Grade 7 Social Studies Alabama Standards

CIVICS

Identify and recognize the various countries and cultures that influenced the government of the United States.

Demonstrate that individuals have a responsibility to be good citizens and community members; identify the legal definition of a United States citizen and non-citizen.

Recognize Alabama’s growing role in the world politically and socially including its impact of the modern Civil Rights Movement from 1954 to the present.

Recognize modern social and economic opportunities and define what they are. Examples include legal protections for workers with disabilities and anti-discrimination laws.

Recognize opportunities for participation in community and civic action.

Demonstrate an awareness of current events at the local, state, or national level.

Define political parties; identify that political leaders are elected in the United States and that political parties work to get their candidates elected.

Describe the basic ideals of American democracy, including natural rights, basic freedoms, and democratic representation; identify characteristics of other government systems including, monarchy, dictatorship, and democracy.

Recognize that there are different levels of government, including local and state government.

Define the three branches of government; recognize the function of each branch of government as making laws, enforcing laws, or reviewing laws; identifying concepts of separation of powers and checks and balances.

Identify the basic rights under the Bill of Rights; recognize how government protects individual rights; recognize that citizens have a responsibility to follow laws and that there are consequences for breaking laws.

Define goods and services; identify the basic modern economic system based around currency; identify goods and services and ways consumers get access to them.

Recall that consumers have to make decisions based on resources and scarcity; recognize examples of consumer and marketplace interaction; identifying economic systems, including market, command, and traditional.

Identify the principles and purposes of a budget; identify wants and needs and recognize that each has a cost, including food, clothing, shelter, entertainment, utilities.

Describe the world in spatial terms, using maps and other geographic representations, tools, and geospatial technologies.

Describe cultural and economic characteristics of early Indigenous peoples in North and South America, including civilizations in Mesoamerica, the Andes, and the Mississippi River Valley.

Identify locations and migration patterns of early Indigenous peoples on a map, including the Olmec and Woodland Period civilizations.

Compare and contrast the development of agriculture in the Americas with agricultural practices in other early civilizations.

Describe how religion, architecture, and politics intersected in early Indigenous civilizations, including the Maya civilization.

Trace the development and growth of societies in Southwest Asia, including the Assyrians, Phoenicians, and Persian Empire.

Analyze the development of civilization in South Asia from the settling of the Indus River Valley to the beginning of the Gupta Empire.

Summarize how Hinduism as well as a caste system emerged from different religious beliefs and schools of philosophy.

Describe how geographic conditions in South Asia, including monsoons, and trade with neighboring regions contributed to the growth of civilization in the region.

Trace the development of Buddhism, including the contributions of Emperor Ashoka, and explain how Buddhism influenced society in Classical India.

Explain the emergence and consolidation of China from the Xia Dynasty along the Huang He River Valley through the fall of the Han Dynasty.

Compare and contrast the philosophies of Confucianism, Daoism, and Legalism and explain how they influenced dynastic cycles, politics, and society in China.

Trace the reunification of China from the Warring States period and the Qin Dynasty which led to China’s Golden Age under the Han Dynasty.

Describe the significance of Chinese technological advancements, including paper, gunpowder, the compass, and the seismograph.

Analyze how the establishment of the Silk Road fostered economic and cultural development across multiple continents.

Summarize cultural contributions and legacies of Classical Greece, including architecture, arts, intellectual life, literature, politics, and science.

Explain the development of the polis and analyze how geography affected the process, including Athens and Sparta.

Trace the development of Greek city-states' political systems, including democracy, that influenced the governments of modern nations.

Explain the influence of philosophers on Greek society, culture, and politics as well as their influence on modern thought.

Analyze the internal and external conflicts that played a role in Classical Greek society.

Describe the influence of Alexander the Great’s empire, including the establishment of Hellenistic kingdoms, the diffusion of Greek culture, and its role in shaping Rome.

Outline the key geographic, political, economic, and cultural elements of the Roman Republic.

Trace the growth of the Roman Republic, using a variety of thematic and political maps.

Explain the social and cultural outcomes of economic activities within the Mediterranean region, including the establishment of colonies that influenced each other culturally.

Analyze the social, political, and economic effects of the Punic Wars.

Summarize the influence of Roman legal and political systems on later societies.

Describe the internal and external factors that led to the eventual collapse of the Roman Republic.

Trace the development of the Roman Empire, including the actions of Julius Caesar and the reigns of Augustus Caesar and the Five Good Emperors.

Explain Rome’s shift from Republic to Empire, including economic, political, and geographic causes.

Describe the founding and development of Christianity, including the roles of Jesus of Nazareth and Paul of Tarsus, and how its spread was directly and indirectly influenced by the Roman Empire.

Summarize the economic, political, and social factors that led to the split and eventual fall of the Western Roman Empire.

Explain and demonstrate the use of map essentials, including direction, distance, legend, latitude, longitude, map type, projection, scale, and symbols.

Use physical, political, and special-purpose maps to identify the distribution of people, location of places, and classification of physical features.

Utilize maps to explain relationships among people and places, including governmental alliances, immigration patterns, and trade patterns.

Describe how geographic features and political entities are organized and labeled, including continents, countries, and oceans.

Analyze how human interaction with the environment, location, movement, place, and region affect cultural, economic, and social conditions for those living in a geographic area.

Analyze how historians organize human history and events, including the use of calendars.

Describe multiple methods for organizing and labeling periods of time, including differentiating between the BC/AD and BCE/CE notations.

Explain how artifacts and other archaeological findings provide evidence of the nature and movement of prehistoric groups of people.

Differentiate among primary, secondary, and tertiary sources in how they are used to study both history and geography.

Use maps to identify how climate and weather patterns, including the Ice Ages, affect the ways humans adapt within different geographic locations.

Predict causes and consequences of human migration, including push and pull factors.

Explain common patterns that emerged in the shift from hunter-gatherer societies to permanent settlements in different regions of the world, including types and sizes of settlements.

Analyze the influence of physical geography on the locations of the early agrarian societies, including the early river valleys settlements.

Describe the settlement patterns, shift in gender roles, and job specialization associated with the development of agrarian societies.

Describe the agricultural innovations that developed as a result of the Neolithic Revolution, including the domestication of plants and animals.

Explain how technological innovations and the geographic features of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers contributed to the development of civilization in the Fertile Crescent.

Describe how agriculture, domestication of animals, inventions, irrigation, metalsmithing, and mining contributed to the settlement and growth of Mesopotamian civilizations.

Analyze how advancements in agriculture in Sumer led to economic growth, expansion of trade and transportation, and the emergence of independent city-states.

Summarize the cultural and political innovations of Mesopotamia, including The Epic of Gilgamesh and Hammurabi's Code.

Analyze the economic, political, and social structures of ancient Egypt.

Describe the role of the Nile River and Mediterranean Sea in supporting the economic and cultural growth of ancient Egypt.

Identify major technological and artistic achievements of ancient Egypt.

Summarize the social structure and religious beliefs of ancient Egypt.

Describe the achievement of key leaders of ancient Egypt and how these achievements helped grow the kingdom.

Explain the geographic and cultural development of ancient Israel.

Identify the central tenets of Judaism, and compare Judaism to the polytheistic religions of other Mediterranean ancient civilizations.

Describe the establishment of a unified Israel under Kings Saul, David, and Solomon.

Outline the multiple exiles of the Jewish people and their return to Israel, from the establishment of the nation through the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD/CE.

Compare and contrast the economic and cultural structures of early African societies.

Explain how physical geography, including natural resources, contributed to the economic and cultural practices of early African societies.

Describe common tenets of indigenous religion practiced in Africa, including the beliefs of the Ashanti, Dogon, and Igbo religious traditions.

Describe how trade, including silent barter, facilitated exchange of economic practices, language, and culture across Africa from prehistory through the Iron Age.

Ancient Civilizations in the Americas and Africa

Ancient and Classical Civilizations in Asia

Ancient Civilizations in the Greater Mediterranean

Classical Greece and Rome

Five Themes of Geography and Map Skills

Pre-History and the Neolithic Revolution