Vermont K–6 social studies standards

Explain why the compelling question is important to the student.

Identify disciplinary ideas associated with a compelling question.

Describe roles and responsibilities of people in authority.

Explain how all people, not just official leaders, play important roles in a community.

Explain how scarcity necessitates decision making.

Identify the benefits and costs of making various personal decisions.

Construct maps, graphs, and other representations of familiar places.

Use maps, graphs, photographs, and other representations to describe places and the relationships and interactions that shape them.

Identify some cultural and environmental characteristics of specific places.

Create a chronological sequence of multiple events.

Compare life in the past to life today.

Generate questions about individuals and groups who have shaped a significant historical change.

Gather relevant information from one or two sources while using the origin and structure to guide the selection.

Construct an argument with reasons to support a claim.

Construct explanations using correct sequence and relevant information.

Identify and explain a range of local, regional, and global problems, and some ways in which people are trying to address these problems.

Identify facts and concepts associated with a supporting question.

Make connections between supporting questions and compelling questions.

Determine the kinds of sources that will be helpful in answering compelling and supporting questions.

Explain the need for and purposes of rules in various settings inside and outside of school.

Begins in grades 3–5

Explain what governments are and some of their functions.

Describe how communities work to accomplish common tasks, establish responsibilities, and fulfill roles of authority.

Apply civic virtues when participating in school settings.

Describe democratic principles such as equality, fairness, and respect for legitimate authority and rules.

Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions while responding attentively to others when addressing ideas and making decisions as a group.

Compare their own point of view with others' perspectives.

Explain how people can work together to make decisions in the classroom.

Identify and explain how rules function in public (classroom and school) settings.

Begins in grades 3–5

Describe how people have tried to improve their communities over time.

Describe the skills and knowledge required to produce certain goods and services.

Describe the goods and services that people in the local community produce and those that are produced in other communities.

Identify prices of products in a local market.

Explain how people earn income.

Describe examples of costs of production.

Begins in grades 3-5

Describe the role of banks in an economy.

Explain why people save.

Begins in grades 3–5

Describe examples of the goods and services that governments provide.

Describe examples of capital goods and human capital.

Describe why people in one country trade goods and services with people in other countries.

Describe products that are produced abroad and sold domestically and products that are produced domestically and sold abroad.

Use maps, globes, and other simple geographic models to identify cultural and environmental characteristics of places.

Explain how weather, climate, and other environmental characteristics affect people's lives in a place or region.

Describe how human activities affect the cultural and environmental characteristics of places or regions.

Explain why and how people, goods, and ideas move from place to place.

Compare how people in different types of communities use local and distant environments to meet their daily needs.

Describe the connections between the physical environment of a place and the economic activities found there.

Describe changes in the physical and cultural characteristics of various world regions.

Explain how the consumption of products connects people to distant places.

Identify ways that a catastrophic disaster may affect people living in a place.

Compare perspectives of people in the past to those of people in the present.

Begins in grades 3–5

Compare different accounts of the same historical event.

Begins in grades 9–12

Begins in grades 9–12

Identify different kinds of historical sources.

Explain how historical sources can be used to study the past.

Identify the maker, date, and place of origin for a historical source from information within the source itself.

Generate questions about a particular historical source as it relates to a particular historical event or development.

Begins in grade 3–5

Generate possible reasons for an event or development in the past.

Begins in grades 6–8

Select which reasons might be more likely than others to explain a historical event or development.

Begins in grades 3–5

Evaluate a source by distinguishing between fact and opinion.

Begins in grades 3–5

Begins in grades 3–5

Present a summary of an argument using print, oral, and digital technologies.

Ask and answer questions about arguments.

Ask and answer questions about explanations

Identify ways to take action to help address local, regional, and global problems.

Use listening, consensus-building, and voting procedures to decide on and take action in their classrooms.

Explain why compelling questions are important to others (e.g., peers, adults).

Determine the kinds of sources that will be helpful in answering compelling and supporting questions.

Distinguish the responsibilities and powers of government officials at various levels and branches of government and in different times and places.

Explain how a democracy relies on people's responsible participation, and draw implications for how individuals should participate.

Describe ways in which people benefit from and are challenged by working together, including through families, workplaces, voluntary organizations, and government.

Compare the benefits and costs of individual choices.

Explain the relationship between investment in human capital, productivity, and future incomes.

Construct maps and other graphic representations of both familiar and unfamiliar places.

Explain how culture influences the way people modify and adapt to their environments.

Create and use a chronological sequence of related events to compare developments that happened at the same time.

Compare life in specific historical time periods to life today.

Generate questions about individuals and groups who have shaped significant historical changes and continuities.

Explain probable causes and effects of events and developments.

Use evidence to develop a claim about the past.

Gather relevant information from multiple sources while using the origin, structure, and context to guide the selection.

Use distinctions among fact and opinion to determine the credibility of multiple sources.

Construct arguments using claims and evidence from multiple sources.

Explain different strategies and approaches students and others could take in working alone and together to address local, regional, and global problems.

Identify disciplinary concepts and ideas associated with a compelling question that are open to different interpretations.

Identify the disciplinary concepts and ideas associated with a supporting question that are open to interpretation.

Explain how supporting questions help answer compelling questions in an inquiry.

Examine the origins and purposes of rules, laws, and key U.S. constitutional provisions.

Explain how groups of people make rules to create responsibilities and protect freedoms.

Explain the origins, functions, and structure of different systems of government, including those created by the U.S. and state constitutions.

Apply civic virtues and democratic principles in school settings.

Identify core civic virtues and democratic principles that guide government, society, and communities.

Use deliberative processes when making decisions or reaching judgments as a group.

Identify the beliefs, experiences, perspectives, and values that underlie their own and others' points of view about civic issues.

Compare procedures for making decisions in a variety of settings, including classroom, school, government, and/or society.

Explain how rules and laws change society and how people change rules and laws.

Explain how policies are developed to address public problems.

Illustrate historical and contemporary means of changing society.

Identify positive and negative incentives that influence the decisions people make.

Identify examples of the variety of resources (human capital, physical capital, and natural resources) that are used to produce goods and services.

Explain why individuals and businesses specialize and trade.

Explain the role of money in making exchange easier

Explain how profits influence sellers in markets.

Identify examples of external benefits and costs.

Describe the role of other financial institutions in an economy.

Explain what interest rates are.

Explain the meaning of inflation, deflation, and unemployment.

Explain the ways in which the government pays for the goods and services it provides.

Describe ways people can increase productivity by using improved capital goods and improving their human capital.

Explain how trade leads to increasing economic interdependence among nations.

Explain the effects of increasing economic interdependence on different groups within participating nations.

Use maps, satellite images, photographs, and other representations to explain relationships between the locations of places and regions and their environmental characteristics.

Use maps of different scales to describe the locations of cultural and environmental characteristics.

Explain how the cultural and environmental characteristics of places change over time.

Describe how environmental and cultural characteristics influence population distribution in specific places or regions.

Explain how cultural and environmental characteristics affect the distribution and movement of people, goods, and ideas.

Explain how human settlements and movements relate to the locations and use of various natural resources.

Analyze the effects of catastrophic environmental and technological events on human settlements and migration.

Explain why environmental characteristics vary among different world regions.

Describe how the spatial patterns of economic activities in a place change over time because of interactions with nearby and distant places.

Explain how natural and human-made catastrophic events in one place affect people living in other places.

Explain why individuals and groups during the same historical period differed in their perspectives.

Explain connections among historical contexts and people's perspectives at the time.

Describe how people's perspectives shaped the historical sources they created.

Begins in grades 9–12

Begins in grades 9–12

Summarize how different kinds of historical sources are used to explain events in the past.

Compare information provided by different historical sources about the past.

Infer the intended audience and purpose of a historical source from information within the source itself.

Generate questions about multiple historical sources and their relationships to particular historical events and developments.

Use information about a historical source, including the maker, date, place of origin, intended audience, and purpose to judge the extent to which the source is useful for studying a particular topic.

Begins in grades 6–8

Summarize the central claim in a secondary work of history

Identify evidence that draws information from multiple sources in response to compelling questions.

Use evidence to develop claims in response to compelling questions.

Construct explanations using reasoning, correct sequence, examples, and details with relevant information and data.

Present a summary of arguments and explanations to others outside the classroom using print and oral technologies (e.g., posters, essays, letters, debates, speeches, and reports) and digital technologies (e.g., Internet, social media, and digital documentary).

Critique arguments.

Critique explanations.

Draw on disciplinary concepts to explain the challenges people have faced and opportunities they have created, in addressing local, regional, and global problems at various times and places.

Use a range of deliberative and democratic procedures to make decisions about and act on civic problems in their classrooms and schools.

Explain how a question represents key ideas in the field.

Explain points of agreement experts have about interpretations and applications of disciplinary concepts and ideas associated with a compelling question.

Explain points of agreement experts have about interpretations and applications of disciplinary concepts and ideas associated with a supporting question.

Explain how the relationship between supporting questions and compelling questions is mutually reinforcing.

Determine the kinds of sources that will be helpful in answering compelling and supporting questions, taking into consideration multiple points of views represented in the sources.

Distinguish the powers and responsibilities of citizens, political parties, interest groups, and the media in a variety of governmental and nongovernmental contexts.

Explain specific roles played by citizens (such as voters, jurors, taxpayers, members of the armed forces, petitioners, protesters, and office-holders).

Examine the origins, purposes, and impact of constitutions, laws, treaties, and international agreements.

Explain the powers and limits of the three branches of government, public officials, and bureaucracies at different levels in the United States and in other countries.

Explain the origins, functions, and structure of government with reference to the U.S. Constitution, state constitutions, and selected other systems of government.

Describe the roles of political, civil, and economic organizations in shaping people's lives.

Apply civic virtues and democratic principles in school and community settings.

Analyze ideas and principles contained in the founding documents of the United States, and explain how they influence the social and political system.

Compare deliberative processes used by a wide variety of groups in various settings.

Explain the relevance of personal interests and perspectives, civic virtues, and democratic principles when people address issues and problems in government and civil society.

Differentiate among procedures for making decisions in the classroom, school, civil society, and local, state, and national government in terms of how civic purposes are intended.

Assess specific rules and laws (both actual and proposed) as means of addressing public problems.

Analyze the purposes, implementation, and consequences of public policies in multiple settings.

Compare historical and contemporary means of changing societies, and promoting the common good.

Explain how economic decisions affect the well-being of individuals, businesses, and society.

Evaluate alternative approaches or solutions to current economic issues in terms of benefits and costs for different groups and society as a whole.

Explain the roles of buyers and sellers in product, labor, and financial markets.

Describe the role of competition in the determination of prices and wages in a market economy.

Explain ways in which money facilitates exchange by reducing transactional costs.

Explain how changes in supply and demand cause changes in prices and quantities of goods and services, labor, credit, and foreign currencies.

Analyze the role of innovation and entrepreneurship in a market economy.

Explain how external benefits and costs influence market outcomes.

Describe the roles of institutions such as corporations, non-profits, and labor unions in a market economy.

Explain the influence of changes in interest rates on borrowing and investing.

Use appropriate data to evaluate the state of employment, unemployment, inflation, total production, income, and economic growth in the economy.

Explain how inflation, deflation, and unemployment affect different groups.

Explain why standards of living increase as productivity improves.

Explain barriers to trade and how those barriers influence trade among nations.

Explain the benefits and the costs of trade policies to individuals, businesses, and society.

Construct maps to represent and explain the spatial patterns of cultural and environmental characteristics.

Use maps, satellite images, photographs, and other representations to explain relationships between the locations of places and regions, and changes in their environmental characteristics.

Use paper based and electronic mapping and graphing techniques to represent and analyze spatial patterns of different environmental and cultural characteristics.

Explain how cultural patterns and economic decisions influence environments and the daily lives of people in both nearby and distant places.

Analyze the combinations of cultural and environmental characteristics that make places both similar to and different from other places.

Explain how the physical and human characteristics of places and regions are connected to human identities and cultures.

Explain how changes in transportation and communication technology influence the spatial connections among human settlements and affect the diffusion of ideas and cultural practices.

Analyze how relationships between humans and environments extend or contract spatial patterns of settlement and movement.

Evaluate the influences of long-term human-induced environmental change on spatial patterns of conflict and cooperation.

Analyze the ways in which cultural and environmental characteristics vary among various regions of the world.

Explain how the relationship between the environmental characteristics of places and production of goods influences the spatial patterns of world trade.

Explain how global changes in population distribution patterns affect changes in land use in particular places.

Analyze connections among events and developments in broader historical contexts.

Classify series of historical events and developments as examples of change and/or continuity.

Use questions generated about individuals and groups to analyze why they, and the developments they shaped, are seen as historically significant.

Analyze multiple factors that influenced the perspectives of people during different historical eras.

Explain how and why perspectives of people have changed over time.

Analyze how people's perspectives influenced what information is available in the historical sources they created.

Begins in grades 9–12

Begins in grades 9–12

Classify the kinds of historical sources used in a secondary interpretation.

Detect possible limitations in the historical record based on evidence collected from different kinds of historical sources.

Use other historical sources to infer a plausible maker, date, place of origin, and intended audience for historical sources where this information is not easily identified.

Use questions generated about multiple historical sources to identify further areas of inquiry and additional sources.

Evaluate the relevancy and utility of a historical source based on information such as maker, date, place of origin, intended audience, and purpose.

Explain multiple causes and effects of events and developments in the past.

Evaluate the relative influence of various causes of events and developments in the past.

Organize applicable evidence into a coherent argument about the past.

Compare the central arguments in secondary works of history on related topics in multiple media.

Gather relevant information from multiple sources while using the origin, authority, structure, context, and corroborative value of the sources to guide the selection.

Evaluate the credibility of a source by determining its relevance and intended use.

Identify evidence that draws information from multiple sources to support claims, noting evidentiary limitations.

Develop claims and counterclaims while pointing out the strengths and limitations of both.

Construct arguments using claims and evidence from multiple sources, while acknowledging the strengths and limitations of the arguments.

Construct explanations using reasoning, correct sequence, examples, and details with relevant information and data, while acknowledging the strengths and weaknesses of the explanations.

Present adaptations of arguments and explanations on topics of interest to others to reach audiences and venues outside the classroom using print and oral technologies (e.g., posters, essays, letters, debates, speeches, reports, and maps) and digital technologies (e.g., Internet, social media, and digital documentary).

Critique arguments for credibility.

Critique the structure of explanations.

Draw on multiple disciplinary lenses to analyze how a specific problem can manifest itself at local, regional, and global levels over time, identifying its characteristics and causes, and the challenges and opportunities faced by those trying to address the problem.

Assess their individual and collective capacities to take action to address local, regional, and global problems, taking into account a range of possible levers of power, strategies, and potential outcomes.

Apply a range of deliberative and democratic procedures to make decisions and take action in their classrooms and schools, and in out-of-school civic contexts.