Events, people and ideas of the past, and how they connect across time.
7.1 History: Understand the traditional reference points used to organize Texas history
7.1A Identify the major eras of Texas history, describe what defines each, and explain why history is split into eras, covering Natural Texas and its People, the Age of Contact, the Spanish Colonial era, the Mexican National and Revolution and Republic eras, the Early Statehood era, the Civil War and Reconstruction years in Texas, the Cotton, Cattle, and Railroads era, the Age of Oil, Texas during the Depression of the 1930s and World War II, the Civil Rights era, and Contemporary Texas
7.1B Explain the significance of 1519 (Texas coast mapped; first Spanish settlement on the mainland), 1718 (San Antonio founded), 1821 (independence from Spain), 1836 (independence of Texas), 1845 (Texas annexed), 1861 (Civil War begins), 1876 (current state constitution adopted), and 1901 (oil discovered at Spindletop)
7.2 History: Understand how people, events, and issues until the end of the Mexican National Era shaped Texas history
7.2A Compare the ways of life of Texas American Indian groups before European settlement, for example Gulf, Plains, Puebloan, and Southeastern cultures
7.2B Identify key people, events, and issues of European exploration of Texas, for example Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Alonso Álvarez de Pineda, the hunt for gold, and the clash between France and Spain over territorial claims
7.2C Identify key people, events, and issues of the European colonizing of Texas, including ranches, towns, and Catholic missions being set up, and what people like Fray Damián Massanet, Francisco Hidalgo, and Antonio Margil de Jesús contributed
7.2D Identify the people, issues, and events tied to Mexico's emergence as an independent nation and what it meant for Texas, among them Father Miguel Hidalgo, José Gutiérrez de Lara, Texas's part in the struggle for independence, the Battle of Medina, Mexico's federal Constitution of 1824, Texas and Coahuila being joined as one state, the State Colonization Law of 1825, and slavery
7.2E Identify what Moses Austin, Erasmo Seguín, Stephen F. Austin, Green DeWitt, and Martín De León contributed during Mexican settlement of Texas
7.2F Contrast the purposes and methods of Spanish, Mexican, and Anglo settlement in Texas
7.3 History: Understand how people, events, and issues of the Texas Revolution shaped Texas history
7.3A Describe the series of events that built toward the Texas Revolution, including the Turtle Bayou Resolutions, the Fredonian Rebellion, the Law of April 6, 1830, Stephen F. Austin's arrest, and the Mier y Terán Report
7.3B Explain the roles of significant individuals in the Texas Revolution, including William B. Travis, Juan N. Seguín, Antonio López de Santa Anna, Sam Houston, James Fannin, Lorenzo de Zavala, and George Childress
7.3C Explain the issues around key moments in the Texas Revolution, among them the Battle of San Jacinto; Fannin's surrender at Goliad; the Constitutional Convention of 1836; the siege of the Alamo, with William B. Travis's letter "To the People of Texas and All Americans in the World" plus the heroism shown by the diverse defenders who died there; and the Battle of Gonzales
7.4 History: Understand how people, events, and issues shaped the Republic of Texas and the early years of Texas statehood
7.4A Identify people, events, and issues from the presidencies of Houston, Lamar, and Jones in the Republic of Texas, for example slavery, the part played by racial and ethnic groups, the Santa Fe Expedition, Mary Maverick, Chief Bowles, the Texas Navy, the Council House Fight, the Córdova Rebellion, the Texas Rangers, José Antonio Navarro, Jack Coffee Hays, and William Goyens
7.4B Analyze what caused and led up to the annexation of Texas, for example security concerns and public debt
7.4C Identify people, events, and issues of early Texas statehood, including the Compromise of 1850, slavery, the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, and the U.S.-Mexican War
7.5 History: Understand how events and issues shaped Texas throughout the Civil War and Reconstruction
7.5A Explain the central part that the spread of slavery played in Texas's involvement in the Civil War
7.5B Identify major events involving Texas in the Civil War, for example the battles of Palmito Ranch, Sabine Pass, and Galveston
7.5C Explain how the Civil War and Reconstruction affected Texas politically, economically, and socially
7.6 History: Understand how people, events, and issues shaped Texas from Reconstruction through the start of the 20th century
7.6A Identify significant people, events, and issues, including Quanah Parker, the buffalo soldiers, how westward expansion affected American Indians, and what drove the spread of the Texas frontier
7.6B Identify significant people, events, and issues, including how the cattle industry grew from its Spanish roots and cowboy life
7.6C Identify significant people, events, and issues, including how railroad growth affected Texas and what James Hogg contributed
7.6D Explain the social, political, and economic effects of the agricultural industry and of the development of West Texas that resulted from the frontier's close
7.7 History: Understand how people, events, and issues shaped Texas from the late nineteenth century through the early twenty-first
7.7A Explain how the oil industry drove the industrialization of Texas
7.7B Define boom-and-bust cycles and trace their effects on leading Texas industries across the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, for example computer technology, banking, real estate, ranching, cotton, oil and gas production, and farming
7.7C Describe and compare how reform movements changed Texas in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, for example the late-twentieth-century conservative movement, labor reform, agrarianism, women's suffrage, populism, and progressivism
7.7D Describe and compare movements for civil rights and equal rights among various Texas groups in the twentieth century, and identify key leaders such as James L. Farmer Jr., Lulu Belle Madison White, Jane McCallum, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), Lyndon B. Johnson, Oveta Culp Hobby, and Hector P. Garcia
7.7E Analyze how the Great Depression, World War I, World War II, and important issues of the later twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, for example immigration, migration, and political and economic controversies, affected Texas politically, economically, and socially
Geography and Place
Maps, places and regions, and how people and environments shape each other.
7.8 Geography: Understand where Texas's places and regions are and what they are like
7.8A Locate and compare the Coastal Plains, North Central Plains, Great Plains, and Mountains and Basins regions
7.8B Locate and compare important Texas places by physical and human characteristics, for example local points of interest, cultural and political regions, historic and natural landmarks, waterways, and major cities
7.8C Analyze how physical and human factors, for example communication, transportation, irrigation, landforms, weather, and climate, affected major events in Texas
7.9 Geography: Understand how humans and the environment have affected each other in Texas
7.9A Identify how Texans have adapted to the environment and changed it, and lay out the benefits and drawbacks of those changes
7.9B Explain how geographic factors, for example alternative energy sources, limited water resources, the Dust Bowl, and the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, have affected Texas's political, economic, and social development
7.10 Geography: Understand the makeup, spread, and movement of the Texas population in the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries
7.10A Identify the reasons immigrant groups moved to Texas and the places where they settled
7.10B Describe the influence of immigration and migration to Texas on the state
7.10C Describe how the Texas population is made up, with demographic ideas, for example age distribution and growth rate
7.10D Analyze how a changing, growing population spread across Texas increases the need for transportation, health care, and education
Economics and Personal Finance
How people earn, spend, save and trade, and how economies work.
7.11 Economics: Understand what drove Texas to shift from a farming-based society to a city-based one
7.11A Explain the economic factors and major industries, for example manufacturing, oil and gas, and transportation, that urbanized Texas
7.11B Explain how the urbanization of Texas changed the kinds of jobs and occupations people hold
7.12 Economics: Understand how the Texas economy depends on, and is tied to, the world at large and the United States
7.12A Explain how national and international markets affect Texas production of goods and services, including agriculture and the oil and gas industries
7.12B Explain how economic concepts of the free enterprise system, for example world competition, profit, and supply and demand, affect the Texas economy
7.12C Analyze how significant Texas industries, for example aerospace, medical, and computer technologies, affect local, national, and international markets
Government and Civics
How governments are organized, how laws are made, and the principles behind them.
7.13 Government: Understand the core ideas built into the Texas Constitution
7.13A Identify the ways the Texas Constitution reflects individual rights, popular sovereignty, separation of powers, federalism, checks and balances, republicanism, and limited government
7.13B Compare ideas and principles in the Texas Constitution and the United States Constitution, including the Texas Bill of Rights and the United States Bill of Rights
7.14 Government: Understand how the government set up by the Texas Constitution is structured and what it does
7.14A Describe how government is structured and what it does at the municipal, county, and state levels
7.14B Identify the main sources of money for state and local governments, for example fees, bonds, sales taxes, and property taxes
Citizenship and Civic Life
The rights and responsibilities of citizens and how people take part in their communities.
7.15 Citizenship: Understand what rights and responsibilities Texas citizens have in a democratic society
7.15A Explain the rights of Texas citizens
7.15B Explain the civic responsibilities Texas citizens hold and why taking part in civic life is important
7.16 Citizenship: Understand why it matters in a democratic society for people to voice differing viewpoints
7.16A Identify the differing viewpoints that interest groups and political parties hold on key Texas issues, in the past and today
7.16B Describe why freedom of speech and of the press matters in a democratic society
7.17 Citizenship: Understand why effective leadership matters in a democratic society
7.17A Identify the leadership qualities of past and present elected and appointed Texas leaders, including Texans who have served as United States president
7.17B Identify what Texas leaders have contributed, for example Raul A. Gonzalez Jr., Sam Rayburn, Raymond L. Telles, Barbara Jordan, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Henry B. González, James A. Baker III, John Nance Garner ("Cactus Jack"), and Lawrence Sullivan "Sul" Ross
Culture and Society
The beliefs, customs and traditions of different groups and how cultures change and interact.
7.18 Culture: Understand how Texas shows diversity within unity
7.18A Explain how Texas's diversity shows up in many cultural activities and celebrations
7.18B Describe how people of different racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds try to preserve their cultural heritage while adjusting to the broader Texas culture
7.18C Identify examples of the influence of Spanish and other cultures on Texas, for example the arts, food, architecture, religion, vocabulary, and place names
7.18D Identify Texans' contributions to the arts, for example Horton Foote, Walter Prescott Webb, Amado Peña Jr., Elisabet Ney, Scott Joplin, J. Frank Dobie, Diane Gonzales Bertrand, and Roy Bedichek
Science, Technology, and Society
How inventions and scientific advances have changed the way people live and work.
7.19 Science, technology, and society: Understand how scientific discoveries and technological innovations have affected Texas's political, economic, and social development
7.19A Compare the types and uses of technology, then and now
7.19B Name leaders from Texas in science and technology, for example Howard Hughes Sr., Michael Dell, Benjy Brooks, Denton Cooley, Michael DeBakey, and Walter Cunningham
7.19C Analyze how scientific discoveries and technological innovations changed Texas's development, for example advances in the aerospace, computer, medical, energy, and agricultural industries
7.19D Evaluate how scientific discoveries and technological innovations have affected the use of resources, for example fossil fuels, water, and land
7.19E Analyze how the world, the United States, and Texas have come to depend on one another through scientific discoveries and technological innovations
Social Studies Skills
Finding, analyzing and communicating information from sources, and reasoning about evidence.
7.20 Social studies skills: Use critical thinking and sound research methods, drawing on a range of reliable sources including technology, to organize and apply information
7.20A Tell valid primary sources from secondary sources, find them, and use them, for example artifacts, interviews, biographies, and media and news services, to learn about Texas
7.20B Analyze information using absolute and relative chronology, along with placing items in sequence, sorting them into categories, tracing cause and effect, summarizing, finding the main idea, comparing and contrasting, generalizing, predicting, inferring, and drawing conclusions
7.20C Organize and interpret information from visuals (maps, timelines, charts, and graphs), databases, reports, and outlines
7.20D Identify the bias and viewpoints that the surrounding historical context gave participants in an event
7.20E Form a claim on a social studies topic, back it with evidence and reasoning, and share it visually, orally, or in writing
7.20F Judge the accuracy, bias, credibility, and validity of a range of historical and modern sources
7.21 Social studies skills: Use geographic tools to gather, analyze, and interpret data
7.21A Draw and read charts, graphs, and thematic maps that show various aspects of Texas in the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries
7.21B Analyze and interpret the geographic distributions and patterns found in Texas in the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries
7.22 Social studies skills: Communicate in writing, speech, and visuals
7.22A Use social studies vocabulary correctly
7.22B Write effectively, citing sources properly and avoiding plagiarism
7.22C Prepare presentations of social studies information in written, spoken, and visual form
7.22D Use foundational language skills to take part in respectful discussion of social studies topics, including topics with several perspectives
7.23 Social studies skills: Solve problems and make decisions, both alone and in teams
7.23A Describe governmental and democratic processes, for example voting, due process, and caucuses, through simulations and models
7.23B Follow a problem-solving and decision-making process: define the problem, collect information, brainstorm options and weigh their advantages and disadvantages, choose and carry out a solution, and evaluate how well it worked
How many 7th Grade TEKS Social Studies Standards are there?
There are 73 7th Grade TEKS Social Studies Standards on this page, in 8 strands: History and Chronology, Geography and Place, Economics and Personal Finance, Government and Civics, Citizenship and Civic Life, Culture and Society, Science, Technology, and Society, and Social Studies Skills.
How do I write an assessment for a 7th Grade TEKS Social Studies standard?
Pick a standard on this page and choose Make a quiz or Make an exit ticket. AssessmentWiz opens the generator with the standard's code and text filled in, so every question targets that standard.
What does a code like 7.1A mean?
TEKS social studies codes read grade, knowledge and skills statement, student expectation. In 7.1A, the first number is the grade (K for kindergarten), the next number is the knowledge and skills statement, and the letter is the student expectation under it.