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 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Quarter 1
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.
Extended Standards
In addition to the Virginia Standards of Learning above, students who receive Full-Time Advanced Academic Services engage with these extensions.
- Explore historical and modern citizenship practices and demonstrate civility, respect, and responsible engagement when encountering diverse viewpoints, cultures, and communities.
- Explore the historical ideas that shaped the U.S. Constitution and evaluate its ongoing impact on diverse people and the structure of government today.
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.
Extended Standards
In addition to the Virginia Standards of Learning above, students who receive Full-Time Advanced Academic Services engage with these extensions.
- Assess the strengths and limitations of historical sources (artifacts, primary, and secondary) to gain a deeper understanding of past events.
Students will be able to:
- Locate 50 states
- 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.
Extended Standards
In addition to the Virginia Standards of Learning above, students who receive Full-Time Advanced Academic Services engage with these extensions.
- Explore how North America's location and key geographical features shaped historical settlement and cultural development.
- Evaluate the geographical factors that influenced the formation and ongoing development of United States state boundaries and regional locations.
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.
Extended Standards
In addition to the Virginia Standards of Learning above, students who receive Full-Time Advanced Academic Services engage with these extensions.
- Evaluate the methods used by archaeologists to interpret ancient settlements, such as Cactus Hill, and examine how recovered artifacts reveal insights into early Indigenous cultures.
- Analyze how North America's varied regions directly shaped the daily lives and unique cultures of specific Indigenous peoples (e.g., Inuit, Kwakiutl, Lakota, Pueblo, Iroquois).
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.
- Examine the arrival of the first Africans to colonial America at Old Point Comfort (Fort Monroe)
- Explain the Transatlantic Slave Trade and its impact on the African coast and Western Hemisphere
- Identify the cultural connections, conflicts, and common values of enslaved people in the Western Hemisphere, as well as challenges and hardships endured by enslaved people brought to the United States
Extended Standards
In addition to the Virginia Standards of Learning above, students who receive Full-Time Advanced Academic Services engage with these extensions.
- Analyze how geography, trade, and leadership allowed the West African empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai to rise and become powerful before European exploration.
- Examine the economic and political factors that led to the Transatlantic Slave Trade, exploring its origins from West African trade networks to the forced arrival of Africans in colonial America.
- Evaluate the impact of the Transatlantic Slave Trade on enslaved African people, and examine their various acts of resistance and ways they worked to preserve their culture.
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.
Extended Standards
In addition to the Virginia Standards of Learning above, students who receive Full-Time Advanced Academic Services engage with these extensions.
- Analyze the driving forces (economic, religious, political) and critical obstacles that shaped European exploration, and evaluate the global impact of its accomplishments.
- Evaluate the cultural and economic interactions between Indigenous peoples and European explorers, analyzing how these encounters led to both cooperation and conflict over land, trade, and cultural differences.
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.
Extended Standards
In addition to the Virginia Standards of Learning above, students who receive Full-Time Advanced Academic Services engage with these extensions.
- Analyze how geographic, economic, and social factors worked together to shape the distinct characteristics of the New England, Mid-Atlantic, and Southern colonies.
- Compare and contrast the daily lives of diverse groups in the colonies (e.g., landowners, farmers, enslaved people, and free Black people), evaluating how their social roles and economic circumstances affected their freedom and opportunities.
- Analyze how the colonies relied on each other for goods and services, and evaluate how Great Britain's changing rules about trade and government led to growing tensions with the colonists.
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.
Extended Standards
In addition to the Virginia Standards of Learning above, students who receive Full-Time Advanced Academic Services engage with these extensions.
- Analyze how economic policies, new ideas about government, and increasing disagreements between Great Britain and the colonists led to the American Revolution.
- Evaluate the importance of key events and battles in the American Revolution, and analyze how the actions of different leaders and shifts in war strategies shaped the war's final outcome.
Students will be able to:
- Explain the outcomes of the first Constitution of the United States established by the Articles of the Confederation.
- Examine constitutional issues debated, including the role of the national government and the debate over ratifying of the Constitution, the influence of the Federalist Papers, and the reasons for the addition of the Bill of Rights.
- Explain the Three-Fifths Compromise
- Examine the Three Branches of Government
Extended Standards
In addition to the Virginia Standards of Learning above, students who receive Full-Time Advanced Academic Services engage with these extensions.
- Analyze how the challenges under the Articles of Confederation directly led to the main ideas and compromises found in the U.S. Constitution, evaluating the contributions of key historical figures.
- Evaluate the lasting impact of historical debates and compromises (e.g., Three-Fifths Compromise) during the Constitutional Convention, analyzing how these decisions shaped the current structure of the three branches of government and the protections in the Bill of Rights.
Students will be able to:
- Describe the causes, course of events, and effects of the War of 1812, the role of Andrew Jackson, and the development of the Monroe Doctrine.
- 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.
- Explain how the expansion of U.S. territory led to increased momentum for the abolitionist and women’s suffrage reform movements.
Extended Standards
In addition to the Virginia Standards of Learning above, students who receive Full-Time Advanced Academic Services engage with these extensions.
- Explore the various reasons and methods the U.S. expanded its territory, evaluating how key land acquisitions and leaders greatly changed the nation's political map and future.
- Evaluate the causes and effects of the War of 1812 on American patriotism, industrial growth, and place in the world, analyzing the important role of the Monroe Doctrine in shaping U.S. foreign policy.
- Explain the different reasons for westward expansion, evaluating its effects on Indigenous peoples and their cultures, including forced removals and resistance.
- Discuss how major new technologies changed American life and business, and evaluate how the women's suffrage and abolitionist movements were connected, including how westward expansion affected their growth.
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.
Extended Standards
In addition to the Virginia Standards of Learning above, students who receive Full-Time Advanced Academic Services engage with these extensions.
- Analyze the ways in which slavery, along with increasing cultural, economic, and government disagreements, caused conflicts between the North and South, leading to the Civil War.
- Evaluate how the different economies of the North and South influenced the Civil War's outcome.
- Examine the impact of the leadership of key figures, including Abraham Lincoln, in guiding the war and its goals.
- Analyze the influence of major political texts (e.g., Emancipation Proclamation, Gettysburg Address) in defining the Civil War's purpose and evaluate the impact of the war on various groups, including women, soldiers, enslaved and free Black people.
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.
