Minnesota

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Skills available for Minnesota sixth-grade social studies standards

Standards are in black and IXL social studies skills are in dark green. Hold your mouse over the name of a skill to view a sample question. Click on the name of a skill to practice that skill.

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Minnesota Academic Standards (adopted in 2021): Grade 6 Minnesota Academic Standards (adopted in 2021): Grade 6
Minnesota Academic Standards Minnesota Academic Standards
Minnesota Academic Standards (Common Core): Grades 6-8 Literacy in History/Social Studies Minnesota Academic Standards (Common Core): Grades 6-8 Literacy in History/Social Studies

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1 Citizenship and Government

Civic Skills
- 1 Apply civic reasoning and demonstrate civic skills for the purpose of informed and engaged lifelong civic participation.
  - 6.1.1.1 Analyze a state or local policy issue by identifying and examining opposing positions from diverse perspectives and frames of reference, interpreting and applying graphic data, determining conflicting values and beliefs, defending and justifying a position with evidence, and developing strategies to persuade others to adopt this position.
Democratic Values and Principles
- 2 Explain democratic values and principles that guide governments, societies and communities. Analyze the tensions within the United States constitutional government.
  - 6.1.2.1 Locate a democratic principle embodied in the Constitution of the State of Minnesota or in one of Minnesota's Tribal Nations' constitutions. Summarize the concept of federalism and describe the relationship between the powers of the federal and state governments.
    - State and local government (6-EE.6)
    - The Constitution: structure and principles (6-FF.1)
Rights and Responsibilities
- 3 Explain and evaluate rights, duties and responsibilities in democratic society.
  - 6.1.3.1 Summarize the concept of citizenship in the United States, explain how individuals become citizens by birth or naturalization, and compare and contrast the rights and responsibilities of citizens, noncitizens and dual citizens.
    - Citizenship and the naturalization process (6-HH.1)
    - Rights and responsibilities of active citizenship (6-HH.2)
Governmental Institutions and Political Processes
- 4 Explain and evaluate processes, rules and laws of United States governmental institutions at local, state and federal levels and within Tribal Nations.
  - 6.1.4.1 Identify the purpose of the Constitution of the State of Minnesota and explain how the Constitution of the State of Minnesota organizes state government and authorizes local government (county, city, school board and township). Compare and contrast the ways state and local government are funded.
  - 6.1.4.2 Describe the goals, offenses, penalties, long-term consequences and privacy concerns of Minnesota's juvenile justice system and evaluate the impact on youth, including those from historically disenfranchised groups.
Tribal Nations
- 6 Evaluate the unique political status, trust relationships and governing structures of sovereign Tribal Nations and the United States.
  - 6.1.6.1 Explain the concept of sovereignty and how treaty rights are exercised by the Anishinaabe and Dakota today.

2 Economics

Personal Finance
- 9 Apply economic concepts and models to develop individual and collective financial goals and strategies for achieving these goals, taking into consideration historical and contemporary conditions that either inhibit or advance the creation of individual and generational wealth.
  - 6.2.9.1 Describe various types of income. Explain the role that the development of human capital plays in determining one's income. Create a budget based on a given monthly income.
Macroeconomics
- 11 Measure and evaluate the well-being of nations and communities using a variety of indicators. Explain the causes of economic ups and downs. Evaluate how government actions affect a nation's economy and individuals' well-being within an economy.
  - 6.2.11.1 Describe the movement of goods and services, resources and money through markets at the community, national and global level.
  - 6.2.11.2 Explain how people living in a community are impacted by government policies regarding land use. Investigate how communities are impacted when consumers have or do not have opportunities to work, shop, eat and connect with one another locally, helping the community build assets.
Global and International
- 12 Explain why people trade and why nations encourage or limit trade. Analyze the costs and benefits of international trade and globalization on communities and the environment.
  - 6.2.12.1 Explain why companies might move production to other states or countries.
    - Trade and specialization (6-II.4)

3 Geography

Geospatial Skills and Inquiry
- 13 Apply geographic tools, including geospatial technologies, and geographic inquiry to solve spatial problems.
  - 6.3.13.1 Use geospatial technologies to create and interpret fixed and dynamic maps that represent Mni Sóta Maḳoce and Minnesota.
  - 6.3.13.2 Use geographic tools to support a claim with evidence and explain reasoning to address a spatial problem within Minnesota.
Places and Regions
- 14 Describe places and regions, explaining how they are influenced by power structures.
  - 6.3.14.1 Compare and contrast different places and regions on the land that is Minnesota today, including how power structures have impacted each one over time.
Human Systems
- 15 Analyze patterns of movement and interconnectedness within and between cultural, economic and political systems from a local to global scale.
  - 6.3.15.1 Explain how physical features and the location of resources affect settlement patterns, including those of Dakota and Anishinaabe peoples, and the growth of cities.
Human-Environment Interaction
- 16 Evaluate the relationship between humans and the environment, including climate change.
  - 6.3.16.1 Evaluate how two (or more) different communities address the issues related to climate change in Minnesota.

4 History

Context, Change, and Continuity
- 18 Ask historical questions about context, change and continuity in order to identify and analyze dominant and nondominant narratives about the past.
  - 6.4.18.1 Describe how Dakota and Anishinaabe people today narrate their own history, including seasonal lifeways in the pre-contact period.
  - 6.4.18.2 Describe the varied and diverse interactions of Indigenous people, European/American traders and settler-colonists in the upper Mississippi River region, and examine how settler colonialism conflicted with Dakota and Anishinaabe ways of life.
  - 6.4.18.3 Describe how people in Minnesota participated in the institution of slavery, abolition and the U.S. Civil War, identifying examples of change and continuity.
  - 6.4.18.4 Analyze connections between major reform and political movements in Minnesota during the Progressive era and World War I, including the role of women.
    - World War I: the road to war (7-TT.1)
    - World War I: the Great War (7-TT.2)
  - 6.4.18.5 Identify multiple narratives about how World War II and the Cold War impacted Minnesotans.
Historical Perspectives
- 19 Identify diverse points of view, and describe how one's frame of reference influences historical perspective.
  - 6.4.19.1 Understand the diverse and conflicting ways that Dakota, Anishinaabe, European and American peoples understood their relationship to the land, particularly regarding property and ownership, and examine the consequences of these conflicting views on the environment over time.
  - 6.4.19.2 Identify and describe diverse and conflicting points of view about treaty-making, including the unequal power dynamics that shaped the treaty-making process.
  - 6.4.19.3 Examine conflicting narratives about the United States-Dakota War of 1862. Analyze the perspectives of settlers and Dakota people before, during and after the war. Identify the narratives that are absent.
Historical Sources and Evidence
- 20 Investigate a variety of historical sources by: a) analyzing primary and secondary sources; b) identifying perspectives and narratives that are absent from the available sources; and c) interpreting the historical context, intended audience, purpose, and author's point of view of these sources.
  - Identify primary and secondary sources (6-LL.1)
  - 6.4.20.1 Evaluate primary and secondary sources about the process by which Minnesota became a territory and state; consider what perspectives and narratives are absent from the available sources.
Causation and Argumentation
- 21 Integrate evidence from multiple historical sources and interpretations into a reasoned argument or compelling narrative about the past.
  - 6.4.21.1 Evaluate the impact of big business, industrialization, farming and/or technology on the use of natural resources within different communities in Minnesota. Organize applicable evidence into a coherent argument about the past.
  - 6.4.21.2 Construct a narrative about why and how people have migrated to Minnesota as a result of warfare and/or genocide since 1960, using primary sources about immigrant experiences.
Connecting Past and Present
- 22 Use historical methods and sources to identify and analyze the roots of a contemporary issue. Design a plan to address it.
  - 6.4.22.1 Examine the historical relationship and memorialization of the U.S. Civil War and the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 in Minnesota.
  - 6.4.22.2 Examine the history and memory of migration and immigration in Minnesota during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including the impact of immigration on Indigenous people.
  - 6.4.22.3 Identify and describe how Minnesotans have fought for freedom and equality from the Civil Rights era until today.

5 Ethnic Studies

Identity
- 23 Analyze the ways power and language construct the social identities of race, religion, geography, ethnicity, and gender. Apply these understandings to one's own social identities and other groups living in Minnesota, centering those whose stories and histories have been marginalized, erased, or ignored.
  - 6.5.23.1 Identify and explain how discrimination based on race, gender, economic, ableism, and social group identity affects the history, health, growth, and/or current experiences of residents of Minnesota.
Resistance
- 24 Describe how individuals and communities have fought for freedom and liberation against systemic and coordinated exercises of power locally and globally. Identify strategies or times that have resulted in lasting change. Organize with others to engage in activities that could further the rights and dignity of all.
  - 6.5.24.1 Examine how and why the Minnesota landscape has been shaped by people.
  - 6.5.24.2 Identify individuals, community organizations, businesses and corporations that make the student's community in Minnesota unique. Analyze how these groups do community building efforts, specifically by racialized and marginalized groups/individuals in Minnesota.
  - 6.5.24.3 Identify how the arts have been a part of strategies, activities and/or engagement for social and political change.
Ways of Knowing and Methodologies
- 25 Use ethnic and Indigenous studies, methods, and sources in order to understand the roots of contemporary systems of oppression and apply lessons from the past that could eliminate historical and contemporary injustices.
  - 6.5.25.1 Examine the impact of slavery and race in Minnesota today.

Minnesota

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Actions

1 Citizenship and Government

Civic Skills

1 Apply civic reasoning and demonstrate civic skills for the purpose of informed and engaged lifelong civic participation.

Democratic Values and Principles

2 Explain democratic values and principles that guide governments, societies and communities. Analyze the tensions within the United States constitutional government.

6.1.2.1 Locate a democratic principle embodied in the Constitution of the State of Minnesota or in one of Minnesota's Tribal Nations' constitutions. Summarize the concept of federalism and describe the relationship between the powers of the federal and state governments.

Rights and Responsibilities

3 Explain and evaluate rights, duties and responsibilities in democratic society.

6.1.3.1 Summarize the concept of citizenship in the United States, explain how individuals become citizens by birth or naturalization, and compare and contrast the rights and responsibilities of citizens, noncitizens and dual citizens.

Governmental Institutions and Political Processes

4 Explain and evaluate processes, rules and laws of United States governmental institutions at local, state and federal levels and within Tribal Nations.

6.1.4.2 Describe the goals, offenses, penalties, long-term consequences and privacy concerns of Minnesota's juvenile justice system and evaluate the impact on youth, including those from historically disenfranchised groups.

Tribal Nations

6 Evaluate the unique political status, trust relationships and governing structures of sovereign Tribal Nations and the United States.

6.1.6.1 Explain the concept of sovereignty and how treaty rights are exercised by the Anishinaabe and Dakota today.

2 Economics

Personal Finance

9 Apply economic concepts and models to develop individual and collective financial goals and strategies for achieving these goals, taking into consideration historical and contemporary conditions that either inhibit or advance the creation of individual and generational wealth.

6.2.9.1 Describe various types of income. Explain the role that the development of human capital plays in determining one's income. Create a budget based on a given monthly income.

Macroeconomics

11 Measure and evaluate the well-being of nations and communities using a variety of indicators. Explain the causes of economic ups and downs. Evaluate how government actions affect a nation's economy and individuals' well-being within an economy.

6.2.11.1 Describe the movement of goods and services, resources and money through markets at the community, national and global level.

6.2.11.2 Explain how people living in a community are impacted by government policies regarding land use. Investigate how communities are impacted when consumers have or do not have opportunities to work, shop, eat and connect with one another locally, helping the community build assets.

Global and International

12 Explain why people trade and why nations encourage or limit trade. Analyze the costs and benefits of international trade and globalization on communities and the environment.

6.2.12.1 Explain why companies might move production to other states or countries.

3 Geography

Geospatial Skills and Inquiry

13 Apply geographic tools, including geospatial technologies, and geographic inquiry to solve spatial problems.

6.3.13.1 Use geospatial technologies to create and interpret fixed and dynamic maps that represent Mni Sóta Maḳoce and Minnesota.

6.3.13.2 Use geographic tools to support a claim with evidence and explain reasoning to address a spatial problem within Minnesota.

Places and Regions

14 Describe places and regions, explaining how they are influenced by power structures.

6.3.14.1 Compare and contrast different places and regions on the land that is Minnesota today, including how power structures have impacted each one over time.

Human Systems

15 Analyze patterns of movement and interconnectedness within and between cultural, economic and political systems from a local to global scale.

6.3.15.1 Explain how physical features and the location of resources affect settlement patterns, including those of Dakota and Anishinaabe peoples, and the growth of cities.

Human-Environment Interaction

16 Evaluate the relationship between humans and the environment, including climate change.

6.3.16.1 Evaluate how two (or more) different communities address the issues related to climate change in Minnesota.

4 History

Context, Change, and Continuity

18 Ask historical questions about context, change and continuity in order to identify and analyze dominant and nondominant narratives about the past.

6.4.18.1 Describe how Dakota and Anishinaabe people today narrate their own history, including seasonal lifeways in the pre-contact period.

6.4.18.2 Describe the varied and diverse interactions of Indigenous people, European/American traders and settler-colonists in the upper Mississippi River region, and examine how settler colonialism conflicted with Dakota and Anishinaabe ways of life.

6.4.18.3 Describe how people in Minnesota participated in the institution of slavery, abolition and the U.S. Civil War, identifying examples of change and continuity.

6.4.18.4 Analyze connections between major reform and political movements in Minnesota during the Progressive era and World War I, including the role of women.

6.4.18.5 Identify multiple narratives about how World War II and the Cold War impacted Minnesotans.

Historical Perspectives

19 Identify diverse points of view, and describe how one's frame of reference influences historical perspective.

6.4.19.1 Understand the diverse and conflicting ways that Dakota, Anishinaabe, European and American peoples understood their relationship to the land, particularly regarding property and ownership, and examine the consequences of these conflicting views on the environment over time.

6.4.19.2 Identify and describe diverse and conflicting points of view about treaty-making, including the unequal power dynamics that shaped the treaty-making process.

6.4.19.3 Examine conflicting narratives about the United States-Dakota War of 1862. Analyze the perspectives of settlers and Dakota people before, during and after the war. Identify the narratives that are absent.

Historical Sources and Evidence

20 Investigate a variety of historical sources by: a) analyzing primary and secondary sources; b) identifying perspectives and narratives that are absent from the available sources; and c) interpreting the historical context, intended audience, purpose, and author's point of view of these sources.

6.4.20.1 Evaluate primary and secondary sources about the process by which Minnesota became a territory and state; consider what perspectives and narratives are absent from the available sources.

Causation and Argumentation

21 Integrate evidence from multiple historical sources and interpretations into a reasoned argument or compelling narrative about the past.

6.4.21.1 Evaluate the impact of big business, industrialization, farming and/or technology on the use of natural resources within different communities in Minnesota. Organize applicable evidence into a coherent argument about the past.

6.4.21.2 Construct a narrative about why and how people have migrated to Minnesota as a result of warfare and/or genocide since 1960, using primary sources about immigrant experiences.

Connecting Past and Present

22 Use historical methods and sources to identify and analyze the roots of a contemporary issue. Design a plan to address it.

6.4.22.1 Examine the historical relationship and memorialization of the U.S. Civil War and the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 in Minnesota.

6.4.22.2 Examine the history and memory of migration and immigration in Minnesota during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including the impact of immigration on Indigenous people.

6.4.22.3 Identify and describe how Minnesotans have fought for freedom and equality from the Civil Rights era until today.

5 Ethnic Studies

Identity

6.5.23.1 Identify and explain how discrimination based on race, gender, economic, ableism, and social group identity affects the history, health, growth, and/or current experiences of residents of Minnesota.

Resistance

6.5.24.1 Examine how and why the Minnesota landscape has been shaped by people.

6.5.24.2 Identify individuals, community organizations, businesses and corporations that make the student's community in Minnesota unique. Analyze how these groups do community building efforts, specifically by racialized and marginalized groups/individuals in Minnesota.

6.5.24.3 Identify how the arts have been a part of strategies, activities and/or engagement for social and political change.

Ways of Knowing and Methodologies

25 Use ethnic and Indigenous studies, methods, and sources in order to understand the roots of contemporary systems of oppression and apply lessons from the past that could eliminate historical and contemporary injustices.

6.5.25.1 Examine the impact of slavery and race in Minnesota today.