Social Studies - 6th Grade

Standard I    Standard II    Standard III    Standard IV

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

Activities

Pre- and Post-Assessment of Physical and Political Features
Objective: Students will learn to create accurate maps.
Have students brainstorm a list of terms related to physical and political features of the world.  Make a class list on the board. Add terms that they should already know that are not on their list. Instruct the students to create a map of the world including as many physical and political features as they can.  A compass rose, legend, scale, and title should also be included.  Have students compare their map with an actual world map to evaluate what they already know.  Explain that they will repeat this activity throughout the year and that by the end, they should be able to create a more accurate map.

Lesson Plans

• Ancient Civilizations and the Modern World
  Students will understand how ancient civilzations developed based on the local physical features and how the boundaries of early civilizations compare to their modern counterparts.

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.

Lesson Plans

• Looking Toward a Higher Deity
  This lesson will introduce students to the five major religions in the world and their basic tenets.

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.

Lesson Plans

• Emperor or President?
  This lesson will help students trace attributes of the Unites States government to those of ancient Greek democracy.

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.

Activities

Writing in Ancient Civilizations
Objective: Students will demonstrate their understanding of the progression of writing from ancient times to the present. 
Materials: Graphic Organizer
Using a graphic organizer, brainstorm the origins and uses of written language throughout time.  As each civilization is studied, students will create pages for an expanding booklet throughout the year.  These pages will represent each language presented by the teacher (e.g. cave paintings, ancient Semitic scripts, hieroglyphics, cuneiform, Sanskrit, Phoenician, Greek, Roman, modern English, Roman Numerals, Arabic Numerals, Chinese characters, text messaging, etc.).

For each civilization studied, have students explore writing systems by, first, viewing an alphabet and/or language reference page and, second, writing about an invention (or technology) from the point of view of a person from that time period.  The written description should be flexible enough to permit students to communicate to the best of their ability using the writing of the time period.  “Translations” into English should accompany those descriptions.

At the end of the booklet, students will write a summary of how technology has influenced and shaped the value of writing in their own civilization and/or in their own lives.

Lesson Plans

• Ancient Greek and Roman Mythology Puppet Show
  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.

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

Activities

Trade
Make a physical map of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East with the physical features that promote trade and movement and trade routes.  Routes and Background

Discuss how physical features can affect trade, movement of people and ideas

Read about Marco Polo or others who traveled the trade routes to Asia.

Write a journal entry explaining the difficulties one might face on a trade journey.

Participate in a classroom barter exchange activity using natural resources  and then discuss the advantages and disadvantages of such a system.

Identify and discuss how geography affects the movement of people, goods, and ideas in the modern world.

Lesson Plans

• Renaissance Trade and Exchange
  Students will research the development of international trade and the resultant cultural exchanges during the Renaissance.

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.

Activities

Middle Ages
Create a graphic organizer of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, feudal structure, and local town or guild structures which framed life for ordinary Europeans

Analyze  a primary source for life in the Middle Ages.

Perform in a one-act play which illustrates some aspect of life in the Middle Ages.  A good resource is Middle Ages by Jeanette Sanderson  ISBN 0590769936

Read a novel set in the Middle Ages and identify how the church influenced daily life. Crispin the Cross of Lead  by Avi,  Redwall Series by Brian Jacques,  A Door in the Wall by Marguerite De Angeli.

Create a Venn diagram showing the differences and similarities between Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant beliefs.

Research one of the Reformers and explain how they contributed to the Reformation.

 

Crusades
Read and discuss an account of a crusade. (e.g. First Crusade, Children’s Crusade, Richard Lionheart and Saladin (3rd Crusade, Peter the Hermit)

Use a map to trace the route to the Holy Land.

Write a journal entry explaining why a person would choose to go on crusade or pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

Write and perform a reader’s theater for the “Song of Roland.”

Read the Song of Roland or El Cid and discuss the causes, events, and outcomes of the conflict between Spanish Christians and Moors.

Discuss examples of anti-Semitism in Europe during the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

Research a contribution Muslims and Jews made to European culture.  (geometry, algebra, numerals, sanitation, medicine, scientific inquiry, foods, spices, food, philosophy)

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.

Activities

Government
Design a guild for a group and explain why a person would want to belong. (e.g. weavers, skateboarders, basketball players, dancers etc.)

Analyze sections of the Magna Carta and explain how it limited the power of the king.

 

Rights
Participate class discussion about the balance between rights of individuals and society.

Make a T-Chart comparing and contrasting the rights of a free- peasant and a student at the school or other modern comparison between groups of the Middle Age and modern equivalents, then share it with the class.

Compare the Bill of Rights to the Magna Carta.  List the rights in each and decide which rule students would rather live under and why.

Lesson Plans

• Black Death Math/Economics
  Students will learn about the Black Death and use fractions, percents, proportions, and other math concepts to integrate social studies and math.
• Rights "Then and Now"
  Students will compare and contrast the rights of individuals and groups based on social class today and 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.

Activities

Science and the Renaissance
Do a research Renaissance project related to the changes in science or technology during the Renaissance.

Replicate a scientific instrument or experiment done by a Renaissance scientist and then write up their results.

 

The Arts and the Renaissance
Identify advancements in painting, sculpture, or architecture by looking at artworks or buildings from the Renaissance.

Analyze a short piece of Renaissance literature and compare with a similar piece of modern literature.

Make a picture book about the life and works of a Renaissance artist, writer or builder.

Lesson Plans

• Renaissance 'Movers & Shakers.'
  Investigate and identify the Renaissance 'Movers and Shakers' and their contributions.

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).

Objective 1:
Understand processes of revolution.

Activities

Revolution
Objective: Students will use a pyramid organizer (pdf) to determine and describe specific, important elements of a revolution.
Procedure: This organizer can be used in several was for any revolution a teacher has chosen to study in class.  Students can use it to organize notes during a lecture, video, or assigned reading.  It can also be used as an assessment after completing the study of a revolution.  If integrating Language Arts and Social Studies, it could be a planning organizer as students outline a historical fiction writing piece set during a revolution.

 

Who Has, I Have Agriculture
This is an active vocabulary activity that can be used either as an introduction to the vocabulary of agricultural revolution, or as a review prior to an assessment.  It also requires students to demonstrate listening and speaking skills.  Cut the cards (pdf) apart and hand out to random students in the class.  Begin with the student that receives the card "I have the first card...".  He or she should stand and read their card.  Then the student holding the "I have fallow" card will stand and read his or her card, and so on.

Lesson Plans

• French Revolution
  This lesson begins with a simulation that will let students feel what it was like to be a part of different estates in France prior to the French Revolution.
• The French Revolution
  The French Revolution was instigated by the unfairness of the tax system in France, the example of the American Revolution, and the bankruptcy of the French monarchy.
• The Industrial Revolution
  The Industrial Revolution led to changes in people lives and in society as a whole.
  

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.

Activities

Revolutions List, Group, Label
Materials: Revolutions List, Group, Label Steps (pdf)
This activity can be used as an introduction to the vocabulary and ideas of these 6 revolutions.  Students can then revisit it later in their studies to revise their ideas and personally assess their learning.  Students could work individually or in small groups.

Lesson Plans

• Revolution Jigsaw Lesson
  In small groups, students will research various revolutions, and will then teach other groups about their selected revolution.
• Newspaper Lesson Plan
  This lesson helps students create a newspaper that will demonstrate their understanding of the processes of revolution, representative people in a revolution, winners and losers in a revolution, and the impact on the future. This lesson plan integrates social studies, language arts, art, and technology. Teachers can determine how expansive this task will be. What is essential to the assignment is that students demonstrate an understanding of the standard.
• Revolutionary Characteristics
  Students will use quotes from revolutionaries of various revolutions to come up with a general list of adjectives / descriptors for revolutionaries.
• Industrial Revolution
  In this lesson, students will come to understand how the Industrial Revolution impacted individuals. They will examine how the change from shop or cottage industry to the factory affected people, how the railroad affected individuals, and how some of the inventions of the Industrial Revolution changed individual lives.
• The Reformation
  The Religious Reformation in Europe allowed for the spread of new ideas in both science and religion.
• The Scientific Revolution
  During the Renaissance, many astute thinkers began to question long-held beliefs. This questioning led to the Scientific Revolution, which in turn led to the establishment of many scientific fields in use today.

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).

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

Activities

Democracy 4 Corners
Teacher directions: Choose 4 of the quotes below and write them on large butcher paper.  Tape each to a different corner of the classroom.  Ask students to choose the quote that “speaks” to them and go to the appropriate corner.  Have groups discuss the reasons for their choice.  Then ask groups to report out for a classroom discussion.  Give students the opportunity to change corners if they wish.  Repeat the process. Conclude by asking students to write a paragraph about democracy.

Quotes:
Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people. ~Oscar Wilde
Democracy forever teases us with the contrast between its ideals and its realities, between its heroic possibilities and its sorry achievements. ~Agnes Repplier 
Apparently, a democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates. ~Gore Vidal  
Democracy is only a dream: it should be put in the same category as Arcadia, Santa Claus, and Heaven. ~H.L. Mencken
If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost. ~Aristotle
The two greatest obstacles to democracy in the United States are, first, the widespread delusion among the poor that we have a democracy, and second, the chronic terror among the rich, lest we get it. ~ Edward Dowling[1941]

Lesson Plans

• Propaganda and its effects on WWI
  Propaganda had a large effect on opinions during World War One. This lesson is to introduce students to what propaganda is and how it can affect opinions and actions during wartime.
• World War One Main Events Using Primary Sources
  Students will explore the main events of World War One using primary source documents.
• WWI-Impact on Soldiers, Families, and Land
  This lesson is an interactive way for students to realize the impact WWI had upon soldiers, families, and land in Europe.
• Causes of WWI (An Introductory Lesson)
  An introductory lesson that overviews the four main causes of World War I. Lesson focuses mainly on Conflict, Imperialism, Militarism, Nationalism and System of Alliances.

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.

Activities

If I Were in Charge of the World
Use the incomplete version of Judith Viorst’s poem “If I Were in Charge of the World” to pre- and post-assess your students’ view of the world. Don’t give them much guidance about how they would change the world; you kind of want them to think selfishly for their first version. Because they won’t hear the real poem until after their first version is finished, help them write notes next to each stanza about the kinds of ideas they should write. Next to the first stanza, write “list 4 things I would cancel.” Next to the second stanza, write “list 3 things the world would have.” By the top three blanks, write “3 things that would not exist.” The fourth blank in the third stanza is a direct quote from someone, hence the quotation marks. Explain this and then write next to it “what someone says that I don’t want to hear anymore.” By the fourth line, write “one more thing that would not exist.” The first four blanks in the fourth stanza tell the way that two things would change, maybe from something bad into something good, for example. Write “something will change” by the first two blanks and “another change” by the next two. The last two blanks are things that the students might sometimes forget to do, but should really do more often. Write “2 things I sometimes forget to do.”

These directions will make more sense to teachers if familiar with the original poem. It can be found in the book If I Were in Charge of the World and other worries: Poems for Children and their Parents by Judith Viorst. It can also be accessed at this link: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/if-i-were-in-charge-of-the-world/

After students write their own first version of the poem (which will probably be quite self-centered), share the original with them and go on with your study of modern global and social issues. As a post-assessment of your students’ view of the world, and the problems and issues they internalized, have them write a second version of the poem with a world view rather than self.

Lesson Plans

• Global Issues using primary sources
  Global issues today can best be understood by studying the newspaper, the source that carries our current information. This lesson is to introduce students to how to use newspapers to understand what is currently happening in the world today.
• Rights and Responsibilities
  As members of the human race we have certain rights and with those rights come certain responsibilities. This lesson is designed to help students understand their rights and responsibilities and how it affects their lives.

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.

Lesson Plans

• Current Issues
  The current world today is wrought with issues that affect our students daily. This lesson is designed to introduce some of these issues.
• How Can I Help Change the World?
  Each student has the capability of protecting basic human rights through service and individual actions. This lesson gives students ideas in which they can make a difference 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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