This teacher's guide, part of a sequential K-12 series, provides objectives and activities for social studies students in grade 8. Five major sections focus on learning, inquiry, and discussion skills, concepts, and values and moral reasoning. Learning skills stress listening, speaking, viewing, reading, writing, map, and statistical abilities. Students examine emotionally loaded terms and sweeping generalizations in speeches, role play famous figures in the slavery issue, show relationships between word pairs, and write a research paper. Inquiry skills involve noting similarities and differences, classifying, drawing inferences, generalizing, hypothesizing, distinguishing between fact and opinion, identifying needed evidence, recognizing biased statements, asking useful questions, distinguishing between primary and secondary sources, and evaluating sources of information. Several worksheets provide readings, questions, and activities to develop these skills. Concepts covered are conflict, interdependence, communication, multiple causation, environment, and political revolution. Students analyze the Civil War, labor conflicts, and slavery, simulate a town meeting, examine systems created by the automobile, and analyze writings about the Navaho. Students practice discussion skills in groups. In one activity, the teacher provides a controversial issue and assigns specific discussion roles. The section on values and moral reasoning discuss value analysis, values clarification, and moral dilemmas, and provides strategies for teaching dilemmas, steps for decision making, and dilemma and values exercises. (KC)