Baltimore City Public Schools

Grade 6

Social Studies Curriculum

City Schools Social Studies Curriculum

Contents

Overview

Expectations and Policies for SY2017-18

Course Title Changes

Policies for SY2017-2018

User’s Guide

Curricular Materials

Scope and Sequence

Assessments

6th Grade First Semester Assessment

6th Grade Second Semester Assessment

Curriculum Framework

Unit Plans

Unit 1 – Baltimore and Geography

Unit 2 – Geography of the World

Unit 3 – Southwest Asia and North Africa – Early Humans

Unit 4 – Southwest Asia and North Africa – Early Civilizations

Unit 5 – Southwest Asia and North Africa – Modern Life

Unit 6 – Sub-Saharan Africa – Ancient African Civilizations

Unit 7 – Sub-Saharan Africa – The Slave Trade and Imperialism

Unit 8 – Sub-Saharan Africa – Modern Africa

Unit 9 – Asia – East Asia

Unit 10 – Asia – South Asia

Overview

Welcome to the 2017-2018 school year. As a result of feedback from Baltimore City Social Studies teachers and school principals, along with consultation with other local school districts, we have decided to make some changes to the 6th and 7th grade Social Studies curricula. For SY2017-2018, the 6th grade curriculum has changed. Its changes are detailed in the following document. In SY2018-2019, the 7th grade curriculum will change. It will contain the same overarching principles as the 6th grade curriculum, but with coverage of different geographic locations.

There are several reasons why we have decided to make these changes:

  1. Historical and Geographical Connectedness: Much of the feedback we received from teachers detailed students’ struggles to understand the historical and geographical connection between studying Ancient World Civilizations in 6th grade and World Geography in 7th grade. By rearranging the curriculum to be geographically focused, rather than chronologically focused, we are able to allow students to continue making historical and geographic connections throughout the unit.
  2. Social Studies Skills Focus:In looking at the practices of many excellent teachers within the district, and examining other local districts’ curricula, we also made the decision to refocus our curriculum on skills, particularly the skills needed for social studies. We wanted to work on teaching, spiraling, and assessing social studies skills like sourcing, contextualizing, corroborating, and closely reading sources.
  3. Literacy Tie-Ins: Sometimes, as content teachers, we get minutely focused on the content standards. We wanted this reexamining of the curriculum to think more about how we can build better literacy skill tie-ins, while not compromising on our content.
  4. Linking Units and Years: Our last big change is for our 6th and 7th grade Social Studies curricula is to more explicitly incorporate connections between Social Studies units and years of study, helping students understand why the Social Studies matter and how the content can connect to their own lives.

We recognize, in this first year of major curriculum changes, that you may have feedback. We would love to hear from you about any feedback you might be able to provide, including but not limited to whether we have accomplished the goals bolded above and how the curriculum is working in your classroom.

All feedback can be directed to .

Expectations and Policies for SY2017-18

Course Title Changes

SY2017-2018
6th Grade Social Studies
Course Title: “Geography and World Cultures I”
(In SY2017-18) 7th grade remains the same as in previous years)
SY2018-2019
7thGrade Social Studies
Course Title: “Geography and World Cultures II”
(In SY2018-19 -6th grade continues as “Geography and World Cultures I”)

In SY2017-2018, the 6th grade curriculum will change to be “Geography and World Cultures I.” If you’re familiar with the 6th and 7th grade curricula we used in the past, it will be a combination of those two sets of standards, grouped geographically from ancient history to contemporary times. For example, in 6th grade, we’ll now see coverage for Mesopotamia and modern Southwest Asia, whereas before those two units would be split into 6th and 7th respectively. One of the things this does is provide students with an uninterrupted look at one region at a time – from ancient history to today.

Policies for SY2017-2018

The only required change for SY2017-2018 is that teachers follow the Scope and Sequence and make full use of the standards linked in the Scope and Sequence document. The Scope and Sequence document is available at the beginning of the Curricular Materials section of this guide. All remaining materials in this curriculum are optional. For more information about using this curriculum guide, see the User’s Guide section that follows.

User’s Guide

This curriculum includes a variety of resources that we hope will be helpful to you and your students. As noted earlier, the only requirement is that you teach according to the Scope and Sequence, which is one of the documents that follows.

The next available resources are two assessments – one mid-year and one end of year. The assessments align to the Scope and Sequence in that the mid-year covers topics related to the geography highlighted in the Scope and Sequence for the first half of the year. The assessments draw from Stanford’s Historical Assessment of Thinking model and focus on assessing the skills of sourcing, contextualization, corroboration, and close reading. We hope that you will consider using the assessments. As we move toward the likelihood of a statewide middle school Social Studies assessment, we hope to use these assessments as a foundation for preparing our students. While we don’t expect these assessments to be perfect, by using them in your instruction, we can collect valuable feedback and student work to help us reflect and adjust moving forward.

Following the assessments is a more fully laid-out year-long plan that we’ve called the Framework, which includes a Social Studies focused Literacy Framework, a breakdown of instruction for each geographical area, and a set of resources that might be used for each geographical area.

Next, you’ll find unit plans, which have been created based on the Framework. Each unit plan provides the standards addressed in the plan, essential questions and understandings, transfer skills, methods of assessment, and a day-by-day potential lesson breakdown.

Finally, we have lesson plans to correspond to the first three unit plans. The lesson plans are packaged and most are ready to be immediately implemented in your classroom.

In SY2017-18, we do not plan to provide any major additional resources with this curriculum. While we want to provide guidance and modeling of good instruction, we do not want to force a pre-planned curriculum on teachers when such a vital part of teaching is the individualized creation of lesson plans suited specifically to a class’s and teacher’s needs.

We recognize, in this first year of major curriculum changes, that you may have feedback. We would love to hear from you about any feedback you might be able to provide, including but not limited to whether we have accomplished the goals bolded above and how the curriculum is working in your classroom.

All feedback can be directed .

Curricular Materials

Scope and Sequence

Important Note for Teachers: The updated scope and sequence is a required change for all 6th grade teachers this year. The scope and sequence explains which regions you must cover and gives you an idea of a mid-year check-in point.

6th Grade
Geography and World Cultures
(implemented SY17-18) / 1st Semester:
  • Introduction to Geography
  • North Africa and Southwest Asia
2nd Semester:
  • Sub-Saharan Africa
  • Asia

7th Grade
Geography and World Cultures II
(implemented SY18-19) / 1st Semester:
  • Financial Literacy
  • Europe
2nd Semester:
  • South America
  • North America

Links to Standards:

  • Maryland State Curriculum Social Studies Standards Part I
  • Maryland State Curriculum Social Studies Standards Part II
  • Common Core Standards - Reading History/SS
  • Common Core Standards - Writing History/SS
  • Stanford History Education Group (SHEG) - Historical Thinking Chart

Assessments

6th Grade First Semester Assessment

Historical Assessment of Thinking #1 - The Global Grid

Directions

Examine the background information and source to answer the question below.

Background information

The global grid system uses both the parallels of latitude and the meridian of longitude. When giving a location in latitude and longitude, latitude is always first. As an example, the location for New Orleans is 30 N, 90 W. This is read as 30 degrees north latitude, and 90 degrees west longitude.
Source

“The Global Grid”

Source

Question

Question 1: What is the purpose of a global grid system? Use information from the source, along with relevant background knowledge to support your answer.

Question 2: “The global grid system is necessary in the contemporary world.” Do you agree or disagree with this statement. Why? Use information from the source, along with relevant background knowledge to support your answer.

Rubric

To answer this assessment, students must consider the origin of the global grid system and how it can be used. Students then must apply this knowledge to consider whether the system is still relevant today.

LEVEL / DESCRIPTION
Proficient / Question 1
Student identifies a valid purpose for the global grid system. Answer provides detailed evidence, drawing from the source and background knowledge.
Question 2
Student draws a logical conclusion in response to the claim, using evidence from the source and background knowledge.
Emergent / Question 1
Student identifies a valid purpose for the global grid system. Answer provides some evidence, drawing from the source and background knowledge.
Question 2
Student draws a logical conclusion in response to the claim, but lacks in part relevant evidence from the source and background knowledge.
Basic / Question 1
Student does not identify a valid purpose for the global grid system.Or, answer does not provide evidence.
Question 2
Student does not draw a logical conclusion in response to the claim, or lacks relevant evidence from the source and background knowledge.

About the Assessment

To answer this assessment, students must source the document in order to consider its purposes for creation. They must also contextualize in order to examine whether the source is valid in a modern context.

Source and background information drawn from:

Source:

Background information:

Historical Assessment of Thinking #2 - Hammurabi’s Code

Directions

Examine the background information and source to answer the question below.

Background information

For 42 years, Hammurabi ruled nearly 1 million people in Mesopotamia, many of whom were farmers. In his 38th year of rule, he had 282 rules carved into pillars and placed around the kingdom. The document below is an excerpt that was inscribed after his rules.
Source
Question

Question 1: Why did Hammurabi include this epilogue after his 282 rules? Use evidence from the source, plus relevant background knowledge to support your answer.

Rubric

To answer this assessment, students must consider the document and the background information, along with additional prior knowledge they have learned about Mesopotamia and Hammurabi’s Code. They will also need to consider some of the purposes for which people write. In Question 1, students need to infer at least one reason for Hammurabi’s writing of the excerpt that follows his Code.

LEVEL / DESCRIPTION
Proficient / Question 1
Student infers a reason for Hammurabi’s writing of the Code (e.g., Hammurabi wants to ensure that the Code is followed after he no longer rules) and explains the reason using pertinent information from the source and relevant background knowledge.
Emergent / Question 1
Student infers a reason for Hammurabi’s writing of the Code (e.g., Hammurabi wants to ensure that the Code is followed after he no longer rules) but does not fully explain the reason using pertinent information from the source or provide relevant background knowledge.
Basic / Question 1
Student does not infer a logical reason for Hammurabi’s writing of the Code.

About the Assessment

This question asks students to engage in sourcing and contextualization. Students must consider the source, its purpose, and the circumstances of its creation.

Adapted from:

Historical Assessment of Thinking #3 - World Religions

Directions

Examine the source and the additional facts to answer the question below.
Source

World Religions Map from PBS Learning Media

The data presented in this map was drawn from the results of a 2010 Pew Research Center demographic study of more than 230 countries and territories. The study relied on more than 2,500 censuses, surveys, and population registers.

Additional facts related to the source:

  1. Non-religious people refer to people who are unaffiliated with a religion.
  2. In 2010, 78.3% of Americans were Christian, 16.4% of Americans were non-religious, and the remaining 5.3% identified as another religion.
  3. There are 2.2 billion Christians worldwide, representing 31.5% of the world’s population, followed by 1.6 billion Muslims worldwide, representing 23.3% of the world’s population.
  4. An estimated 5.8 billion adults and children around the globe are affiliated with a religious group.

Question

Question 1: Which 2 of the 4 facts above may cause you to question the way that data is represented in the map above? Use information from the source, along with relevant background knowledge to support your answer.

Rubric

To answer this question correctly, students must select Fact 2 and Fact 3 and explain how each might lead them to question the the way that data is represented in the map above. Fact 2 reveals that the map only displays the majority religion of a country, which limits the reader’s understanding of true religious representation in a region. Fact 3 reveals the totals for the world’s largest religions, Christianity and Islam, showing that Islam is a widely practiced religion despite the limited coloring on the map.

LEVEL / DESCRIPTION
Proficient / Question 1
Student selects the correct facts and explains how they cast doubt on the way that data is represented in the document.
Emergent / Question 1
Student selects the correct facts but does not provide an adequate or complete explanation of how the facts cast doubt on the way that data is represented in the document.
Basic / Question 1
Student does not select a correct fact or selects a correct fact but does not provide a relevant explanation.

About the Assessment

This question asks students to engage in sourcing and contextualization. Students are provided with some facts to assist in contextualization, but must use critical thinking and reading skills to identify how those facts relate to the source.

Source from:

Historical Assessment of Thinking #4 - Ancient Egypt Wall Painting

Directions

Examine the background information and source to answer the question below.
Background Information

This facsimile (copied) painting copies an entire wall in the tomb of Nakht at Thebes. The wall has been split into two registers with Nakht and his wife, Tawy, seated at the left in both. At the right side of the upper register, Nakht and his family are shown twice: hunting birds (at the left) and fishing (at the right). The upper half of the bottom register shows the process of making wine and the lower half shows birds being caught in a clap-net and then prepared for storage in jars. Nakht was an astronomer, scribe, and priest during the Eighteenth Dynasty in Ancient Egypt.
The facsimile was painted at the tomb, probably around 1909-1910, by Norman deGaris Davies, director of the Graphic Section of the Metropolitan (New York) Museum's Egyptian Expedition.

Source

Question

Question 1: Is this document reliable evidence of life in Ancient Egypt? Use information from the source, along with relevant background knowledge to support your answer.

Rubric

To answer this question correctly, students must consider both the source and the background information that has been provided. In analyzing both, students should recognize that there are at least two elements of the source that call into question its reliability. First, it does not represent a complete picture of life in Ancient Egypt because it depicts just one man and his wife, both of whom were in the upper class in Egypt. Second, the source is a facsimile that was recreated in the early 1900s by a man working for a museum in New York.

LEVEL / DESCRIPTION
Proficient / Question 1
Student questions the reliability of the document and uses detailed information from the source and background knowledge.
Emergent / Question 1
Student questions the reliability of the document but does not provide an adequate or complete explanation of how the facts cast doubt on the reliability of the source.
Basic / Question 1
Student does not question the reliability of the document, or does not provide any explanation using source information or background knowledge.

About the Assessment

This question asks students to source and contextualize with the help of the provided background information.

Source from:

6th Grade Second Semester Assessment

Historical Assessment of Thinking #1 - Zulu Chief

Directions

Examine the photograph, source information, and background information to answer the questions below.

Background information

Frank G. Carpenter was a photographer and a journalist from Mansfield, Ohio. Carpenter wrote travel books that were popular in the United States. This photograph was taken in Zululand in the British colony of Natal, an area that is now a province of South Africa.
Source
Title: Zulu Chief
Date of photograph: 1895
Photographer: Frank G. Carpenter