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Welcome to Bella Vista Middle School's Social Studies Department page! The Social Studies curriculum is driven by the California Department of Education's content standards, which can be viewed at: Content Standards Grades 6, 7 & 8

 

Sixth Grade Social Studies
Sixth Grade Social Studies curriculum focuses on Ancient History and the Civilizations. Some of the civilizations that are studied are:

  1. The Paleolithic era
  2. Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Kush civilizations
  3. Ancient Hebrews
  4. Early civilizations of India
  5. Ancient China
  6. Ancient Greeks
  7. The development of Rome

Seventh Grade Social Studies
In Seventh Grade Social Studies, students study Europe, Africa, the Americas, and Asia in the years 500 A.D. through 1789. Some of the areas studied are:

1st Semester

  1. Islam in the Middle Ages
  2. China in the Middle Ages
  3. The sub-Saharan civilizations of Ghana and Mali in Medieval Africa
  4. Medieval Japan
  5. Meso-American and Andean civilizations
  6. The Renaissance
  7. The Reformation
  8. The Scientific Revolution, and
  9. The Age of Exploration, the Enlightenment, and the Age of Reason

2nd Semester

  1. Disintegration of the Roman Empire
  2. Medieval Europe

Eighth Grade American History
The goal of the social studies program is to help students become productive and involved citizens. Through a study of United States growth and conflict from 1783 to 1914, students will learn about American national identity, Constitutional heritage and civic values, rights and responsibilities. They will be involved in individual and group activities, simulations, textbook reading, as well as integrated activities with language arts and computer-aided instruction.  Common Core Standards will transcend within cross-curricular expectations with a greater focus related to both verbal and written expression.  Indeed, "History is a story well told."

Eighth grade American history covers the period from the framing of the Constitution up to World War I. Some of the essential areas are:

  1. The Revolution
  2. The Constitution
  3. The Jefferson Era
  4. National and Regional Growth
  5. The Jackson Era
  6. Manifest Destiny
  7. The Growth of the West
  8. The Civil War
  9. Reconstruction

Skill Development

In addition to the standards for grades six through eight, students demonstrate the following intellectual reasoning, reflection, and research skills:

Chronological and Spatial Thinking
  1. Students explain how major events are related to one another in time.
  2. Students construct various time lines of key events, people, and periods of the historical era they are studying.
  3. Students use a variety of maps and documents to identify physical and cultural features of neighborhoods, cities, states, and countries and to explain the historical migration of people, expansion and disintegration of empires, and the growth of economic systems.
Research, Evidence, and Point of View
  1. Students frame questions that can be answered by historical study and research.
  2. Students distinguish fact from opinion in historical narratives and stories.
  3. Students distinguish relevant from irrelevant information, essential from incidental information, and verifiable from unverifiable information in historical narratives and stories.
  4. Students assess the credibility of primary and secondary sources and draw sound conclusions from them.
  5. Students detect the different historical points of view on historical events and determine the context in which the historical statements were made (the questions asked, sources used, author's perspectives).
Historical Interpretation
  1. Students explain the central issues and problems from the past, placing people and events in a matrix of time and place.
  2. Students understand and distinguish cause, effect, sequence, and correlation in historical events, including the long-and short-term causal relations.
  3. Students explain the sources of historical continuity and how the combination of ideas and events explains the emergence of new patterns.
  4. Students recognize the role of chance, oversight, and error in history.
  5. Students recognize that interpretations of history are subject to change as new information is uncovered.
  6. Students interpret basic indicators of economic performance and conduct cost-benefit analyses of economic and political issues.