Grade 6 Social Studies Michigan standards Standards

Public Discourse, Decision Making, And Civic Participation (P3, P4)

Economics

Geography

Social Studies Process And Skills Standards: Grades 6-8

Reading And Communication-Read And Communicate Effectively

Use appropriate strategies to read and interpret basic social science tables, graphs, graphics, maps, and texts.

Interpret primary and secondary source documents for point of view, context, bias, and frame of reference or perspective.

Express social science ideas clearly in written, spoken, and graphic forms, including tables, line graphs, bar graphs, pie charts, maps, and images.

Present an argument supported with evidence.

Inquiry, Research, And Analysis

Use compelling and supporting questions to investigate social scientific problems.

Evaluate data presented in social science tables, graphs, graphics, maps, and texts.

Know how to find, organize, and interpret information from a variety of sources.

Use resources in multiple forms and from multiple perspectives to analyze issues.

Public Discourse And Decision Making

Clearly state an issue as a question of public policy, gather and interpret information about that issue, and generate and evaluate possible alternative resolutions.

Discuss public policy issues, clarifying position, considering opposing views, and applying Democratic Values or Constitutional Principles to develop and refine claims.

Construct arguments expressing and justifying decisions on public policy issues supported with evidence.

Explain the challenges people have faced and actions they have taken to address issues at different times and places.

Civic Participation

Act out of the rule of law and hold others to the same standard.

Assess options for individuals and groups to plan and conduct activities intended to advance views on matters of public policy.

Plan, conduct, and evaluate the effectiveness of activities intended to advance views on matters of public policy.

Compare and contrast different ideas about the purposes of government in different nations, nation-states or governments.

Define the characteristics of modern nation-states.

Compare and contrast various forms of government around the world.

Explain how governments address national and international issues and form policies, and how the policies may not be consistent with those of other nation-states.

Explain the challenges to governments to address global issues, and the international cooperation needed to do so.

Analyze the impact of treaties, agreements, and international organizations on global issues.

Explain how incentives and disincentives in the market economy can change the decision-making process.

Analyze the impact of sanctions, tariffs, treaties, quotas, and subsidies.

Explain and compare how economic systems (traditional, command, market) answer the three basic economic questions: What goods and services will be produced? How will they be produced? For whom will they be produced? Also, who will receive the benefits or bears the costs of production?

Compare and contrast the economic and ecological costs and benefits of different kinds of energy production.

Use charts and graphs to compare imports and exports of different countries in the world and propose generalizations about patterns of economic interdependence.

Diagram or map the flow of materials, labor, and capital used to produce a consumer product.

Explain how communication innovations have affected economic interactions and where and how people work.

Use a variety of geographic tools (maps, globes, and web-based geography technology) to analyze the world at global, regional, and local scales.

Draw a sketch map, or add information to an outline map, of the world or a world region.

Apply the skills of geographic inquiry (asking geographic questions, acquiring geographic information, organizing geographic information, analyzing geographic information, and answering geographic questions) to analyze a geographic problem or issue.

Explain why maps of the same place may vary, including the perspectives and purposes of the cartographers.

Use, interpret, and create maps and graphs representing population characteristics, natural features, and land use of the region under study.

Use images as the basis for answering geographic questions about the human and physical characteristics of places and major world regions.

Locate and use information from GIS and satellite remote sensing to answer geographic questions.

Create or interpret a map of the population distribution of a region and generalize about the factors influencing the distribution of the population.

Use the fundamental themes of geography (location, place, human-environment interaction, movement, region) to describe regions or places on earth.

Explain the different ways in which places are connected and how those connections demonstrate interdependence and accessibility.

Locate and describe the basic patterns of landforms.

Locate and describe the basic patterns and processes of plate tectonics.

Locate and describe the characteristics and patterns of major world climates and ecosystems.

Describe the human characteristics of the region under study, including languages, religions, economic system, governmental system, cultural traditions.

Explain how communities are affected positively or negatively by changes in technology.

Explain how culture and experience influence people's perceptions of places and regions.

Interpret population pyramids from different countries including birth rates, death rates, male-female differences, and the causes and consequences of the age structure of the population.

Generalize about how human and natural factors have influenced how people make a living and perform other activities in a place.

Interpret and compare climographs from different latitudes and locations.

Explain the factors that cause different climate types.

Locate major ecosystems and explain how and why they are similar or different as a consequence of latitude, elevation, land-forms, location, and human activity.

Define culture and describe examples of cultural change through diffusion, including what has diffused, why and where it has spread, and positive and negative consequences of the change.

Compare and contrast the gender roles assigned to men and women in different societies.

Describe cultures of the region being studied, including the major languages and religions.

Explain how culture influences the daily lives of people.

Identify and describe the advantages, disadvantages, and impacts of different technologies used to transport people and products, and spread ideas throughout the world.

Explain how people have modified the environment and used technology to make places more suitable for humans, as well as how modifications sometimes have negative/unintended consequences.

Describe patterns of settlement and explain why people settle where they do and how people make their livings.

Explain the patterns, causes, and consequences of major human migrations.

Identify factors that contribute to cooperation and conflict between and among cultural groups (control/use of natural resources, power, wealth, and cultural diversity).

Evaluate examples of cooperation and conflict within the region under study from different perspectives.

Describe examples of how humans have impacted and are continuing to impact the environment in different places as a consequence of population size, resource use, level of consumption, and technology.

Explain how different technologies can have positive and negative impacts on the environment.

Analyze ways in which human-induced changes in the physical environment in one place can cause changes in other places.

Define natural resources and explain how people in different places use, define, and acquire resources in different ways.

Analyze the effects that a change in the physical environment could have on human activities and the actions people would be required to make (or would choose to make) in response to the change.

Analyze how combinations of human decisions and natural forces can lead to (or help people avoid) a natural disaster.

Identify global issues.

Investigate a contemporary global issue by applying the skills of geographic inquiry.

Develop a plan for action:

share and discuss findings of research and issue analysis in group discussions and debates.

compose a persuasive essay justifying a position with a reasoned argument.

develop an action plan to address or inform others about the issue, at local to global scales.

Integrate Michigan process and skills standards into a grade-appropriate project. Clearly state a global issue as a question of public policy, trace the origins of the issue, analyze various perspectives, and generate and evaluate alternative resolutions. Identify public policy issues related to global topics and issues studied. For example:

use Michigan social studies process and skills methods to acquire content knowledge and appropriate data about the issue.

identify the causes and consequences and analyze the impact, both positive and negative.

share and discuss findings of research and issue analysis in group discussions and debates.

compose a persuasive essay justifying a position with a reasoned argument.

develop an action plan to address or inform others about the issue at a local, national, or global scale.

Demonstrate knowledge of how, when, and where individuals would plan and conduct activities intended to advance views in matters of public policy, report the results, and evaluate effectiveness.

Engage in activities intended to contribute to solving the local, national or global issues studied.

Participate in projects to help or inform others.

Analyze how people identify, organize, and accomplish the purposes of government.

Describe the characteristics of nation-states and how they may interact.

Explain the various ways that governments interact both positively and negatively.

Use maps and other geographic tools to acquire and process information from a spatial perspective.

Use skills of geographic inquiry and analysis to answer important questions about relationships between people, their cultures, and their environments, in their communities and within the larger world context. Students use information to make reasoned judgments based on the authenticity of the information, critically analyze the information, and present the results.

Describe the physical characteristics of places.

Describe the human characteristics of places.

Describe the physical processes that shape the patterns of the Earth's surface.

Describe the characteristics and spatial distribution of ecosystems on Earth's surface.

Describe the characteristics, distribution, and complexity of Earth's cultural mosaic.

Describe how technology creates patterns and networks that connect people, resources, products, and ideas.

Describe patterns, processes, and functions of human settlement.

Explain how forces of cooperation and conflict among people influence the division of the Earth's surface and its resources.

Describe how humans use and modify the environment.

Describe how physical and human systems shape patterns on the Earth's surface.

A global issue is one that has an impact affecting many regions of the world (Global Topic Investigation and Issue Analysis)

Identifying and analyzing issues, decision making, persuasive communication about a global issue, and civic participation

Act constructively to further the public good.

Describe how individuals, businesses, and government make economic decisions when confronting scarcity or surpluses in the market economy.

Describe how national governments make decisions that affect the national economy.

Describe how societies organize to allocate resources to produce and distribute goods and services.

Describe patterns and networks of economic interdependence, including trade.