History
Grade 6 Curriculum
Modern History: Identity, Power, and Social Change (1890–1990)
This course examines major social, cultural, and political developments from the late 19th through the late 20th century, using key historical events to explore how individuals and communities have responded to injustice, inequality, and rapid change.
Throughout the year, students build essential historical thinking skills, including analyzing primary and secondary sources, identifying perspective and bias, understanding cause and consequence, and connecting past events to present-day questions of justice and belonging.
The curriculum emphasizes personal and collective agency, moral reasoning, and the power of ordinary people to shape history through organized action, resistance, and the preservation of memory.
UNIT 1 • September–October • 1890–1924
Industrialization & Immigration
Transformation of American cities, labor, and cultural identity
Learning Outcomes
Students will:
- Analyze how industrialization transformed American cities and labor
- Examine immigration patterns and their impact on American society
- Explore debates around assimilation, identity, and belonging
- Understand how immigration reshaped family life and community structures
- Identify perspectives of different immigrant groups and native-born Americans
- Connect historical immigration debates to contemporary discussions
MSA Framing
Students examine how diverse communities navigated change, negotiated identity, and contributed to American society. The unit emphasizes immigration as both displacement and renewal, inviting students to see their own families' stories within larger patterns of movement and belonging.
Performance Task
Immigration narrative project using primary sources
UNIT 2 • October–November • 1896–1954
Jim Crow & Racial Segregation
Systems of legalized discrimination and community resistance
Learning Outcomes
Students will:
- Understand the legal foundations of Jim Crow segregation
- Analyze the impact of Plessy v. Ferguson on American society
- Examine daily life under segregation for African Americans
- Explore community responses and survival strategies
- Identify forms of resistance and institution-building
- Connect legalized discrimination to present-day inequality
MSA Framing
This unit highlights how communities built institutions, preserved dignity, and resisted dehumanization under systemic oppression. Students learn that solidarity and organized resistance have always been central to movements for justice, and that understanding history requires confronting uncomfortable truths.
Performance Task
Case study analyzing resistance and resilience in a segregated community
UNIT 3 • November–December • 1929–1939
The Great Depression
Economic collapse, class divisions, and social responsibility
Learning Outcomes
Students will:
- Understand the causes and consequences of the Great Depression
- Analyze how economic hardship affected different communities
- Examine government responses and New Deal programs
- Explore labor movements and collective action
- Identify debates around economic justice and government responsibility
- Connect Depression-era challenges to modern economic inequality
MSA Framing
Students explore how economic crisis reveals and deepens existing inequalities, and how communities respond through mutual aid, collective organizing, and demands for systemic change. The unit emphasizes shared responsibility and the role of government in protecting the vulnerable.
Performance Task
Oral history-style interview analysis examining Depression experiences
UNIT 4 • January–March • 1933–1945
World War II & The Holocaust
Authoritarianism, antisemitism, resistance, and moral choice
Learning Outcomes
Students will:
- Understand the rise of fascism and antisemitism in Europe
- Examine the systematic persecution and genocide of Jews and other groups
- Analyze the choices made by individuals, communities, and nations
- Explore resistance movements and acts of rescue
- Study the American experience of WWII, including internment of Japanese Americans
- Reflect on moral responsibility and the consequences of silence
- Connect Holocaust history to contemporary issues of prejudice and genocide
MSA Framing
This unit confronts students with the most extreme consequences of hatred, dehumanization, and indifference. Through studying the Holocaust, students learn that ordinary people make extraordinary choices, that bystanders enable injustice, and that remembering atrocity is a moral obligation essential to preventing its recurrence.
Performance Task
Study of moral choice through testimony and primary sources
UNIT 5 • March–April • 1954–1968
The Civil Rights Movement
Nonviolent resistance, youth leadership, and collective action for justice
Learning Outcomes
Students will:
- Analyze Brown v. Board of Education and its impact
- Understand the Montgomery Bus Boycott and grassroots organizing
- Examine the role of young people in the movement
- Study nonviolent resistance strategies and their effectiveness
- Explore the March on Washington and the Civil Rights Act of 1964
- Analyze the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and ongoing voting rights struggles
- Connect the Civil Rights Movement to contemporary justice movements
MSA Framing
Students see how sustained organizing, moral clarity, and strategic nonviolence can transform society. The unit emphasizes youth leadership, the power of coalition-building across differences, and the idea that justice requires both legal change and cultural transformation.
Performance Task
Campaign analysis comparing Civil Rights strategies to contemporary movements
UNIT 6 • May • 1947–1991
The Cold War Era
Censorship, conformity, and tensions between security and freedom
Learning Outcomes
Students will:
- Understand the origins and global impact of the Cold War
- Examine McCarthyism and the Red Scare
- Analyze how fear shaped American politics and culture
- Explore propaganda and its influence on public opinion
- Identify debates around civil liberties during times of crisis
- Connect Cold War-era tensions to contemporary debates about security and freedom
MSA Framing
This unit examines how fear and the desire for security can erode democratic freedoms and target vulnerable groups. Students learn to identify propaganda, question official narratives, and recognize that protecting liberty requires vigilance, courage, and principled dissent.
Performance Task
Primary source analysis of McCarthyism and its impact on communities
UNIT 7 • June • 1965–1990
Late 20th Century: Identity, Memory & Voice
Immigration reform, evolving identities, and the power of storytelling
Learning Outcomes
Students will:
- Analyze the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act and its impact
- Examine changing gender roles and family structures
- Explore how marginalized groups claimed voice and visibility
- Understand the role of storytelling in preserving history
- Identify connections between memory, identity, and justice
- Reflect on how history shapes present-day debates
MSA Framing
Students explore how communities tell their own stories, challenge dominant narratives, and use memory as a tool for justice. The unit reinforces that history is not neutral—whose stories are told, preserved, and honored reflects power, and reclaiming narrative is an act of resistance and renewal.
Performance Task
Community memory project capturing untold stories