Virginia SOL S.USII.c

Social Studies6th Grade

The Standard

developing questions, enhancing curiosity, and engaging in critical thinking and analysis

Virginia Standards of Learning for History and Social Science

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students turn an interesting topic, image, object, or source into focused questions. They use evidence to answer those questions, spot missing information, and ask useful follow-up questions.
What Mastery Looks Like: Students write questions that are open-ended, focused, and answerable with evidence. They compare sources, explain their reasoning, and revise a question when new information changes their thinking.
Common Misconceptions: Students may write yes-or-no questions, questions that are too broad, or questions based on unsupported assumptions. They may treat the first source as fully reliable or confuse personal opinion with evidence.
How to Assess It: Show a historical photograph and ask students to write one focused question, name two details that prompted it, and identify one source that could help answer it.

Lesson moves

Give pairs a mystery artifact or photograph, then have them record observations, questions, and possible sources on sticky notes.
Ask students to write which question about a historical event would lead to the strongest investigation, then defend their choice with two reasons.
Play Question Sort by having teams classify question cards as factual, analytical, too broad, or unsupported, then revise weak questions.
Use a local news story and have students identify what is known, what is missing, and which person or record they would consult next.

Free download

A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to S.USII.c, 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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