Grades 6-8

Teacher suggestions to help students retain content specific vocabulary include:

• model the use of the terminology in meaningful context as often as possible
• encourage student use of vocabulary by
• praising students who use content vocabulary when giving responses
• challenging students to find appropriate uses of content vocabulary in oral and written composition
• recycle previously used words to keep them in the students’ memory bank
• post content vocabulary words with a diagram to denote meaning on a bulletin board or wall so students will have a ready reference for words they might need to read and comprehend.

• Civilization - a culture that has developed forms of government, religion, written language, art, sciences, and learning.
• Colony - an area of land controlled by another, usually distant, country.
• Debate - to argue about opposing positions or views.
• Dynasty - a series of kings or rulers who belong to the same family.
• Economic characteristics - traits that are used to describe the way people use their resources to meet their wants.
• Empire - a group of lands and people under the control of one government.
• Ethnic group - a group within a larger culture that shares common traits including religion, language, and ancestry.
• Feudalism - an economic and political system found in Europe during the Middle Ages that was based on certain obligations and responsibilities.
• Native societies - the first peoples living in a particular region, for example the Eskimos and the Indians were the first to inhabit North America.
• Policy - a rule or law that is developed through a process that includes setting an agenda, reviewing alternatives, choosing the best alternative and then implementing the decision. Policies are supported by some official group, i.e. school policies or foreign policies.
• Political characteristics - traits that are used to describe the political process of a society.
• Political institution - a significant organization or practice that guides the political activity of a society or culture. Political institutions include elections, political parties, and the electoral college.
• Ratification - the formal approval of the U.S. Constitution by the states.
• Reconstruction - the period from 1865-1877 after the Civil War when the federal government controlled the former Confederate states.
• Secession - the process of formally withdrawing from a political organization because of a disagreement. The Confederate states wanted to secede from the United States over the issues of slavery and regional control.
• Sectionalism - a devotion to local interests and concerns over those of the larger group. An example of this occurred during the mid-1800's when the South, concerned with preserving their way of life, withdrew from the United States.
• Settlement - a place where people make a new permanent home.
• Settlement pattern - the distribution and arrangement of communities across a state, region, country, or the world that occur over time.
• Settler - a person who makes a permanent home in a new place. Settlers from many countries built homes in the American west.
• Social characteristics - traits that are used to describe how people live together in a society, including their traditions, housing, diet, religion, language, education, and the development of their art and music.
• Social institution - a significant organization or practice that influences how people live together in a society or culture. Examples include family, slavery, school, a club.
• Society - a group of people bound together by the same culture or way of life.
• System - a set of rules or ideas that a society or culture follows. Three types of systems are:
• Economic system - a set of rules and ideas that guide how a group of people use limited resources to meet their wants.
• Political system - a set of democratic principles and ideas that citizens follow.
• Social system - a set of practices that influence people as they live together in a group.

• Adapt - to change in order to fit new environmental conditions.
• Bodies of water - all the different sizes and shapes of water naturally found on the Earth's surface. Oceans, seas, bays, lakes, rivers, and ponds are examples of bodies of water.
• Communication network - a series of links between places along which the transmission of ideas can take place.
• Environment - the geographic characteristics that surround and affect the way people live.
• Environment concerns/issues - interests people have about the care of the natural environment; some may be controversial especially when economic growth is involved.
• Geographic characteristics - traits that distinguish one place from another. These are divided into two groups. Physical characteristics describe the natural environment of the place. They include physical features (natural landforms and bodies of water), weather and climate, soil, vegetation, and animal life. Human characteristics describe the people of the place past or present, their human-made features (buildings, etc), languages, religions, economic activities, political systems, and population distribution.
• Human-made features - changes people have made to the land. These changes include buildings, bridges, tunnels, railroad tracks, dams, monuments, piers, farm fields, cultivated land.
• Landforms - the different shapes of Earth's surface. Mountains, hills, plateaus, plains, valleys, peninsulas, and islands are examples of landforms.
• Map - a graphic representation of the earth or a part of the earth that is drawn on a flat surface. There are two types of maps. Reference maps show the location of natural and human-made phenomena. These maps are detailed and as accurate as possible. Many phenomena may be shown on a reference map, but no one particular thing is emphasized. Thematic maps (or special-purpose maps) concentrate on the distribution of a single attribute or the relationship among several attributes. For example, population maps, maps of endangered species, or the distribution of immigrants to the United States are thematic maps.
• Map elements - the parts of a map that make it usable
• author - the person or company that made the map
• border - the frame around the map
• cardinal directions - north, south, east, and west
• compass rose - the small drawing that uses one or more arrows to show cardinal and/or intermediate directions on a map or globe.
• coordinate - the point on a map or globe where a line of latitude and longitude cross.
• date - the year in which the map was made
• grid system - the pattern of lines that help locate places on a map or globe; for example, latitude and longitude
• intermediate directions - directions between the cardinal directions: northeast, southeast, southwest, northwest
• latitude/longitude - imaginary lines on a map or globe that measure distance north and south of the Equator and distance east and west of the prime meridian
• legend/key - explains the meaning of any special lines, drawings, symbols or colors on the map
• scale - the measurement on a map or globe that shows the distance between places
• symbols - the pictures, shapes, or colors on a map that stand for objects, places, or people
• title - the heading of the map that tells what the map shows
• Migrate/migration/immigration - the movement of people from one country or region to another with the intent of staying at that place for a long period of time.
• Modify - to change the environment to meet the wants of people.
• Natural environment - the physical setting of a place including the land, air, water, plants, and animals.
• Physical features - landforms and bodies of water formed by nature.
• Population distribution - the pattern of the number of people who live from place to place. For example, more people live in cities than in rural areas. More people live near bodies of water than in very dry places.
• Population growth - the increase in the number of people living in a place due to migration, immigration and/or births.
• Region - an area that has one or more geographic characteristics in common, such as Latin America, an oil-producing region, or the South.
• Relative distance - the approximate distance of a place in relationship to other places (i.e. near and far)
• Settlement pattern - the distribution and arrangement of communities, including rural and urban centers.
• Technology - skills, methods, tools, machines and other things used to perform activities. Technology changes over time and affects the way we live, work, and play. Geographers look at how the use of technology modifies the natural environment. Examples include using technology to clear the land, dam a river, to construct canals, bridges, roads and railroads, and to build communities. Economists look at how the use of technology changes production and consumption. Examples include computers, televisions, telephones, boats, airplanes, bridges, dams, roads, tractors, axes, shovels, assembly lines and methods of farming.
• Transportation network - a series of links between places along which can take place the movement of goods and people.

• Capital resources - Goods made by people and used to produce other goods and services. Examples include tools, roads, bridges, factories, machinery, glue, lumber, chalk, rope, textbooks, and workbooks.
• Consume - To use goods and services to satisfy economic wants.
• Consumer - A person who buys and uses goods and services to satisfy economic wants.
• Demand - The amount of a resource or product buyers are willing and able to buy at different possible prices at a given point in time. Generally, the higher the price, the less buyers will be willing and able to purchase.
• Distribution - The division of resources, goods, and services among members of society.
• Economic decision - A choice to produce or consume a good or a service. Because we cannot have everything we want, we have to decide what we will choose and what we will give up, based on the costs and benefits of various possible alternatives.
• Economic growth - Producing more goods and services at the present time than was produced in the past.
• Economic wants - Desires that can be satisfied by consuming goods and/or services. Examples include hunger, thirst, protection from the elements, good health, entertainment, and transportation.
• Economy - The way a society organizes to produce, distribute and consume goods and services.
• Goods - Things that people make or grow that satisfy economic wants. Goods are tangible. Examples include food, shoes, cars, houses, and apples.
• Human resources - People doing physical or mental work to produce goods or services. Human resources include the health, strength, education, skills and talents of people. Examples include teachers, cooks, bus drivers, and carpenters, each with their special skills, knowledge and experience.
• Income tax - Money paid to the government based on the income of the individual and/or business. Income includes earned income (wages, salaries, tips, commissions) and unearned income (dividends and interest).
• Interdependence - Depending on one another for resources, goods, and services. When people and business specialize, they become interdependent. Example: Within a community, a grocer depends on a doctor for medical care and a doctor depends on a grocer for food. Example: Early American colonists depended on factories in England for manufactured goods. People in England depended on the American colonies for fish, lumber, tobacco, rice and cotton. Geographers look at how transportation and communication link interdependent people and places. Interdependence results from the unequal distribution of resources.
• Limited resources - Not having enough resources to produce all the goods and services that people want.
• Money - Something that is used to buy and sell resources, goods, and services. Money is a medium of exchange, a standard of value, and a store of value to save for a future time. Money is not a capital resource because it is not used to produce goods and services.
• Natural resources - Gifts of nature that can be used to produce goods and services. Examples include trees, sunshine, soil, water, plants, animals, oil, coal, and metals.
• Opportunity cost - The next best (second-best) choice that is given up when a decision (choice) is made. Example: Pedro is buying lunch in the cafeteria. The choices are pizza, tacos, or a hot dog. Pedro likes all three choices, but he can only have one. He chooses pizza. His opportunity cost is his next best (second-best) choice, which is tacos. Example: Farmer Jones can choose to plant the field with corn, plant the field with soybeans, raise cattle, or raise sheep. She chooses to raise sheep. Her opportunity cost is her next best (second-best) choice, which is raising cattle.
• Price - The value of a resource, good or service stated in money terms.
• Producers - People who combine natural, human and capital resources to make goods and/or services.
• Product - A good or service made with resources.
• Production - The process of combining natural, human and capital resources to make a product, either a good or a service.
• Public goods and services - Goods and services provided by the government and paid for with taxes. Examples include roads, bridges, libraries, schools, police, fire fighters, and government. A public good or service is one that cannot be withheld from those who do not pay for it and one that can be consumed by one person without reducing the amount of the product available for others. Examples include national defense, street lights, roads and highways and law enforcement.
• Resources - Things that can be used to produce a good or a service.
• Sales tax - Money paid to the government by the buyer at the time of the sale.
• Scarcity - The condition in which economic wants for goods and services are greater than the limited resources available to satisfy those wants. No society has ever had enough resources to produce all of the kinds and amounts of goods and services its members wanted.
• Services - Actions (jobs) that people do for each other. A service is something that you cannot touch or hold. A service is consumed at the instant it is produced. Some services, such as firefighter, mayor, police officer, and teacher are provided by the government. Other services, such as plumber, dentist, and hair cutter are provided by businesses.
• Specialization - The act of producing a narrow range of goods and services that cannot meet all the economic wants of the community. Most people work in jobs where they produce one or a few special goods or services (or even just a part of a good or service) and purchase many goods and services from other specialists. For example, a doctor provides medical care and purchases food, clothing, a home and other goods and services from other specialists. Specialization can be based on tasks (parts of jobs), jobs or geography.
• Supply - The amounts of a resource or product sellers are willing and able to sell at various possible prices at a given point in time. Generally, the higher the price, the more sellers are willing and able to sell.
• Taxes - Money paid to the government so it can provide some goods and services.
• Technology - Skills, methods, tools, machines and other things used to perform activities. Technology changes over time and affects the way we live, work, and play. Geographers look at how the use of technology modifies the natural environment. Examples include using technology to clear the land; dam a river; to construct canals, bridges, roads and railroads; and to build communities. Economists look at how the use of technology changes production and consumption. Examples include computers, televisions, telephones, boats, airplanes, bridges, dams, roads, tractors, axes, shovels, assembly lines and methods of farming.
• Trade - The exchange of resources, goods, and services through barter or the use of money.
• Trade-off - Giving up some of one thing to get some of another. Trade-offs can involve more than two things and many combinations are possible. Trade-offs involve specific things such as using land for a go-cart track vs. using land to grow corn. Trade-offs can involve such choices as whether to purchase one high priced name-brand item or several lower-priced store-brand items. Trade-offs can involve such decisions as how much a government spends on road repair vs. education vs. police protection.
• Unlimited wants - Economic wants which are greater than the resources, good, and services available to satisfy them.

• Advance or impede political decisions - ways in which individual citizens and/or groups can actively participate in supporting or negating decisions that are made within the political process. An example would be for a non-profit organization such as the Chesapeake Bay Foundation forming a coalition to speak out against the passing of a bill that would relax the building regulations along critical water areas.
• Authority - the person or group of people who are given the right to control or direct the actions of others.
• Bias - Skewing or spinning the facts to manipulate information. Sometimes this includes reporting only partial information or only one-side of the story.
• Branches of government - legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government.
• Legislative - the branch of government that makes the laws. In the federal government this would be Congress (House of Representatives and Senate). In Maryland's state government this would be the General Assembly and Senate.
• Executive - the branch of government that enforces the laws made by the legislative branch. In the national government this would be the President, Vice President, and Cabinet. In Maryland's state government this would be the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Cabinet.
• Judicial - the branch of government that interprets the laws and settles disputes through a system of courts, such as the U.S. Supreme Court and the Maryland State Supreme Court.
• Checks and Balances - the sharing and balancing of power among the three branches of government so no one branch can dominate the others.
• Citizen - a member of a town, city, state, or country who owes loyalty to the government and is entitled to its protection.
• Civic participation - the dedication of citizens to be involved with activities that support the common good of a community above their own interest. This includes community food drives, student service learning projects, voting, and being informed.
• Common good - the good of the community as a whole; such as having a neighborhood watch committee. Also called common welfare.
• Community improvement - working together as a unit to increase the awareness of the needs of a community and then developing a plan of action for improvement.
• Compromise - all sides in a conflict giving up some of what they want in order to make an agreement.
• Constitution - the plan for the U.S. government. It describes the rights that people in the United States have, and it is the "supreme law of the land."
• Declaration of Independence - a document, written by Thomas Jefferson in 1776, that explained why the thirteen colonies wanted to be free from England.
• Democracy - a form of government in which power is held by all citizens, either directly or through elected representatives.
• Government - the organization through which political authority is exercised in a society. It protects the group members and settles disagreements among them. The main jobs of the government are to make and enforce laws.
• Justice - the act of being fair and honest; of doing what is right.
• Magna Carta - a contract signed in 1215 between King John of England and his nobles. The contract established that the king must obey the law, and it protected certain rights of the people.
• Maintain order - the government's right to make and enforce all the laws for the good of the common welfare; these include laws provided in the U.S. and Maryland Constitutions and passed by both the U.S. and Maryland legislatures.
• Majority rule - a way of deciding something. Whoever or whatever gets the most votes wins.
• Mayflower Compact - an agreement signed in 1620 by all adult males on the Mayflower to use majority rule to make laws for their colony and to obey those laws. This was the first example of self-rule by American colonists.
• Media - the different means of communicating information to large audiences.
• Patriotism - great loyalty to one's country.
• Petition - a document making a formal written request to someone in authority, usually accompanied by the signatures of a number of citizens.
• Political institution - a significant organization or practice that guides the political activity of a society or culture. Political institutions include elections, political parties, and the electoral college.
• Political process - the system of citizens electing representatives or leaders to make decisions for people. The political process can also refer to steps of forming policy or making, enforcing and interpreting laws.
• Political system - a set of democratic principles and ideas that citizens follow.
• Principles - the democratic ideas and values in American government including privacy, authority, power, justice/fairness, responsibility, patriotism, tolerance, and respect for the rights of others.
• Privacy - being alone or not bothered by other people.
• Respect - to be thoughtful of and caring of another person.
• Rights and responsibilities - Rights are freedoms granted to American citizens that allow them to make their own choices. For example, American have the right to an education, to express ideas, and to vote for leaders. Responsibilities are duties that citizens have.
• Rule - something you must or must not do.
• Rule of Law - the belief that the laws apply to all citizens. Even the President must follow the laws of the country.
• Separation of powers - the division of powers among the different branches of government; in the United States, among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches.
• Social institution - a significant organization or practice that influences how people live together in a society or culture. Examples include family, slavery, school, a club.
• Symbol - a drawing or object that stands for something else. The Statue of Liberty symbolizes equality and justice. The Bald Eagle symbolizes freedom and independence.
• Tolerance - being willing to let others have their own beliefs and ways of behaving, even though these are not like one's own.

• Adapt - to change in order to fit new environmental conditions.
• Authority - the person or group of people who are given the right to control or direct the actions of others.
• Community - all the people who live in a particular area; a group of people who have similar qualities or interests.
• Conflict - a fight or strong disagreement.
• Cooperate/cooperation - to work together to get something done.
• Conscience - the sense of right and wrong.
• Cultural characteristics - distinguishing or typical traits of a society, including customs, clothing, religion, arts, language, education, government, and family.
• Cultural diffusion - the movement of ideas and customs between cultures.
• Culture - learned behavior of people which includes their belief systems and languages, their social relationships, their institutions and organizations, and their material goods - food, clothing, tools, buildings, and machines.
• Custom - a long-established practice that is considered unwritten law.
• Diversity - variety.
• Environment - the geographic characteristics that surround and affect the way people live.
• Equality of opportunity - an equal chance for all persons to participate in such areas as education, employment, and political participation.
• Ethnic group - a group within a larger culture that shares common traits including religion, language, and ancestry.
• Institution - a group or organization with a special purpose in a society or culture.
• Interaction - the act of doing something with others or having influence with others.
• Interdependence/interdependent - the act of being mutually reliant on each other for help or support.
• Migrate/migration/immigration - the movement of people from one country or region to another with the intent of staying at that place for a long period of time.
• Modify - to change the surrounding environment to meet the needs of people.
• Pluralistic society - a condition within which members of diverse ethnic, racial, religious, or social groups remain distinct but coexist within a society.
• Tradition - a custom or belief that is handed down from generation.