Grade 6 Social Studies Curriculum
Family-facing version of the grade 6 Social Studies curriculum
Quarterly Overview of Grade 6 Social Studies
The objectives and outcomes for each unit are common across FCPS and based on the Virginia Standards of Learning. The pacing by quarter and by week provides an example of how the curriculum can be organized throughout the year. Teacher teams may adjust the pacing or order of units to best meet the needs of students.
Benchmark Units
FCPS has adopted Benchmark Advance for the Language Arts basal resource. At Glasgow, Holmes, and Poe, three units will be instructed during Social Studies.
- Unit 3: Beyond Democracy (End of 2nd Quarter)
- Unit 5: Technology in the 21st Century (End of 3rd Quarter)
- Unit 9: Economic Expansion (End of 4th Quarter)
Week 1Week 2Week 3
Week 4Week 5Week 6
Week 7Week 8Week 9
Quarter 1
Quarter 4
Units and Details
Students will be able to:
- Demonstrate responsible citizenship, both on and offline, and construct an understanding of the Student Rights and Responsibilities (including Digital Citizenship) by showing respect for rules and laws while collaborating, compromising, and participating in classroom activities.
- Understand the significance of Constitution Day and the establishment of a new American nation through the ideas of the United States Constitution.
Students will consider:
- What is the same and different about rules in our homes, our classroom, our school, online, and in our community?
- What makes a rule a “good rule”?
- How do our choices affect others?
- Who are “We the People”?
- How does learning about our past influence how we make decisions in the present and guide our future?
Extended Standards
In addition to the Virginia Standards of Learning above, students who receive full-time Advanced Academic (AAP Level IV) Services engage with these extensions.
- Apply the concept of patterns to social structures.
- Apply abstract concepts such as systems, patterns, relationships, and how things change over time to understand the impact of the past on the present.
- Understand that change in our actions can have positive and/or negative effects on our community and government.
- Develop a sense of responsibility for creating community.
Students will be able to:
- Demonstrate skills for historical thinking, geographical analysis, economic decision making, and responsible citizenship by analyzing and interpreting artifacts and primary and secondary sources to understand events in Virginia history.
- An artifact is an object or tool that tells us about people from the past.
- A primary source is an artifact, document, image, or other source of information that was created during the time under study.
- A secondary source is a document, image, or other source of information that relates or discusses information originally presented elsewhere.
- Analyzing and interpreting includes identifying the important elements of information sources in order to make inferences and generalizations, and draw conclusions.
Students will consider:
- Why is history important?
- What questions are important to ask about the past?
- How do historians use key events, documents, dates, artifacts, and people to interpret the past?
- How and why do people differ in their judgment about what is important in the past?
- How do we evaluate the usefulness and degree of reliability of a variety of forms of historical evidence?
Extended Standards
In addition to the Virginia Standards of Learning above, students who receive full-time Advanced Academic (AAP Level IV) Services engage with these extensions.
- Evaluate and analyze the validity and credibility of sources.
- Distinguish between primary and secondary sources.
- Evaluate the influence of author and audience bias in each document.
- Define the context in which a primary source was produced, as well as the context for understanding the document.
Students will be able to:
- Locate continents, oceans, key geographic features on maps, diagrams, photographs, etc. to evaluate their importance to the early history of the United States.
- Locate, describe, and compare/contrast the distinct features of geographic regions of North America: Coastal Plain, Appalachian Mountains, Canadian Shield, Interior Lowlands, Great Plains, Rocky Mountains, Basin and Range, Coastal Range.
- Locate major water features and evaluate their importance to the early history of the United States: Great Lakes, Mississippi River, Missouri River, Ohio River, Columbia River, Colorado River, Rio Grande, St. Lawrence River, Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, and Gulf of Mexico.
- Recognize key geographic features on maps, diagrams, and/or photographs.
Students will consider:
- How does where a person lives affect how a person lives?
- How might geographical features (rivers, mountains) impact daily life for people?
- How might food, clothing, and shelter be similar or different for people who live in different places around the world?
- How did land and water features affect people who lived in early North America?
Extended Standards
In addition to the Virginia Standards of Learning above, students who receive full-time Advanced Academic (AAP Level IV) Services engage with these extensions.
- Use maps and other geographic tools to describe change over time in US history.
- Use maps, globes, and other geographic tools (e.g. internet/GPS/etc.) to locate, describe, and compare various sites, land areas, places, and other geographic features.
- Identify and describe how geography influenced the settlement of the U.S.
Students will be able to:
- Analyze and interpret American Indian artifacts as primary sources to learn about the lifestyles of ancient settlements, including Cactus Hill in Virginia.
- Locate where American Indians lived, focusing on Inuit (Arctic), Kwakiutl (Northwest), Lakota (Plains), Pueblo (Southwest), and Iroquois (Eastern Woodlands), making connections between past and present.
- Describe how the environment and resources of early American Indian tribes impacted their daily life, making connections between past and present.
Students will consider:
- In what ways can artifacts help us learn about the people of the past?
- How does climate and environment impact the way people live?
- What can Native Peoples’ stories teach us about the past?
- How does climate and environment impact the way people live?
- How did the cultures of American Indians reflect interdependence with the environment?
- Why do some cultures change over time?
- How have the cultures and lifestyles of American Indians changed over time?
- What can the stories of American Indians teach us about the past and present?
Extended Standards
In addition to the Virginia Standards of Learning above, students who receive full-time Advanced Academic (AAP Level IV) Services engage with these extensions.
- Compare and contrast the settlers and Native Americans Interactions with the environment.
- Identify and describe how geography influenced the cultures of various American Indian groups.
- Compare and contrast the settlers and Native Americans’ interactions.
Students will be able to:
- Describe the characteristics of West African Societies (Ghana, Mali, and Songhai) and evaluate their role in the European exploration of North America.
Students will consider:
- How do shared beliefs and values shape a culture?
- How do cultural universals differ among cultures? How might they be similar?
- How does trade impact the relationship between cultures?
- How might the role of wealth and power influence exploration and colonization?
Extended Standards
In addition to the Virginia Standards of Learning above, students who receive full-time Advanced Academic (AAP Level IV) Services engage with these extensions.
- Analyze historical situations for cause and effect relationships.
- Recognize and explain that the events of history are not inevitable, but are related to chains of cause and effect relationships.
- Recognize the importance of multiple perspectives in historical events.
Students will be able to:
- Describe and analyze the motivations for, obstacles to, and land claims of the Spanish, French, Portuguese, and English explorations.
- Construct an understanding of the cultural and economic interactions between Europeans and American Indians to analyze what led to cooperation and conflict, with emphasis on the American Indian and European concept of land.
Students will consider:
- Why are people motivated to explore new lands?
- What impact does exploration have on the people who already live on those lands?
- How did America’s cultural landscape change as a result of the arrival of Europeans?
- How do today’s technological advancements impact current exploration of the world?
- What kind of impact can trade have on the relationships between cultural groups?
- How did views around land and the importance of nature differ between culture groups?
Extended Standards
In addition to the Virginia Standards of Learning above, students who receive full-time Advanced Academic (AAP Level IV) Services engage with these extensions.
- Analyze historical issues using elements of reasoning (purpose, point of view, implications/consequences, evidence/data, inferences, concepts/ideas, assumptions).
- Understand and describe contributions to American history by individuals from diverse backgrounds.
- Compare and contrast the settlers and Native Americans’ interactions.
Students will be able to:
- Describe religious and economic events/conditions that led to the colonization of America.
- Determine the economic relationships between the New England, Mid-Atlantic, and Southern colonies as a result of their geographical location.
- Describe specialization of and interdependence among New England, Mid-Atlantic, and Southern colonies.
- Interpret, compare, and contrast the multiple perspectives of people whose lives varied greatly within the American colonies: farmers, artisans, merchants, women, free African Americans, enslaved African Americans, indentured servants, and large landowners.
Students will consider:
- How might the role of wealth and power influence exploration and colonization?
- How do people’s values shape their actions?
- How did the European colonization of America impact American Indians and enslaved Africans who did not come to the colonies by choice?
- How was the daily life of people in the American colonies influenced by their environment?
- How have the early economic specializations in the American colonies continued to impact the United States today?
Extended Standards
In addition to the Virginia Standards of Learning above, students who receive full-time Advanced Academic (AAP Level IV) Services engage with these extensions.
- Analyze historical situations for cause and effect relationships.
- Recognize and explain that the events of history are not inevitable, but are related to chains of cause and effect relationships.
- Recognize the importance of multiple perspectives in historical events.
- Understand and appreciate the influence of individual experiences, societal values, and traditions on historical perspectives.
- Analyze historical issues using elements of reasoning (purpose, point of view, implications/consequences, evidence/data, inferences, concepts/ideas, assumptions).
- Apply abstract concepts such as systems, cause and effect, and how things change over time to understand the impact of the past on the present.
Students will be able to:
- Understand and make connections between the issues of dissatisfaction that led to the American Revolution and the political and economic relationships between the colonies and Great Britain by:
- Explaining the contemporary and global relevance of the colonists’ violent and nonviolent strategies for revolution, including boycotts, protests, publications, and war.
- Describe and analyze how political ideas shaped the revolutionary movement in America and led to the Declaration of Independence by:
- Explaining the contemporary and global relevance of democratic principles of human dignity and equality expressed in the Declaration of Independence.
- Evaluate people and events that played a role in shaping the revolutionary movement in America by:
- Explaining the American Revolution’s impact on people of different Native nations, enslaved Africans, free Africans, white gentry, and white farmers.
- Explaining the reasons that leaders of different Native nations, and free and enslaved Africans, formed alliances with the British, the English colonists, or remained neutral.
Students will consider:
- When are ideas worth fighting for?
- How do people resist injustice?
- How do people create lasting, positive change?
- When conflict erupts, how do people decide what to do?
- Do “independence” and “freedom” mean the same to everyone?
Extended Standards
In addition to the Virginia Standards of Learning above, students who receive full-time Advanced Academic (AAP Level IV) Services engage with these extensions.
- Analyze historical situations for cause and effect relationships.
- Understand and appreciate the influence of individual experiences, societal values, and traditions on historical perspectives.
- Identify key figures in American history and their influence on the outcomes of the American Revolution.
Students will be able to:
- Explain the outcomes of the first Constitution of the United States established by the Articles of the Confederation.
- Describe the historical development of the Constitution of the United States by:
- Exploring the connections between liberty and slavery in the ideas and lives of the Framers of the Constitution.
- Describe the major accomplishments of the first five presidents of the United States.
Students will consider:
- Who are “We the People”?
- How do people’s beliefs and values shape how a government is formed?
- Where does freedom come from?
- In what ways might people resolve their differences?
Extended Standards
In addition to the Virginia Standards of Learning above, students who receive full-time Advanced Academic (AAP Level IV) Services engage with these extensions.
- Recognize the importance of multiple perspectives in historical events.
- Explain the ideas and philosophies expressed in the Articles of Confederation.
- Evaluate the influence of author and audience bias in a given document.
- Analyze a document to define problems, arguments, assumptions, and expected outcomes.
- Describe the creation and evolution of the U.S. Constitution and its impact on our structure of government.
- Analyze the patterns, systems, and relationships that exist within the structure of the US Government.
Students will be able to:
- Evaluate territorial expansion and how geographic and economic factors influenced the westward movement of settlers.
- Analyze the cause and effect relationships of westward expansion and its impact on American Indians.
- Demonstrate critical thinking by using evidence to show the impact of inventions (cotton gin, reaper, steamboat, steam locomotive) on life in America.
- Evaluate the motivations and actions within the Abolitionist and Women's Suffrage movements.
Students will consider:
- Why did the United States expand westward?
- How do a nation’s borders impact people?
- Why do some treaties fail?
- What does it mean to remove a people?
- How do people survive and resist oppression?
- How can ordinary people change the world?
- How does new technology impact diverse people?
- How can people resist injustice?
- Why can’t everyone vote?
Extended Standards
In addition to the Virginia Standards of Learning above, students who receive full-time Advanced Academic (AAP Level IV) Services engage with these extensions.
- Analyze historical issues of westward expansion using elements of reasoning (purpose, point of view, implications/consequences, evidence/data, inferences, concepts/ideas, assumptions).
- Analyze historical situations for cause and effect relationships.
- Analyze the contribution of women during the suffrage movement to historical changes in American society and government.
- Analyze the contribution of the abolitionist movement to historical changes in American society and government.
- Apply abstract concepts such as systems, patterns, relationships, and how things change over time to understand the impact of the past on the present.
- Recognize and explain that the events of history are not inevitable, but are related to chains of cause and effect relationships.
- Recognize the importance of multiple perspectives in historical events.
Students will be able to:
- Evaluate and analyze how the cultural, economic, and constitutional issues increased sectional tensions between the North and South.
- Analyze why the Southern states seceded from the Union.
- Analyze how geography and climate impacted which states seceded from the Union and those that remained in the Union.
- Evaluate the impact of the roles of Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Frederick Douglass, Ulysses S. Grant, and Robert E. Lee, in the events leading to and during the war.
- Understand major war events chronologically and describe their significance.
- Evaluate and interpret the effects of war from the perspectives of Union and Confederate soldiers (including African American soldiers), women, enslaved African Americans, and Indigenous people.
- Identify acts of resistance and moral courage that resulted in the emancipation of African Americans.
Students will consider:
- How can individuals stop injustice in society?
- How can the President of the United States change the course of history?
- Why might people risk their lives for a cause?
- What effects did the conflicts between the North and South have on the people in those regions?
- How does the conflict of the Civil War continue to have lasting effects today?
- What can we learn about our past by exploring diverse perspectives?
Extended Standards
In addition to the Virginia Standards of Learning above, students who receive full-time Advanced Academic (AAP Level IV) Services engage with these extensions.
- Understand the Civil War period with an emphasis on political, economic, and social systems.
- Analyze the economic and philosophical differences that existed in the North and the South prior to the Civil War.
- Analyze and interpret primary documents from the Civil War period.
- Examine how geographic features impact historical events.
- Use maps to explain critical developments in U.S. history including the Civil War.
- Describe causes, effects, and results of the Civil War from multiple perspectives.
- Analyze the causes and circumstances surrounding the growing hostility between the Northern and Southern states.
- Analyze historical situations for cause and effect relationships.
- Determine key causes of the Civil War.
- Analyze and interpret primary documents from the Civil War period.
Assessments
Student assessments are part of the teaching and learning process.
- Teachers give assessments to students on an ongoing basis to
- Check for understanding
- Gather information about students' knowledge or skills.
- Assessments provide information about a child's development of knowledge and skills that can help families and teachers better plan for the next steps in instruction.
For testing questions or additional information about how schools and teachers use test results to support student success, families can contact their children's schools.
In Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS), grade 3 tests focus on measuring content knowledge and skill development.
