Indiana Social Studies S.6.1

Social StudiesGrades 9–12Sociology of Groups

The Standard

Define social groups as understood in sociology and distinguish groups from crowds and aggregates.

2026 Indiana Academic Standards: K-12 Social Studies

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students identify a social group by its ongoing interaction and sense of belonging. They tell it apart from a crowd gathered around an event and an aggregate of people who happen to share a place.
What Mastery Looks Like: A student can label a weekly chess club, people watching a street performer, and strangers waiting at a bus stop. They can explain which people have ongoing ties, shared attention, or only a shared location.
Common Misconceptions: Students may call strangers at a bus stop a group because they stand together. They may call people watching a performer a group because everyone is focused on the same event.
How to Assess It: Exit ticket: Label a weekly chess club, strangers watching a street performer, and strangers waiting silently at a bus stop as group, crowd, or aggregate. Give one reason for each.

Lesson moves

Give pairs cards labeled 'weekly chess club,' 'parade watchers,' and 'silent bus stop'; have them sort the cards into group, crowd, or aggregate.
Ask: If the same people meet at a bus stop every morning and begin planning rides together, when do they become a group?
Call out 'choir rehearsal,' 'concert audience,' and 'strangers in an elevator'; students hold up G, C, or A cards.
Show a school club roster, a game-night crowd photo, and a bus-stop photo; have students explain who has ongoing ties.

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A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to S.6.1, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.

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