Indiana Social Studies 6.H.15
The Standard
Identify issues related to an historical event in Europe or the Americas, giving basic arguments for and against that issue utilizing the perspectives, interests, and values of those involved.
2026 Indiana Academic Standards: K-12 Social Studies
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students weigh whether the thirteen colonies should declare independence in 1776. They give a reason for and against it from the viewpoints of people living then. They explain how each person's interests or values shaped that reason.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can explain why a Patriot might want local control over laws and why a Loyalist merchant might fear losing British trade. They support each argument with a detail from a source card.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may give their own opinion instead of explaining a view held in 1776. They may assume every colonist wanted independence or that Loyalists opposed it only because they liked the king.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: Should the colonies declare independence in 1776? Give one Patriot argument and one Loyalist argument, and name an interest or value behind each.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs four cards labeled local laws, tax votes, British trade, and fear of war; have them sort the cards under Patriot or Loyalist.
Ask: “Should the colonies declare independence in 1776?” Have students write a two-line exchange between a Patriot printer and a Loyalist merchant.
Play a role-card match: read “I want local control over taxes” or “War could ruin my shop,” and have students name the speaker.
Use a mock school notice proposing shorter lunch for more class time; write a student and principal argument, then label each person's interest.
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Related Standards
- 4.G.8
Identify historical perspectives about Native Americans, Africans, early settlers, and other immigrant groups.
- 6.H.3
Identify and explain the development and organization of political, cultural, social, and economic systems in Europe and the Americas.
- IS.1.35
Locate and analyze primary sources and secondary sources related to an event or issue of the past. Discover possible limitations in various kinds of historical ...
- 8.H.26
Using primary and secondary sources, analyze an issue confronting the United States from colonial times through the Reconstruction period.
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