History and Geography

Grade 6

Sixth grade acts as the bridge between the general historical themes of grades three through five and the content-specific sequence of World History that begins in grade seven. The study of geography in the sixth grade provides students with a set of tools to begin a study of their world. The first theme—maps, mapping skills, and country location—endures throughout the year. Through specific country and area case studies as well as discussion of current events, five other geographic themes are introduced: 1) physical and human characteristics of geography, 2) land forms and physical geography, 3) economic, social, and political processes, 4) human interaction with the environment, and 5) application of geography to an understanding of the past, present, and future.

Using the aforementioned themes, students are challenged to ask the following essential questions: "Where am I?" "Where are they?" “What are culture, place, and region?" ”Why are people different throughout the world?" "Why are politics and economics different throughout the world?" and "Why does geography matter to me?"

The final culminating project for sixth-grade geography is to master the countries and capitals of the world and to design and draw a map of the world from memory. The rationale for this curriculum is to give students a concrete and durable body of geographical content that supports their study of world history. Specific skills (all supported by appropriate technology) targeted in the course include:

Memorization and retention skills, visual and kinesthetic map learning skills
Organizational skills—keeping a good notebook
Managing time—how to plan for daily and long term assignments and how to schedule and study for independent map quizzes
Reading for meaning—appreciating facts, bias, and opinion; recognizing main ideas; skimming and scanning skills; graphs; reading charts; and maps. Reading and summarizing news articles is a weekly assignment.
Analyzing skills—using inductive and deductive thought, drawing conclusions and making generalizations from a set of facts, supporting theses and generalizations with appropriate facts
Presentation and project skills—public speaking, expressing an opinion, discussing in class
Writing skills—brainstorming, outlining, creating a thesis

This list reflects the reinforcement of some skills introduced in earlier grades, as well as the presentation of new skills to be reinforced in later grades.

Grades 7 & 8

World history provides the context of study for seventh and eighth graders. Students continue to develop their ability to analyze cause and effect as fundamental to understanding major historical events. The essential questions that are introduced through reading and research include: "How does cooperation support human survival?" and "Why is language critical to civilizations?" In their ongoing study of society’s cultures, students investigate social structures, how culture spreads from one group to another, how and why societies create rules, and why government is necessary.
Because of the richness of the ancient past, students explore the role of art in human expression and survival, as well as search for patterns that lead to war. To facilitate their understanding of cause and effect, students use fundamental cultural characteristics as the bases of their comparative analyses: government and laws, language/communication (including impact of use and development of writing), social customs/culture (religion, art, gender roles, education, social structure), economics (money/trade), and the influences of geography. The courses continue to build on the learning skills of previous years through ongoing instruction and practice in the following skills, all of which are supported by the laptop computer as a thinking/learning tool:

Note taking – from lecture, discussion, and reading
Research skills – library, primary/secondary sources, Internet, interviews
Developing and formatting a research paper – bibliography, endnotes
Project planning and presentations, including public speaking
Organizational skills and time management
Analytical skills – comparing/contrasting, drawing conclusions, constructing an argument/presenting an opinion
Written expression – creating a thesis, using supporting detail, quality of writing
Geography – reading maps

The seventh-grade content and chronology begins with prehistory and evolution and guides students into the study of the development and characteristics of civilizations. Students are introduced to Mesopotamia/Sumer and the Egyptians. The eighth grade explores the empires, dynasties and cultures of India, China, Greece and Rome.