Florida SS.8.G.1.2

Social Studies8th GradeUnderstand how to use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technology to report information.

The Standard

Use appropriate geographic tools and terms to identify and describe significant places and regions in American history.

Florida Next Generation Sunshine State Standards for Social Studies

Teacher's field guide

What This Standard Means

What Students Need to Do

Students use atlases, historical maps, digital maps, legends, scales, directions, and coordinates to locate places connected to American history. They describe locations, physical features, boundaries, and historical importance with accurate geographic terms.

What Mastery Looks Like

Given an unfamiliar historical map, students locate a named site or region using the title, legend, scale, and coordinates. They accurately describe its relative location, physical features, and regional boundaries.

Common Misconceptions

Students may treat regions as fixed political borders or confuse absolute location with relative location. They may also apply modern boundaries to past maps or ignore the map's title, date, scale, and legend.

How to Assess It

Give students an 1803 Louisiana Purchase map with a legend and scale. Ask, "Locate New Orleans, describe its location using two geographic terms, and explain why the location mattered."

Lesson moves

Ways to Teach It

  1. Give pairs a colonial map, ruler, colored pencils, and sticky notes to mark Boston, the Appalachians, and the thirteen colonies.

  2. Prompt students: How did the Mississippi River's location shape settlement and trade? Require three details from a map in the response.

  3. Run a map clue relay where teams use coordinates, direction, scale, and legends to identify five Revolutionary War sites.

  4. Students compare a historical map of their state with a current digital map, then record changed borders, names, roads, or settlements.

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