Virginia SOL S.USII.b

Social Studies6th Grade

The Standard

applying geographic skills to determine and predict patterns and trends of people, places, and events

Virginia Standards of Learning for History and Social Science

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students read maps, graphs, and location data to find changes, clusters, and movement over time. They use that evidence to predict where people or events may shift next.
What Mastery Looks Like: Students compare two or more sources and describe a clear geographic pattern. They make a reasonable prediction and support it with specific map or data evidence.
Common Misconceptions: Students may confuse a single location with a wider pattern or assume that two related patterns prove cause and effect. They may also ignore map scale, legends, dates, or changes in boundaries.
How to Assess It: Give students U.S. population maps from 2000 and 2020. Ask them to predict one area of growth by 2030 and cite two map details.

Lesson moves

Give pairs transparent overlays of railroad and city maps, then have them mark places where transportation routes and population centers overlap.
Ask students to write: How might access to rivers, roads, or jobs explain where people choose to live?
Run a map station game where teams identify one pattern, make one prediction, and earn points for citing accurate evidence.
Compare local census maps from two decades and predict where the community may need a new school, road, or bus route.

Free download

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

PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.

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