Colorado Academic Standards Online
Use the options below to create customized views of the Colorado Academic Standards. For all standards resources, see the Office of Standards and Instructional Support.
Current selections are shown below (maximum of five)
clear Content Area: Social Studies - 2022 // Grade Level: Sixth Grade // Standard Category: 1. History
Social Studies - 2022
Sixth Grade, Standard 1. History
keyboard_arrow_down keyboard_arrow_up
Prepared Graduates:
- 1. Apply the process of inquiry to examine and analyze how historical knowledge is viewed, constructed, and interpreted.
Grade Level Expectation:
1. Analyze and interpret primary and secondary sources to ask and research historical questions about the Western Hemisphere (including North America, South America, Central America, and the islands of the Caribbean).
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Identify ways different cultures record history in the Western Hemisphere through written and oral sources.
- Analyze multiple primary and secondary sources while formulating historical questions about the Western Hemisphere. For example: Oral histories, art, artifacts, eyewitness accounts, letters, and diaries, real or simulated historical sites, charts, graphs, diagrams, and written texts.
- Gather, organize, synthesize, and critique information, from multiple and diverse perspectives, to determine if it is sufficient to answer historical questions about the Western Hemisphere. For example: Indigenous People, Latinos, African Americans, Asian Americans, Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, LGBTQ, and religious minorities and differing opinions within such groups.
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Make connections between information gathered and personal experiences to research historical questions (Critical Thinking and Analysis).
- Engage in novel approaches, moves, directions, ideas, and/or perspectives while using inquiry and primary sources (Creativity and Innovation).
- Respect different perspectives expressed by others (Adaptability and Flexibility).
- Utilize primary and secondary sources to examine how individuals interpret messages differently, how values and points of view are included or excluded, and how media can influence beliefs and behaviors (Media Literacy).
Inquiry Questions:
- What questions help us understand the development of the Western Hemisphere and the interactions of people in the region?
- What questions help us understand the interactions of people in the Western Hemisphere and how those interactions changed over significant periods of time?
- Why do sources on the same topic vary, and how do we determine which ones will help us effectively interpret the past?
- What key primary sources help us to understand the Western Hemisphere?
- How is the bias of the author of a source reflected in the source itself?
- How have interactions of the past impacted modern times?
- Why should we include multiple and diverse perspectives in our understanding of history in the Western Hemisphere?
Nature and Skills of History:
- Historical thinkers evaluate historical sources including but not limited to visual, oral, and written, for purpose, audience, point of view, context, reliability, and authenticity.
- Historical thinkers use primary and secondary sources to develop and evaluate hypotheses and interpretations of historical events and figures that are supported by evidence.
- Historical thinkers identify points of view, seek multiple sources, and develop and defend a thesis with evidence.
- Historical thinkers use technology to explore and evaluate for accuracy of information.
- Historical thinkers use context and content from the past to make connections to the present.
Disciplinary, Information, and Media Literacy:
- Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources
- Conduct research by locating, gathering, organizing information and data, and evaluating online and print resources.
- Evaluate information critically and competently.
keyboard_arrow_down keyboard_arrow_up
Prepared Graduates:
- 2. Analyze historical time periods and patterns of continuity and change, through multiple perspectives, within and among cultures and societies.
Grade Level Expectation:
2. Investigate the historical eras, individuals, groups, ideas, and themes within regions of the Western Hemisphere and their relationships with one another.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Explain how people, cultures, and ideas interact and are interconnected in the Western Hemisphere and how they have impacted modern times. For example: The “Great Dying” of Indigenous Peoples in the Americas and its consequences; rapid deforestation of the Amazon; anti-colonial and nationalist movements, the Columbian Exchange, and revolutions in energy.
- Determine and explain the historical context of key people, events, cause and effect relationships, and ideas over time including the examination of different perspectives from people involved. For example: The complex interactions between majority and minority groups and individuals involved in European colonization in the Western hemisphere.
- Identify examples of the social, political, cultural, and economic development in the Western Hemisphere. For example: The extension of networks of communication, colonial empires, patterns of migration over time, and international trade.
- Explain the interdependence and uniqueness among Indigenous Peoples in the Western Hemisphere including the existing conflict and power dynamics between Indigenous Peoples and those in power.
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Make connections between information gathered and personal experiences to create, research, and revise historical questions (Creativity and Innovation, Critical Thinking and Analysis).
- Engage in novel approaches, moves, directions, ideas, and/or perspectives while using inquiry and primary sources (Creativity and Innovation).
- Plan and evaluate complex solutions to global challenges within the Western Hemisphere using multiple disciplinary lenses such as ethnic, historical, and scientific (Critical Thinking and Analysis).
- Examine different historical perspectives expressed in primary and secondary sources (Critical Thinking and Analysis).
- Look for and find value in different perspectives expressed by others (Adaptability and Flexibility).
Inquiry Questions:
- How and why have civilizations experienced continuity and change over time?
- How do philosophies and ideas from ancient civilizations and Indigenous Peoples continue to inform and affect the present?
- To what extent does isolation or interaction influence patterns of continuity and change?
- What factors influenced the development of civilizations and nations in the Western Hemisphere?
- How have technological developments continued to evolve and affect the present?
Nature and Skills of History:
- Historical thinkers analyze patterns and themes across time to understand current events.
- Historical thinkers study the people, places, ideas, and events in the Western Hemisphere to construct the story of history from diverse and multiple perspectives including those underrepresented or absent from traditional narratives by using primary and secondary sources.
- Historical thinkers use chronology to organize time.
- Historical thinkers examine and evaluate data for context, purpose, perspective, bias, and corroboration.
Disciplinary, Information, and Media Literacy:
- Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and explain how it is conveyed in the text.
- Identify propaganda, censorship, and bias in the media.
- Demonstrate positive social and ethical behaviors when using technology and discuss consequences of inappropriate use.
- Cite textual evidence from content-specific texts to demonstrate understanding and support an analysis of the text, conduct an experiment, or perform a task.
Need Help? Submit questions or requests for assistance to bruno_j@cde.state.co.us