TExES Social Studies 4-8 (118) flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Magna Carta

A 1215 English charter that limited royal power and established that monarchs were subject to law, influencing later constitutional government and due-process protections.

Mayflower Compact

A 1620 agreement among Plymouth settlers to govern themselves by majority consent, often cited as an early example of self-government in colonial North America.

Articles of Confederation

The first U.S. national constitution, in effect 1781–1789, created a weak central government with a unicameral Congress and no power to tax directly.

Federalist Papers

Eighty-five essays by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay promoting ratification of the Constitution, explaining federalism, separation of powers, and checks and balances.

Bill of Rights

The first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1791, protecting individual liberties and limiting federal power.

Checks and balances

Constitutional design allowing each branch to limit the others, such as presidential veto, congressional override, and judicial review of laws.

Judicial review

The power of courts to declare laws or executive actions unconstitutional, established by Marbury v. Madison in 1803.

Louisiana Purchase

The 1803 purchase from France that doubled U.S. territory, extending from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains for about $15 million.

Manifest Destiny

The 19th-century belief that U.S. expansion across North America was inevitable and justified, influencing westward settlement and conflicts over slavery.

Emancipation Proclamation

An 1863 executive order by President Lincoln declaring enslaved people in Confederate-held territory free, shifting Union war aims toward abolition.

Reconstruction amendments

The Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments abolished slavery, guaranteed citizenship and equal protection, and protected voting rights by race.

Texas Revolution

The 1835–1836 conflict in which Texas colonists fought Mexico for independence, including the Alamo and San Jacinto, leading to the Republic of Texas.

Spanish missions in Texas

Colonial settlements established by Spain in the 1700s to convert Native Americans to Catholicism and secure territory, such as San Antonio de Valero.

Great Plains region

A Texas and central U.S. region of flat to rolling grasslands with low rainfall, ranching, wheat farming, and oil production.

Cultural diffusion

The spread of ideas, technologies, or customs from one society to another through trade, migration, conquest, or media, changing both cultures.

Opportunity cost

The value of the next-best alternative given up when a choice is made, a core concept illustrating that scarcity forces trade-offs.

Supply and demand

Economic model in which price balances quantity supplied and quantity demanded; surpluses push prices down and shortages push prices up.

Federalism

A system dividing power between national and state governments, with delegated, reserved, and concurrent powers defined by the U.S. Constitution.

Popular sovereignty

The principle that governmental authority comes from the consent of the people, expressed through elections and constitutional ratification.

Primary source

A document, artifact, or account created during the period studied by a participant or witness, such as letters, laws, or photographs.

Five themes of geography

Location, place, human-environment interaction, movement, and region: an instructional framework for organizing geographic inquiry about places and spatial patterns.

Latitude and longitude

Coordinate lines measuring distance north or south of the equator and east or west of the prime meridian, used to locate places absolutely.

Map projection

A method of representing Earth's curved surface on a flat map, inevitably distorting shape, area, distance, or direction.

Historical contextualization

Placing a source in its time, place, and circumstances to understand its meaning, rather than judging it only by present-day standards.

Sourcing a document

Identifying a source's author, date, purpose, and audience before using it as evidence, to assess reliability and bias.

Corroboration

Comparing multiple sources to check agreement and disagreement, strengthening or challenging claims about past events.

Formative assessment

Ongoing checks during instruction, such as exit tickets or questioning, used to adjust teaching and provide feedback rather than assign final grades.

Summative assessment

An evaluation at the end of a unit or course, such as a test or project, measuring student achievement against learning goals.

Inquiry-based instruction

Teaching that begins with student questions, then requires gathering and evaluating evidence, developing claims, and communicating conclusions.

Differentiated instruction

Adjusting content, process, or product to match student readiness, interests, and learning profiles while maintaining common learning goals.

TEKS

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills: state standards specifying what students should know and be able to do in each grade and subject.

Scaffolding

Temporary instructional supports, such as graphic organizers or sentence frames, gradually removed as students gain independence with a task.