Virginia SOL VS.11

Social Studies4th GradeVirginia: 1900 to Present

SOL Standard (Skills Cluster)

The student will apply history and social science skills to understand the Civil Rights Movement in Virginia by explaining the social and political events connected to disenfranchisement of African American voters in Virginia in the early 20th century, desegregation, court decisions, and Massive Resistance, with emphasis on the role of Virginians in the Supreme Court cases including, but not limited to Brown v. Board of Education; and investigating the political, social, and economic effects of choices made during the Civil Rights Era by Virginians including, but not limited to Maggie Walker, Robert Russa Moton, Barbara Johns, Samuel Wilbert Tucker, Oliver W. Hill, Sr., Irene Morgan, Arthur R. Ashe, A. Linwood Holton, Jr., and L. Douglas Wilder.

Virginia Standards of Learning for History and Social Science

Cluster contents

Skills in This Standard

VS.11 is a Standards of Learning history and social science standard. These are the skills expectations under it.

Teacher's field guide

What This Cluster Means

What Students Need to Do

Students explain how poll taxes, literacy tests, and segregation limited the rights of Black Virginians. They connect protests, lawsuits, court rulings, and state resistance. They examine how individual Virginians changed schools, voting, public life, and economic opportunities.

What Mastery Looks Like

Students can place major events in order and explain how one event led to another. Given a person or primary source, they can identify the action taken and describe a political, social, or economic result.

Common Misconceptions

Students may think the Brown ruling caused Virginia schools to integrate immediately. They may confuse Massive Resistance with civil rights protests rather than state efforts to block integration. They may also assume all leaders worked together during the same years.

How to Assess It

Give students four cards: poll tax, Barbara Johns's strike, the Brown ruling, and Prince Edward school closures. Have them order the cards and write two cause-and-effect sentences.

Lesson moves

Ways to Teach It

  1. Give pairs person, event, and outcome cards to match, then have them connect the matches with yarn on a floor timeline.

  2. Ask students to write: Why did the Brown ruling not bring immediate school integration across Virginia?

  3. Run a cause-and-effect relay where teams match voting barriers, protests, court rulings, state responses, and later changes.

  4. Compare a historical Virginia poll tax receipt with a current voter registration form, then list who could participate under each system.

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Printable VS.11 Worksheet

Preview of the VS.11 printable worksheet

A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to VS.11, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.

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