Indivisible

Middle School Social Studies / 8th Grade

Students engage in a variety of community-building tasks as a way to understand some of the factors and variables that will help them respond to the unit-driving question: What unites communities? Throughout the unit, students learn how other communities are organized and formed. They learn about the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Igbo people of Nigeria, and Enlightenment philosophers to understand how their ideas of community and governance informed and influenced the founding of the United States. Working in teams, students look at ways the ideas from these three groups are found in the United States government today, then use what they have learned about uniting groups of people to create a Community Commitment that will support their project-based learning during the school year.

Unit length: 2 weeks (10 hours)