“THE AGE OF JACKSON”(B)
A unit for Grade 8 Social Studies
TEKS Objectives: 8.1 (A-C); 8.5 (A-C, F, G); 8.11 (A-C); 8.22 (A-C); 8.31 (A-D)
Students will be able to recognize that:
1) Ideas of democracy reflect the values, beliefs, and political realities of a particular
time and people.
2) Sectionalism both reflected and contributed to changes in the American political
system.
3) The Jacksonian Era redefined and expanded American democracy and changed
political parties and practices.
Overarching questions for this unit:
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How and why has the American democratic system changed over time?
Is a more democratic system a better system?
Essential questions for this unit:
1) Why did sectional differences develop during the Jacksonian era, and how did they
influence political beliefs and dominate political decision-making?
2) How did Andrew Jackson’s concept of democracy differ from that of Thomas
Jefferson, and how did it affect the political system?
3) How were Jackson’s personality and political views reflected in his response to the
political issues of his presidency?
4) What lasting changes were produced in the American political system during the
Jacksonian era?
Unit Activities:
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The teacher posts quotations from the Declaration of Independence and the United
States Constitution on the bulletin board, along with the unit’s essential questions.
Examples of quotations are: “Governments are instituted among men deriving their
just powers from the consent of the governed…” and “We, the People of the United
States…”
The teacher reviews the major features of the “Era of Good Feelings:” few political
differences and no political parties. Explain that the Jacksonian Era was a time when
sectional differences emerged that led to conflicts over government policies. Each
section produced leaders who represented their section rather than the country or the
people as a whole. At the same time, one of those sections, the West, produced a
very popular president, Andrew Jackson, who believed that the common people
themselves are the most important source of power in a democratic government.
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The teacher:
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1) Refers to the posted quotations from the Declaration of Independence
and the Constitution.
2) Asks students to predict changes in the political system that would
move the country in the direction of the popular power suggested in
the quotations.
3) Points to the essential questions as the “what” and “how” of the
political changes.
4) Explains that students themselves will determine what the changes
have meant and whether our democracy is stronger today because of
those changes.
Review the groups excluded (women, those without property, Native Americans,
slaves) at the time the Constitution was adopted and introduce the idea that a major
change of the Jacksonian Era was an increase in popular political participation.
Explore with students how sectionalism developed, how it influenced political issues,
how it helped to elect Andrew Jackson, how President Jackson responded to sectional
issues. To do this exploration, have students:
(1) Complete an outline map of the United States of 1828 showing the names of
the states and color-coded to indicate the West, Northeast, and South.
(2) Read the textbook section describing these sections and detailing their
characteristics.
(3) Complete a data retrieval chart showing the geographic, economic, and
cultural characteristics of each region.
(4) Take part in a lecture/discussion with two-column note taking (teacher points
on right, student responses on left) on major issues of this period: Western
land (price, settlement), federally funded internal improvements, protective
tariffs, money and banking, and labor.
(5) Do a Point of View Activity in which students role play panel participants
taking roles of the Western Farmer, Southern Planter, or Northern
Industrialist and telling how they would want their legislatures to vote on
each major issue of the time. Students use textbook and teacher notes to
prepare for one of the roles.
(6) Students read textbook sections and view videos on the election of Andrew
Jackson and the major political issues he faced. Organize students into
cooperative groups and use a jigsaw technique to answer questions, with one
question assigned per group. Examples of questions are: (a) Why did
Andrew Jackson lose the election of 1824 and win the election of 1928? (b)
How did Jackson represent the spirit and character of the West, and what new
ideas of democracy did Jackson introduce? (c) How did Jackson respond to
the issue of the National Bank? (d) How did Jackson deal with the tariff
question and the Nullification Crisis? (e) What was Jackson’s policy on the
removal of the Indians?
(7) Students create a “Presidential Profile of Andrew Jackson.” The teacher will
distribute to each student an 11x17 shadow portrait of Andrew Jackson or an
outline of Jackson’s head. Students fill in the outline of the shadow portrait
with short summary phrases representing the personality, political views, and
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actions of President Jackson. The profile must include a phrase for each of
the following terms: Old Hickory, common man, spoils system, kitchen
cabinet, people’s president, hard money, pet banks, bank veto, Supreme
Court, Indian Removal, modern democracy. Example: Common Man- the
common sense of the common man is all that is needed for government
leaders. After completing the shadow portrait, student writes a two-paragraph
biographical sketch of Andrew Jackson.
The teacher works with students to:
− Summarize and refine their understanding of the impact of Jacksonian Era
democracy on political values, processes, and parties.
− Begin to consider whether a more democratic system is necessarily a better
system in the eyes of the voter, measured by the standard of political involvement
and participation.
Some ways to reflect include:
(1) The teacher, through lecture/class discussion/brainstorming, helps students to
summarize the expansion of democracy of the period, being sure to bring to
student’s attention specific evidence such as:
(a) opportunity for popular participation—more white males could vote; in
1800, 9 of 16 state had property qualifications but by 1830 only 6 of 24
did;
(b) more direct participation—by 1830, more officials were elected rather
than appointed; presidential electors were chosen by the people rather
than by legislators in all but two states;
(c) presidential candidates were selected by nominating conventions rather
than by party caucuses; presidential candidates appealed directly to the
voters for their support rather than allowing their supporters to campaign
for them;
(d) in opposition, personalities rather than issues often dominated political
campaigns. Elements of political patronage (spoils system) continued.
(2) The teacher asks students, in a Think/Pair/Share activity, to:
(a) Tell which of the reforms could be traced directly to Jackson’s ideas and
which were only accelerated by Jacksonian ideas.
(b) Discuss whether issues associated with sectionalism such as protective
tariffs, sectional or group affiliations (special interests), states rights, or
the balance in federalism were satisfactorily resolved.
(c) Make predictions whether the issues associated with sectionalism will
cause serious conflicts in the periods of history not yet studied and
speculate about strength if the ideas today.
(3) Using textbook information and/or knowledge form prior instruction, students
construct a Venn diagram comparing Jeffersonian and Jacksonian ideas of
democracy.
(4) In cooperative groups, students use textbook information to construct a wall
chart tracing the development of political parties from Washington through
Jackson including for each party: the name of the party, party leaders, major
beliefs, and the time period the party flourished. Compare the charts
produced. Post in the classroom.
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(5) Students use information from the political party wall chart to write a
paragraph telling which party best represents their own political convictions
and why.
(6) The teacher presents a hypothetical situation to help students understand the
consequences of not participating in political processes. Example: On the
issue of a youth curfew, it is likely that 18 year old voters would be opposed
while 60 year old voters would favor the curfew. Suppose that the voter
population to be 20, 000 eligible 18 year old voters and 10,000 eligible 60
year old voters. If only 20% of 18 year olds vote (4,000), but 80% of 60 year
olds vote (8,000), the curfew passes even though it does not represent the
majority opinion.
(7) Students use the most recent edition of a World Almanac to find out the
percentage of eligible voters who voted in the last 10 presidential elections.
Graph the results.
(8) Remind students of the performance task given to them at the beginning of
the unit. Brainstorm items for a survey on political involvement and
participation. Remind students that they are to determine for themselves
whether the Jacksonian Era reforms have created a better system in terms of
taking advantage of the opportunities for broad popular participation. What is
the state of democracy as we begin the 21st century?
Students reveal what they understand about the Age of Jackson through a
performance task and other assessments detailed in the unit.
-adapted from SSCED Tool Kit, 6-8,
Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment
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