Grade 7 Social Studies Delaware standards Standards

Students will examine the structure and purposes of governments with specific emphasis on constitutional democracy.

Students will understand why governments have the authority to make, enforce, and interpret laws and regulations, such as levying taxes, conducting foreign policy, and providing for national defense.

Students will analyze the different functions of federal, state, and local governments in the United States and examine the reasons for the different organizational structures each level of government employs.

Students will understand the principles and ideals underlying the American political system.

Students will understand that the concept of majority rule does not mean that the rights of minorities may be disregarded and will examine and apply the protections accorded those minorities in the American political system.

Students will understand the principles and content of major American state papers such as the Declaration of Independence; United States Constitution (including the Bill of Rights); and the Federalist Papers.

Students will understand the responsibilities, rights, and privileges of United States citizens.

Students will understand that civil rights secure political freedom while property rights secure economic freedom and that both are essential protections for United States citizens.

Students will understand that American citizenship includes responsibilities such as voting, jury duty, obeying the law, service in the armed forces when required, and public service.

Students will develop and employ the civic skills necessary for effective, participatory citizenship.

Students will understand that civil rights secure political freedom while property rights secure economic freedom and that both are essential protections for United States citizens.

Students will follow the actions of elected officials, and understand and employ the mechanisms for communicating with them while in office.

Students will analyze the potential costs and benefits of personal economic choices in a market economy.

Students will analyze how changes in supply and demand interact in competitive markets to determine or change the price of goods and services.

Students will examine the interaction of individuals, families, communities, businesses, and governments in a market economy.

Students will analyze the role of money and banking in the economy, and the ways in which government taxes and spending affect the functioning of market economies.

Students will understand different types of economic systems and how they change.

Students will demonstrate the ways in which the means of production, distribution, and exchange in different economic systems have a relationship to cultural values, resources, and technologies.

Students will examine the patterns and results of international trade.

Students will examine how nations with different economic systems specialize and become interdependent through trade and how government policies allow either free or restricted trade.

Students will develop a personal geographic framework, or "mental map," and understand the uses of maps and other geo-graphics.

Students will demonstrate mental maps of the world and its sub-regions which include the relative location and characteristics of major physical features, political divisions, and human settlements.

Students will develop a knowledge of the ways humans modify and respond to the natural environment.

Students will apply a knowledge of the major processes shaping natural environments to understand how different peoples have changed and been affected by, physical environments in the world's sub-regions.

Students will develop an understanding of the diversity of human culture and the unique nature of places.

Students will analyze patterns of cultural activity associated with different world regions in order to explain the reasons for the cultural development of a place.

Students will evaluate a location's site and situation in order to identify and explain the distinctive cultural and physical characteristics, patterns of trade, and interactions that make a place unique.

Students will develop an understanding of the character and use of regions and the connections between and among them.

Students will understand the processes affecting the location of economic activities in different world regions.

Students will explain how conflict and cooperation among people contributes to the division of the Earth's surface into distinctive cultural regions and political territories.

Students will employ chronological concepts in analyzing historical phenomena.

Students will examine historical materials relating to a particular region, society, or theme; analyze change over time, and make logical inferences concerning cause and effect.

Students will gather, examine, and analyze historical data.

Students will master the basic research skills necessary to conduct an independent investigation of historical phenomena.

Students will examine historical documents, artifacts, and other materials, and analyze them in terms of credibility, as well as the purpose, perspective, or point of view for which they were constructed.

Students will interpret historical data.

Students will compare different historians' descriptions of the same societies in order to examine how the choice of questions and use of sources may affect their conclusions.

Students will develop historical knowledge of major events and phenomena in world, United States, and Delaware history.

Students will develop an understanding of pre-industrial United States history and its connections to Delaware history, including:<ul><li>Three worlds meet (Beginnings to 1620)</li><li>Colonization and Settlement (1585-1763)</li><li>Revolution and the New Nation (1754-1820s)</li><li>Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)</li><li>Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)</li></ul>

Students will develop an understanding of ancient and medieval world history, and the continuing influence of major civilizations, including:<ul><li>The beginnings of human society</li><li>Early civilizations and pastoral peoples (4,000-1,000 BC)</li><li>Classical traditions, major religions, and great empires (1,000 BC--300 AD)</li><li>Expanding zones of exchange and encounter (300-1,000 AD)</li><li>Intensified hemispheric interactions (1,000-1,500 AD)</li></ul>