West Virginia State Standards for Social Studies: Grade 12

WV.SS.S.1. Citizenship: Students will describe, demonstrate and employ the civic dispositions of good citizenship (Civic Dispositions); develop a respect for symbols, ideas and concepts of the United States and describe the roles of significant individuals (Respect For People, Events, and Symbols); develop and employ the civic skills necessary for effective citizenship by using criteria to make judgments, arrive at and defend positions and evaluate the validity of the positions or data (Evaluation Skills); demonstrate and employ the participatory skills of interacting, monitoring and influencing that are essential for informed, effective and responsible citizenship, including participation in civic life to shape public policy (Participatory Skills); and explain and practice the responsibilities, privileges and rights of United States citizens (Civic Life).

SS.12.1.1. Students will identify and explain the characteristics of citizenship in the United States and explain how one becomes a citizen of the United States.

SS.12.1.2. Students will explain that one of the primary purposes of American government is the protection of personal, political, and economic rights of citizens, examine the characteristics of these rights and analyze how they reinforce or conflict with each other necessitating reasonable limitations.

SS.12.1.3. Students will describe and analyze the personal and civic responsibilities of U.S. citizens.

SS.12.1.4. Students will describe and explain dispositions or traits that are important to the preservation and improvement of American democracy (e.g., individual responsibility, self-governance or self-discipline, civility, patriotism, respect for the rights of other citizens, honesty, respect for the law, open mindedness, critical mindedness, negotiation and compromise, civic mindedness, and compassion).

SS.12.1.5. Students will describe how the Constitution provides numerous opportunities for citizens to participate in the political process and to monitor and influence government.

SS.12.1.6. Students will explain how public policy is formed and carried out at the local, state and national levels and what roles citizens can play in the process.

SS.12.1.7. Students will identify and explain various ways that citizens can participate in a democratic society.

WV.SS.S.2. Civics/Government: Students will identify, examine and analyze the purposes and basic principles of the United States government (Purposes of Government); explain, evaluate and analyze the origins and meaning of the principles, ideals and core democratic values expressed in the foundational documents of the United States (Ideals of United States Democracy); identify, examine and explain the structure, function and responsibilities of governments and the allocation of power at the local, state and national levels (United States Government and Politics); and analyze how the world is organized politically and describe the role and relationship of the United States to other nations and to world affairs (United States Government and World Affairs).

SS.12.2.1. Students will explain the basic ideas of the natural rights philosophy and theories of government that influenced the development of the United States government and analyze the differences between natural rights philosophy and classical Republicanism.

SS.12.2.2. Students will examine and analyze the basic ideas and core democratic values the Framers used in creating the government they thought would best protect the rights of each individual and promote the good of all.

SS.12.2.3. Students will describe the influence of the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Age of Enlightenment on the thinking of the Founders and analyze how they were influenced by the classical periods of ancient Greece and Rome (e.g., civic virtue, common good).

SS.12.2.4. Students will trace and explain the British origins of American constitutionalism (e.g., Magna Carta, Petition of Right and English Bill of Rights) and describe how the evolution of constitutional (parliamentary) government in England influenced the Founders.

SS.12.2.5. Students will describe how the economic, social and political conditions of life in colonial America influenced the development of American ideals and core democratic values about government (e.g., Mayflower Compact, Massachusetts Body of Liberties, Fundamental Orders of Connecticut and Laws of Liberties of Massachusetts).

SS.12.2.6. Students will explain how political, religious and economic ideas and interest brought about the American Revolution.

SS.12.2.7. Students will analyze the people and events associated with the drafting and signing of the Declaration of Independence and explain the philosophy of government, the major arguments and the main ideas included in the document.

SS.12.2.8. Students will describe the essential characteristics of limited and unlimited government.

SS.12.2.9. Students will explain the importance of law in the American constitutional system and examine the importance of the rule of law for the protection of individual rights and the common good.

SS.12.2.10. Students will explain the difference between written and unwritten constitutions, the various purposes constitutions serve, and the alternative models of government from which the Founders has to choose.

SS.12.2.11. Students will explain how the experience of the states in developing constitutions and bills of rights influenced the framing of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights (e.g., Massachusetts state constitution and Virginia Declaration of Rights).

SS.12.2.12. Students will examine the Articles of Confederation and explain the weaknesses in this document that led to the need for a new United States Constitution.

SS.12.2.13. Students will analyze and evaluate the major debates that occurred during the development of the Constitution and their ultimate resolutions (e.g., shared powers, divided state-federal power, slavery, the rights of individuals and states).

SS.12.2.14. Students will explain how and why the Framers debated the powers granted to the legislative, executive and judicial branches of the Federal government.

SS.12.2.15. Students will analyze the debate over the ratification of the Constitution of 1787, compare and contrast the role and publications of the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists, and explain the reasons for the addition of the Bill of Rights.

SS.12.2.16. Students will evaluate how the Constitution embodies the ideas and principles that are essential to democracy, provides an outline of the federal government and explains how the First Congress used constitutional guidelines to organize the executive and judicial branches and add the Bill of Rights.

SS.12.2.17. Students will explain the constitutional provisions of how the powers of the national government are distributed, shared and limited.

SS.12.2.18. Students will explain how the Constitutional system of checks and balances protects individual citizens' liberties.

SS.12.2.19. Students will define federalism, describe the basic characteristics of a federal system, and explain how and why powers are organized, separated and shared in the United States at the national, state and local levels.

SS.12.2.20. Students will explain and analyze the rights protected and guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, Supreme Court interpretations of the rights guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution, and the role of each branch of government in protecting individual rights.

SS.12.2.21. Students will describes the ways limited government and rule of law protect individual rights.

SS.12.2.22. Students will analyze and explain the structure, function, responsibilities and powers of the legislative branch of the federal government and describe the changes in congressional power from the founding era to present day.

SS.12.2.23. Students will analyze and explain the structure, function, responsibilities and powers of the judicial branch of the federal government (e.g., Judiciary Act of 1789, judicial review, writ of mandamus, original jurisdiction, Marbury v. Madison, methods of interpretation) and trace the changes in judicial power from the founding era to present day.

SS.12.2.24. Students will analyze the role of a state supreme court and the U. S. Supreme Court in determining the constitutionality of a law.

SS.12.2.25. Students will analyze and explain the structure, function, responsibilities and powers of the executive branch of the federal government and trace the changes of presidential power from the founding era to present day.

SS.12.2.26. Students will describe how the protections of the Bill of Rights have developed and expanded over time and analyze the impact of the amendments that have been added to the Constitution.

SS.12.2.27. Students will explain the election process and describe the role of elected officials and their relationship to citizens.

SS.12.2.28. Students will trace the development and role of political parties, interest groups and political campaigns; analyze how they impact the workings of the Congress and other decision-making bodies.

SS.12.2.29. Students will explain how political parties, campaigns, and elections provide opportunities for citizens to participate in the political process.

SS.12.2.30. Students will analyze the two-party system including its role in the electoral process and citizen participation, and evaluate the role of third parties.

SS.12.2.31. Students will trace the expansion of the right to vote since the adoption of the Constitution and describe the impact on American society.

SS.12.2.32. Students will examine how sectional interests in the young nation created different interpretations of the Constitution (e.g., economic conflicts and tariffs) and how the institution of slavery forced a debate over the nation's fundamental principles leading to the Civil War.

SS.12.2.33. Students will trace and examine the laws passed and the amendments added to the Constitution after the Civil War and how they shaped society.

SS.12.2.34. Students will analyze how the Fourteenth Amendment expanded the Constitutional protection of rights and gave meaning to concepts of citizenship, due process of law, and equal protection of the laws. Explain the importance of the amendment in today's society.

SS.12.2.35. Students will describe how the Civil Rights Movement and other social/political groups used the Constitution to achieve their goals.

SS.12.2.36. Students will describe and give examples of the evolution of democracy in the American experience through amendments to the Constitution, decisions of the Supreme Court, legislation and the changes in the nation and the world (e.g., geographical expansion, growing diversity, world conflicts, terrorism, and world tension).

SS.12.2.37. Students will describe United States foreign policy and national security objectives and their importance to individual citizens. Discuss sources of tension and propose resolutions to the growing conflicts between the guaranteed rights of individuals and increased national security needs.

SS.12.2.38. Students will explain the importance and impact of freedom of speech and press in a democratic society. Describe the role and influence of the mass media in United States politics.

SS.12.2.39. Students will identify and explain the rights, privileges, and responsibilities granted U. S citizens. Describe the role of citizens in a constitutional democracy.

SS.12.2.40. Students will give examples and explain the important ways citizens express their views, shape public policy and monitor governmental actions.

SS.12.2.41. Students will explain the development of public policy, and the role of public opinion and politics in a democracy.

SS.12.2.42. Students will analyze the impact of technology on society and government.

SS.12.2.43. Students will use intellectual skills essential for informed, effective, and responsible citizenship that enable individuals to learn and apply civic knowledge in the many and varied roles of citizens. (See chart on page 86)

SS.12.2.44. Students will use participatory skills essential for informed, effective, and responsible citizenship that enable individuals to monitor and influence public and civic life by working with others, clearly articulating ideas and interests, building coalitions, seeking consensus, negotiating compromise, and managing conflict. (See chart on page 87)

SS.12.2.45. Students will develop civic dispositions (habits of the heart) that pervade all aspects of citizenship and personal traits of private and public character essential to the preservation and improvement of American constitutional democracy. Explain that American constitutional democracy cannot accomplish its purposes unless its citizens participate in public policy and civic life. (See chart on page 87)

WV.SS.S.3. Economics: Students will analyze the role of economic choices in scarcity, supply and demand, resource allocation, decision making, voluntary exchange and trade-offs (Choices); research, critique and evaluate the roles of private and public institutions in the economy (Institutions); compare and contrast various economic systems and analyze their impact on individual citizens (Economic Systems); describe and demonstrate how the factors of production apply to the United States economic system (Factors of Production); analyze the elements of competition and how they impact the economy (Competition); and examine and evaluate the interdependence of global economies (Global Economies).

SS.12.3.1. Students will explain and give examples showing how scarcity of goods and services forces people to make choices about needs and wants.

SS.12.3.2. Students will analyze how the scarcity of natural, technological, capital, and human resources requires economic systems to make choices about the distribution of goods and services.

SS.12.3.3. Students will explain the role supply and demand, prices, incentives and profits play in determining what is produced and distributed in a free enterprise system.

SS.12.3.4. Students will explain and give examples of opportunity costs (trade-offs) and scarcity, and analyze how these concepts are the basis of other concepts in economics.

SS.12.3.5. Students will compare and contrast examples of private and public goods and services.

SS.12.3.6. Students will evaluate the costs and benefits of allocating goods and services through public and private means.

SS.12.3.7. Students will describe and compare relationships among economic institutions (e.g., households, businesses, banks, government agencies and labor unions).

SS.12.3.8. Students will explain how specialization and division of labor in economic systems increase productivity.

SS.12.3.9. Students will describe the role of money and other forms of exchange in the economic process.

SS.12.3.10. Students will compare and analyze how values and beliefs influence economic decisions in different economic systems.

SS.12.3.11. Students will evaluate economic systems according to how laws, rules and procedures deal with demand, supply and prices.

SS.12.3.12. Students will evaluate historical and current social developments and issues from an economic perspective.

SS.12.3.13. Students will explain historical and current developments and issues in local, national and global contexts from an economic perspective.

SS.12.3.14. Students will define inflation and explain its effects on economic systems.

SS.12.3.15. Students will define and analyze the use of fiscal and monetary policy in the national economic system.

SS.12.3.16. Students will explain the process of international trade from an economic perspective.

SS.12.3.17. Students will analyze and evaluate growth and stability in different economic systems.

SS.12.3.18. Students will analyze a public issue from an economic perspective and propose a socially desirable solution.

SS.12.3.19. Students will evaluate the role of the factors of production in a market economy.

SS.12.3.20. Students will compare, contrast and evaluate different types of economies (traditional, command, market, mixed).

SS.12.3.21. Students will explain how and why people who start new businesses take risks to provide goods and services.

SS.12.3.22. Students will identify, define and explain basic economic concepts (e.g., opportunity costs, scarcity, supply, demand, production, exchange, and consumption; labor, wages, and capital; inflation and deflation; market economy and command economy; public and private goods and services).

SS.12.3.23. Students will describe and explain the role of money, banking, savings and budgeting in everyday life.

SS.12.3.24. Students will distinguish between private goods and services (e.g., the family car or a local restaurant) and public goods and services (e.g., the interstate highway system or the United States Postal Service).

SS.12.3.25. Students will compare and contrast how values and beliefs, such as economic freedom, economic efficiency, equity, full employment, price stability, security and growth influence decisions in different economic situations.

SS.12.3.26. Students will explain the basic characteristics of international trade, including absolute and comparative advantage, barriers to trade, exchange rates, and balance of trade.

SS.12.3.27. Students will describe and explain global economic interdependence and competition, using examples to illustrate their influence on national and international policies.

SS.12.3.28. Students will evaluate long term and short term cost in relationship to long and short-term benefits.

SS.12.3.29. Students will identify different economic goals and the tradeoffs that must be made between economic and social goals.

SS.12.3.30. Students will describe the aims of government fiscal policies (taxation, borrowing, spending) and their influence on production, employment and price levels.

SS.12.3.31. Students will explain the basic principles of the U.S. free enterprise system (e.g., opportunity costs, scarcity, profit motive, voluntary exchange, private property rights, and competition).

SS.12.3.32. Students will explain the characteristics, advantages and disadvantages of sole proprietorships, partnerships and corporations.

SS.12.3.33. Students will describe characteristics and give examples of pure competition, monopolistic competition and oligopolistic competition.

SS.12.3.34. Students will analyze the factors involved in the process of acquiring consumer goods and services including credit, interest and insurance.

WV.SS.S.4. Geography: Students will interpret, use and construct maps, globes and other geographic tools to locate and derive information about personal directions, people, places and environments (The World in Spatial Terms); describe the physical and human characteristics of place and explain how the lives of people are rooted in places and regions (Places and Regions); describe and explain the physical processes that shape the earth's surface and create, sustain and modify the cultural and natural environment (Physical Systems); identify, explain and analyze how the earth is shaped by the movement of people and their activities (Human Systems); analyze the interaction of society with the environment (Environment and Society); and explain geographic perspective and the tools and techniques available for geographic study (Uses of Geography).

SS.12.4.1. Students will acquire geographic information and classify it using the six essential elements of geography: the world in spatial terms, places and regions, physical systems, human systems, environment and society, and uses of geography.

SS.12.4.2. Students will use maps, charts and graphs to analyze the world, to account for consequences of human/environment interaction, and to depict the geographic implications of world events.

SS.12.4.3. Students will explain components of the Earth's physical systems and the interrelationships between them, and describe the ways in which Earth's physical processes are dynamic and interactive.

SS.12.4.4. Students will explain how physical and human processes shape places and regions.

SS.12.4.5. Students will identify human and physical changes in places and regions, and explain the factors that contribute to those changes.

SS.12.4.6. Students will analyze and explain the interdependence and linkages between places and regions.

SS.12.4.7. Students will identify the world's physical and cultural regions, the criteria used to define them, the political and historical characteristics of the regions, and analyze the interdependence of regions in regard to trade, services, migration, and cultural values.

SS.12.4.8. Students will analyze populations with regard to life expectancy, infant mortality rates, population pyramids, migration, birth rates and death rates.

SS.12.4.9. Students will evaluate the impact of human migration on physical and human systems (e.g., demand for housing, schools, water supply, sewer systems, welfare systems, political systems and food production).

SS.12.4.10. Students will analyze growth, decline, and development of cities over time.

SS.12.4.11. Students will explain the impact of the global economic community from the standpoint of power, cooperation and conflict, and discuss the important of control of Earth's surface and resources.

SS.12.4.12. Students will discuss global geographical situations (economic, social, and political) and their implications (e.g., global warming, endangered species, terrorism, air pollution, habitat destruction, floods, resource distribution).

SS.12.4.13. Students will analyze the role of physical and human geographic factors on economic patterns.

SS.12.4.14. Students will explain world patterns of resource distribution and sustainability of these resources.

SS.12.4.15. Students will discuss societal impacts on the environment and the affects of environment on societies.

SS.12.4.16. Students will analyze on-going convergence and divergence of regional cultures in a global society (e.g., getting stronger, maintaining, or getting weaker).

SS.12.4.17. Students will analyze the influence of geographical features on the evolution of significant historic events and movements.

SS.12.4.18. Students will analyze the impact of technology on environments and societies over time and space.

SS.12.4.19. Students will analyze connections between physical geography and isolation from the world community, which result in culture and geo-political instability (e.g., Afghanistan, Philippines, Somalia and the former Yugoslavia).

SS.12.4.20. Students will identify causes and draw conclusions about landless cultures (e.g., Kurds, Basques, Palestinians, Jews, Northern Irish) and their desires for an independent homeland.

SS.12.4.21. Students will acquire and organize geographic information (e.g., by reading and writing, using the Internet, studying maps, graphs, timelines, spreadsheets, climographs and cartograms).

SS.12.4.22. Students will organize and analyze geographic information to answer geographic questions.