Virginia SOL USI.3

USI.3 is a Standards of Learning history and social science standard. These are the skills expectations under it.

• USI.3.a

  describing the motivations for, obstacles to, and accomplishments of the Dutch, English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish explorations

• USI.3.b

  describing cultural and economic interactions between Indigenous people and Europeans that led to cooperation and conflict.

01

What Students Need to Do

Students compare why five European nations explored, where they traveled or settled, what blocked them, and what resulted. They explain how trade, alliances, land claims, disease, and competition shaped relationships with distinct Indigenous nations.

02

What Mastery Looks Like

Students can compare at least two nations using evidence about goals, routes, problems, and results. They can explain one example of cooperation and one example of conflict between Europeans and Indigenous people.

03

Common Misconceptions

Students may treat all European nations as having the same goals or confuse an explorer's sponsor with birthplace. They may describe Indigenous people as one group or assume contact was entirely peaceful or entirely violent. They may also label every voyage a successful colony.

04

How to Assess It

Exit ticket: Choose one European nation and name one motive, one obstacle, and one accomplishment. Then explain one interaction and why it produced cooperation or conflict.

1. 01

   Give groups maps, explorer cards, and obstacle cards, then have them build and explain a route for one European nation.

2. 02

   Ask students to write: How could trade create cooperation at first, then lead to conflict over land or resources?

3. 03

   Play a matching game with nation, motive, obstacle, accomplishment, and interaction cards, requiring students to justify each match.

4. 04

   Use a modern North American map to trace French, Spanish, Dutch, and English place names that still show settlement patterns.

• USI.5

  The student will apply history and social science skills to explain the social, political, religious, economic, and geographic factors that shaped colonial Amer...

• 2.6

  The student will use history and social science skills to identify the geographic location, use of resources, and contributions of European explorers, and their...

• USI.1

  The student will apply history and social science skills to understand the geography of North America by

• USI.2

  The student will apply history and social science skills to describe how early cultures developed throughout North America by