Social Studies in Grade 6 is structured around five regions of the United States: The Connecticut River Valley, the Gulf Coast and New Orleans, Appalachia, The Desert Southwest and California, and The Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Each regional unit considers a range of historical events, inviting students to consider the interaction of civic, economic, geographic and cultural elements over time. Students sharpen their discussion, writing and research skills by looking for patterns in these interactions across regions. They will consider issues that have arisen over and over again between First Nations peoples and Americans, and between immigrants from all parts of the globe. The goal of this curriculum is for students to gain a broad understanding of how myriad cultures, lifestyles and competing priorities come together, interrupting each other and being interrupted by forces of both the human and natural origin.
How does physical geography affect human geography?
How do natural events shape culture?
How does the land and its resources shape cultures and complicate their interactions?
Is nativism a natural part of cultural evolution and how has it both limited as well as driven cultural change?
How should humans best interact with each other and with the natural world?
Essential Questions or Enduring Understandings:
How Does Physical Geography Affect Human Geography?
Major Concepts:
The relationship between river valleys and culture
Major Content:
Abenaki Culture
European exploration
Local traditions, products and lifestyles over time
Unit Assessments:
Connecticut River Concepts: A written report and display of related elements in Abenaki culture
Major Sources:
Guest speaker: Lynn Murphy
Selected Abenaki myths
Selected non-fiction texts about Abenaki cultural practices
Essential Questions or Enduring Understandings:
How do natural events shape culture?
Major Concepts:
First Nation lifestyles and adaptations to European settlement
Cultural adaptations to hurricanes
Major Content:
The Chitimacha Nation, Spanish Conquest, French settlement, and the Louisiana Purchase
The founding and development of New Orleans
Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath
Unit Assessments:
Formal discussions
Written essays
Hurricane Day: Mock UN General Council Meeting and "Special Event"
Major Texts:
Zane and the Hurricane by Rodman Philbrick
Selected historical texts
Essential Questions/Enduring Understandings:
How does the land and its resources shape cultures and complicate their interactions?
Major Concepts:
European/Indigenous conflict
Intra-cultural conflict
Resources and technology
Environmental preservation
Major Content:
Cherokee clans and the Trail of Tears
Frontiersman culture and the conflict between "the mountains" and the "the coast"
The coal industry and mountaintop removal
The birth of the environmental movement
Unit Assessments:
Video documentaries/Interviews focused on Appalachian conflicts
Major Texts:
Same Sun Here by Neela Vaswani and Silas House
Selected Historical Texts
Film: "Overburden"
Essential Questions or Enduring Understandings:
Is Nativism a natural part of cultural evolution and how has it both limited as well as driven cultural change?
Major Concepts:
Cultural integration / assimilation / destruction
Immigration law and politics
Asian immigration
Latin American immigration
Major Content:
The Pueblo Revolt
The Chinese Exclusion Act
The Japanese internment camps
The Dreamers program
Unit Assessments:
"News Room" video reports
First-person historical narratives
Major Texts:
The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera
Paper Wishes by Lois Sepahban
Wildfire by Rodman Philbrick
Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park
Essential Questions or Enduring Understandings:
How should humans best interact with each other and with the natural world?
Major Concepts:
The Meaning of "wilderness"
Land rights and use
Natural resources vs. preservation
Survival narratives
Major Content:
Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act
The Alaska Pipeline
The Alaska Highway
Unit Assessments:
Magazine project
Major Texts:
A Wolf Called Wander by Rosanne Parry
A Whale of the Wild by Rosanne Parry
Two Old Women by Velma Wallis