Social Studies - 6th Grade

Standard I    Standard II    Standard III    Standard IV

Students will understand how ancient civilizations developed and how they contributed to the current state of the world.

Objective 1: Explain why physical geography affected the development of early civilizations.

Indicators:

1. Identify the major physical features of the regions where ancient civilizations flourished.
2. Describe how these features influenced the success or decline of the civilizations.
3. Compare maps of these ancient civilizations to current political maps and make inferences about the continuing affects of physical geography on cultural development.

Objective 2:
Evaluate how religion has played a central role in human history from ancient times to today.

Indicators:

1. Explore the importance of religion in the cultural expression of ancient civilizations (e.g. customs, artistic expression, creation stories, architecture of sacred spaces).
2. Identify key tenets of the major world religions (i.e. Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism).
3. Analyze how religious ideas influence current issues.

Objective 3:
Explain how modern governments can trace some of their attributes to the systems of power, authority, and governance established in ancient civilizations.

Indicators:

1. Identify forms of government within these civilizations.
2. Compare those forms to existing systems of governance in today’s world.

Objective 4:
Analyze how the earliest civilizations created technologies and systems to meet community and personal needs.

Indicators:

1. Identify innovations in manmade structures over time (e.g. irrigation, roads, building materials) and their influence on meeting needs.
2. Examine the evolution and importance of writing.
3. Identify cultural expressions that reflect these systems (e.g. architecture, artistic expression, medicine, philosophy, drama, literature).
   
4. Compare social classes, vocations, and gender roles within ancient civilizations.

Students will understand the transformation of cultures during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and the impact of this transformation on modern times.

Objective 1:
Explain how physical geography affects economic and cultural expansion.

Indicators:

1. Identify natural resources and physical features that affected expansion.
2. Describe the development of international trade via the desert, sea, and land and the resultant cultural exchanges between Asia, the Middle East, and Europe (e.g. the Silk Road)

Objective 2:
Explore the importance of religion in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and its relevance to modern times.

Indicators:

1. Explain the influence of religion on cultural expression (e.g. the arts, architecture, government, education, family structure).
2. Compare relations between the Muslim, Christian, and Jewish faiths during the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and the modern world (e.g.
   Crusades, periods of peaceful coexistence, periods of conflict).

Objective 3:
Examine how systems of governance began steps toward self-rule during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Indicators:

1. Examine relationships between significant events and ideas and their influence on systems of government (e.g. the rise of the merchant class, the Magna Carta, the impact of the Black Death, Germanic tribes, feudalism, manors, city-states).
2. Compare individual rights of people in the United States today with the rights of selected groups in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (e.g. serfs, nobility, merchant class).

Objective 4:
Explain the importance of the Renaissance as a rebirth of cultural and intellectual pursuits.

Indicators:

1. Investigate how technological and scientific developments of the time promoted literacy and the exchange of ideas that continue to this day (e.g. moveable type, telescope, microscope).
2. Identify leading Renaissance artists and thinkers and their contributions to visual arts, writing, music, and architecture (e.g. Machiavelli, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Palestrina, Shakespeare, Tallis).

Students will understand how revolutions have had an impact on the modern world.

Objective 1:
Understand processes of revolution.

 Assessment Ideas

• Assessment Rubric

  Materials: Assessment Rubric (pdf)

  This rubric can be used to assess projects and writing assignments stemming from Standard 3.1.

Indicators:

1. Examine social, religious, and economic issues that may lead to revolution.
2. Identify and compare how revolutions develop in multiple areas of human life (e.g. scientific, agricultural, industrial, political, medical).

Objective 2:
Analyze the impact of selected revolutions.

 Assessment Ideas

• Assessment Rubric

  Materials: Assessment Rubric (pdf)

  This rubric can be used to assess projects and writing assignments stemming from Standard 3.2.

Indicators:

1. Identify representative people from selected revolutions (e.g. Napoleon, Martin Luther, James Watt, Isaac Newton, Madame Curie, Anton Van Leeuwenhoek).
2. Examine the outcomes of selected revolutions (e.g. the Scientific and Industrial revolutions, the Reformation, the French Revolution).

  Students will understand current global issues and their rights and responsibilities in the interconnected world.

Objective 1:
Analyze how major world events of the 20th century affect the world today.

Indicators:

1. Identify key events, ideas, and leaders of the 20th century (e.g. World War I, World War II, the Cold War, the Korean and Vietnamese conflicts, dynamic Asian economies).
2. Describe the impact of these events on the world today.

Objective 2:
Explore current global issues facing the modern world and identify potential solutions.

Indicators:

1. Investigate pressing issues facing the world today (e.g. environmental, pollution, political turmoil, hunger, poverty, genocide, famine, natural disasters, child labor).
2. Identify potential solutions to pressing issues.
3. Identify individuals and groups making positive changes in the world today and support these choices with evidence.

Objective 3:
Determine human rights and responsibilities in the world.

Indicators:

1. Identify rights considered essential for all humans (e.g. health care, education, safety, freedom from fear, freedom of expression).
2. Propose steps individual students can take to protect these rights (e.g. support for sister schools, energy and resource conservation, letter writing, career choices, fundraising efforts).

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