Student Information: Grade 8 Social Studies
As you leave grade 7 and enter into grade 8, the most important thing to do is begin making a greater effort to become responsible and active citizens. Grade eight focuses on issues related to contact and interactions between societies with different world views. Furthermore, as students, you will be asked to analyze the lives of citizens living in different times and different places. Through this, you will be asked to reflect on your own worldviews and assess how these views might have influenced the past and present. The grade eight curriculum focuses on three different cultures throughout history. Firstly, on Japan, which FACTSnet Alberta is striving to integrate more thoroughly into Alberta schools. The Alberta Program of studies asks/expects thorough understanding of nine different questions dealing with Japanese culture, isolationism, and ideological beliefs of the Meiji era. Influences from Japanese culture are everywhere in our society. Therefore, FACTSnet strives to make more engaging and active integration of Japanese knowledge in your classrooms, and push away from the Eurocentric style of teaching that has often been taught in school. By examining Japan, you as a student will be asked to demonstrate an understanding and appreciation of different life values, knowledge and beliefs, and worldviews, adding to your roles as responsible and active citizens. Moreover, you will learn to appreciate these values and world views to understand Japans isolation and adaptation in that time period.
After Japan, the Alberta Social Studies curriculum will focus on Renaissance Europe. Here, you, as a student, will be asked to demonstrate an understanding and appreciation of how the exchange of ideas and knowledge attributed to shaping the worldview of the western world. After Renaissance Europe, your classrooms will explore the Spanish and Aztec societies. Here, you will be asked to explore and demonstrate knowledge and understanding of how intercultural contact and conflict can affect the worldview of societies in a present context. Moreover, in the Spanish and Aztec section of the curriculum, you will explore how cultural differences can insight conflict and intercultural disputes. Overall, the overview of the grade eight Social Studies curriculum is to analyze how contact between societies leads to significant change, conflict, and alters society’s worldview.
The grade eight program of studies has distinct expectations for the you to reach under the category of “Dimensions of Thinking”. These four categories include critical and creative thinking to determine the validity and reliability of information based on context. This means that you should be able to analyze the information you are given, and argue why it is true or false. Next, you will be asked to understand bias, source, objectivity, and evidence to broaden understanding. From this, the program of study expects you as students to understand what you read in the textbook, or from the internet, or stories from people, may be particular to that source, and therefore one point of view of the information. It is important in every grade forward, to use these ‘dimensions of thinking’ to broaden your understanding, as well as become responsible and active citizens. On top of these ‘dimensions of thinking’, there are expected outcomes in historical thinking, geographic thinking, and problem solving; to be able to become social participants in the democratic process and conflict resolution. Grade eight focuses on the context of differing worldviews, how these views are expressed in different times and different places, and how this connects to the democratic and responsible society we live in today.
As grade eight students, it is important to keep an open mind, embrace the learning and connect everyday knowledge with the academic process of the classroom
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