Virginia SOL VS.6

VS.6 is a Standards of Learning history and social science standard. These are the skills expectations under it.

• VS.6.a

  explaining the roles of George Washington (known as the “Father of Our Country”), James Madison (known as the “Father of the Constitution”), and Patrick Henry (...

• VS.6.b

  explaining the development of founding Virginia documents, including the Virginia Declaration of Rights (written by George Mason) and the Virginia Statute for R...

• VS.6.c

  describing how principles of these founding Virginia documents inspired the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of Virginia, the Constitution of the U...

• VS.6.d

  explaining how geographical features and technological advances impacted the western movement in the first half of the 1800s

• VS.6.e

  explaining the causes and events of Nat Turner’s Rebellion and how it impacted the institution of slavery

01

What Students Need to Do

Students explain how Washington led the new nation, Madison helped shape its government, and Henry's liberty speech supported independence. They trace Mason's ideas about rights and Jefferson's ideas about religious freedom into later state and national documents. They use maps and cause and effect evidence to explain westward movement and Nat Turner's Rebellion, including the harsher slavery laws that followed.

02

What Mastery Looks Like

A student can match each Virginian to a contribution and explain why it mattered. They can connect rights and religious freedom to specific later state and national documents. Given a map or source, they can explain western movement and sequence the causes, events, and effects of the rebellion.

03

Common Misconceptions

Students often swap Mason and Jefferson, assume Madison wrote the Constitution alone, or treat Henry's speech as a law. They may see mountains and rivers only as barriers, missing how waterways, roads, canals, steamboats, and railroads opened routes west. They may think Nat Turner's Rebellion ended slavery, rather than leading Virginia lawmakers to tighten controls on enslaved and free Black people.

04

How to Assess It

Give students a four-box exit ticket: explain one leader's contribution, connect one Virginia idea to a later document, explain one factor in western movement, and list one cause and one effect of Nat Turner's Rebellion.

1. 01

   Lay yarn routes across a printed eastern United States map, adding mountain, river, road, canal, steamboat, and railroad cards to revise routes.

2. 02

   Read a brief account of Nat Turner's Rebellion, then write one cause, two events, and one effect on Virginia's slavery laws.

3. 03

   Play a card match game pairing each Virginian or Virginia document with a contribution, principle, or later influence.

4. 04

   Read your district's religious observance policy, then compare its protections with Jefferson's argument for freedom of belief.

• 1.7

  The student will apply history and social science skills to connect geography to historic events of Virginia and the United States by

• VS.5

  The student will apply history and social science skills to explain Virginia and Virginians’ role during the American Revolution by

• 1.4

  The student will apply history and social science skills to understand Virginia’s history by

• VS.4

  The student will apply history and social science skills to understand life in the Virginia colony by