LA Comprehensive Curriculum

6th Grade Social Studies

Guiding Questions

Unit 1: Hunters, Gatherers, Farmers (Beginnings)1. Can students locate places on a map or

globe using latitude, longitude, cardinal directions, and intermediate directions?

2. Can students explain the difference between a primary and secondary source and use both to describe world civilizations?

3. Can students interpret artifacts?

Unit 1: Hunters, Gatherers, Farmers (Beginnings) II4. Can students describe the wandering,

nomadic life of hunter-gatherers?

5. Can students describe the food, shelter, clothing, and tools of hunter-gatherers?

6. Can students explain the roles specialization and inventions played in the development of early human communities?

Unit 1: Hunters, Gatherers, Farmers (Beginnings) II7. Can students explain why and how

humans made the transition from hunting and gathering to farming (cultivation)?

8. Can students describe climatic changes and geographical features that influenced the development of early civilizations?

9. Can students explain why and how the domestication of plants and animals for farming took place?

Unit 2: River Valley Civilizations (4000-1000 B.C.)1. Can students identify land and climatic

conditions that were conducive to early human settlement?

2. Can students explain how different physical features affect human activities like cultivating, herding, defending land, etc.

3. Can students identify major river systems and describe the physical settings that supported permanent settlement along their banks?

4. Can students explain the growth of cities and the defining characteristics of a “civilization”?

5. Can students describe the cultures, governments, religions, architecture, technological innovations, and writings of the four major river valley civilizations?

6. Can students explain cultural diffusion and, in particular, how the four early river valley civilizations influenced cultures around them?

Unit 2: River Valley Civilizations (4000-1000 B.C.) Continued

Unit 3: People and Ideas on the Move (1000 B.C.-A.D. 300)1. Can students describe the defining

characteristics of the Hittite, Minoan, Mycenaean, and Phoenician civilizations?

2. Can students explain the reasons for different patterns of migration among early people?

3. Can students explain the different ages of technology an, in particular, the development of the plow and of iron tools and weapons?

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?

Unit 4: Great Empires (1000 B.C.-A.D. 300)1. Can students explain the economic

interdependence that existed among various ancient civilizations?

2. Can students explain how various ancient civilizations established and maintained political boundaries?

3. Can students identify the essential elements of Greek and Roman government that influenced the U.S. government?

4. Can students explain how the sharing of ideas, goods, and services through trade between the Greek and Roman civilizations influenced other cultures?

Unit 4: Great Empires (1000 B.C.-A.D. 300) Continued

Unit 4: Great Empires (1000 B.C.-A.D. 300) Continued5. Can students describe the key

characteristics of four classical civilizations-Persia, Greece, Rome, and China?

6. Can students make valid arguments for why civilizations and empires rise and decline?

Unit 5: Spread of Culture and Religion (A.D. 300-1000)1. Can students identify the major new

religions during this period and how they relate to the different empires?

2. Can students explain the different ways that religions spread, including through trade, empire, Diasporas, colonization, and proselytizing?

3. Can students explain the differences in beliefs, leaders, and locations of the different major religions and how they spread?

4. Can students explain the effect of major religions on European, Asian, and African civilizations?

Unit 5: Spread of Culture and Religion (A.D. 300-1000) Cont.

Unit 6: Rise and Fall of Empires and Kingdoms (A.D. 300-1000)1. Can students identify the functions and

characteristics of different mediums of exchange, including money?

2. Can students describe why empires rise and fall apart, especially the Roman Empire?

3. Can students explain the economics of European feudalism and of other empires of this era?

4. 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?

5. Can students describe major events, key figures, and social structures of the Middle Ages?

Unit 6: Rise and Fall of Empires and Kingdoms (A.D. 300-1000) Cont.

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?

Unit 7: The Rise of New Empires and Expansion of Communication and Trade (A.D. 1000-1500)

1. Can students describe the African trading empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai and how they facilitated the spread of Islamic culture?

2. Can students explain factors that facilitated cultural diffusion like the Crusades and the Silk Road?

3. Can students explain how Europe responded to the fall of the Roman Empire?

4. Can students explain how Mongol conquests and rule affected Asia?

5. Can students describe the Aztec and Inca Empires in the Americas?

6. Can students explain the effects of exploration and trade on the economic and cultural development of Europe, Africa, and Asia prior to 1500?

Unit 7: The Rise of New Empires and Expansion of Communication and Trade (A.D. 1000-1500) Continued

Unit 8: The Renaissance, the Reformation, and Global Exploration (A.D. 1300-1600)

1. Can students define the word Renaissance and describe the major contributing factors that led to the Renaissance?

2. Can students describe the achievements of some of the major figures of the Renaissance?

3. Can students explain the causes and effects of the Reformation?

4. Can students explain some of the major technological inventions that powered the Renaissance, Reformation, and global exploration?

5. Can students explain the major social, economic, political, and cultural underpinnings for global exploration and colonization?

Unit 8: The Renaissance, the Reformation, and Global Exploration (A.D. 1300-1600) Continued

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