Virginia SOL VS.9

VS.9 is a Standards of Learning history and social science standard. These are the skills expectations under it.

• VS.9.a

  explaining the importance of railroads, waterways, new industries, and the growth of cities to Virginia’s economic development in the late 1800s

• VS.9.b

  explaining the economic and social transition from a rural society to a more urban society

01

What Students Need to Do

Students trace how rail lines and waterways moved raw materials, goods, and people among farms, factories, ports, and cities. They explain how new jobs changed where Virginians lived and worked.

02

What Mastery Looks Like

Given a map, photo, or short source, a student can build an accurate cause-and-effect chain linking transportation, industry, jobs, and city growth. The student can compare rural farm life with urban wage work.

03

Common Misconceptions

Students may think railroads carried only people, not crops, coal, lumber, and factory goods. They may confuse urban with rural or assume everyone moved to cities. They may describe city growth without connecting it to transportation and jobs.

04

How to Assess It

Show a map with a farm, railroad, factory, river, and city. Ask students to write three linked sentences explaining how transportation could lead to new jobs and city growth.

1. 01

   Have groups connect farm, coal mine, factory, city, and port cards with yarn, then explain how goods and workers move.

2. 02

   Ask students to write: How could a new railroad change jobs, businesses, and daily life in a nearby Virginia town?

3. 03

   Play a cause-and-effect card match using transportation changes, industry growth, city growth, and movement from farms to wage jobs.

4. 04

   Compare a historical Virginia rail map with a current map, then identify towns that grew near rail lines or waterways.

• VS.1

  The student will apply history and social science skills to explain the relationship between physical geography and the lives of Virginia’s peoples, past and pr...

• 1.7

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