In seventh grade social studies, students explore United States and New York history from 1500 to the aftermath of the Civil War.
By the end of the school year, all students should be able to:
■ Know and understand the interactions between Native Americans and early European settlers and the effect of settlement on Native Americans.
■ Understand the political, economic, and social organization of the Algonquian cultures.
■ Understand how different peoples view the same event or issue from a variety of perspectives. For example, how did the views of Native Americans and European explorers regarding colonial settlement differ?
■ Investigate the heritage and legacies of European colonies in America. For example, examine the influence of the Dutch on the colony of New Amsterdam, or compare and contrast the English, French, and Spanish colonies.
■ Describe an event in history through the eyes of an individual who was there.
■ Use maps to interpret settlement patterns of the growing American nation, such as the Louisiana Purchase and westward expansion.
■ Understand the complex causes of the American Revolution (economic, social, and political).
■ Read and interpret documents key to the founding of the United States, such as the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights.
■ Understand the causes and effects of slavery.
■ Read and interpret a variety of primary sources to understand the causes and results of the Civil War and Reconstruction.
Learning at Home
Take a walk with your family through our City’s African-American history. Ask your child to download the African heritage walking tour from the Immigrant Heritage Trail Web site, immigrantheritagetrail.org, a project of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum.
Encourage your child to research how the Civil War changed New York State and our City. For example, check out the Brooklyn Public Library’s online history of Brooklyn’s experience in the Civil War at brooklynpubliclibrary.org/civilwar.
Invite your child to research your family’s immigration story and share it with the Ellis Island Immigration Museum, www.ellisisland.org. Your child also can use the site to research the stories of other families.
As a family, visit the George Gustav Heye Center of the National Museum of the American Indian in Manhattan, www.nmai.si.edu. Investigate which Native American communities lived in this region when the first European explorers arrived.