Grade 6 Social Studies Tennessee standards Standards

Students will analyze the geographic, political, economic, and cultural structures of ancient Rome.

Students will analyze the geographic, political, economic, and cultural structures of ancient Greece.

Students will analyze the geographic, political, economic, and cultural structures of ancient China.

Students will analyze the geographic, political, economic, and cultural structures of ancient India.

Students will analyze the geographic, political, economic, and cultural structures of ancient Israel.

Students will analyze the geographic, political, economic, and cultural structures of ancient Egypt.

Students will analyze the geographic, political, economic, and cultural structures of the civilization of ancient Mesopotamia

Students will learn proper time designations and analyze the development and characteristics of civilizations, including the effects of the Agricultural Revolution.

Identify the meaning of time designations and abbreviations used by historians, including: BC / BCE • AD / CE • Circa (c. or ca), decades, centuries

Describe the characteristics of the nomadic hunter-gatherer societies, including their use of: • Basic hunting weapons • Fire • Shelter • Tools

Explain the impact of the Agricultural Revolution, including: • Barter economy • Food surpluses • Domestication of plants and animals • Labor specialization • Emergence of permanent • New sources of clothing and shelter

Identify and explain the importance of the following key characteristics of civilizations: • Culture • Stable food supply • Government • Technology • Religion • Writing • Social structure

Identify and locate geographical features of ancient Mesopotamia, including: • Black Sea • Persian Gulf • Euphrates River • Tigris River • Mediterranean Sea • Zagros Mountains

Explain how geographic and climatic features led to the region being known as the Fertile Crescent.

Explain how irrigation, silt, metallurgy, production of tools, use of animals, slave labor, and inventions such as the wheel, sail, and plow led to advancements in agriculture.

Analyze how advancements in agriculture in Sumer led to economic growth, expansion of trade and transportation, and the emergence of independent city-states.

Explain the basic concepts of monarchy and empire, and identify Mesopotamia as the regional location of the world’s first empire.

Explain the concept of polytheism and its presence in Mesopotamia, with respect to beliefs about the relationship of deities to the natural world and their importance in everyday life.

Identify important achievements of the Mesopotamian civilization, including cuneiform, clay tablets, and ziggurats, and identify the Epic of Gilgamesh as the oldest written epic.

Analyze the impact of the introduction of written law in the Code of Hammurabi, and explain its basic principles of justice.

Identify and locate geographical features of ancient Egypt, including: • Mediterranean Sea • Red Sea • Nile Delta • The regions of Upper and Lower Egypt • Nile River • The Sahara

Explain how agricultural practices impacted life and economic growth in ancient Egypt, including the use of irrigation and development of a calendar.

Explain the structure of ancient Egyptian society, including: • Relationships between groups of people • How social classes were organized by occupation • Positions of pharaohs as god/kings • Role of slaves

Explain the polytheistic religion of ancient Egypt, with respect to beliefs about the afterlife, the reasons for mummification, and the use of pyramids

Analyze the impact of key figures from ancient Egypt, including: • Growth under the leadership of Queen Hatshepsut and her economic policies • Ramses the Great’s military conquests leading to growth of the kingdom • Significance of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb on the understanding of ancient Egypt.

Analyze the achievements of ancient Egyptian civilization, including: hieroglyphics, papyrus, and the pyramids and Sphinx at Giza.

Examine the cultural diffusion of ancient Egypt with surrounding civilizations through trade and conflict, including its relationship with Nubia.

Identify and locate geographical features of ancient Israel, including: • Dead Sea • Mediterranean Sea • Jerusalem • Red Sea • Jordan River • Sinai Peninsula

Describe the development of the ancient Israelites, and explain the reasons for their movements from Mesopotamia to Canaan (later called Israel), from Canaan to Egypt, and from Egypt back to Canaan.

Describe the origins and central features of Judaism: • Key Person(s): Abraham, Moses • Sacred Texts: The Tanakh (i.e., Hebrew Bible) • Basic Beliefs: monotheism, Ten Commandments, emphasis on individual worth and personal responsibility

Identify the importance of Saul as the first king of Israel, David as the second king who founded Jerusalem as the capital, and Solomon as the third king who built the first temple.

Summarize the breakup of the Kingdom of Israel, Babylonian captivity, and the return of the Jews to their homeland under the Persian Empire.

Identify and locate geographical features of ancient India, including: • Ganges River • Indus River • Himalayan Mountains • Monsoon winds • Indian Ocean • Subcontinent of India

Explain the emergence of the Harappan civilization in the Indus River Valley as an early agricultural civilization, and describe its achievements, including: • Architecture built with bricks • Arranging roads into a series of grid-systems • Sanitation and sewer systems

Describe the social structure of the caste system, and explain its effect on everyday life in ancient India.

Describe the origins and central features of Hinduism: • Key Person(s): origins in Aryan traditions • Sacred Texts: The Vedas • Basic Beliefs: dharma, karma, reincarnation, and moksha

Describe the origins and central features of Buddhism: • Key Person(s): Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) • Sacred Texts: Tripitaka • Basic Beliefs: Four Noble Truths, Eightfold Path, Nirvana

Identify the long-lasting intellectual traditions that emerged during the late empire of ancient India, including: medical education, medical techniques, and mathematics (e.g., Hindu-Arabic numerals).

Identify and locate geographical features of ancient China, including: • Gobi Desert • Plateau of Tibet • Himalayan Mountains • Yangtze River • Pacific Ocean • Yellow River

Analyze the influence of geographic features on the origins of ancient Chinese civilization in the Yellow River Valley, and explain how China’s geography helped create a unique yet diverse cultural identity that was isolated from the rest of the world.

Describe how the size of ancient China made governing difficult and how the concepts of the mandate of heaven and Legalism emerged as solutions to this problem.

Identify the political and cultural problems prevalent in the time of Confucius and how the philosophy of Confucianism and The Analects emphasized the concepts of kinship, order, and hierarchy to address these problems.

Explain the significance of the unification of ancient China into the first Chinese empire by Qin Shi Huangdi, beginning the Qin Dynasty.

Explain how the implementation of the philosophy of Confucianism led to the political success and longevity of the Han Dynasty.

Explain the major accomplishments of the Han Dynasty, including: the magnetic compass, paper making, porcelain, silk, and woodblock printing.

Describe how the desire for Chinese goods influenced the creation of The Silk Road and initiated cultural diffusion throughout Eurasia, including the introduction of Buddhism into ancient China.

Identify and locate geographical features of ancient Greece, including: • Asia Minor • Mediterranean Sea • Athens • Peloponnesian peninsula • Macedonia • Sparta

Analyze how the geographical features of ancient Greece, including its mountainous terrain and access to the Mediterranean Sea, contributed to its organization into city-states, role in maritime trade, and colonies in the Mediterranean.

Examine the concept of the polis in Greek city-states, including the ideas of: citizenship, civic participation, and the rule of law.

Explain the basic concepts of direct democracy and oligarchy.

Explain the characteristics of the major Greek city-states of Athens and Sparta, including: • Advantages of each geographic location • Status of women • Approaches to education • Styles of government • Practice of slavery

Analyze the causes and consequences of the Persian Wars, including the role of Athens and its cooperation with Sparta to defend the Greek city-states.

Analyze the causes and consequences of the Peloponnesian Wars, including how the growing political conflict between Athens and Sparta led to war and left the city-states open to conquest by the Macedonians.

Explain the polytheistic religion of ancient Greece, with respect to beliefs about the humanlike qualities of the deities, their importance in everyday life, and the emergence of the Olympic Games to honor Zeus.

Explain the historical significance of ancient Greek literature, including how the Iliad and the Odyssey provide insight into the life of the ancient Greeks.

Examine the influence of ancient Greek philosophers (e.g., Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates) and their impact on education and society in Greece.

Describe the purposes of major Greek architecture, including the Parthenon and the Acropolis.

Explain the unification of the Greek city-states by Macedonia, and analyze the impact of Alexander the Great and the diffusion of Hellenistic culture.

Identify and locate the geographical features of ancient Rome, including: • Constantinople • Mediterranean Sea • Italian Alps • Rome • Italian Peninsula • Tiber River

Analyze how the geographical location of ancient Rome contributed to its political and economic growth in the Mediterranean region and beyond.

Describe the government of the Roman Republic, including: • Branches of government • Representative democracy • Checks and balances • The rule of law and the Twelve Tables • Civic participation

Describe the class system of ancient Rome, including the role of patricians, plebeians, and slaves in Roman society.

Describe the characteristics of Julius Caesar’s rule, including: • Leadership in the military • Popularity amongst plebeians • Role as dictator for life • Assassination

Analyze the influence of Augustus Caesar, including the establishment of the Roman Empire and its political, geographic, and economic expansion during the Pax Romana.

Analyze how innovations in engineering and architecture contributed to Roman expansion, including the role of: • Aqueducts • Domes • Arches • Roads • Bridges • Sanitation • The Colosseum

Explain the polytheistic religion of ancient Rome, with respect to beliefs about the humanlike qualities of the deities and their importance in everyday life.

Describe the origins and central features of Christianity: • Key Person(s) Jesus, Paul • Sacred Texts: The Bible • Basic Beliefs: monotheism, sin and forgiveness, eternal life, Jesus as the Messiah

Explain the expulsion of the Jews from their homeland by the Romans, which began the Jewish diaspora.

Explain the division of the Roman Empire into East and West, and identify the later establishment of Constantinople as the capital by Constantine.

Analyze the fall of the Western Roman Empire, including difficulty governing its large territory, political corruption, economic instability, and attacks by Germanic tribes, and identify the continuation of the Eastern Roman Empire as the Byzantine Empire.

Ancient Rome: c. 500 BC-500 AD: Students will analyze the geographic, political, economic, and cultural structures of ancient Rome.

Ancient Greece: c. 800-300 BC: Students will analyze the geographic, political, economic, and cultural structures of ancient Greece.

Ancient China: c. 2500 BC-200 AD: Students will analyze the geographic, political, economic, and cultural structures of ancient China.

Ancient India: c. 2500-400 BC: Students will analyze the geographic, political, economic, and cultural structures of ancient India.

Ancient Israel: c. 2000-500 BC: Students will analyze the geographic, political, economic, and cultural structures of ancient Israel.

Ancient Egypt: c. 3000-700 BC: Students will analyze the geographic, political, economic, and cultural structures of ancient Egypt.

Foundations of Human Civilization: c. 10,000-3500 BC: Students will learn time designations, and analyze the development and characteristics of civilizations, including the effects of the Neolithic Revolution.

Social Studies Practices

Interpret a timeline using time designations and abbreviations, including:

BC/BCE

AD/CE

Circa (i.e., c. or ca), decades, centuries

Describe the characteristics of Paleolithic societies, including:

Basic hunting weapons

Fire

Nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyles

Shelter

Tools

Explain the impact of the Neolithic Revolution, including:

Agriculture

Domestication of plants and animals

Emergence of permanent settlements

Food surpluses

Increased Barter economy

Labor specialization

New sources of clothing and shelter

Identify and explain the importance of the following key characteristics of civilizations:

Culture

Government

Religion

Social structure

Stable food supply

Technology

Writing

Identify and locate on a map geographical features of ancient Mesopotamia, including:

Euphrates River

Mediterranean Sea

Persian Gulf

Tigris River

Zagros Mountains

Analyze how geographic (e.g., rivers, mountains) and climatic features (e.g., heavy rains, flooding) led to the region being known as the Fertile Crescent.

Explain how irrigation, metallurgy, use of animals, and inventions such as the wheel, sail, and plow led to advancements in agriculture.

Analyze how advancements in agriculture led to economic growth, expansion of trade and transportation, and the emergence of independent city-states (e.g., Ur of the Chaldees).

Explain the basic concepts of monarchy and empire, and identify Mesopotamia as the world’s first empire.

Describe the social hierarchy of ancient Mesopotamian society.

Explain the concept of polytheism in Mesopotamia, with respect to beliefs about the relationship of deities to the natural world and their importance in everyday life.

Identify important achievements of the Mesopotamian civilization, including cuneiform, clay tablets, and ziggurats, and identify the Epic of Gilgamesh as the oldest written epic.

Analyze the impact of the Code of Hammurabi, including the introduction of written law and basic principles of justice.

Identify and locate on a map geographical and political features of ancient Egypt, including:

Mediterranean Sea

Nile Delta

Nile River

Nubia

Red Sea

The regions of Upper and Lower Egypt

The Sahara

Explain how agricultural practices impacted life in ancient Egypt, including the use of irrigation and development of a calendar.

Describe the social structure of ancient Egyptian society, including:

How social classes were organized by occupation

Role of enslaved people

Position of pharaoh as a god-king

Explain the concept of polytheistic religion in ancient Egypt, with respect to the beliefs about the afterlife and reasons for mummification.

Analyze the impact of key figures from ancient Egypt, including:

Growth under the leadership of Queen Hatshepsut and her economic policies

Significance of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb on the understanding of ancient Egypt

Ramses the Great’s military conquests leading to growth of the kingdom

Analyze the achievements of ancient Egypt, including hieroglyphics, papyrus, and structures at Giza (i.e., the pyramids and Sphinx).

Examine the relationship between ancient Egypt and Nubia, including cultural diffusion through trade and conflict.

Identify and locate on a map geographical and political features of ancient Israel, including:

Dead Sea

Jerusalem

Jordan River

Mediterranean Sea

Red Sea

Sinai Peninsula

Analyze the development of the ancient Israelites, and explain the reasons for their movements from Mesopotamia (i.e., Ur of the Chaldees) to Canaan (later called Israel), from Canaan to Egypt, and from Egypt back to Canaan.

Describe the origins and central features of Judaism:

Key Person(s): Abraham, Moses

Sacred Texts: The Tanakh (i.e., Hebrew Bible, including the Torah)

Basic Beliefs: monotheism, Ten Commandments, emphasis on individual worth and personal responsibility

Identify the importance of Saul as the first king of Israel, David as the second king who founded Jerusalem as the capital, and Solomon as the third king who built the first temple.

Explain the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities and exiles after the breakup of the Kingdom of Israel, and the return of the Jews to their homeland under the Persian Empire.

Identify and locate on a map geographical and climatic features of ancient India, including:

Ganges River

Himalayan Mountains

Indian Ocean

Indus River

Monsoon winds

Subcontinent of India

Analyze the Indus River Valley civilizations of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro as early agricultural civilizations, and describe their achievements, including:

Architecture built with bricks

Well planned grid system of roads

Sanitation and sewer systems

Describe the effects of the Aryan migration into India, including changes to religion, social structure, and language.

Describe the social structure of the caste system, and explain its effect on everyday life in ancient India.

Describe the origins and central features of Hinduism:

Key Person(s): origins in Aryan traditions

Sacred Texts: The Vedas

Basic Beliefs: dharma, karma, reincarnation, and moksha

Describe the origins and central features of Buddhism:

Key Person(s): Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha)

Sacred Texts: Tripitaka

Basic Beliefs: Four Noble Truths, Eightfold Path, Nirvana

Analyze the achievements of ancient India, including medical education, medical techniques, yoga as a Hindu practice, and mathematics (e.g., Hindu-Arabic numerals).

Identify and locate on a map geographical features of ancient China, including:

Gobi Desert

Himalayan Mountains

Pacific Ocean

Plateau of Tibet

Yangtze River

Yellow River

Explain the origin of ancient China's civilizations in the Yellow River Valley (e.g., Xia and Shang Dynasty).

Analyze how China's geography made governing difficult and influenced isolation from the rest of the world.

Describe the concepts of the Mandate of Heaven, it's origin in the Zhou Dynasty, and how Legalism emerged as a solution to cultural, geographic, and political challenges.

Explain the significance of the unification of ancient China into the first Chinese empire by Qin Shi Huangdi, beginning the Qin Dynasty, including building projects (e.g., the Great Wall, roads and canals), and a standardized writing system.

Identify the political and cultural problems prevalent in the time of Confucius, and how the philosophy of Confucianism and The Analects emphasized the concepts of kinship, order, and hierarchy to address these problems.

Explain how the Han Dynasty's political success was influenced by Confucianism, and describe major accomplishments such as the magnetic compass, paper making, porcelain, silk, seismograph and woodblock printing.

Explain how the development of the Silk Road led to cultural diffusion between China and Eurasia, including traded goods and the spread of Buddhism into ancient China.

Identify and locate on a map geographical and political features of ancient Greece, including:

Aegean Sea

Asia Minor

Athens

Macedonia

Mediterranean Sea

Peloponnesian peninsula

Sparta

Analyze how the geographic features of ancient Greece, including its mountainous terrain and access to the Mediterranean Sea, contributed to its organization into city-states, role in maritime trade, and colonies in the Mediterranean.

Examine the concept of the polis in Greek city-states, including the ideas of citizenship, civic participation, and the rule of law.

Contrast the characteristics of the major Greek city-states of Athens and Sparta, including:

Approaches to education

Geographic locations

Role of enslaved persons

Status of women

Styles of government (i.e., direct democracy and oligarchy)

Analyze the causes and consequences of the Persian Wars, including the role of Athens and its cooperation with Sparta to defend the Greek city-states.

Analyze the causes and consequences of the Peloponnesian Wars, including how the growing political conflict between Athens and Sparta led to war and weakened the city-states.

Explain the polytheistic religion of ancient Greece, with respect to beliefs about the humanlike qualities of the deities, their importance in everyday life, and the emergence of the Olympic Games to honor Zeus.

Examine the influence of major ancient Greek philosophers (i.e., Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle) and their impact on education and society in ancient Greece.

Describe the purposes of major Greek architecture (e.g., columns), including the Parthenon and the Acropolis.

Explain the unification of the Greek city-states by Macedonia, and analyze the impact of Alexander the Great and the diffusion of Hellenistic culture.

Identify and locate on a map the geographical and political features of ancient Rome, including:

Constantinople

Italian Alps

Italian Peninsula

Mediterranean Sea

Rome

Tiber River

Analyze how the geographical location of ancient Rome contributed to its political and economic growth in the Mediterranean region and beyond.

Describe the class system of ancient Rome, including the role of patricians, plebeians, and enslaved people in Roman society.

Describe the government of the Roman Republic, including:

Branches of government

Checks and balances

Civic participation

Representative democracy

The rule of law and the Twelve Tables

Describe the characteristics of Julius Caesar’s rule, including:

Leadership in the military

Popularity amongst plebeians

Role as dictator for life

Assassination

Analyze the influence of Augustus Caesar, including the establishment of the Roman Empire and its political, geographic, and economic expansion during the Pax Romana.

Determine how the engineering and architectural achievements of Ancient Rome influenced daily life, including the role of:

Aqueducts

Arches

Bridges

Domes

Roads

Sanitation

The Colosseum

Explain the polytheistic religion of ancient Rome, with respect to beliefs about the humanlike qualities of the deities and their importance in everyday life.

Describe the origins and central features of Christianity:

Key Person(s) Jesus, Paul

Sacred Texts: The Bible

Basic Beliefs: monotheism, sin and forgiveness, eternal life, Jesus as the Messiah

Explain the reasons for the expulsion of the Jews from their homeland by the Romans (i.e., the Jewish diaspora).

Explain the division of the Roman Empire into East and West, and identify why Constantinople was established as the capital by Constantine.

Analyze the fall of the Western Roman Empire, including difficulty governing its large territory, political corruption, economic instability, and attacks by Germanic tribes, and identify the continuation of the Eastern Roman Empire as the Byzantine Empire.

Collect data and information from a variety of primary and secondary sources, including:

Printed materials

Graphic representations

Artifacts

Media and technology sources

Oral History

Critically examine a primary or secondary source in order to:

Extract, summarize, and paraphrase significant ideas and relevant information

Distinguish the difference between fact and opinion

Recognize author’s purpose and point of view, and potential bias

Draw logical inferences and conclusions

Assess the strengths and limitations of arguments

Synthesize data from multiple sources in order to:

Recognize differences among multiple accounts

Establish validity by comparing and contrasting multiple sources

Frame appropriate questions for further investigation

Construct and communicate arguments by citing supporting evidence to:

Demonstrate and defend an understanding of ideas

Compare and contrast viewpoints

Illustrate cause and effect

Predict likely outcomes

Devise new outcomes or solutions

Engage in appropriate civic discourse

Develop historical awareness by:

Recognizing how and why historical accounts change over time

Perceiving and presenting past events and issues as they might have been experienced by the people of the time, with historical empathy vs. present mindedness

Evaluating how unique circumstances of time and place create context and contribute to action and reaction

Identifying patters of continuity and change over time, making connections to the present

Develop geographic awareness by:

Using the geographic perspective to determine relationships, patterns, and diffusion across space at multiple scales

Determining the use of diverse types of maps based on their origin, structure, context, and validity

Analyzing locations, conditions, and connections of places and use maps to investigate spatial relationships

Analyzing interaction between humans and the physical environment

Examining how geographic regions and perceptions of the regions are fluid across time and space