Overview

"Humanities is not the study of human beings, but rather what are the stories we can tell ourselves or the stories that have been told about us." "Go after history, pursue it, question it."

Gary Snyder, 2011

Ancient Civilizations -       Perspective         Discovery        Foundations        Change

The 6th grade humanities curriculum works to build a foundation for studying history by asking the following essential questions:

What is history? Who are the social scientists and how do they discover and interpret the records and stories left by ancient civilizations? Who tells the stories of history and who benefits from them? From what perspective is the story of history told? What is civilization? How do civilizations change over time? 

Students will study Ancient Civilizations from the earliest humans in Africa to those creating cave art in Lascaux, France. They will learn about humans coming together to form great civilizations such as India, China, Egypt (ICE). They will also travel the Silk Road to learn about trade and expansion of territory and ideas. We will spend much of the year studying about Greece, Rome and the foundation of democracy. Into all of this study will be woven art, food, architecture and a thorough discussion of 5 themes of geography: Location, Human/Environment Interaction, Place, Movement. 

Following the mission of Catlinl Gabel, the study of Ancient Civilization will be done in a hands-on, integrated, developmentally appropriate and fun way. Expect your child to get dirty as she digs for artifacts in our Science/Humanities Archaeological dig. Expect him to grow and thrash his own wheat for baking. Expect a speech or two, as well as the building of an aquaduct or bridge. 

Learning to Learn

Reading / Study Skills / Habits of Mind 

Sixth grade humanities students learn and review their learning preferences and strategies, experiment with them and fine tune them. In conjunction with Language Arts, 6th grade students develop several techniques for reading different texts containing increasingly challenging vocabulary. There is a classroom set of textbooks available but students will also use an interactive digital textbook, thus increasing their ability to practice visual and digital reading techniques. Multiple styles of note taking are connected with learning profiles, and each student eventually selects the formats that work best for him or her. Writing is also threaded together with language arts instruction. Students receive guided practice in essay writing, summarizing, and paraphrasing. Research is a major part of humanities curriculum. We work closely with the Middle School librarian to learn how to find and evaluate useful resources for our studies. 

 Textbook - History Alive The Ancient World