Summary of Skills

Unit 1: History of Your State [SS]

Social Studies

• Analyze important geographic, political, economic, and social aspects of life in your state during various eras of your state's history.
• Assess the impact of geography on the settlement and development of your state.
• Evaluate the impact of political, economic, social, and technological changes on your state over time.
• Identify and describe the American Indians who originally inhabited your state and understand their interactions with other settlers.
• Trace your state's history through as it related to key events and time periods in United States history — the colonial period, the Revolution, the antebellum period, the Civil War, the late 19th century, the Great Depression and World War II, the post-war 20th century, and the modern era.
• Understand the geographic factors that have influenced your state.
• Understand your state's government and explore examples of opportunities for active citizenship, past and present, within your state.

Unit 1: Genetics and DNA [S]

Science

• Analyze the role of probability in the study of heredity by considering the role of each parent in transfer of genetic traits and analyzing pedigrees.
• Distinguish between dominant and recessive traits.
• Distinguish between inherited traits and other characteristics that result from interactions with the environment.
• Evaluate evidence that human characteristics are a product of inheritance, environmental factors, and lifestyle choices.
• Explain the impact of the environment and lifestyle choices on biological inheritance (to include common genetic diseases) and survival.
• Explain the relationship between genetic variation and an organism's ability to adapt to its environment.
• Explain the significance of genes to inherited characteristics: genes are the units of information; parents transmit genes to their offspring.
• Identify cells as structures containing genetic material.
• Identify examples and patterns of human genetic traits: incomplete dominance.
• Identify some changes in traits that can occur over several generations through natural occurrence and selective breeding.
• Infer patterns of heredity using information from Punnett squares and pedigree analysis.
• Know that a typical cell of any organism contains genetic instructions that specify its traits. Those traits may be modified by environmental influences.
• Know that cloning is a general term for the research activity that creates a copy of some biological entity (a gene or organism or cell).
• Know that DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is the genetic material of living organisms and is located primarily in the chromosomes of each cell.
• Know that plant and animal cells contain many thousands of different genes and typically have two copies of every gene. The two copies (or alleles) of the gene may or may not be identical, and one may be dominant in determining the phenotype while the other is recessive.
• Know that some medical conditions and diseases are genetic.
• Know the differences between the life cycles and reproduction methods of sexual and asexual organisms.
• Make predictions about possible outcomes of various genetic combinations of inherited characteristics.
• Recognize that inherited traits of an individual are contained in genetic material.
• Summarize the genetic transmittance of disease.

Unit 1: The House of the Scorpion [LA]

Language Arts

• Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.
• Analyze how a modern work of fiction draws on themes, patterns of events, or character types from myths, traditional stories, or religious works such as the Bible, including describing how the material is rendered new.
• Analyze how a text makes connections among and distinctions between individuals, ideas, or events (e.g., through comparisons, analogies, or categories).
• Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot).
• Analyze works written on the same topic and compare how the authors achieved similar or different purposes.
• Anticipate and address reader/listener concerns and counterarguments.
• Apply the parts of speech to clarify language usage.
• By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, at the high end of grades 6-8 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
• By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, at the high end of grades 68 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
• Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
• Compare and contrast persuasive texts that reached different conclusions about the same issue and explain how the authors reached their conclusions through analyzing the evidence each presents; and analyze the use of such rhetorical and logical fallacies as loaded terms, caricatures, leading questions, false assumptions, and incorrect premises in persuasive texts.
• Compare and contrast persuasive texts that reached different conclusions about the same issue.
• Consult general and specialized reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning or its part of speech.
• Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; recognize when irrelevant evidence is introduced.
• Deliver persuasive presentations that include a well-defined thesis (i.e., one that makes a clear and knowledgeable judgment), differentiate fact from opinion and support arguments with detailed evidence, examples, and reasoning, anticipate and answer listener concerns and counterarguments effectively through the inclusion and arrangement of details, reasons, examples, and other elements and maintain a reasonable tone.
• Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing and demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English usage in everyday speech and more formal oral presentations.
• Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words or phrases based on grade 8 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
• Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.
• Establish and maintain a formal style.
• Introduce claim(s), acknowledge and distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and organize the reasons and evidence logically. Understand the importance of the engagement of audience by establishing a context, creating a persona, and otherwise developing interest.
• Produce final drafts/presentations that demonstrate accurate spelling and the correct use of punctuation, capitalization, and format.
• Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented.
• Read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, at the high end of grades 6-8 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
• Support claim(s) with logical reasoning and relevant evidence, using accurate, credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text and arrange details, reasons, and examples effectively and persuasively.
• Support claim(s) with logical reasoning and relevant evidence, using accurate, credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text. Arrange details, reasons, and examples effectively and persuasively.
• Support claim(s) with logical reasoning and relevant evidence, using accurate, credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text. Arranges details, reasons, and examples effectively and persuasively.
• Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening.
• Use pronouns correctly, including clear antecedents and case.
• Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas efficiently as well as to interact and collaborate with others.
• Use verbs in the active and passive voice to achieve particular effects (e.g., emphasizing the actor or the action).
• Use words, phrases, and clauses to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence.
• Verify the preliminary determination of the meaning of a word or phrase (e.g., by checking the inferred meaning in context or in a dictionary).
• With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed.

Science

• Introduce claim, acknowledge and distinguish the claim from alternate or opposing claims, and organize the reasons and evidence logically. Understand the importance of the engagement of audience by establishing a context, creating a persona, and otherwise developing interest. (LA)
• Support claim with logical reasoning and relevant evidence, using accurate, credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text and arrange details, reasons, and examples effectively and persuasively. (LA)
• Support claim with logical reasoning and relevant evidence, using accurate, credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text. Arrange details, reasons, and examples effectively and persuasively. (LA)
• Support claim with logical reasoning and relevant evidence, using accurate, credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text. Arranges details, reasons, and examples effectively and persuasively. (LA)
• Use words, phrases, and clauses to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among claim, counterclaims, reasons, and evidence.
• Use words, phrases, and clauses to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among claim, counterclaims, reasons, and evidence. (LA)

Unit 2: Industrialization, Urbanization, and Immigration [SS]

Social Studies

• Analyze the transformation of the American economy and the changing social and political conditions in the United States in response to the Industrial Revolution.
• Analyze the transformation of the American economy and the changing social and political conditions in the United States in response to the Industrial Revolution. Evaluate the impact of political, economic, social, and technological changes on American life from 1870 to 1930.
• Describe the increasing United States involvement in world affairs including participation in World War I.
• Describe your state's reaction to the increasing United States involvement in world affairs including participation in World War I, and evaluate the impact on the state's economy.
• Discuss child labor, working conditions, and laissez-faire policies toward big business and examine the labor movement, including its leaders (e.g., Samuel Gompers), its demand for collective bargaining, and its strikes and protests over labor conditions.
• Discuss entrepreneurs, industrialists, and bankers in politics, commerce, and industry (e.g., Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Leland Stanford).
• Evaluate the impact of political, economic, social, and technological changes on American life from 1870 to 1930.
• Examine the changing role of educational, religious, and social institutions in the state and analyze their impact.
• Examine the location and effects of urbanization, renewed immigration, and industrialization (e.g., the effects on social fabric of cities, wealth and economic opportunity, the conservation movement).
• Explain how states and the federal government encouraged business expansion through tariffs, banking, land grants, and subsidies.
• Identify the characteristics and impact of Grangerism and Populism.
• Identify the new sources of large-scale immigration and the contributions of immigrants to the building of cities and the economy; explain the ways in which new social and economic patterns encouraged assimilation of newcomers into the mainstream amidst growing cultural diversity; and discuss the new wave of nativism.
• Identify the reasons for the development of federal Indian policy and the wars with American Indians and their relationship to agricultural development and industrialization.
• Name the significant inventors and their inventions and identify how they improved the quality of life (e.g., Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Orville and Wilbur Wright).
• Trace patterns of agricultural and industrial development as they relate to climate, use of natural resources, markets, and trade and locate such development on a map.

Unit 2: Living Organisms [S]

Science

• Compare and contrast the information gained from experiments, simulations, video, or multimedia sources with that gained from reading a text on the same topic.
• Describe how organisms maintain stable internal conditions while living in changing external environments.
• Describe ways in which organisms interact with each other and with non-living parts of the environment.
• Describe ways in which organisms interact with each other and with non-living parts of the environment: coexistence/cooperation/competition, symbiosis, and mutual dependence.
• Determine the central ideas or conclusions of a text; provide an accurate summary of the text distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.
• Explain the significance of the processes of photosynthesis and respiration to the survival of green plants and other organisms.
• Follow precisely a multistep procedure when carrying out experiments, taking measurements, or performing technical tasks.
• Identify components of an ecosystem to which organisms may respond.
• Identify components of an ecosystem to which organisms may respond.
• Identify how structure complements function at different levels of organization including organs, organ systems, organisms, and populations.
• Identify responses in organisms to external stimuli such as the presence or absence of heat or light.
• Identify the systems of an organism and describe their functions.
• Integrate quantitative or technical information expressed in words in a text with a version of that information expressed visually (e.g., in a flowchart, diagram, model, graph, or table).
• Investigate factors that determine the growth and survival of organisms including light, temperature range, soil/rock type, and water.
• Know how to construct a simple branching diagram to classify living groups of organisms by shared characteristics.
• Know that mitochondria liberate energy for the work that cells do and that chloroplasts capture sunlight energy for photosynthesis.
• Know that the responses of organisms are caused by internal or external stimuli.
• Know the relationship between structure and function in living systems.
• Know the structures and processes by which flowering plants generate pollen, ovules, seeds, and fruit.
• Summarize how food provides the energy and the molecules required for building materials, growth and survival of all organisms.
• Summarize the basic structures and functions of flowering plants required for survival, reproduction and defense.
• Understand how organisms interact with and respond to the biotic and abiotic components of their environment.
• Understand the processes, structures, and functions of living organisms that enable them to survive, reproduce and carry out the basic functions of life.
• Understand the structures, processes and behaviors of plants that enable them to survive and reproduce.
• Understand the structures, processes, and behaviors of plants that enable them to survive and reproduce.

Unit 2: Watership Down [LA]

Language Arts

• Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.
• Analyze how a modern work of fiction draws on themes, patterns of events, or character types from myths, traditional stories, or religious works such as the Bible, including describing how the material is rendered new.
• Analyze how differences in the points of view of the characters and the audience or reader (e.g., created through the use of dramatic irony) create such effects as suspense or humor.
• Analyze the extent to which a filmed or live production of a story or drama stays faithful to or departs from the text or script, evaluating the choices made by the director or actors.
• Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
• Compare and contrast the structure of two or more texts and analyze how the differing structure of each text contributes to its meaning and style.
• Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration.
• Consult general and specialized reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning or its part of speech.
• Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text.
• Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.
• Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.
• Distinguish among the connotations (associations) of words with similar denotations (definitions) (e.g. bullheaded, willful, firm, persistent, resolute).
• Engage and orient the reader by establishing a context and point of view and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally and logically.
• Identify common words or word parts from other languages that are used in written English (e.g., phenomenon, charisma, chorus, passe, flora, fauna).
• Integrate quantitative or technical information expressed in words in a text with a version of that information expressed visually (e.g., in a flowchart, diagram, model, graph, or table).
• Understand the most important points in the history of the English language and use common word origins to determine the historical influences on English word meanings.
• Use common, grade-appropriate Greek or Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word (e.g., precede, recede, secede).
• Use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence or paragraph; a word's position or function in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
• Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening.
• Verify the preliminary determination of the meaning of a word or phrase (e.g., by checking the inferred meaning in context or in a dictionary).
• With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed.
• Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.

Unit 3: The Great Depression and World War II [SS]

Social Studies

• Analyze causes and effects of events and social issues such as immigration, Social Darwinism, eugenics, race relations, nativism, the Red Scare, Prohibition, and the changing role of women; and analyze the impact of significant individuals such as Clarence Darrow, William Jennings Bryan, Henry Ford, Glenn Curtiss, Marcus Garvey, and Charles A. Lindbergh.
• Analyze major issues of World War II, including the Holocaust; the internment of German, Italian, and Japanese Americans and Executive Order 9066; and the development of conventional and atomic weapons.
• Analyze major military events of World War II, including the Battle of Midway, the U.S. military advancement through the Pacific Islands, the Bataan Death March, the invasion of Normandy, fighting the war on multiple fronts, and the liberation of concentration camps.
• Analyze the different explanations for the Great Depression and how the New Deal fundamentally changed the role of the federal government.
• Analyze the effects of and the controversies arising from New Deal economic policies and the expanded role of the federal government in society and the economy since the 1930s (e.g., Works Progress Administration, Social Security, National Labor Relations Board, farm programs, regional development policies, and energy development projects such as the Tennessee Valley Authority, California Central Valley Project, and Bonneville Dam).
• Analyze the function of the U.S. Office of War Information.
• Analyze the impact of significant individuals such as Clarence Darrow, William Jennings Bryan, Henry Ford, Glenn Curtiss, Marcus Garvey, and Charles A. Lindbergh.
• Describe major developments in aviation, weaponry, communication, and medicine and the wars impact on the location of American industry and use of resources.
• Describe major developments in aviation, weaponry, communications.
• Describe the Harlem Renaissance and new trends in literature, music, and art, with special attention to the work of writers (e.g., Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes).
• Discuss the constitutional issues and impact of events on the U.S. home front, including the internment of Japanese Americans (e.g., Fred Korematsu v. United States of America) and the restrictions on German and Italian resident aliens; the response of the administration to Hitlers atrocities against Jews and other groups; the roles of women in military production; and the roles and growing political demands of African Americans.
• Discuss the decision to drop atomic bombs and the consequences of the decision (Hiroshima and Nagasaki).
• Discuss the human toll of the Depression, natural disasters, and unwise agricultural practices and their effects on the depopulation of rural regions and on political movements of the left and right, with particular attention to the Dust Bowl refugees and their social and economic impacts in California.
• Discuss the human toll of the Depression, natural disasters, and unwise agricultural practices and their effects on the depopulation of rural regions and on political movements of the left and right, with particular attention to the Dust Bowl refugees.
• Discuss the rise of mass production techniques, the growth of cities, the impact of new technologies (e.g., the automobile, electricity), and the resulting prosperity and effect on the American landscape.
• Evaluate the domestic and international leadership of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman during World War II, including the U.S. relationship with its allies and domestic industry's rapid mobilization for the war effort.
• Evaluate the military contributions of leaders during World War II, including Omar Bradley, Dwight Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur, Chester A. Nimitz, George Marshall, and George Patton.
• Examine the origins of American involvement in the war, with an emphasis on the events that precipitated the attack on Pearl Harbor.
• Examine the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution and the Volstead Act (Prohibition).
• Explain the home front and how American patriotism inspired exceptional actions by citizens and military personnel, including high levels of military enlistment; volunteerism; the purchase of war bonds; Victory Gardens; the bravery and contributions of the Tuskegee Airmen, the Flying Tigers, and the Navajo Code Talkers; and opportunities and obstacles for women and ethnic minorities.
• Explain U.S. and Allied wartime strategy, including the major battles of Midway, Normandy, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and the Battle of the Bulge.
• Identify reasons for U.S. involvement in World War II, including Italian, German, and Japanese dictatorships and their aggression, especially the attack on Pearl Harbor.
• Identify the roles and sacrifices of individual American soldiers, as well as the unique contributions of the special fighting forces (e.g., the Tuskegee Airmen, the 442nd Regimental Combat team, the Navajo Code Talkers).
• Trace the growth and effects of radio and movies and their role in the worldwide diffusion of popular culture.
• Understand significant events, social issues, and individuals of the 1920s.
• Understand significant events, social issues, and individuals of the 1920s. Analyze causes and effects of events and social issues such as immigration, Social Darwinism, eugenics, race relations, nativism, the Red Scare, Prohibition, and the changing role of women.
• Understand the domestic and international impact of U.S. participation in World War II.
• Understand the explanations of the principal causes of the Great Depression and the steps taken by the Federal Reserve, Congress, and Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin Delano Roosevelt to combat the economic crisis.

Unit 3: A Dynamic Planet [S]

Science

• Explain significant developments and extinctions of plant and animal life on the geologic time scale.
• Explain the relationship between genetic variation and an organism's ability to adapt to its environment.
• Explain the use of fossils, ice cores, composition of sedimentary rocks, faults, and igneous rock formations found in rock layers as evidence of the history of the Earth and its changing life forms.
• Infer the age of Earth and relative age of rocks and fossils from index fossils and ordering of rock layers (relative dating and radioactive dating).
• Know that biological evolution accounts for the diversity of species developed through gradual processes over many generations.
• Know that Earth processes today are similar to those that occurred in the past, and slow geologic processes have large cumulative effects over long periods of time.
• Know that evidence from geologic layers and radioactive dating indicates Earth is approximately 4.6 billion years old and that life on this planet has existed for more than 3 billion years.
• Know that fossils provide evidence of how life and environmental conditions have changed.
• Know that independent lines of evidence from geology, fossils, and comparative anatomy provide the bases for the theory of evolution.
• Know that movements of Earth's continental and oceanic plates through time, with associated changes in climate and geographic connections, have affected the past and present distribution of organisms.
• Know that the history of life on Earth has been disrupted by major catastrophic events, such as major volcanic eruptions or the impacts of asteroids.
• Know the reasoning used by Charles Darwin in reaching his conclusion that natural selection is the mechanism of evolution.
• Summarize the use of evidence drawn from geology, fossils, and comparative anatomy to form the basis for biological classification and the theory of evolution.
• Understand that evidence from rocks allows us to understand the evolution of life on Earth.
• Understand that the rock cycle includes the formation of new sediment and rocks and that rocks are often found in layers, with the oldest generally on the bottom.
• Understand the evolution of organisms and landforms based on evidence, theories, and processes that impact the Earth over time.

Unit 3: The Book Thief [LA]

Language Arts

• Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.
• Analyze idioms, analogies, metaphors, and similes to infer the literal and figurative meanings of phrases.
• Analyze the extent to which a filmed or live production of a story or drama stays faithful to or departs from the text or script, evaluating the choices made by the director or actors.
• Analyze the purpose of information presented in diverse media and formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) and evaluate the motives (e.g., social, commercial, political) behind its presentation.
• Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
• Compare and contrast the structure of two or more texts and analyze how the differing structure of each text contributes to its meaning and style.
• Delineate a speaker's argument and specific claims, evaluating the soundness of the reasoning and relevance and sufficiency of the evidence and identifying when irrelevant evidence is introduced. Evaluate the credibility of a speaker (e.g., hidden agendas, slanted or biased material).
• Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings.
• Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.
• Develop a topic with relevant, well-chosen facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples.
• Explore and evaluate argumentative works that are read, heard and/or viewed by identifying the social context of the argument, recognizing the effects of bias, emotional factors, and/or semantic slanting, comparing the argument and counter-argument presented.
• Identify/evaluate the effectiveness of tone, style, and use of language.
• Interpret and evaluate the various ways in which visual image makers (e.g., graphic artists, illustrators, news photographers) communicate information and affect impressions and opinions.
• Read and comprehend works of exposition, argument, and functional text in the form of personal essays, speeches, opinion pieces, essays about art or literature, biographies, memoirs, journalism, and historical, scientific, technical, or economic accounts (including digital sources) written for a broad audience.

Unit 4: Global Conflict and Civil Rights [SS]

Social Studies

• Analyze examples of literature, the arts, and pop culture in terms of their historical context and significance to Cold War events.
• Analyze various policy plans and doctrines in terms of their development, implementation, and strategic relevance during the Cold War.
• Assess the influence of technological advances on economic development and daily life.
• Compare and contrast the approach taken by some civil rights groups such as the Black Panthers with the nonviolent approach of Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Compare and contrast the various political viewpoints surrounding issues of the post World War II era.
• Describe how Cold War tensions were intensified by the arms race, the space race, McCarthyism, and the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), the findings of which were confirmed by the Venona Papers.
• Describe how litigation such as the landmark cases of Brown v. Board of Education, Mendez v. Westminster, Hernandez v. Texas, Delgado v. Bastrop I.S.D., Edgewood I.S.D. v. Kirby, and Sweatt v. Painter played a role in protecting the rights of the minority during the civil rights movement.
• Describe presidential actions and congressional votes to address minority rights in the United States, including desegregation of the armed forces, the Civil Rights acts of 1957 and 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
• Describe the role of individuals such as governors George Wallace, Orval Faubus, and Lester Maddox and groups, including the Congressional bloc of southern Democrats, that sought to maintain the status quo.
• Describe the roles of political organizations that promoted civil rights, including ones from African American, Chicano, American Indian, women's, and other civil rights movements.
• Describe U.S. responses to Soviet aggression after World War II, including the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Berlin airlift, and John F. Kennedy's role in the Cuban Missile Crisis.
• Evaluate changes and events in the United States that have resulted from the civil rights movement, including increased participation of minorities in the political process.
• Evaluate the extent to which literature, the arts and pop culture reflected and manipulated fear, anxiety, and dissent during the Cold War.
• Evaluate the major changes and events that have effected the roles of local, state, and national governments.
• Explain the causes, actions, and implications of various Asian conflicts during the Cold War, including but not limited to those conflicts in China, Korea, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.
• Identify the causes of United States' involvement in Vietnam and examine how this involvement affected society.
• Identify the roles of significant leaders who supported various rights movements, including Martin Luther King Jr., Cesar Chavez, Rosa Parks, Hector P. Garcia, and Betty Friedan.
• List economic and technological advances occurring in individual states and the nation as a whole since 1970, and assess their influence on specific states' roles in the nation and the world.
• Understand the impact of significant national and international decisions and conflicts in the Cold War on the United States.

Unit 4: Human Body Systems [S]

Science

• Analyze how an imbalance in homeostasis may result from a disruption in any human system.
• Analyze how human body systems interact to provide for the needs of the human organism.
• Compare joints in the body (wrist, shoulder, thigh) with structures used in machines and simple devices (hinge, ball-and-socket, and sliding joints).
• Describe how systems within the human body are defined by the functions they perform.
• Describe the function of the umbilicus and placenta during pregnancy.
• Describe the growth and development of the human organism.
• Evaluate how systems in the human body help regulate the internal environment.
• Explain how levers confer mechanical advantage and how the application of this principle applies to the musculoskeletal system.
• Explain how the structure of an organ is adapted to perform specific functions within one or more systems.
• Explain how understanding human body systems can help make people informed decisions regarding health.
• Explain that organ systems function because of the contributions of individual organs, tissues, and cells, and failure of any part can affect the entire system.
• Explain the effects of environmental influences on human embryo development and human health including smoking, alcohol, drugs, and diet.
• Recognize how bones and muscles work together to provide a structural framework for movement.
• Recognize how reproductive organs of the human female and male generate eggs and that sperm and how sexual activity may lead to fertilization and pregnancy.
• Recognize that contractions of the heart generate blood pressure and that heart valves prevent backflow of blood in the circulatory system.
• Recognize that plants and animals have levels of organization for structure and function, including cells, tissues, organs, organ systems, and the whole organism.

Unit 4: To Kill a Mockingbird [LA]

Language Arts

• Analyze how differences in the points of view of the characters and the audience or reader (e.g., created through the use of dramatic irony) create such effects as suspense or humor.
• Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision.
• Analyze the extent to which a filmed or live production of a story or drama stays faithful to or departs from the text or script, evaluating the choices made by the director or actors.
• Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
• Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
• Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text.
• Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.
• Integrate multimedia and visual displays into presentations to clarify information, strengthen claims and evidence, and add interest.
• Make connections between works, self and related topics.
• Present claims and findings, emphasizing salient points in a focused, coherent manner with relevant evidence, sound valid reasoning, and well-chosen details; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation.
• Present oral responses to literature that interpret a reading and provide insight, connect responses to the writer's techniques and to specific textual references, draw supported inferences about the effects of a literary work on its audience, and support judgments through references to the text, other works, other authors, or personal knowledge.
• Produce a multimedia presentation involving text, graphics, images, and sound using available technology.
• Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
• Support judgments through references to the text, other works, other authors, or to personal knowledge.
• Use a variety of sentence types, punctuating properly, and avoiding fragments and run-ons.
• Use phrases and clauses correctly, including proper punctuation (e.g. prepositional phrases, appositives, dependent and independent clauses).
• Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas efficiently as well as to interact and collaborate with others.
• Write responses to literature that exhibit careful reading and insight in the interpretations, connect responses to the writer's techniques and to specific textual references, and draw supported inferences about the effects of a literary work on its audience.
• Write responses to literature that exhibit careful reading and insight in their interpretations; connect responses to the writer's techniques and to specific textual references; and draw supported inferences about the effects of a literary work on its audience.

Unit 5: Technology Explosion [SS]

Social Studies

• Analyze the extent and significant of economic changes in individual states and the nation as a whole.
• Analyze the role of the Reagan administration and other factors in the victory of the West in the Cold War.
• Assess the impact of growing racial and ethnic diversity in American society.
• Assess the impact of twenty-first century terrorist activity on American society.
• Assess the influence of technological advances on economic development and daily life.
• Compare and contrast the various political viewpoints surrounding issues of the post World War II era.
• Describe the changing demographics in individual states and the nation as a whole and analyze their significance for the nation's society and economy.
• Describe the changing roles of women in society as reflected in the entry of more women into the labor force and the changing family structure.
• Describe the effects on society and the economy of technological developments since 1945, including the computer revolution, changes in communication, advances in medicine, and improvements in agricultural technology.
• Describe U.S. Middle East policy and its strategic, political, and economic interests, including those related to the Gulf War.
• Discuss forms of popular culture, with emphasis on their origins and geographic diffusion (e.g., jazz and other forms of popular music, professional sports, architectural and artistic styles).
• Discuss the reasons for the nation's changing immigration policy, with emphasis on how the Immigration Act of 1965 and successor acts have transformed American society.
• Discuss the significant domestic policy speeches of Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton (e.g., with regard to education, civil rights, economic policy, environmental policy).
• Evaluate the impact of recent constitutional amendments, court rulings, and federal legislation on United States' citizens.
• Evaluate the importance of social changes to different groups in individual states and the nation as a whole.
• Explain how the federal, state, and local governments have responded to demographic and social changes such as population shifts to the suburbs, racial concentrations in the cities, Frostbelt-to-Sunbelt migration, international migration, decline of family farms, increases in out-of-wedlock births, and drug abuse.
• Explain the constitutional crisis originating from the Watergate scandal.
• Identify and assess the impact of economic, technological, and environmental changes in the United States.
• Identify and assess the impact of social, political, and cultural changes in the United States.
• Know that improved global communications, international trade, transnational business organizations, overseas competition, and the shift from manufacturing to service industries have impacted the American economy.
• Know that the continuing population flow from cities to suburbs, the internal migrations from the Rust Belt to the Sun Belt, and the increase in immigration resulting from passage of the 1965 Immigration Act have had social and political effects.
• Know that the United States faced new political, national security, and economic challenges in the post-Cold War world and following the attacks on September 11, 2001.
• Summarize significant events in foreign policy since the Vietnam War.
• Trace the impact of, need for, and controversies associated with environmental conservation, expansion of the national park system, and the development of environmental protection laws, with particular attention to the interaction between environmental protection advocates and property rights advocates.
• Understand how political debates focused on the extent of the role of government in the economy, environmental protection, social welfare and national security.

Unit 5: Health and Nutrition [S]

Science

• Analyze Food Facts Labels for nutrients such as proteins, fats, and carbohydrates.
• Analyze the marketing and advertising of alcohol and tobacco companies in terms of the strategies they use to influence youth experimentation with their products.
• Analyze the relationship between health-enhancing behaviors (communication, goal-setting and decision making) and the ability to cope with failure.
• Apply lifelong nutrition and health related fitness concepts to enhance quality of life.
• Apply My Plate meal planning guides to ethnic and vegetarian choices.
• Apply risk reduction behaviors to protect self and others from alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use.
• Apply strategies and skills for developing and maintaining healthy relationships.
• Apply strategies that develop and maintain reproductive and sexual health.
• Apply strategies to consume a variety of nutrient dense foods and beverages in moderation.
• Attribute the prevention of nutrition related diseases to following the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
• Classify behaviors as either productive or counterproductive to group functioning.
• Compare weight management strategies for healthy eating patterns, including attention to portion and serving sizes.
• Contrast characteristics of healthy and unhealthy relationships for friendships and for dating.
• Contrast characteristics of healthy and unhealthy relationships.
• Design a stress management plan that is appropriate for the situation and individual traits and skills.
• Design goals for increasing physical activity and strategies for achieving those goals.
• Design nonviolent solutions to conflicts based on an understanding of the perspectives of those involved in the conflicts.
• Differentiate between communicable and chronic diseases.
• Differentiate between positive and negative stress management strategies.
• Differentiate the health effects of beverages which are nutrient dense with those high in sugar and calories.
• Differentiate the signs, symptoms, and consequences of common eating disorders from more healthy eating behaviors.
• Evaluate Food Facts label with the advertisement of nutrition choices and allowable claims on food labels.
• Evaluate the validity of claims made in advertisements for health products and services.
• Explain environmental, psychological, and social factors affecting excessive sun exposure.
• Explain health and academic consequences of inadequate rest and sleep.
• Explain methods of protecting eyes and vision.
• Explain the effects of culture, media, and family values on decisions related to becoming or remaining abstinent.
• Explain the immediate social and physical consequences of tobacco use, including spit tobacco.
• Explain the impact of early sexual activity outside of marriage on physical, mental, emotional, and social health.
• Explain the increase of incidence of disease and mortality over the last decades.
• Explain the relationships between food consumption, physical activity, and healthy weight management.
• Explain the signs of an abusive relationship and access resources for help.
• Identify the positive benefits of abstinence from sexual activity outside of marriage.
• Illustrate the effects of alcohol and other drugs on behavior, judgment, family relationships, and long-term success.
• Implement a personal fitness plan that balances caloric intake and expenditure.
• Implement a personal wellness plan in nutrition and fitness to enhance quality of life.
• Implement a plan to consume adequate amounts of foods high in fiber.
• Implement verbal and nonverbal communication skills that are effective for a variety of purposes and audiences.
• Infer the potential outcome from impulsive behaviors.
• Interpret the Body Mass Index in terms of body composition and healthy weight, underweight, overweight and obesity.
• Interpret the relationship between poor nutrition and chronic illnesses such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and obesity.
• Interpret the transition of adolescence, including emotions in flux.
• Judge the effects of popular fads on health (tattooing, piercing, artificial fingernails).
• Organize common responses to stressors based on the degree to which they are positive or negative and their likely health outcomes.
• Predict the potential effect of anti-tobacco messages on the use of tobacco by youth and adults.
• Recall symptoms associated with common communicable and chronic diseases.
• Recognize common STDs (including HIV and HPV), modes of transmission, symptoms, effects if untreated, and methods of prevention.
• Recognize signs and symptoms of hurting self or others.
• Remember that abstinence from sexual activity outside of marriage means a positive choice for young people.
• Select methods of prevention based on the modes of transmission of communicable diseases.
• Summarize protective measures for ears and hearing.
• Summarize strategies for predicting and avoiding conflict.
• Summarize the benefits of regular physical activity.
• Summarize the responsibilities of parenthood.
• Summarize the safe and effective use of FDA-approved methods of preventing sexually transmitted diseases.
• Summarize the short-term and long-term benefits of resistance to drug abuse.
• Summarize the short-term and long-term effects of being exposed to secondhand smoke.
• Understand the health risks associated with alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use.
• Understand wellness, disease prevention, and recognition of symptoms.
• Use effective assertive refusal skills to avoid pressure to use alcohol and other drugs.
• Use effective refusal skills to avoid negative peer pressure, sexual behaviors, and sexual harassment.
• Use strategies to communicate care, consideration, and respect for others.

Unit 5: Great American Poets [LA]

Language Arts

• Analyze idioms, analogies, metaphors, and similes to infer the literal and figurative meanings of phrases.
• By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, at the high end of grades 68 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
• Compare and contrast the structure of two or more texts and analyze how the differing structure of each text contributes to its meaning and style.
• Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.
• Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
• Read and analyze poetry: includes the subgenres of narrative poems, lyrical poems, free verse poems, sonnets, odes, ballads, and epics.
• Recite poems (of four to six stanzas), sections of speeches, or dramatic soliloquies, using voice modulation, tone, and gestures expressively to enhance the meaning.
• Use an ellipsis to indicate an omission.
• Use punctuation (comma, ellipsis, dash) to indicate a pause or break.
• Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas clearly and efficiently.
• With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed.
• Write a poem using poetic techniques (e.g., rhyme scheme, meter); figurative language (e.g., personification, idioms, hyperbole); and graphic elements (e.g., word position).