Course Description
The 8th grade Social Studies course is designed to meet the New Jersey Student Learning Standards for Social Studies and to provide students with knowledge, skills, and values essential to understand world history. Students will focus on each part of the world and develop an ability to recognize characteristics distinguishing regions of the Mediterranean, Europe, Africa and Asia. This course will focus on the geography, economies, political systems, religious institutions, cultural achievements, technological advancements, and social relations amongst various civilizations including; Classical Civilizations of the Mediterranean and empires in Asia, Africa and Europe during the Middle Ages. The course will also focus on incorporating literacy strategies while learning the content. Students will improve their deep reading of informational text and their compositional skills through Document Based Questions and Free Response Questions. Close analysis of primary, secondary, and independent inquiry documents will be a focus. Writing assignments are related to content studied in class and through independent student research. The New Jersey Student Learning Standards in Social Studies 8 will frame the outcomes of this course.
The class syllabus includes materials/resources needed, classroom expectations, SmartPass expectations, cell phone policy, Google Classroom, grading policy, late work policy, academic dishonesty, and absence policy.