Essential Questions 

1. What effects has European colonialism had on the culture of present-day South American culture?

2. Why are most large cities of South America located on the coast and/or major waterways?

3. Why are South America's landlocked countries among the continent's most underdeveloped?

4. How does latitude and elevation affect the climate of this continent?

5. Why is the west coast of South America the most active in terms of volcanoes and earthquakes?

Content 

1. Countries and physical features.

2. Technical vocabulary: Amazon Basin, rain forest, subsistence farming, landlocked, elevation, tropical climate, temperate climate, Llanos, Patagonia, Pampas, estuary, cash crop, Mestizo, Lake Titicaca

Skills 

Bloom's Taxonomy

Webb's Depth of Knowledge

1. Given a blank map, students will be able to identify the countries of South America.

2. Given a map, students will be able to identify the major land forms of South America.

3. Students will be able to describe the cause and effect of elevation and latitude on South America's population patterns, agriculture, and climates.

South America DSPA

• SS-07-03

WY: Social Studies (2014)

WY: Grades 6-8

People, Places, and Environments

Students will:

Spatial

SS8.5.1 Use and create models of the Earth to analyze the interactions of physical and human systems to demonstrate global interconnectedness

Physical Place and Region

SS8.5.2 Analyze and evaluate how physical changes influenced historical events and participate in collaborative problem solving and decision making in the selection of professional and personal choices.

Human Place and Movement

SS8.5.3 Explain how communities’ current and past demographics, migrations, and settlement patterns influence place (e.g., culture, needs, and political and economic systems) and use this analysis to predict future settlement patterns.

Environment and Society

SS8.5.4 Analyze the changes to and consequences of human, natural, and technological impacts on the physical environment.

Technology, Literacy, and Global Connections

Students will:

SS8.6.1 Use and evaluate multiple sources of information in diverse formats and media in order to address a question or solve a problem.

SS8.6.2 Distinguish among fact, opinion, and reasoned judgment in a text.

SS8.6.3 Use digital tools to research, design, and present social studies concepts (e.g., understand how individual responsibility applies in usage of digital media).

SS8.6.4 Use accurate, sufficient, and relevant information from primary and secondary sources to support writing

NCSS: Social Studies 2010

CCSS: Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, & Technical Subjects 6-12

CCSS: Grades 6-8

Capacities of the Literate Individual

Students Who are College and Career Ready in Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening, & Language

They demonstrate independence.

Show details

They demonstrate independence.

Hide details

Students can, without significant scaffolding, comprehend and evaluate complex texts across a range of types and disciplines, and they can construct effective arguments and convey intricate or multifaceted information. Likewise, students are able independently to discern a speaker’s key points, request clarification, and ask relevant questions. They build on others’ ideas, articulate their own ideas, and confirm they have been understood. Without prompting, they demonstrate command of standard English and acquire and use a wide-ranging vocabulary. More broadly, they become self-directed learners, effectively seeking out and using resources to assist them, including teachers, peers, and print and digital reference materials.

They build strong content knowledge.

Show details

They build strong content knowledge.

Hide details

Students establish a base of knowledge across a wide range of subject matter by engaging with works of quality and substance. They become proficient in new areas through research and study. They read purposefully and listen attentively to gain both general knowledge and discipline-specific expertise. They refine and share their knowledge through writing and speaking.

They respond to the varying demands of audience, task, purpose, and discipline.

Show details

They respond to the varying demands of audience, task, purpose, and discipline.

Hide details

Students adapt their communication in relation to audience, task, purpose, and discipline. They set and adjust purpose for reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language use as warranted by the task. They appreciate nuances, such as how the composition of an audience should affect tone when speaking and how the connotations of words affect meaning. They also know that different disciplines call for different types of evidence (e.g., documentary evidence in history, experimental evidence in science).

They comprehend as well as critique.

Show details

They comprehend as well as critique.

Hide details

Students are engaged and open-minded—but discerning—readers and listeners. They work diligently to understand precisely what an author or speaker is saying, but they also question an author’s or speaker’s assumptions and premises and assess the veracity of claims and the soundness of reasoning.

They value evidence.

Show details

They value evidence.

Hide details

Students cite specific evidence when offering an oral or written interpretation of a text. They use relevant evidence when supporting their own points in writing and speaking, making their reasoning clear to the reader or listener, and they constructively evaluate others’ use of evidence.

They use technology and digital media strategically and capably.

Show details

They use technology and digital media strategically and capably.

Hide details

Students employ technology thoughtfully to enhance their reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language use. They tailor their searches online to acquire useful information efficiently, and they integrate what they learn using technology with what they learn offline. They are familiar with the strengths and limitations of various technological tools and mediums and can select and use those best suited to their communication goals.

They come to understand other perspectives and cultures.

Show details

They come to understand other perspectives and cultures.

Hide details

Students appreciate that the twenty-first-century classroom and workplace are settings in which people from often widely divergent cultures and who represent diverse experiences and perspectives must learn and work together. Students actively seek to understand other perspectives and cultures through reading and listening, and they are able to communicate effectively with people of varied backgrounds. They evaluate other points of view critically and constructively. Through reading great classic and contemporary works of literature representative of a variety of periods, cultures, and worldviews, students can vicariously inhabit worlds and have experiences much different than their own.

Reading: History/Social Studies

3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, or ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.

RH.6-8.3. Identify key steps in a text’s description of a process related to history/social studies (e.g., how a bill becomes law, how interest rates are raised or lowered).

Craft and Structure

4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.

RH.6-8.4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary specific to domains related to history/social studies.

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

7. Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse formats and media, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.

RH.6-8.7. Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs, photographs, videos, or maps) with other information in print and digital texts.

Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity 

10. Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.

RH.6-8.10. By the end of grade 8, read and comprehend history/social studies texts in the grades 6–8 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

Writing

Text Types and Purposes

1. Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

WHST.6-8.1. Write arguments focused on discipline-specific content.

WHST.6-8.1a. Introduce claim(s) about a topic or issue, acknowledge and distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and organize the reasons and evidence logically.

WHST.6-8.1b. Support claim(s) with logical reasoning and relevant, accurate data and evidence that demonstrate an understanding of the topic or text, using credible sources.

WHST.6-8.1c. Use words, phrases, and clauses to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence.

WHST.6-8.1d. Establish and maintain a formal style.

WHST.6-8.1e. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented.

2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

WHST.6-8.2. Write informative/explanatory texts, including the narration of historical events, scientific procedures/ experiments, or technical processes.

WHST.6-8.2a. Introduce a topic clearly, previewing what is to follow; organize ideas, concepts, and information into broader categories as appropriate to achieving purpose; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., charts, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.

WHST.6-8.2b. Develop the topic with relevant, well-chosen facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples.

WHST.6-8.2c. Use appropriate and varied transitions to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among ideas and concepts.

WHST.6-8.2d. Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic.

WHST.6-8.2e. Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone.

WHST.6-8.2f. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation presented.

Production and Distribution of Writing

4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

WHST.6-8.4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.

WHST.6-8.5. With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed.

6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others.

WHST.6-8.6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas clearly and efficiently.

8. Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism.

WHST.6-8.8. Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, using search terms effectively; assess the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.

Range of Writing

10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.

WHST.6-8.10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for reflection and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.

NCSS: Middle

PEOPLE, PLACES, AND ENVIRONMENTS

Knowledge

Learners will understand

The theme of people, places, and environments involves the study of the relationships between human populations in different locations and geographic phenomena such as climate, vegetation, and natural resources;

Concepts such as: location, region, place, and migration, as well as human and physical systems;

Past and present changes in physical systems, such as seasons, climate, and weather, and the water cycle, in both national and global contexts;

The roles of different kinds of population centers in a region or nation;

The concept of regions identifies links between people in different locations according to specific criteria (e.g., physical, economic, social, cultural, or religious);

The use of a variety of maps, globes, graphic representations, and geospatial technologies to help investigate the relationships among people, places, and environments.

Processes 

Learners will be able to

Ask and find answers to geographic questions related to regions, nations, and the world in the past and present;

Acquire, organize, and analyze information and use geographic tools to draw conclusions about historic or current national and global environmental change;

Calculate distance, scale, and area, to inform study of historic or current national and global environments;

Evaluate the consequences of human actions in environmental terms.

Products

Learners demonstrate understanding by

Constructing a series of maps depicting changes in the relationships among people, places, and environments over time in a given location;

Constructing a map depicting the historical expansion of a nation or empire that demonstrates an understanding of relative location, distance, direction, boundaries, major physical features, size, and shape;

Developing a table to compare population data among nations;