Civics Class 8th Grade

[Anonymous]

I think my daughter’s civics class is too advanced for the average 8th grader. They were studying the government shutdown and since no textbooks are that recent they used news articles. One article was from the BBC. I read the article to see how I could help her. I’m following government closely but this article from the BBC was so long and dry I wonder how much she could retain.

She will be tested on the second quarter work and it’s a lot. From what I remember when I looked at her review sheet there was info on the Magna Carta and King John and the Barons and how much was used by the colonists. There was a lot about the constitution and how different areas came about, info on the Tea Party. It seemed to cover a lot of years but just bits and pieces.

Does anyone have a middle schooler taking civics and if so what are they learning?

[Anonymous]

Hello, my MS is taking civics hn. It’s petty easy for her. The teacher is easygoing, but the material we are learning is different. My DD is learning about debit, credit, and going on a finance park trip this thursday to stimulate the real adult life. We aren’t doing anything history related currently, and very little politics. Mainly just about forms of money, jobs, investing, ect.

[Anonymous]

Side note: Try this question on the FCPS forum. Should help more

[Anonymous]

My DD is learning similar things in civics. They also had to research political candidates running in the recent elections (what do they support/against). I don’t think this is advanced at all.

[Anonymous]

Finance is a new spin on civics. The political candidates is more what I was thinking of.
Thanks, I’ll try FCPS

[Anonymous]

My kid is in 8th grade Civics. He loves it. It sounds like they are discussing similar topics to yours. He loves his teacher, it’s one of his favorite classes even though he is a STEM kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hello, my MS is taking civics hn. It’s petty easy for her. The teacher is easygoing, but the material we are learning is different. My DD is learning about debit, credit, and going on a finance park trip this thursday to stimulate the real adult life. We aren’t doing anything history related currently, and very little politics. Mainly just about forms of money, jobs, investing, ect.

DS’s class did the same and they have discussed the candidates for the recent election, the electoral college, and the political parties. FCPS student.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think my daughter’s civics class is too advanced for the average 8th grader. They were studying the government shutdown and since no textbooks are that recent they used news articles. One article was from the BBC. I read the article to see how I could help her. I’m following government closely but this article from the BBC was so long and dry I wonder how much she could retain.

She will be tested on the second quarter work and it’s a lot. From what I remember when I looked at her review sheet there was info on the Magna Carta and King John and the Barons and how much was used by the colonists. There was a lot about the constitution and how different areas came about, info on the Tea Party. It seemed to cover a lot of years but just bits and pieces.

Does anyone have a middle schooler taking civics and if so what are they learning?

It looks like they discussed the historic documents that were a part of the basis for developing the Constitution. They probably discussed the two party system and examples of third parties that made a splash, the Tea Party.

Did you ask your child how these things were connected? Or look through the info that is probably on her Schoology page?

[Anonymous]

My daughter is doing something similar in her Civics class (not honors because there isn't an honors offering) at private. They do a lot of reading the primary source documents. They have a few big projects, this quarter is mock Supreme Court.

A long and dry article seems par for the course. Think forward to college then backward to 8th grade - these teacher have to start preparing these kids to learn how to retain this stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think my daughter’s civics class is too advanced for the average 8th grader. They were studying the government shutdown and since no textbooks are that recent they used news articles. One article was from the BBC. I read the article to see how I could help her. I’m following government closely but this article from the BBC was so long and dry I wonder how much she could retain.

She will be tested on the second quarter work and it’s a lot. From what I remember when I looked at her review sheet there was info on the Magna Carta and King John and the Barons and how much was used by the colonists. There was a lot about the constitution and how different areas came about, info on the Tea Party. It seemed to cover a lot of years but just bits and pieces.

Does anyone have a middle schooler taking civics and if so what are they learning?

It looks like they discussed the historic documents that were a part of the basis for developing the Constitution. They probably discussed the two party system and examples of third parties that made a splash, the Tea Party.

Did you ask your child how these things were connected? Or look through the info that is probably on her Schoology page?

That makes sense. At the beginning it was more like I thought civics would be about. They discussed amendments to the constitution. Freedom of speech, the right to bear arms, the basic important issues of today. There was something in the first quarter about the repeal of Roe v Wade and states rights.

My daughter is an average student and they don’t have honors classes in middle school except math so I would guess some kids fly through it easily and some, like my daughter, has a hard time getting through the reading. The BBC article was long and dry. Does anyone have tips on helping a student who’s not an enthusiastic reader to get through these types of writing?

[Anonymous]

I would guess that they read the article in class together and discussed it.

Maybe get her some highlighters and ask her to highlight the parts that she thought were important and discuss her selections? Break it into small chunks of time, set a timer for 15 minutes and then take a movement break.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would guess that they read the article in class together and discussed it.

Maybe get her some highlighters and ask her to highlight the parts that she thought were important and discuss her selections? Break it into small chunks of time, set a timer for 15 minutes and then take a movement break.

I was going to suggest taking a few notes on it in fun gel pens, but I think highlighters (maybe also those tiny arrow shaped sticky notes) would have a similar focusing effect.

[Anonymous]

BBC writers and editors often really do not understand the US Constitution. So their articles about US Government often have errors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:BBC writers and editors often really do not understand the US Constitution. So their articles about US Government often have errors.

Sounds like the U.S. government

[Anonymous]

These are good suggestions, thanks. we were reviewing it for over an hour and that was too long.