LA Comprehensive Curriculum

1. LA Comprehensive Curriculum 6th Grade Social Studies Guiding Questions

2. Unit 1: Hunters, Gatherers, Farmers (Beginnings) • Can students locate places on a map or globe using latitude, longitude, cardinal directions, and intermediate directions? • Can students explain the difference between a primary and secondary source and use both to describe world civilizations? • Can students interpret artifacts?

3. Unit 1: Hunters, Gatherers, Farmers (Beginnings) II • Can students describe the wandering, nomadic life of hunter-gatherers? • Can students describe the food, shelter, clothing, and tools of hunter-gatherers? • Can students explain the roles specialization and inventions played in the development of early human communities?

4. Unit 1: Hunters, Gatherers, Farmers (Beginnings) II • Can students explain why and how humans made the transition from hunting and gathering to farming (cultivation)? • Can students describe climatic changes and geographical features that influenced the development of early civilizations? • Can students explain why and how the domestication of plants and animals for farming took place?

5. Unit 2: River Valley Civilizations (4000-1000 B.C.) • Can students identify land and climatic conditions that were conducive to early human settlement? • Can students explain how different physical features affect human activities like cultivating, herding, defending land, etc. • Can students identify major river systems and describe the physical settings that supported permanent settlement along their banks?

6. Unit 2: River Valley Civilizations (4000-1000 B.C.) Continued • Can students explain the growth of cities and the defining characteristics of a “civilization”? • Can students describe the cultures, governments, religions, architecture, technological innovations, and writings of the four major river valley civilizations? • Can students explain cultural diffusion and, in particular, how the four early river valley civilizations influenced cultures around them?

7. Unit 3: People and Ideas on the Move (1000 B.C.-A.D. 300) • Can students describe the defining characteristics of the Hittite, Minoan, Mycenaean, and Phoenician civilizations? • Can students explain the reasons for different patterns of migration among early people? • Can students explain the different ages of technology an, in particular, the development of the plow and of iron tools and weapons?

8. Unit 3: People and Ideas on the Move (1000 B.C.-A.D. 300) Cont. 4. Can students explain the significance of Phoenician trade in the Mediterranean Sea?

9. Unit 4: Great Empires (1000 B.C.-A.D. 300) • Can students explain the economic interdependence that existed among various ancient civilizations? • Can students explain how various ancient civilizations established and maintained political boundaries?

10. Unit 4: Great Empires (1000 B.C.-A.D. 300) Continued • Can students identify the essential elements of Greek and Roman government that influenced the U.S. government? • Can students explain how the sharing of ideas, goods, and services through trade between the Greek and Roman civilizations influenced other cultures?

11. Unit 4: Great Empires (1000 B.C.-A.D. 300) Continued • Can students describe the key characteristics of four classical civilizations-Persia, Greece, Rome, and China? • Can students make valid arguments for why civilizations and empires rise and decline?

12. Unit 5: Spread of Culture and Religion (A.D. 300-1000) • Can students identify the major new religions during this period and how they relate to the different empires? • Can students explain the different ways that religions spread, including through trade, empire, Diasporas, colonization, and proselytizing?

13. Unit 5: Spread of Culture and Religion (A.D. 300-1000) Cont. • Can students explain the differences in beliefs, leaders, and locations of the different major religions and how they spread? • Can students explain the effect of major religions on European, Asian, and African civilizations?

14. Unit 6: Rise and Fall of Empires and Kingdoms (A.D. 300-1000) • Can students identify the functions and characteristics of different mediums of exchange, including money? • Can students describe why empires rise and fall apart, especially the Roman Empire? • Can students explain the economics of European feudalism and of other empires of this era?

15. Unit 6: Rise and Fall of Empires and Kingdoms (A.D. 300-1000) Cont. • Can students explain changes and developments that were brought about by the emergence and collapse of major empires and kingdoms in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas, especially their break-up into smaller political units? • Can students describe major events, key figures, and social structures of the Middle Ages?

16. Unit 6: Rise and Fall of Empires and Kingdoms (A.D. 300-1000) Cont. 6. Can students identify the major technological inventions that would lead into a period of intensive exploration, colonization, and world interaction?

17. Unit 7: The Rise of New Empires and Expansion of Communication and Trade (A.D. 1000-1500) • Can students describe the African trading empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai and how they facilitated the spread of Islamic culture? • Can students explain factors that facilitated cultural diffusion like the Crusades and the Silk Road? • Can students explain how Europe responded to the fall of the Roman Empire?

18. Unit 7: The Rise of New Empires and Expansion of Communication and Trade (A.D. 1000-1500) Continued • Can students explain how Mongol conquests and rule affected Asia? • Can students describe the Aztec and Inca Empires in the Americas? • Can students explain the effects of exploration and trade on the economic and cultural development of Europe, Africa, and Asia prior to 1500?

19. Unit 8: The Renaissance, the Reformation, and Global Exploration (A.D. 1300-1600) • Can students define the word Renaissance and describe the major contributing factors that led to the Renaissance? • Can students describe the achievements of some of the major figures of the Renaissance? • Can students explain the causes and effects of the Reformation?

20. Unit 8: The Renaissance, the Reformation, and Global Exploration (A.D. 1300-1600) Continued • Can students explain some of the major technological inventions that powered the Renaissance, Reformation, and global exploration? • Can students explain the major social, economic, political, and cultural underpinnings for global exploration and colonization?

21. Created for use by social studies teachers in the Lafayette Parish School System.