Grade 7

Other South Dakota Social Studies sets

• Kindergarten
• Grade 1
• Grade 2
• Grade 3
• Grade 4
• Grade 5
• Grade 6
• Grade 8
• Economics: Grades 9-12
• United States Government/American Civics: Grades 9-12
• United States History: 1492-2008: Grades 9-12
• World Geography: Grades 9-12
• World History: Ancient to Modern: Grades 9-12

The student can give examples of patriotism. C7.SS.1.A

The student can recite the first, second, and final paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence from memory. C7.SS.1.B

The student can identify the National Archives Building and the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom and their functions. C7.SS.1.C

The student can explain the importance and function of banking in the early American republic. E7.SS.1.D

The student can write a persuasive essay of 2-3 paragraphs based on class notes, including a main argument (thesis), topic sentences, supporting evidence from history and class, and clear attempts to explain how the evidence proves the topic sentences and overall thesis. HCE7.SS.1.E

The student locates on a map and describes the features of America’s physical geography, including: G7.SS.2.A

The student locates on a map, identifies by shape, and spells all the names and capitals of all fifty states. G 7.SS.2.B

The student locates on a map and names the state in which major cities other than capitals are located, including: G7.SS.2.C

The student locates on a map Washington, D.C. and major U.S. territories. G 7.SS.2.D

The student locates the following American regions on a map, names the states, and compares their topography, climate, and economy to those of South Dakota: G7.SS.2.E

The student locates on a map the major geographic features of South Dakota, including: G7.SS.2.F

The student locates on a map the major regions, cities, and historical points in South Dakota, including: G7.SS.2.G

The student locates on a map and describes the following civilizations: Ancestral Pueblo, Hopewell, Aztec, Maya, and Inca. H7.SS.3.A

The student describes the indigenous peoples and their lifestyles in the millennia and centuries prior to European arrival. H7.SS.3.B

The student names one historical or present Native American tribe from each American region. H7.SS.3.C

The student describes the similarities and differences between historical Native American tribes from two different American regions, including their lifestyles, warfare, and art. HCE7.SS.3.D

The student describes the lifestyle, traditional warfare, and culture of a historical or present Native American tribe from South Dakota, including but not limited to the Mandan, Sahnish (Arikara), Cheyenne, Crow, Hidatsa, Naishan Dene (Kiowa Apache), Eastern Shoshone, Arapaho, and Lakota. HCE7.SS.3.E

The student describes history and major cultural elements of the Oceti Sakowin Oyate (including select standards from Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings 1-5 and 7), including the meaning of kinship, the creation story, traditional warfare, important symbols, celebrations, music, artwork, celebrations, honoring, ceremony, and powwow (wacipi). HCE7.SS.3.F

The student explains the meaning and historical significance of the following terms and topics: land bridge, indigenous, immigrant, urban, suburban, and rural. HG7.SS.3.G

The student locates on a map the following places: San Salvador Island, St. Augustine, Jamestown, Plymouth, and Boston. G7.SS.4.A

The student explains 15th century trade between Europe and Asia, European motivations for exploration, and their various interactions with Native Americans. H7.SS.4.B

The student explains the history of slavery from ancient times through the 15th century slave trade among Africans, Arabs, and Europeans, and compares it to the practice of indentured servitude. H7.SS.4.C

The student explains the origin of the name “America.” H7.SS.4.D

The student describes the travels and discoveries of major explorers in the future United States: Ponce de Leon, Hernando de Soto, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, Samuel de Champlain, Henry Hudson, and the Verendrye Expedition. H7.SS.4.E

The student explains the Columbian Exchange of resources, people, and disease, including how smallpox decimated Native Americans and the science of why this happened. HE7.SS.4.F

The student explains the variety of cooperative and violent interactions between Europeans, indigenous peoples, and among indigenous tribes. H 7.SS.4.G

The student tells the story of the founding of Jamestown, including: HC7.SS.4.H

The student tells the story of the founding of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay, including: HC7.SS.4.I

The student reads and discusses the meaning of the Mayflower Compact. HC7.SS.4.J

The student explains how England’s approach to settling its colonies differed from the approach of other countries. H7.SS.4.K

The student explains the gradual codification of slavery in the southern colonies beginning in 1655, including the passage of manumission laws. H7.SS.4.L

The student tells how the horse came to the Great Plains, subsequent to the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, leading to changes in the way of life for the Oceti Sakowin and Cheyenne (including select standards from Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings 1-4). H7.SS.4.M

The student explains the meaning and historical significance of the following terms and topics: mercantilism, indentured servitude, Triangle Trade, Middle Passage, Wampanoag, Pilgrims, and Puritans. HE7.SS.4.N

The student explains the colonial economies and ways of life among the New England, Middle, and Southern colonies. HE7.SS.5.A

The student explains how the colonial economies may be best characterized as free market or capitalist, meaning that the laws allow individuals to possess more goods or currency than they need to survive; and to invest, produce, distribute, and buy and sell goods and services by making their own agreements with one another. HE7.SS.5.B

The student explains how the labor market in the colonial economies was not free in the cases of forced indentured servitude and slavery. HE7.SS.5.C

The student explains the status and effects of each of the following in colonial society, and the extents to which these were the exception in history: private property, free enterprise, education, local self-government, and religious freedom. HE 7.SS.5.D

The student explains how the “American” colonist was generally defined by certain traits, including being: HCE7.SS.5.E

The student explains how England’s relationship toward the colonists amounted to a “salutary neglect” and the ways this relationship benefitted the colonists. HC 7.SS.5.F

The student explains the influence of historical ideas on the colonists, especially within their colleges and leading families, including: HC7.SS.5.G

The student explains the rule of law as opposed to the rule of man, the rule by force (“might makes right”), and the failure to enforce duly legislated laws. C7.SS.5.H

The student describes the Great Awakening and its effects on American identity and sense of unity. H7.SS.5.I

The student tells the story of the French and Indian War, especially the roles of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, the major terms of the Treaty of Paris, the war’s effect on American identity and sense of unity, and its effects on the fur trade. H7.SS.5.J

The student explains the meaning and historical significance of the following terms and topics: township, self-government, the Enlightenment, natural law, natural rights, social contract, representation, and the Albany Plan. HC7.SS.5.K

The student explains why and how Great Britain asserted new authority in the colonies after the French and Indian War and why the colonists contested Britain’s new claims to control as violations of their rights and freedom. H 7.SS.6.A

The student explains the ways in which the colonists responded to Great Britain’s new claims of power over them. H7.SS.6.B

The student tells the story of the Boston Massacre and subsequent murder trial. H7.SS.6.C

The student tells the biography of George Washington, including: H7.SS.6.D

The student tells the biography of John Adams, including: H7.SS.6.E

The student tells the story of the Boston Tea Party, and explains Great Britain’s responses to the Boston Tea Party and the colonists’ argument that these actions were tyrannical. H7.SS.6.F

The student tells the stories of the following military events prior to a formal declaration of independence: H 7.SS.6.G

The student tells the biography of Benjamin Franklin, including: H7.SS.6.H

The student tells the biography of Thomas Jefferson, including: H7.SS.6.I

The student explains that patriotism is the love of country, meaning that one holds his or her country up to an objective standard of moral right and wrong, preserving the ways in which the country does good and correcting the ways it sometimes does wrong. C7.SS.6.J

The student tells the stories and explains the effects of major military events, figures, and common soldiers from the War of Independence. H7.SS.6.K

The student explains the meaning of symbols on the American flag, the proper ways to respect the flag, and the reasons for this respect. C7.SS.6.L

The student tells the story of how the Americans won the War of Independence, including the battles of Trenton, Saratoga, the winter at Valley Forge, and the Battle of Yorktown. H7.SS.6.M

The student reads and discusses the meaning of the first, second, and final paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence and selections from the remainder, including the first draft’s sections on slavery. C7.SS.7.A

The student explains the meaning of “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God,” including the founders’ argument that there is a standard of justice in nature that does not change and is true of all peoples in all times, and that an eternal God is responsible for this unchanging truth. C7.SS.7.B

The student explains the meaning of “created equal,” including the founders’ argument that each person is equally human and as such has the same dignity and natural rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that each is endowed with these rights by the God that created them, and that the existence of human slavery was understood by most, but not all, of the founders to be a contradiction of the principle of human equality. C7.SS.7.C

The student explains the meaning of “natural rights” and “unalienable,” including the founders’ argument that fundamental rights arise out of man’s nature as a human person, that these rights do not come from other people or any government, and that these rights cannot be denied or taken away unless the person has used them to violate the rights of another. C7.SS.7.D

The student explains the meaning of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” in particular the founders’ argument that each human being has the right by nature to their own life, to their liberty and the general freedom of thought and action, and to seek the happiness appropriate to human liberty as long as it does not violate the rights of others. C 7.SS.7.E

The student explains the meaning of “the consent of the governed,” including the founders’ argument that legitimate government derives its just powers from the consent of those that are governed, who in turn have delegated limited powers to government in order to secure their rights. C7.SS.7.F

The student explains that the purpose of government as outlined in the Declaration of Independence is to “secure these rights,” meaning those fundamental rights derived from “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.” C7.SS.7.G

The student explains the argument of the Declaration of Independence that when government “becomes destructive” of its purpose of securing rights, a people may change or abolish their government and institute new government to best effect their safety and happiness. C7.SS.7.H

The student explains why the delegates to the Second Continental Congress voted to declare independence from Great Britain, including the list of grievances and other historical events since 1763. C7.SS.7.I

The student explains how America’s founding based on these words of the Declaration of Independence was unprecedented in human history: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” C7.SS.7.J

The student explains what the Land Ordinance of 1785 and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 accomplished for public education, private land ownership, and the abolition of slavery. HC7.SS.7.K

The student explains the crafting of the Articles of Confederation, their weaknesses, their historical effects, and their relationship to the Constitutional Convention. HC7.SS.8.A

The student tells the biography of James Madison, including: H7.SS.8.B

The student explains the founders’ view of human nature, including the role of ambition and the human person’s limitations, both intellectually and morally, as expressed in Federalist 10 and 51. HC7.SS.8.C

The student explains how a majority can tyrannize over the rights of the minority. C7.SS.8.D

The student explains how representation prevents tyranny through the following means: C7.SS.8.E

The student explains how federalism prevents tyranny by dividing governing power among many levels of governments. C7.SS.8.F

The student explains how the separation of powers prevents tyranny from the federal government by dividing legislative, executive, and judicial power into three separate branches. C 7.SS.8.G

The student explains the meaning and historical significance of the following terms and topics: democratic republic, justice, legislative power, executive power, judicial power, Federalists, Anti-Federalists, and The Federalist Papers. HC7.SS.8.H

The student explains the different roles and responsibilities of each house of Congress, the Presidency, and the Judiciary. C7.SS.9.A

The student explains the checks and balances each branch possesses to resist tyranny in the other two branches. C7.SS.9.B

The student explains the legal meaning of “citizen” in the United States, the legal process for becoming a citizen, and the responsibilities, rights, and privileges of citizenship at the different levels of government, and the introduction of birthright citizenship through the Fourteenth Amendment. C7.SS.9.C

The student explains the importance of a well-informed, virtuous, and industrious citizenry within representative self-government. C7.SS.9.D

The student explains how the scope of the people’s voting rights at the American founding was the exception in history. HC7.SS.9.E

The student explains the different positions on slavery among the founders and their generation, including those who did not hold slaves and worked for its abolition, those who held slaves but wished for its abolition, and those who were in favor of slavery and its continuation. C7.SS.9.F

The student names and explains the three clauses of the Constitution pertaining to slavery and Frederick Douglass’s “The Constitution of the United States: Is It Pro-Slavery or AntiSlavery?” HC7.SS.9.G

The student explains the ways in which slavery was expanded and restricted in the states during the American founding years of 1763-1789. HC7.SS.9.H

The student explains the importance of the Constitutional practice of free speech, the free press, and civil dialogue in representative self-government. C7.SS.9.I

The student explains the positions in the ratification debate concerning the Constitution. HC7.SS.9.J

The student explains the ways in which the U.S. Constitution was unprecedented in human history, especially in its form of government, institutional innovations, and underlying moral principles. HC7.SS.9.K

The student tells the biography of Alexander Hamilton, including: H7.SS.10.A

The student explains how the invention of the cotton gin reinvigorated the practice of slavery and the slave-owning interest, and the extent to which future laws permitted or restricted slavery. H7.SS.10.B

The student tells of the major events in George Washington’s presidency, including the precedents that he set for the office and his efforts to remain neutral in the conflict between revolutionary France and Great Britain. H7.SS.10.C

The student reads and discusses the meaning of selections from George Washington’s Farewell Address and explains Washington’s emphasis on the importance of union and his warnings about parties, sectionalism, the natural human tendency to abuse power, and unnecessary involvement in foreign affairs. H7.SS.10.D

The student explains the significance of the transfer of power following the election of 1800. H7.SS.10.E

The student tells of the major events in Thomas Jefferson’s presidency, including: H7.SS.10.F

The student explains how even though the Supreme Court exercises judicial review, the people and each branch of government have a role in interpreting the meaning of the Constitution and an obligation to follow it. C7.SS.10.G

The student tells of the conflicts between the U.S. government, settlers, and Native Americans between 1789 and 1830, including the Corps of Discovery’s travels in present-day South Dakota and their interactions with Native American tribes and the rivalry in the fur trade between the British and Americans in what is now South Dakota. H7.SS.10.H

The student tells the stories and explains the effects of major military events, figures, and common soldiers from the War of 1812. H7.SS.10.I

The student explains the meaning and historical significance of the following terms and topics: cotton gin, Alien and Sedition Acts, Marbury v. Madison, judicial review, and the Corps of Discovery. HC7.SS.10.J

The student explains the tenets to the Monroe Doctrine. H7.SS.11.A

The student explains the main ideas of the Second Great Awakening. H7.SS.11.B

The student tells the biography of Sequoyah. H7.SS.11.C

The student tells the biography of Andrew Jackson, including: H7.SS.11.D

The student describes the lives of slaves on southern plantations and at slave auctions, including cultural developments among African Americans in slavery. H7.SS.11.E

The student explains the electoral relationship between the number of slave states and the perpetuation of slavery. H7.SS.11.F

The student explains the work of the abolitionist movement and leading abolitionists, including Harriet Tubman, William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, the efforts of the Underground Railroad, and the effects of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. H7.SS.11.G

The student tells the biography of Frederick Douglass, including: H7.SS.11.H

The student reads and discusses the meaning of selections from Frederick Douglass’s The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. H 7.SS.11.I

The student tells of the major events in Andrew Jackson’s presidency, including: H7.SS.11.J

The student tells the story of the Trail of Tears, particularly the 1838 Cherokee removal following the Treaty of New Echota. H7.SS.11.K

The student explains the main ideas and names the major figures of the transcendentalist movement. H7.SS.11.L

The student explains the meaning and historical significance of the following terms and topics: Missouri Compromise, Nat Turner Rebellion, Manifest Destiny, and the annexation of Texas. H7.SS.11.M

The student explains the reasons for and origins of those who immigrated to America before the Civil War, including the extent to which they assimilate, and opposition from the Know Nothing Party. H7.SS.12.A

The student tells the story of women’s suffrage efforts in the mid-19th century, including: HC7.SS.12.B

The student identifies and tells the story of historical figures involved in women’s suffrage efforts, including, but not limited to: HC7.SS.12.C

The student explains the interactions between settlers, governing bodies, and Native Americans (including select standards from Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings 2 and 6) in South Dakota around the Civil War, including: H7.SS.12.D

The student describes land speculation and settlement in what is now South Dakota in the 1850s and 1860s, including homesteading under the Preemption Act, Homestead Act, Timber Culture Act, and the Morrill Land-Grant Acts. HE 7.SS.12.E

The student explains the differences between various geographic regions, especially the growing divide in culture, lifestyle, and economics between the northern states and the southern states. HGE7.SS.12.F

The student tells the story of the Mexican-American War and the Mexican Cession. H7.SS.12.G

The student explains how the Mexican Cession and the California Gold Rush reignited the issue of the expansion of slavery, including the terms of the Compromise of 1850. H7.SS.12.H

The student tells the biography of Abraham Lincoln, including: H7.SS.12.I

The student explains Abraham Lincoln’s argument that the Kansas-Nebraska Act and popular sovereignty marked a moral break with the founding because they implied that moral right and wrong were relative to a democratic majority. H7.SS.12.J

The student explains Abraham Lincoln’s argument that the Dred Scott decision turned the Constitution into a pro-slavery document that would allow slavery to spread anywhere in America, contrary to the original intentions of the founders. H7.SS.12.K

The student explains the main arguments in the Lincoln-Douglas debates, especially in debate number seven. H7.SS.13.A

The student reads and discusses the meaning of selections from Frederick Douglass’s “The Constitution of the United States: Is It Pro-Slavery or Anti-Slavery?” H7.SS.13.B

The student explains the major and minor causes of the Civil War, especially the political tension surrounding the spread of slavery. H7.SS.13.C

The student tells the stories and explains the effects of major military events, figures, and common soldiers from the Civil War. H7.SS.13.D

The student explains how Abraham Lincoln issued and justified the Emancipation Proclamation, including what the order did and did not do, and why. HC7.SS.13.E

The student reads and discusses the meaning of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and his second inaugural address in their entirety. HC7.SS.13.F

The student tells the story of and explains the reasons why the Union won the Civil War, including the battles of Antietam, Vicksburg, and Gettysburg. H7.SS.13.G

The student explains the different effects of the Civil War in the North and the South. H7.SS.13.H

The student explains the successes of Reconstruction, including the Reconstruction Amendments and the election of freedmen to government offices, and its failures in renewed discrimination during Reconstruction and especially after the Compromise of 1877. H7.SS.13.I

The student explains the meaning and historical significance of the following terms and topics: popular sovereignty, moral relativism, Homestead Act, black codes, and Jim Crow laws. HC7.SS.13.J