Skills of Economics:
- Financially capable individuals apply the economic way of thinking which assumes that people make particular choices because they are responding to the underlying incentives.
- Financially capable individuals study factors that lead to increased economic interdependence, increased productivity, and improved standard of living for the individuals in a society.
- Financially capable individuals understand that there is an economic role for government in a market economy whenever the benefits of a government policy outweigh its costs.
Disciplinary, Information, and Media Literacy:
- Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of the text.
- Explain how a question represents key ideas in the field.
- Explain points of agreement experts have about interpretations and applications of disciplinary concepts and ideas associated with a compelling question.
- Analyze and use information presented visually in a text (for example, graphs, charts, flowcharts, diagrams, models, tables) that support the words in a text.
Social Studies
Eighth Grade, Standard 4. Civics
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Prepared Graduates:
- 7. Express an understanding of how civic participation affects policy by applying the rights and responsibilities of a citizen.
Grade Level Expectation:
1. Construct an understanding of the changing definition of citizenship and the expansion of rights of citizens in the United States.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Describe instances in which major political, social, economic, or cultural changes occurred and the reasons for the changes.
- Analyze the changing definition of citizenship and give examples of the expansion of rights.
- Describe examples of citizens and groups who have influenced change in United States government and politics. For example: Women, American Indians, African Americans, and people in the unsettled territories.
- Evaluate the result of various strategies for political change over time.
- Analyze primary sources supporting democratic freedoms and the founding of our government. For example: the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights; and explain how they provide for both continuity and change.
- Examine ways members of society may effectively voice opinions, monitor government, and bring about change nationally.
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Make connections as citizens between information gathered and personal experiences to apply and/or test solutions to analyze citizenship and examine the individual role in government. (Entrepreneurial Skills: Inquiry/Analysis)
- Apply knowledge as citizens to set goals, make informed decisions, and transfer to new contexts about the roles and responsibilities of individual citizens. (Personal Skills: Initiative/Self-Direction)
Inquiry Questions:
- What is a patriot?
- What are the duties and responsibilities for citizens?
- What are the various roles of government?
- How have various people from different eras in our nation's history promoted change in the face of opposition and what democratic principles were advanced?
- How have the meanings of American ideals remained the same and changed over time?
Nature and Skills of Civics:
- Civic-minded individuals distinguish the powers and responsibilities of citizens, political parties, interest groups, and the media in a variety of government and non-governmental contexts.
- Civic-minded individuals explain specific roles played by citizens. For example: voters, jurors, taxpayers, members of the armed forces, petitioners, protesters, and office-holders.
- Civic-minded individuals examine the origins, purposes, and impact of constitutions, laws, treaties and international agreements.
- Civic-minded individuals explain the powers and limits of the three branches of government, public officials, and bureaucracies at different levels in the United States and in other countries.
Disciplinary, Information, and Media Literacy:
- Use content-specific technology tools to support learning and research.
- Use effective decision-making and problem-solving skills in public and private life.
- Accept responsibility for the well-being of oneself, family, and the community.
- Conduct research by locating, gathering, organizing information and data, and evaluating online and print resources.
- Demonstrate positive social and ethical behaviors when using technology and discuss consequences of inappropriate use.
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Prepared Graduates:
- 8. Analyze the origins, structures, and functions of governments to evaluate the impact on citizens and the global society.
Grade Level Expectation:
2. The purpose and place of rule of law in a constitutional system.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Discern various types of law.
- Evaluate the strengths of rule of law.
- Describe and engage in various means of conflict management.
- Explain the role and importance of the Constitution.
- Discuss the tensions between individual rights, state law, and national law.
- Explain how the state and federal courts' power of judicial review is reflected in the United States’ form of constitutional government.
- Use a variety of resources to identify and evaluate issues that involve civic responsibility, individual rights, and the common good.
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Make connections as citizens between information gathered and personal experiences to apply and/or test solutions to analyze the structures and functions of government. (Entrepreneurial Skills: Critical Thinking/Problem Solving)
- Connect knowledge as citizens from personal ideas/understandings to civic engagement about the origins, structures and functions of governments. (Civic/Interpersonal Skills: Civic Engagement).
Inquiry Questions:
- What is the "common good"?
- What are key court cases and historical events in the development of the United States?
- How have landmark Supreme Court cases impacted society?
- What are examples of successful and unsuccessful conflict resolution in United States history and why?
- How has the United States balanced individual rights and law?
- Which is more effective, the rule of law or the rule of man? Why?
Nature and Skills of Civics:
- Civic minded individuals read diverse sources to create understanding, critically analyze issues, and place them in historical context.
- Civic minded individuals understand and discuss the dynamic nature of national government and the individual's role in the process.
Disciplinary, Information, and Media Literacy:
- Use content specific technology tools to support learning and research.
- Use effective decision-making and problem-solving skills in public and private life.
- Accept responsibility for the well-being of oneself, family, and the community.
- Apply social studies content and skills to real life situations.
Need Help? Submit questions or requests for assistance to bruno_j@cde.state.co.us