Grade 6 Social Studies Curriculum Rochester City School District

Grade 6 Social Studies Curriculum – Rochester City School District Unit 1: A First Look at the Students will gain a conceptual framework to begin to study the Eastern Hemisphere. By building on what students know about the modern world, understanding of ancient cultures can be made more accessible. Students will be introduced to the four social sciences (economics, political science, history, Eastern Hemisphere and geography) with an emphasis placed on the work of historians and geographers during this unit. Students will act as historians to complete a project (6 weeks) exploring a subculture to which they belong. By studying various landforms, waterways, climate, and resources, students act as geographers by analyzing how environment influences the lives of people in the Eastern Hemisphere.

The goals of this unit will be achieved through focused inquiry centered on the following themes:  Culture ▸ What is culture, and what role does it play in personal and group behavior?

 People, Places and Environments ▸ How does the environment influence the lives of people?

COMMON CORE & NCSS STUDENT PERFORMANCE ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS RESULTS CONTENT STANDARDS EXPECTATIONS  How might we ask and find answers ▸ Explain how patterns of behavior 1. Students will investigate a culture to Culture A. Students will observe, reflect and to questions about culture? reflect cultural values and beliefs which they belong. 1. Civilizations and cultures of the interview to develop a video or (NCSS). 2. Students will conduct a short Eastern hemisphere are explored illustrated description showing the  How do landforms and waterways research project about a country in through the arts and sciences, key elements of a sub-culture to which affect life in the Eastern hemisphere? *Produce clear and coherent writing the Eastern Hemisphere. documents, and other important they belong or have access (e.g., in which the development, artifacts. adolescents, athletes, musicians, organization, and style are 2. Individuals and groups in the Eastern school clubs, neighborhood, or other appropriate to task, purpose and hemisphere have played important student sub-groups) for the Culture audience (CCS-WHST 4). roles and made important Project. contributions to world history. B. Students will create illustrations and ▸ Ask and find answers to geographic Geography compose answers to geographic questions related to regions, nations, 3. The use of various grids, symbols questions about people, places, and and the world in the past and present and notations makes it possible to environments to produce a travel (NCSS). locate specific places and indicate brochure. distance and direction in the Eastern * Conduct short research projects to hemisphere. answer a question, drawing on 4. Civilizations developed where several sources and generating geographic conditions were most additional related, focused questions favorable. that allow for multiple avenues of 5. Special purpose maps can be used to exploration (CCS-WHST 7). show various geographic aspects of Earth’s surface as seen in the Eastern hemisphere. 6. The nations and regions can be studied using maps, globes, aerial and other photographs, satellite- produced images and models. Resources Student literature:  Scott Foresman Grade 6 SS DBQ  People by Peter Spier Practice Book, “Discuss the Causes and Effects of Population Growth”,  Journey Across Time (JAT), Glencoe pages 57-72. World History textbook:

Intro to textbook Scavenger Hunt, JAT page xxvii

Geography Themes, JAT pages GH2, GH3

Tools of the Historian, JAT pages Tools 1-7 Links Across Time, JAT pages Tools 10-13 Grade 6 Social Studies Curriculum – Rochester City School District Unit 2: River Valley By studying River Valley Civilizations, students will act as geographers to analyze how regions are defined by their various characteristics and investigate why early civilizations grew around bodies of water. Students will act as political scientists to evaluate the formation of early government. Finally, students will Civilizations examine how power has been used in different circumstances in the River Valley Civilizations. (Kemet, Mesopotamia, China, India) The goals of this unit will be achieved through focused inquiry centered on the following themes: (8 weeks)  People, Places, and Environment ▸ How are regions defined by various characteristics?

 Power, Authority, and Governance ▸ What is power and under what circumstances is the exercise of power acceptable?

COMMON CORE & NCSS STUDENT PERFORMANCE ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS RESULTS CONTENT STANDARDS EXPECTATIONS  How are regions defined by various ▸ Acquire, organize and analyze 1. Students will investigate the causes Geography A. Students will act as historians to characteristics? information and use geographic tools and events of the Neolithic 1. As the river civilizations of the write a short response describing the to draw conclusions about historic or Revolution. Eastern hemisphere turned to causes and key events of the  What is power and under which current national and global 2. Students will find and analyze agriculture, world populations grew. Neolithic Revolution and explain circumstances is the exercise of environmental change (NCSS). information in order to examine the 2. Civilizations developed where how it changed the course of history power acceptable? *Describe how a text presents characteristics of four ancient River geographic conditions were most for nations and peoples. information (CCS-RST 5). Valley civilizations. favorable. B. Students write an extended response * Integrate visual information with 3. Students will study different 3. The Neolithic Revolution was a in which they identify and describe other information in print and digital examples of power in each of the technological development that two geographic factors in each River texts (CCS-RST 7). River Valley civilizations. radically changed the nature of Valley civilization and explain how human society. each factor influenced life in that ▸ Ask and find answers to questions 4. Key turning points and events in the region. Students will showcase their about power, authority and histories of Eastern hemisphere answers by creating an illustrated governance in the region, and nation, nations can be organized into booklet of maps including each of the and world (NCSS). different historical time periods. River Valley civilizations with * Trace and evaluate the argument Government captions that detail the influence of and specific claims in a text, 5. As settlement patterns changed, new geographic factors on the people of distinguishing claims that are forms of political order developed to that region. supported by reasons and evidence meet the more complex needs of C. Students will develop a classroom from claims that are not (CCS-RI 8). societies. constitution (informed by study of * Determine the meaning of words 6. Across time and place, the people of Hammurabi’s Code and the Mandate and phrases as they are used in a text the Eastern Hemisphere have held of Heaven) as a plan for just (CCS-RI 4). differing assumptions regarding governance. (This may be amended power, authority, governance, and after the study of Greece and Rome law. in Unit 3.) Resources Teacher Resources: Student literature:  Journey Across Time (JAT), Glencoe  RCSD Social Studies Instructional  Senefer: A Young Genius in Old World History textbook: Strategies and Curriculum Egypt by Beatrice Lumpkin Unit 1: Early Civilizations Supplement (2004), pages 19-20  Scott Foresman Grade 6 SS DBQ Chapter 1: The First Civilizations (based on NYSED guidance) Practice Book, Unit 1: Early Section1 : Early Humans  Lumpkin, Beatrice (1980). The Civilizations and Cultures Section 2: Mesopotamian pyramids: Ancient showcase of (Mesopotamia), pages 1-8, and Unit Civilization African science and technology, 2: Early Civilizations in Africa and Section 3: The First Empires Journal of African Civilizations, Asia (Egypt), pages 9-16. Chapter 2: Ancient Egypt 2(1/2), 10-26.

Unit 2: The Ancient World  A Brief History of the World, Part I Chapter 6: Early India by Peter N. Sterns, The Teaching Section 1: India’s First Civilizations Company: 2007. (pages190-197 only) Chapter 7: Early China Section 1: China’s First Civilizations (pages 224-231 only) Grade 6 Social Studies Curriculum – Rochester City School District Unit 3: Classical Students will differentiate between River Valley Civilizations and Classical Civilizations. They will consider the question: What does it mean that something is classical? Students will act as historians to identify connections between the past and the present. Students will learn the four defining characteristics of Civilizations (Kemet, "classical civilizations." They will compare and present information about what have been identified by historians as "classical civilizations”. Finally, the Greece, students will analyze two religions or belief systems and describe the impact those beliefs have had historically and in the present. Rome, China, India) (6 weeks) The goals of this unit will be achieved through focused inquiry centered on the following themes:  Time, Continuity, and Change ▸ What connections are there between the past and present? ▸ What are the origins and influences of social, cultural, political and economic systems?

 Culture ▸ How do beliefs, such as religion or political ideals, influence other aspects of a culture, such as its institutions or art?

COMMON CORE & NCSS STUDENT PERFORMANCE ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS RESULTS CONTENT STANDARDS EXPECTATIONS  What enduring understandings and ▸ Evaluate the impact of the values, 1. Students will analyze the past and 1. World History A. Students write an extended response practices connect the past and the beliefs, and institutions of people in present influence of two major belief a. Time can be measured in by choosing two belief systems and present? the past on important historical systems. years, decades, centuries and for each one: decisions and developments of their 2. Students will find information about millennia  Identify the nation or region time (NCSS). civilizations and determine if they fit b. The civilizations and cultures where it was founded, the criteria of a “classical of the Eastern Hemisphere  Describe two basic teachings of * Cite specific textual evidence to civilization.” have contributed to the belief system, and support analysis of primary and important ideas, beliefs, and  Discuss how the belief system secondary sources (CCS-RST 1). traditions to the history of has influenced the culture of the mankind. areas in which it is currently * Write informative/explanatory c. Religions and other belief practiced. texts, including the narration of systems (animism, ancestor (Choices: Confucianism, Daoism, historical events, specific procedures/ worship, Confucianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, experiments, or technical processes Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, or (CCS-WHST 2). Judaism, Christianity, Islam) Christianity) have both united and divided the peoples of the Eastern B. Students will develop an illustrated Hemisphere. timeline of a sequence of events for the Classical Civilization of their Note: Ancient Israel is not choice (China, India, Greece or considered a “classical Rome). Within the timeline, students civilization” but did yield include details that reflect the one of the world’s major characteristics of classical religions which the students civilizations. need to study. Resources  Rochester Teacher Center DBQ on  Journey Across Time (JAT) Glencoe  Houghton Mifflin Reading Theme 4: Kemet (contact RTC through the World History: Leveled Readers: The Kingdom of RTA) Kush, The Pyramids of Ancient  RCSD Social Studies Instructional Unit 1: Early Civilizations Egypt, A Scribe of Ancient Strategies and Curriculum Chapter 3: The Ancient Israelites China Supplement (2004), pages 20-21 (pages 76-93) (based on NYSED guidance) African Science in School Unit 2: The Ancient World Curriculum Chapter 7: Early China Section 2: Life in Ancient China (pages 232-239) Scott Foresman Grade 6 SS DBQ Section 3: The Qin and Han Practice Book, Unit 4: Mediterranean Dynasties (pages 240-251) Empires (Greece and Rome), pages 25-32. Chapter 6: Early India Section 1: India’s First Civilizations (pages198-201) Section 2: Hinduism and Buddhism (pages 202-208) Section 3: India’s First Empires (pages 209-219) Unit: The Ancient Greeks

Chapter 4: The Ancient Greeks (pages 112-138)

Chapter 5: Greek Civilization (pages 150-182) Unit 3: New Empires and New Faiths

Chapter 8: The Rise of Rome (pages 258-297)

Chapter 9: Roman Civilization (pages 298-326)

Chapter 10: The Rise of Christianity (pages 338-350) Grade 6 Social Studies Curriculum – Rochester City School District Unit 4: Middle Ages By studying trade routes of the Middle Ages, students will act as economists to gain an understanding of how the people of the time period met their needs and (4 weeks) wants. Students will draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis reflection, and research. The goals of this unit will be achieved through focused inquiry centered on the following themes:

 Production, Distribution, and Consumption

▸ How does the availability of resources influence decisions about production, distribution and consumption?

COMMON CORE & NCSS STUDENT PERFORMANCE ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS RESULTS CONTENT STANDARDS EXPECTATIONS  How did the development of new ▸ Find, select, organize, and present 1. Students will investigate the 1. World and United States History A. Students will develop and present trade routes lead to interdependence information to compare various development of trade routes in a. People have unlimited needs public policy proposals that identify among Africans, Asians and cultures according to specified Africa, Asia and Europe during the and wants that they must local economic problems and Europeans? aspects of culture, such as Middle Ages. meet with limited resources. propose possible solutions. (For institutions, language, religion and b. From the earliest times, example, students might write a one the arts (NCSS). networks of trade have page policy proposal for the Mongols connected the various on how to conduct trade more *Draw evidence from informational civilizations of the Eastern peaceably with China or Europe or texts to support analysis reflection, hemisphere. how the African empires of Ghana, and research (CCS-WHST 9). c. The economic systems of the Mali, and Songhai might structure world have become an their trade given environmental interdependent network. factors.) d. During the late Middle Ages and Renaissance periods new long distance trade routes emerged linking the peoples of Africa, Asia, and Europe Resources Student Literature:  Journey Across Time (JAT), Glencoe  Houghton Mifflin Reading Theme 4  Kurtz, Jane. Saba: Under the World History textbook: Textbook selections: Hyena’s Foot (Ethiopia in the Middle Unit 4: The Middle Ages The Royal Kingdoms of Ghana, Ages) Overview (pages 400-403) Mali, and Songhay: Life in Medieval  Cushman, Karen. Catherine Called Chapter 12: China in the Middle Africa (pages 409-429); The Great Birdy (Europe in the Middle Ages) Ages (pages 404-439) Wall (pages 388-403) Also, The Midwife’s Apprentice. Chapter 13: Medieval Africa (pages 440-453) Leveled Readers: Ancient Baghdad— A.1. Catherine Called Birdy Chapter 14: Medieval Japan (pages City at the Discussion Guide 480-504) Crossroads of Trade; Caravan Boy; A.2. Midwife’s Apprentice On the Silk Road: Ancient Baghdad Discussion Guide Vocabulary Reader: Camels—Ships of the Desert Teacher Resources:  RCSD Social Studies Instructional Strategies and Curriculum Supplement (2004), pages 20-21 (based on NYSED guidance)  A Brief History of the World, Part I by Peter N. Sterns, The Teaching Company: 2007. Grade 6 Social Studies Curriculum – Rochester City School District Unit 5: By studying the conditions that supported the emergence of the European Renaissance and later the Harlem Renaissance students will act as historians to describe the influence of perception, attitudes, values and beliefs on personal identity and the interactions of people across time and space. They will integrate European and Harlem information presented in different media or formats as well as in words to develop a coherent understanding of a topic or issue. Renaissance (3 weeks) The goals of this unit will be achieved through focused inquiry centered on the following theme:

 Individual Development and Identity

▸ How do time and place influence individual development and identity?

COMMON CORE & NCSS STUDENT PERFORMANCE ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS RESULTS CONTENT STANDARDS EXPECTATIONS  What unique characteristics did the ▸ Describe the influence of perception, 1. Students will investigate the 1. World and United States History A. Students will create identity portraits artists and artisans during the Italian attitudes, values, and beliefs on contributions of artists and artisans to a. In Europe (and Harlem), the that describe the factors that make Renaissance and later the Harlem personal identity and the interactions the European and Harlem Renaissance was marked by the artists and artisans of the Italian Renaissance embody? of people across time and space Renaissance. major achievements in and later the Harlem Renaissance (NCSS). literature, music, painting, unique. sculpture, and architecture. *Integrate information presented in different media or formats as well as in words to develop a coherent understanding of a topic or issue (CCS-RI 7).

Resources  Journey Across Time (JAT), Glencoe  Houghton Mifflin Reading Theme 1 Public Library: World History textbook: (Poetry Section)  Langston Hughes: The Voice of Unit 5: The Renaissance, Chapter 17: Harlem by Brenda Haughen The Renaissance and Reformation  Artists and Writers of the Harlem Section 1: The Renaissance Begins Renaissance by Wendy Hart (pages 604-617 Beckman Section 2: New Ideas and Art (pages 618-632)  Harlem Stomp! A Cultural History of the Harlem Renaissance by Laban Carrick Hill  Romeo and Juliet (Wishbone Classics) retold by Billy Aronson  Celeste's Harlem Renaissance: A Novel by Eleonora E. Tate

Grade 6 Social Studies Curriculum – Rochester City School District Unit 6: By studying contemporary and historic human rights issues, students will gain an understanding of how conflict and cooperation are manifested in the Eastern (and Western) Hemisphere. Students will act as contemporary social scientists to study each human rights issue through the lens of the historian, geographer, Exploring Human Rights political scientist and economist. (9 weeks) The goals of this unit will be achieved through focused inquiry centered on the following themes:  Global Connections ▸ What persisting issues arise from global conflict and cooperation?

 Civic Ideals and Practices ▸ How can students participate in meaningful civic actions?

COMMON CORE & NCSS STUDENT PERFORMANCE ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS RESULTS CONTENT STANDARDS EXPECTATIONS  What is human dignity? ▸ Analyze examples of conflict, 1. Students will investigate and define 1. World History A. Students will create quilt squares  How does the labeling of people lead cooperation and interdependence the concept of human dignity. a. International organizations illustrating the thirty articles in the to human rights abuses? among groups, communities, regions, 2. Students will analyze examples of were formed to promote Universal Declaration of Human  How can we make a difference? societies, and nations. (NCSS) conflict and cooperation in the case peace, economic Rights of Amnesty International. ▸ Identify assumptions, studies of activists from the Speak development, and cultural B. Students will work in cooperative misconceptions, and bias in sources Truth to Power curriculum. understanding. The United groups to create a digital presentation evidence and arguments used in 3. Students will analyze examples of Nations was created to about one of the selected human presenting issues and positions. conflict and cooperation during a prevent war and to fight rights activists from the Speak Truth (NCSS) study of international humanitarian hunger, disease, and to Power Curriculum. ▸ Ask and find answers to questions law. ignorance. C. Students will write a commentary on about how to become informed and 4. Students will complete a series of b. Exploring the extent to a contemporary or historic human take civic action. (NCSS) observations and interpretations that which human rights are rights violation in the Eastern analyzes, evaluates, and establishes a protected becomes a key Hemisphere. * Gather relevant information from position on a human rights or issue in society. multiple print and digital sources, humanitarian law violation that c. The crime of genocide using search terms effectively; assess occurred in a specific time and place crosses cultures and eras. the credibility and accuracy of each in the Eastern Hemisphere. Jews and other groups source; and quote or paraphrase the experienced devastation at data and conclusions of others while the hands of Nazi Germany. avoiding plagiarism and following a d. Slavery has existed across standard format for citation. (CCS- eras and regions in the WHST 8) Eastern hemisphere.

* Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (CCS-WHST 4) Resources Public Library:  Speak Truth to Power (Suggested  Exploring Humanitarian Law  We Are All Born Free: the Universal Activists: Lucas Benitez, Van Jones,  Journey Across Time (JAT), Glencoe Declaration of Human Rights in Dalai Lama, Wangari Maathai, World History Journey Across Time Pictures by Amnesty International Desmond Tutu, Elie Wiesel) (JAT), Glencoe World History  The Dalai Lama by Demi textbook, Unit 6: Modern Times,  The Dalai Lama: A Life of Chapter 21: World War II (pages Compassion by Sheila Rivera 800-830)  Wangari’s Trees of Peace: A True  Journey Across Time index on page Story from 1001 includes historical references to Africa by Jeanette Winter enslavement across eras and cultures  Mama Miti: Wangari Maathai and the Trees of Kenya by Donna Jo Napoli  God’s Dream by Desmond Tutu  Desmond Tutu: Fighting Apartheid by Samuel Willard Crompton  Elie Wiesel: A Holocaust Survivor Cries Out for Peace by Sarah Houghton  Elie Wiesel: Holocaust Survivor and Messenger for Humanity by Diane Dakers

You Tube Universal Declaration of Human Rights Animation Human Rights Action Center Elie Wiesel Animation