6th GRADE SOCIAL STUDIES
UNIT 1: Water World
“When the well is dry, we learn the worth of water.”
Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanac
Unit Product: Report on contemporary issue surrounding water
16 WEEKS: September to December
Essential Questions:
How did access to bodies of water shape the course of human history?
Guiding Questions:
 What is Social Studies? Why is it important?

What makes us human? (the emergence of Homo sapiens)

How do we know what we know about early humans? (Paleolithic communities)

How did water and ice guide the course of early human history? (Paleolithic communities)

What is a community, and why does water make is stronger? (Neolithic communities)

How do jobs become specialized in farming communities? (Neolithic communities)

How can water make a civilization prosperous? (Mesopotamia, Egypt)

How can water be used for trade? (Phoenicians)

How can trade lead to cultural diffusion? (China)

How can water lead to conflict? (Greece)

How can water lead to conquest? (Rome)

What technological innovations are associated with water? (Egypt, Rome, Mesopotamia)

What is the religious significance of water? (Egypt, China, Greece)

What happens to current and ancient civilizations when the water supply is disrupted? (contemporary Earth)
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NYS Common Core Standards Assessed:
Key Ideas and Details
RH.6-8.1.
Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources.
RH.6-8.2.
Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the
source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.
RH.6-8.3.
Identify key steps in a text’s description of a process related to history/social studies (e.g., how a bill becomes law, how
interest rates are raised or lowered).
Craft and Structure
RH.6-8.4.
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary specific to domains
related to history/social studies.
RH.6-8.5.
Describe how a text presents information (e.g., sequentially, comparatively, causally).
RH.6-8.6.
Identify aspects of a text that reveal an author’s point of view or purpose (e.g., loaded language, inclusion or avoidance
of particular facts).
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
RH.6-8.7.
Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs, photographs, videos, or maps) with other information in print and
digital texts.
RH.6-8.8.
Distinguish among fact, opinion, and reasoned judgment in a text.
RH.6-8.9.
Analyze the relationship between a primary and secondary source on the same topic.
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
RH.6-8.10. By the end of grade 8, read and comprehend history/social studies texts in the grades 6–8 text complexity
band independently and proficiently.
ASSESSMENT EVIDENCE
Diagnostic Assessment
Students will complete a baseline skills assessment measuring Social Studies knowledge and skills such as: interpretation
of maps, graphs/charts, and timelines; domain-specific vocabulary; knowledge of historical events; and ability to
critically analyze and interpret primary source documents.
Formative Assessments:
Performance Task 1: Letter to Your Ancestors
You are an early human during the Neolithic period. Your task is to write a letter to your ancestors who lived during the
Paleolithic period. In your letter, describe three ways that life has improved since the time of your ancestors. Use
specific facts and details about Paleolithic and Neolithic life to compare and contrast. You may use the summary
handout as a reference, as well as your notes.
Be sure to:
 Write from the perspective of a Neolithic person
 Describe three ways the life has improved since Paleolithic times, comparing and contrasting the two eras
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

of human development using specific facts and details.
Use evidence from your resources, including notes, text, and handouts
Follow the conventions of standard English including capitalization, punctuation, and spelling
Performance Task 2: Job Specialization Catalogue
You are a career consultant in ancient Egypt. You help members of your community choose a job based on their skills
and interests. Your task is to create a fact and print-rich, illustrated job catalogue of at least six jobs that could be found
in ancient Egypt. Be sure to:
 Summarize six jobs that could be found in Ancient Egypt
 Integrate relevant facts about each job using complete sentences.
 Illustrate your jobs with research-based, era-appropriate illustrations such as tools, products, and
resources
 Describe the qualifications and responsibilities of each job using domain-specific vocabulary
 Follow the conventions of standard English including capitalization, punctuation, and spelling
Summative Assessments: Water Issues
Students will research one of three contemporary issues concerning water: drought in Southern Africa, hydrofracking in
the United States, or the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Students will write a report integrating information from a variety
of sources that answers the question: What is one problem concerning water that faces humans today? What are the
causes of this problem? What are some possible solutions to this problem?
Be sure to:
 Write a report on one problem concerning water that faces humans today.
 Describe the causes of this problem.
 Describe several possible solutions to this problem.
 Follow the conventions of standard English including capitalization, punctuation, and spelling
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TEACHING PLAN
Resources Needed:
Baseline social studies assessments and activities:
Map Scale Activity: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B9UdPWAE3ZaWNXVGSW9xZTZrYVk
Map Scale Activity 2: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B9UdPWAE3ZaWS2ozdmJObUUxTmc
Compass Skills Activity: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B9UdPWAE3ZaWZGhjcVZNajNLWUU
Map Key Activity: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B9UdPWAE3ZaWeTFJVmo1UDR4bEE
Paleolithic Humans:
Videos on Neanderthals and Homo sapiens
http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/hew06.sci.life.reg.earlyhumans/
http://www.teachersdomain.org/asset/clim10_vid_evoclimate/
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/humans/humankind/index.html
The Land Bridge
Video: http://www.teachersdomain.org/asset/ess05_vid_firstpeople/
Readings: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B9QcSNvi7up0N0tldXplbk5ReEE
Paleolithic Art:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/16_M5Oxl1W7yCamg2_-hYcQJ6O-nJ1XM6cemE5SXa-L8/edit
Neolithic Humans:
Agricultural Revolution Readings:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B9UdPWAE3ZaWNUN4Nlh4RW1tOTQ
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B9UdPWAE3ZaWZlBDSTJEbUViaHM
Otzi the Iceman:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B9QcSNvi7up0alZuaDhNNWZmZjA
Early Farming
Map: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B9QcSNvi7up0WENBSHNrams2MkE
Comic: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B9QcSNvi7up0Ql92eldxa3ZiamM
Mesopotamia:
Farming In Sumeria Activity: http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/geography/challenge/cha_set.html
Job Specialization: http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/MUS/ED/TRC/MESO/cities_a.pdf
Cuneiform: http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/MUS/ED/TRC/MESO/writing_a.pdf
Math and Measurement: http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/MUS/ED/TRC/MESO/math_a.pdf
Ziggurats: http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/ziggurats/home_set.html
Egypt:
Introductory Reading: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B9UdPWAE3ZaWVlpVQS0tZGM2dVU
Ancient Greece:
Peloponnesian War: http://kidspast.com/world-history/0070-peloponnesian-war.php
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Week
Guiding Questions
1 (2 days)
What is Social
Studies? Why is it
important?
WEEKLY CALENDAR
Topics/Lessons
Assessments
Students complete a
baseline skills assessment.
Key Vocabulary
Baseline skills assessment
administered
Students define and analyze
the five components of
social studies: culture,
history, economics,
government, and
geography.
Social studies,
culture, history,
economics,
government,
geography,
society
Standards
Assessed:
Week
RH.6-8.2., RH.6-8.4., RH.6-8.5., RH.6-8.7., RH.6-8.10.
Guiding Questions
Topics/Lessons
Assessments
Key Vocabulary
2
What makes us human?
Students compare
Neanderthals to Homo
sapiens.
Timeline
Homo sapien,
Neanderthal, culture,
history, economics,
government, geography,
timeline, BC, CE,
latitude, longitude
Students create a human
history timeline as a
classroom display and unit
anchor point.
Standards
Assessed:
Graphic organizer
comparing Neanderthals
and Homo sapiens
Materials: Homo sapiens
vs. Neanderthals video
RH.6-8.2., RH.6-8.4., RH.6-8.5., RH.6-8.7., RH.6-8.9., RH.6-8.10.
Week
Guiding Questions
Topics/Lessons
Assessments
Key Vocabulary
3 (3 days)
How do we know what
we know about early
humans?
Students will analyze
primary sources on
Paleolithic people and
hypothesize about the
lives of Paleolithic people
based on primary sources.
Graphic organizer:
students make
hypotheses based on
archeological evidence
such as cave paintings
and artifacts
Paleolithic (literally “old
stone”), archeology,
artifact, carbon dating,
fossil, hunter-gatherer,
nomadic
Standards
Assessed:
Week
4 (4 days)
Materials: cave paintings,
artifacts slideshow
RH.6-8.1., RH.6-8.2., RH.6-8.4., RH.6-8.5., RH.6-8.7., RH.6-8.10.
Guiding Questions
Topics/Lessons
Assessments
Key Vocabulary
How did water and ice
guide the course of
early human history?
Students investigate the
effect of the last Ice Age
on the environment,
human development and
migration.
Students create a land
bridge map.
Paleolithic, Ice Age,
migration, huntergatherer, nomadic
Students analyze an ice age
map.
5
Standards
Assessed:
RH.6-8.2., RH.6-8.4., RH.6-8.5., RH.6-8.7., RH.6-8.9., RH.6-8.10.
Week
Guiding
Questions
What is a
community, and
why does water
make it stronger?
5
Topics/Lessons
Assessments
Key Vocabulary
Students will connect the rise
of farming communities to
changes in the environment.
Graphic organizer
comparing Paleolithic and
Neolithic humans.
Students will compare farming
communities with huntergatherer communities.
RH.6-8.2., RH.6-8.4., RH.6-8.5., RH.6-8.7., RH.6-8.10.
Performance Task #1:
Letter to Your Ancestors
Civilization, natural
resource, Neolithic,
hunter-gatherer,
community,
domesticate, livestock,
cultivate
Week
Guiding
Questions
Topics/Lessons
Assessments
Key Vocabulary
6 (4 days)
How do jobs
become
specialized in
farming
communities?
Students will analyze the
relationship between food
surplus and job specialization.
Graphic organizer showing
job specialization in
Neolithic communities
job specialization
Standards
Assessed:
Standards
Assessed:
Week
7
Standards
Assessed:
Week
Students will explore the ways
in which communities divide
work.
Students will hypothesize
about how job specialization
could lead to more complex
and stable civilizations.
RH.6-8.2., RH.6-8.4., RH.6-8.5., RH.6-8.7., RH.6-8.9., RH.6-8.10.
Guiding Questions
Topics/Lessons
Assessments
Key Vocabulary
How can water make a
civilization prosperous?
Students will study how
the geography of
Mesopotamia, the “land
between rivers”, led to its
development.
Group presentations
Cuneiform, city-state,
monarchy, scribe,
irrigation, social class,
barter
Students will explore
primary sources on
Mesopotamian
civilization and present in
groups.
RH.6-8.2., RH.6-8.4., RH.6-8.5., RH.6-8.7., RH.6-8.10.
Guiding Questions
Topics/Lessons
Assessments
Key Vocabulary
6
8
Standards
Assessed:
How can water make a
civilization prosperous?
(CONT’D)
Students will study how
the Nile River led to
Egypt’s development.
Performance Task
#2: Job
Specialization
Catalogue
Papyrus, obelisk, mummy,
pharaoh, pyramid,
hieroglyphic,
Students will explore
primary source evidence
on Egyptian job
specialization and
complete Performance
Task #2.
RH.6-8.1., RH.6-8.2., RH.6-8.4., RH.6-8.5., RH.6-8.7., RH.6-8.10.
Week
Guiding Questions
Topics/Lessons
Assessments
Key Vocabulary
9
How can water be used
for trade?
Students will map the
trade routes of the
Phoenician civilization.
Trade route map
analysis
Trade route, cost/benefit
analysis
Students will critically
discuss contemporary
trade, analyzing the costs
and benefits of
contemporary trade
relationships.
Standards
Assessed:
RH.6-8.2., RH.6-8.4., RH.6-8.5., RH.6-8.7., RH.6-8.10.
Week
Guiding Questions
Topics/Lessons
Assessments
Key Vocabulary
10
How can trade lead to
cultural diffusion?
Students will explore
ancient China’s
relationship with its
neighbors, and study
examples of cultural
diffusion in East Asia.
Graphic organizer
showing examples of
cultural diffusion in
East Asia
Cultural diffusion
Standards
Assessed:
RH.6-8.2., RH.6-8.4., RH.6-8.5., RH.6-8.7., RH.6-8.10.
Week
Guiding Questions
Assessments
Key Vocabulary
Topics/Lessons
7
11
How can water lead to
conflict?
Students will answer,
“How did Greece become
the dominant power in
the Mediterranean Sea?”
Written response
Naval power
Students will answer,
“What was the
relationship between
Athens and Sparta like?
What led them to war?”
Standards
Assessed:
RH.6-8.2., RH.6-8.4., RH.6-8.5., RH.6-8.7., RH.6-8.9., RH.6-8.10.
Week
Guiding Questions
Topics/Lessons
Assessments
Key Vocabulary
12 (2 days)
How can water lead to
conquest?
Students will map the
growth of the Roman
Empire.
Written response
Empire, conquest
Standards
Assessed:
RH.6-8.2., RH.6-8.4., RH.6-8.5., RH.6-8.7., RH.6-8.10.
Week
Guiding Questions
Topics/Lessons
Assessments
Key Vocabulary
13
What technological
innovations are
associated with water?
(Egypt, Rome,
Mesopotamia)
Students will study water
technologies across
civilizations: Shaduf,
aquaduct, irrigation,
water wheel
Students will create
models of ancient
water technologies.
Technology, innovation
Standards
Assessed:
RH.6-8.2., RH.6-8.4., RH.6-8.5., RH.6-8.7., RH.6-8.10.
Week
Guiding Questions
Assessments
Key Vocabulary
Topics/Lessons
8
14
What is the religious
significance of water?
Students will make
connections between the
myths of ancient
civilizations, including
Egypt, Phoenicia, Greece,
and China.
Graphic organizer
Myth, ritual
Standards
Assessed:
RH.6-8.2., RH.6-8.4., RH.6-8.5., RH.6-8.7., RH.6-8.10.
Week
Guiding Questions
Topics/Lessons
Assessments
Key Vocabulary
15
What happens to
current and ancient
civilizations when the
water supply is
disrupted?
Students will explore how
the inhabitants of Tikal in
ancient Central America
attempted to manage
drought through social
planning, technology, and
ritual.
Summative
Assessment: Water
Issues
Drought, social planning,
contemporary
Key Vocabulary
Students will study
contemporary issues
surrounding water
supply.
Standards
Assessed:
RH.6-8.2., RH.6-8.4., RH.6-8.5., RH.6-8.7., RH.6-8.10.
Week
Guiding Questions
Topics/Lessons
Assessments
16
What happens to
current and ancient
civilizations when the
water supply is
disrupted?
Students will study
contemporary issues
surrounding water
supply.
Summative
Assessment: Water
Issues
Standards
Assessed:
RH.6-8.2., RH.6-8.4., RH.6-8.5., RH.6-8.7., RH.6-8.10.
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