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eLECTIONS State Standards - Indiana


INDIANA SEA HOMEPAGE

INDIANA SOCIAL STUDIES STANDARDS K-8


Kindergarten through Grade 8 Standards Overview

Civics and Government

In this standard, students learn what it means to be a citizen with rights and responsibilities in several communities: local, state, national, and world. Students also learn to identify the services and information provided by their government, and about the major principles, values, and institutions of various political structures and governments across history

Grade 8

Standard 2 - Civics and Government

Students will explain the major principles, values, and institutions of constitutional government and citizenship, which are based on the founding documents of the United States and how three branches of government share and check power within our federal system of government.

8.2.2 Identify and explain the relationship between rights and responsibilities of citizenship in the United States.

Example: The right to vote and the responsibility to use this right carefully and effectively. The right to free speech and the responsibility not to say or write false statements.

8.2.3 Explain how and why legislative, executive, and judicial powers are distributed, shared, and limited in the constitutional government of the United States.

Example: Examine key Supreme Court cases and describe the role each branch of the government played in each of these cases.

8.2.4 Examine functions of the national government in the lives of people.

Example: Purchasing and distributing public goods and services, coining money, financing government through taxation, conducting foreign policy, providing a common defense, and regulating commerce.

Roles of Citizens

8.2.7 Explain the importance in a democratic republic of responsible participation by citizens in voluntary civil associations/nongovernmental organizations that comprise civil society.

Example: Reform movements such as the abolitionist movement, women's suffrage, the Freedman's Bureau.

8.2.8 Explain ways that citizens can participate in political parties, campaigns, and elections.

Example: Local, state, and national elections; referendums; poll work; campaign committees; voting.

8.2.9 Explain how citizens can monitor and influence the development and implementation of public policies at local, state, and national levels of government.

Example: Joining action groups, holding leaders accountable through the electoral process, attending town meetings, staying informed by reading newspapers and Web sites, watching television news broadcasts.