Grade 7 Social Studies Curriculum
Family-facing version of the grade 7 Social Studies curriculum
Quarterly Overview of Grade 7 Social Studies
The objectives and outcomes for each unit are common across FCPS and based on the Virginia Standards of Learning. The pacing by quarter and by week provides an example of how the curriculum can be organized throughout the year. Teacher teams may adjust the pacing or order of units to best meet the needs of students.
Honors
Grade 7 US History Honors provides students the opportunity to engage in more rigorous and complex content such as exposure to advanced readings, processes, products, and assessments that reflect their understanding of key concepts.
Week 1Week 2Week 3
Week 4Week 5Week 6
Week 7Week 8Week 9
Quarter 1
Quarter 2
Units and Details
Students will:
- Be introduced to skills for historical thinking, geographical analysis, economic decision making, and responsible citizenship.
- Make connections across time through an examination of current events.
- Locate the 50 states and the cities most significant to the historical development of the United States and explain what makes those cities significant.
Students will consider:
- What makes me an important member of my community?
- What connects people across cities, regions, and the country?
- What can I/we learn from someone different from me/us?
Students will:
- Understand that the Civil War divided the country, resulting in loss of life, homes, and businesses. The country needed to be rebuilt to mend not only the physical landscape, but also relationships between peoples with an emphasis on formerly enslaved African Americans.
- Analyze the impact of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution and how they changed the meaning of citizenship.
- Describe the impact of Reconstruction on the North and South with a focus on the effects of federal government policies on formerly enslaved people.
- Describe the end of Reconstruction and its impact on the North and South.
- Describe the legacies of Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, and Frederick Douglass.
- Describe how the post-Reconstruction South led to systemic racism against African Americans and began with the institutionalization of Jim Crow Laws.
Students will consider:
- Are laws enough to protect people’s rights?
- Will there always be resistance to equality?
- How free is free?
- How can individuals stop injustice in society?
- How does the history of racial injustice shape life in the United States?
- What does it mean to be free? What does it mean to be oppressed?
- How do people draw on their culture, family, and community to resist oppression?
Students will:
- Explain how physical features and climate influenced the movement of people westward.
- Explain relationships among natural resources, transportation, and industrial development after 1865.
- Understand how the Reconstruction Amendments did not attend to the rights of American Indians and women.
- Analyze how Jim Crow laws impacted the rights of American Indians, as well as people of Latino and Asian descent.
- Examine how Westward Expansion impacted the lifestyle of American Indians.
- Describe racial segregation and other constraints faced by African Americans and other groups in the post-Reconstruction South.
Students will consider:
- How do technological innovations impact cultures and society in positive and negative ways?
- How do advances in technology allow people to adapt to their environments? How do they create conflict between different groups?
- In what ways did America’s colonization of the West have a lasting impact on American Indian cultures?
- What are our responsibilities for righting the wrongs of the past and present (e.g., Wounded Knee/appropriating American Indian symbols)?
- How has technology evolved over time?
Students will:
- Explain relationships among natural resources, transportation, and industrial development after 1865.
- Explain the reasons for the increase in immigration, growth of cities, new inventions, and challenges arising from this expansion.
- Explain how the United States was transformed from primarily an agricultural society into one based on manufacturing.
- Explain that industrialization had both positive and negative effects on society.
- Evaluate and explain the impact of globalization and international trade on American life.
Students will consider:
- Were the benefits of industrialization worth the costs?
- How might Americans interact with resources to develop new industries and innovations?
- How do decisions in the past influence our current and future world/generations?
- How does identity shape your interaction with a changing world?
- How did the change from an agricultural to a manufacturing economy impact people of the time?
- How has globalization impacted me, my family, and my community?
Students will:
- Analyze how population changes and growth of cities produced cultural conflict and challenges in urban areas, including discrimination.
- Describe racial segregation faced by African Americans and other groups in the post-Reconstruction South.
- Evaluate and explain immigration patterns and immigration policy during the second half of the twentieth and early twenty first centuries.
Students will consider:
- Why might people migrate?
- What does it mean to be American?
- How does American culture today reflect patterns of migration?
- How can past cultural injustice impact people today?
- How do culture groups work to shape a national identity that celebrates past achievements?
Students will:
- Analyze how population changes and growth of cities produced cultural conflict and challenges in urban areas, including discrimination.
- Explain that the effects of industrialization and immigration led to reforms during the Progressive Movement.
- Evaluate and explain environmental policy during the second half of the twentieth and early twenty first centuries.
Students will consider:
- How do people and governments respond to change?
- Can reform movements improve society?
- In what ways do people respond to injustice?
- How do those who are limited in their rights advocate for justice?
- What responsibilities do those with power and privilege have towards working for justice for all?
Students will:
- Understand the changing role of the United States from the late nineteenth century through World War I by explaining the reasons for and results of the Spanish-American War.
- Describe Theodore Roosevelt’s impact on the foreign policy of the United States.
Students will consider:
- How does a nation’s wants and needs impact foreign policy decisions?
- Did the press cause the Spanish-American War?
- Should the United States serve as the world’s policeman?
- How did the United States justify colonizing other nations, and how can we evaluate those justifications?
- In what ways have people in Cuba, Guam, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico been impacted by the outcome of the Spanish-American War?
Students will:
- Understand the changing role of the United States from the late nineteenth century through World War I by evaluating and explaining the reasons for the United States’ involvement in World War I and its international leadership role at the conclusion of the war.
Students will consider:
- What can be learned about the American people from the way by which the United States mobilized, prepared, and participated in the first world war?
- What lessons can be learned from how the United States mobilized for World War I?
- Is war just?
- What causes conflict?
- Why do nations go to war?
- Were the political and military goals of World War I (both in the U.S. and worldwide) worth the loss of property, money, and human life?
- Were the costs of World War I worth the benefits?
- How does the unfolding of World War I foreshadow the role of the United States as a prominent world power of the twentieth century?
- How do people react to war?
- What did World War I mean to diverse people in the U.S.?
- What shapes our feelings about war?
Students will:
- Explain how developments in factory and labor productivity, transportation, communication, and electrification changed American life.
- Describe the social and economic changes that took place including Prohibition and the Great Migration.
- Examine art, music, and literature from the 1920s and 1930s with emphasis on the Harlem Renaissance.
Students will consider:
- Are technological advancements more helpful or harmful to people?
- How does art help us grow our understanding about people and cultures?
- How is art resistance?
- Does art reflect change or create change?
- In what ways do people respond to injustice?
- Do laws prevent crime or create crime?
- What responsibilities do those with power and privilege have to work towards justice for all?
- What impact did the Great Migration have on American race relations?
- What are the public stories of migration?
- What do people experience as they move from one place to another?
- How much control do migrants have over their journey and what are the choices and dilemmas they face during their journey?
- What do these journeys reveal about human nature?
Students will:
- Analyze the causes of the Great Depression, its impact on Americans, and the major features of Roosevelt’s New Deal.
Students will consider:
- What is the role of banks in the economy?
- How has the role of banks changed over time?
- How do young people use banks?
- What is the responsibility of the government to provide aid to its citizens?
- What should be the role of the government in a time of economic crisis?
- What is the legacy of the New Deal?
- How does the New Deal impact me and my community today?
- How did life change for diverse Americans during the Great Depression?
- How were families impacted by the Great Depression?
- How do American people demonstrate resilience during a crisis?
- What were the key components leading up to the Great Depression?
- What causes an economic crisis or depression?
- How do people preserve their dignity and support one another during a crisis?
Students will:
- Explain the causes and events that led to American involvement in the war.
- Locate and describe the major events and turning points of the war in Europe and the Pacific.
- Describe the causes and consequences of the Holocaust.
- Explain and evaluate the impact of the war on the home front.
Students will consider:
- Is war just?
- What causes conflict?
- Why do nations go to war?
- How do people react to war?
- What shapes our feelings about war?
- How should individuals and nations respond to violence in the world?
- How does economic and political stability impact civil liberties? [How are freedom and democracy threatened during times of war?]
- What decisions do societies face in times of war? Who should make those decisions?
- Is it ever justified to use mass destruction/annihilation in times of war?
- How can war transform societies and individuals?
Students will:
- Analyze how the Allied victory in World War II led to the emergence of the United States and the Soviet Union as global superpowers with an enhanced role in world affairs, including the formation of the United Nations.
- Explain that the United States and Soviet Union had a rivalry over ideology and national security.
Students will consider:
- How can the Cold War help us understand our world today?
- Can an ideological war be more dangerous than a physical war?
- Has the Cold War been won, and if so by whom?
- How did the Cold War impact the U.S. domestically and internationally?
- How has our understanding of the meaning of freedom, democracy, and economic well-being changed over time? In what ways have these ideals shaped our history?
- How did the Cold War both prevent and promote cooperation between nations?
- Does the United States have a mission to expand freedom and democracy?
- How have economic systems impacted the success and/or failure of world governments?
- Do international alliances make the world a better place?
- How might identity and culture shape people’s views of the U.S.?
Students will:
- Describe the reasons for rapid growth of the American economy following WWII.
- Describe the changing patterns of society, including expanded educational and economic opportunities for military veterans, women, and minorities.
- Describe the development of new technologies in communication, entertainment, and business, and their impact on American life.
- Analyze how representative citizens have influenced America scientifically, culturally, academically, and economically.
Students will consider:
- How has our understanding of the meaning of freedom, democracy, and economic well being changed over time? In what ways have these ideals shaped our history?
- Is all technology good technology?
- How have technological advances impacted American life?
- How does society change?
- How do people recover from war?
- How did a booming economy change the social and cultural life for most Americans in the 1950s?
- Did all Americans share in the prosperity of the 1950s?
- How do new ideas and patterns change the way people live?
- How have ordinary citizens made scientific, cultural, academic, and/or economic contributions?
Students will:
- Examine the Civil Rights Movement of the 20th century and explain the commitment to equal rights and fair treatment of African Americans, which resulted in social, legal, political, and cultural changes that prohibited discrimination and segregation for all Americans.
Students will consider:
- What work remains to be done in the effort to create a just and equitable society?
- Will there always be resistance to equality?
- Are laws enough to protect people’s rights?
- What actions can people (citizens) take to resist injustice?
- What is gained and lost when the experiences of many are explained through the eyes of a few?
- What is gained and lost when we focus on leaders when studying movements?
- How do movements define their goals?
- How are the goals of movements represented and misrepresented in the media?
Students will:
- Describe new international challenges the United States has encountered since the collapse of communism.
- Evaluate and explain the impact of international trade and globalization on American life.
- Evaluate and explain American foreign policy, immigration, the global environment and other emerging issues in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
Students will consider:
- How has globalization impacted me, my community, and my world?
- Is globalization a path to a brighter future?
- How can Americans be conscientious consumers in a global world?
- Why do countries view global issues from different perspectives?
- How can war transform societies and individuals?
- How do borders impact people’s lives?
- What do people experience as they move from one place to another?
Assessments
Student assessments are part of the teaching and learning process.
- Teachers give assessments to students on an ongoing basis to
- Check for understanding
- Gather information about students' knowledge or skills.
- Assessments provide information about a child's development of knowledge and skills that can help families and teachers better plan for the next steps in instruction.
For testing questions or additional information about how schools and teachers use test results to support student success, families can contact their children's schools.
In Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS), seventh grade tests focus on measuring content knowledge and skill development.
