CURRICULUM OVERVIEW

Grade 6 social studies is the first year of a two-year course sequence and incorporates the Connecticut Social Studies Framework.

This two year course addresses global perspectives by employing 21st century digital communication tools while identifying salient interdisciplinary linkages for real-world applications (Curriculum 21, Jacobs). The thematic instruction organizes the curriculum around Human Geography and contemporary global issues while looking through the different world regions as a lens.

Sixth grade social studies uses Geography as a foundation to learn about the world and focuses on four themes:

Geographic Representations: Spatial Views of the World

Human-Environment Interaction: Place, Regions, and Culture

Human Populations: Spatial Patterns and Movement

Global Interconnections: Changing Spatial Patterns

LONG TERM GOAL: Maps and other geographical representations are essential to cultivating understanding about regions and cultures within them.

VISION OF THE GRADUATE: Knowledge

BIG IDEA

Once a map or other representation is created, it prompts new questions concerning the locations, spaces, and patterns portrayed.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

• How do maps of a region reflect its history, politics, and economics?
• What makes places unique and different?
• Why do environmental characteristics make a group of people unique?
• How does where we live affect how we live?
• How does geography define a region?

CONTENT

STANDARDS

GEO 6–7.1, 2

RH.6-8.1

WHST.6-8.1-8

D2.GEO.1.6-8, D2.GEO.2.6-8, D2.GEO.3.6-8, D2.GEO.4.6-8, D2.GEO.5.6-8, D2.GEO.6.6-8, D2.GEO.8.6-8, D2.GEO.10.6-8

D2.HIS.2.6-8, D2.HIS.13.6-8

LEARNING OUTCOMES Students will . . .

• know that different types of maps show different types of information.
• know how to identify important landforms/ physical features, climate, and vegetation, etc. of a region.
• know how environmental factors influence people and how they organize themselves
• know that people create regions using physical and human characteristics to interpret Earth’s complexity.
  • know how regions are areas that display common traits such culture, government, landforms, etc. which allow us to generalize common characteristics.
• identify the location and place of various world regions.
• compare and contrast multiple pieces of information to evaluate maps, graphs, tables, charts, and other spatial data of world regions.
• apply basic map skills, including how to find absolute location using latitude and longitude, how to use cardinal directions, and how to identify places using a legend or key when using or creating maps.
• interpret the past through various geographical models.
• construct maps and other geographic representations.

LONG TERM GOAL: Human-environment interactions happen both in specific places and across broad regions.

VISION OF THE GRADUATE: Mindfulness

BIG IDEA - Human-environment interactions are essential aspects of human life in all societies and they occur at local-to-global scales.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

• How do various qualities make cultures unique?
• How do environments influence cultural universals and differences?
• How does where we live affect how we live?
• How does culture define a region?

CONTENT

STANDARDS

GEO 6–7.3, 4, 5

RH.6-8.1

WHST.6-8.1-8

D2.GEO.2.6-8, D2.GEO.4.6-8, D2.GEO.5.6-8, D2.GEO.6.6-8, D2.GEO.7.6-8,D2.GEO.8.6-8, D2.GEO.10.6-8, D2.GEO.12.6-8

D2.HIS.1.6-8, D2.HIS.2.6-8, D2.HIS.4.6-8, D2.HIS.15.6-8

D2.CIV.6.6-8, D2.CIV.12.6-8, D2.CIV.13.6-8, D2.CIV.14.6-8

LEARNING OUTCOMES Students will . . .

• be able to identify and describe the concept of culture and identify cultural traits that contribute to one’s personal identity and daily life.
  • know that cultural traits such as religion, language, food, celebrations, etc are embedded in all aspects of a society including history, government, and economy.
  • know how beliefs and practices are similar yet different to each other.
  • know that culture is both a unifying and divisive force in human relations.
• know that various cultural patterns that evolve and change over time and are not static or fixed.
  • analyze how beliefs, behaviors, and experiences of belonging to communities change over time as a result of changing government, economy, and environments.
  • critique how globalization is influencing culture interactions and change.
• be able to compare and contrast various ways cultural ecology leads to various cultural landscapes.
• be able to evaluate ways technologies (communication and transportation) are reshaping interactions among people and environments and reshaping culture.
• be able to evaluate the extent of how humans modify, adapt, and depend on the physical environment to meet their social, political, and economic needs.
• be able to analyze and evaluate maps, images, etc. to identify and describe the relationship of human influence and changes to the environment.
  • know various ways that humans change the environment to suit their needs.
  • know that cultural characteristics influences the attitude and impact of the human population on the environment.

LONG TERM GOAL: Past, present, and future conditions on Earth’s surface cannot be fully understood without asking and answering questions about the spatial patterns of human population.

VISION OF THE GRADUATE: Innovation

BIG IDEA - The expansion and redistribution of the human population affects patterns of settlement, environmental changes, and resource use.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

• Why does population change over time?
• What are consequences of population growth and decline?
• How do regions support a growing population?
• How does population define a region?

CONTENT

STANDARDS

GEO 6–7.6, 7, 8

RH.6-8.1

WHST.6-8.1-8

D2.GEO.4.6-8, D2.GEO.5.6-8, D2.GEO.6.6-8, D2.GEO.7.6-8,D2.GEO.8.6-8, D2.GEO.9.6-8, D2.GEO.12.6-8

D2.HIS.1.6-8, D2.HIS.14.6-8, D2.HIS.15.6-8

D2.ECO.1.6-8, D2.ECO.2.6-8

D2.CIV.6.6-8, D2.CIV.14.6-8

LEARNING OUTCOMES Students will be able to . . .

• evaluate relationships and implications of demographic data.
• classify how physical features and availability of natural resources influence population patterns.
  • know the impact that population distribution and density has on environment and natural resources.
• interpret graphs, images, maps, etc to discover how human population is organized geographically at various times in history.
  • differentiate the demographic makeup of a population in a variety region at various times in history.
  • determine the various effects associated with a region’s increase or decrease of population.
• know how various influences in history (war, famine, migration, technology, etc) have impacted population.
• measure the impact of technology, transportation, communication, medicine, food and agriculture, and public health on populations of various world regions over time.
  • appraise the impact of the Industrial Revolution and other significant events on population.
• know why factors of why a population is growing or decreasing in some places based on patterns and trends in fertility, mortality, and migration.
• investigate the impact of a substantial population on its environment, economy, and government.
  • compare and contrast how people from various world regions allocate their available resources.
  • know conflicts around the world that are the result of an increased demand on resources.
• know why political, economic, and social processes are influenced by population distribution and density.

LONG TERM GOAL: Strategic risk-taking leads to innovative solutions to authentic problems with intended and unintended outcomes.

VISION OF THE GRADUATE: Communication

BIG IDEA - Asking and answering questions about global interconnections and spatial patterns are a necessary part of geographic reasoning.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

• How did goods, ideas, and culture first develop as a result of environments?
• What are the results of globalization?
• Does development mean progress?
• How does the movements of goods, ideas, and people affect history?
• How does globalization define a region?

CONTENT

STANDARDS

GEO 6–7.9, 10, 11

RH.6-8.1

WHST.6-8.1-8

D2.GEO.4.6-8, D2.GEO.6.6-8, D2.GEO.7.6-8,D2.GEO.10.6-8, D2.GEO.11.6-8, D2.GEO.12.6-8

D2.HIS.2.6-8, D2.HIS.14.6-8, D2.HIS.15.6-8

D2.ECO.1.6-8, D2.ECO.2.6-8, D2.ECO.14.6-8, D2.ECO.15.6-8

D2.CIV.6.6-8, D2.CIV.14.6-8

LEARNING OUTCOMES Students will be able to . . .

• identify why cultural hearths developed and how they were shaped by their environment.
• identify historical trade routes and evaluate the impact these routes had on the spread of culture in ancient and modern times.
• analyze how various environmental factors explain the type of agriculture that practiced around the world, both historically and in modern times.
  • explain how the shift in both land use and land cover has changed through time.
  • evaluate the use and development of natural resources in various regions.
• identify what (natural) resources regions historically produce for both local and global economies.
• evaluate how countries meet their needs through imports and exports.
• analyze how the global connection of modernization has changed the population distribution.