Alabama Social Studies SS24.7.10a
The Standard
- SS24.7.10
- Describe cultural and economic characteristics of early Indigenous peoples in North and South America, including civilizations in Mesoamerica, the Andes, and the Mississippi River Valley.
Identify locations and migration patterns of early Indigenous peoples on a map, including the Olmec and Woodland Period civilizations.
2024 Alabama Course of Study: Social Studies
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students locate the Olmec region on Mexico’s Gulf Coast and Woodland Period communities in eastern North America. They trace possible routes early people took from northeast Asia into and through the Americas.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student shades both regions accurately on a blank map. They use arrows and a map key to show a possible migration route, and explain that it took place over many generations.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may place the Olmec on Mexico’s Pacific coast or treat Woodland Period communities as one tribe. They may assume every group followed the same route.
How to Assess It
- Give students a blank map of North America. Ask them to shade both regions, label Beringia, and draw one possible early migration route with a map key.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
On a laminated map, use yarn to trace a possible route from Beringia, then mark the Olmec and Woodland regions with colored clay.
Show an inland route map and a coastal route map, then ask: What can these arrows tell us, and what can they not prove?
Play a map relay: partners place Beringia, Olmec, and Woodland labels, then draw an arrow for one possible route.
Give pairs a current Mexico map and an Olmec sites map; have them find Veracruz and Tabasco on both.
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Printable SS24.7.10a Worksheet
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Related Standards
- SS24.3.8a
Identify changes that took place in prehistoric/pre-contact cultures in the Southeast between the Paleo, Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian periods.
- SS24.8.6
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- SS24.7.10
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- SS24.4.1a
Map the locations of significant European settlements and major Indigenous nations in North America and Alabama.
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