Connections Between History-Social Science Content Standards for California Public Schools

and

Myth & Reality: The California Gold Rush and Its Legacy

Westward Expansion: Gold, Greed and Government

8th Grade Part II

Lesson Title

History-Social Science Content Standards for California Public Schools

Historical and Social Sciences Analysis Skills Grades 6-8

Preliminary Exercise: Presidential Poll

Spans grades 5, 8 & 11

Research, Evidence, and Point of View #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).

1. Statehood for California

8.8.6 Students analyze the divergent paths of the American people in the West from 1800 to the mid-1800s and the challenges they faced. Describe the Texas War for Independence and the Mexican-American War, including territorial settlements, the aftermath of the wars, and the effects the wars had on the lives of Americans, including Mexican Americans today.

Chronological and Spatial Thinking #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.

2. California's First Constitution

8.9.4 Students analyze the early and steady attempts to abolish slavery and to realize the ideals of the Declaration of Independence. Discuss the importance of the slavery issue as raised by the annexation of Texas and California's admission to the union as a free state under the Compromise of 1850.

Research, Evidence, and Point of View #3 and #4. Students distinguish relevant from irrelevant information, essential from incidental information, and verifiable from unverifiable information in historical narratives and stories. Students assess the credibility of primary and secondary sources and draw sound conclusions from them.

3. Law and Order in Early California - 1849-1870

8.8.6

Historical Interpretation #1. Students explain the central issues and problems from the past, placing people and events in a matrix of time and place.

4. The Compromise of 1850

8.9.4 and 5 Students analyze the early and steady attempts to abolish slavery and to realize the ideals of the Declaration of Independence. Discuss the importance of the slavery issue as raised by the annexation of Texas and California's admission to the union as a free state under the Compromise of 1850. Analyze the significance of the States' Rights Doctrine, the Missouri Compromise (1820), the Wilmot Proviso (1846), the Compromise of 1850, Henry Clay's Role in the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854), the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision (1857), and the Lincoln-Douglas debates (1858).

Optional Map Activity Gold Mines of California

8.8.2 Students analyze the divergent paths of the American people in the West from 1800 to the mid-1800s and the challenges they faced. Describe the purpose, challenges, and economic incentives associated with westward expansion, including the concept of Manifest Destiny (e.g., the Lewis and Clark expedition, accounts of the removal of Indians, the Cherokees' "Trail of Tears," settlement of the Great Plains) and the territorial acquisitions that spanned numerous decades.

Chronological and Spatial Thinking #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.

Map Analysis Worksheet

8.8.2

Chronological and Spatial Thinking #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.

Culminating Activity

8.8.2

Historical Interpretation #1 and #3. Students explain the central issues and problems from the past, placing people and events in a matrix of time and place. Students explain the sources of historical continuity and how the combination of ideas and events explains the emergence of new patterns.