Middle School Social Studies Sixth

Middle School Social Studies

Sixth Grade:

The sixth grade social studies program emphasizes the interdependence of all people in the Eastern Hemisphere. The lessons and activities for this grade level draw specific examples of nations and regions of the Eastern Hemisphere selected by the district. It is highly recommended the lessons also compare and contrast to this specific information with similar information from the United States, Canada, and Latin America.

The sixth grade program focuses on a sixth grade social science perspective with emphasis on the interaction of geography and economics. The core disciplines of geography and economics are used and developed to draw relationships and understanding in social/culture, political, and historic aspects of life in the Eastern

Hemisphere. Focus should be on turning points that will follow into the seventh grade social history of the United States.

Each district is responsible for extending the students examples from cultures other than their own and from various geographic, socioeconomic, ethnic and racial groups.

History of Eastern Hemisphere nations:

Time can be measured in years, decades, centuries, etc.

Focal points and events can be organized into different historical time periods, however it should include countries from each continent.

The Neolithic Revolution was a technological development that radically changed the nature of human society.

As the river civilizations (Mesopotamia, China, Egypt, and Indus Valley) turned to agriculture the world populations grew. Focus on two of these.

Technological innovations have had positive and negative effects on people, places, and regions.

Civilizations and cultures (China, India, Greece, and Rome) are explored through arts, science, documents and important artifacts.

Religions and other belief systems; how they have united and divided people.

Civilizations and cultures have contributed important ideas, beliefs and traditions to the history of mankind.

Important roles and contributions that made history.

Slavery

The Middle Ages and Renaissance, trade routes emerged link people from Africa, Asia, Europe.

Crimes such as the Jews and Nazi Germany and the devastation.

Geography of Eastern Hemisphere nations

Use grids, symbols and notations to locate specific places, distance and direction.

Maps can be used to show various aspects of geography of the Earth's surface as seen from the Eastern Hemisphere.

Nations and regions can be studied using maps, globes, aerial and other types of photography.

Nations and regions can be analyzed in terms of spatial organizations, places, regions, physical settings, human systems, environment, and society.

Regions tied together for some reason such as physical, political, economic or culture.

Civilizations developed where conditions were most favorable

Geographic features and climatic conditions influence land use.

Geographic diversity has influenced physical mobility and human development.

Migration of people that has led to cultural diffusion because people carry their own ideas and ways of life as they move place to place.

Overpopulation and poverty that threatens political aspects

Urbanization

How the environment is affected by people as they interact with it.

The geographic effects of conditions are moderated by technology.

Economics of Eastern Hemisphere nations

Three basic questions that must be answered: What good ands services shall be produced and in what quantity. How shall goods and services be produced? Who shall the goods and services be produced for?

Ways resources are used and how they impact economic, political and historic aspect of life worldwide.

Unlimited needs and wants that must be met with limited resources

Limited natural resources and must interact with other nations to secure the needed resources.

Improvement in life expectancy and healthcare have contributed to rapid population growth.

Great diversity in the standard of living

Concepts such as supply and demand, markets, opportunity costs, resources, economic growth.

Different economic systems have evolved to deal with decision making

Decision-making and problem solving are guided by the past

Decisions regarding what are to be produced by consumer demand

Decisions regarding the control and use of the means of production and distributions made by the government.

Mixed economies have evolved to deal with economic decision-making

Nations joining to promote economic development and growth

Leadership goals in the global economy

Communist and former communist nations moving toward market economics.

Governments of Eastern Hemisphere nations

Families, clan and tribal groups act to maintain law and order

As settlement patterns changed, new political developed to meet the complex needs of society.

Through time, the people have held different assumptions as to power, authority, governments and law.

Governments change over time to meet changing needs and wants of the people

Present systems of government have their origins in the past

The value of the nations affect the guarantee of human rights and how human needs are met.

The value of the nations are embodied in their constitutions, statutes and important court cases.

In modern political states governmental structures play an important role in maintaining social order and control

Human rights is a key factor in a totalitarian society.

The United Nations were created to prevent war, and to fight hunger disease and ignorance.

The rights and responsibilities defined by their constitution and by other laws of their nations.

Seventh and Eighth Grades:

Social Studies in the seventh and eighth grades focus on a chronologically organized study of the United States and New York State history. The course is divided into 11 units tracing human experiences in the United States from pre-Columbian times to the present. Also content will tie political, geographic, economic, and social trends in U.S. History and New York State history.

The teachers are encouraged to explore all 11 units within a two-year time frame.

The needs of the students and the availability of the instructional materials and resources will determine which units to study and in what grades. The course builds on and seeks to reinforce skills, concepts and content understanding that were introduced in the K-6 grade program. This is a vital link in the overall goals of the K-12 program.

Unit One

The Global Heritage of the American People prior to 1500

History and Social Sciences: The Study of the People

Geographic Factors Influence Cultures

Iroquoian and Algonquian Cultures on the Atlantic Coast of North America

European Conceptions of the World in 1500

Unit Two

European Exploration and Colonization of the Americas

European Exploration and Settlement

Colonial Settlement: Geographic, Political, and Economic Factors

Life in Colonial Communities

Unit Three

Nation was created

Background Causes of the American Revolution