Virginia SOL WG.3.c
The Standard
analyzing cultural influences and landscapes
Virginia Standards of Learning for History and Social Science · The student will analyze the characteristics of the regions of the United States and Canada by
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students identify cultural features such as language, religion, food, architecture, settlement patterns, and place names. They explain how migration, history, and environment shaped those features across regions.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students use maps, photographs, and data to compare the cultural landscapes of two regions. They support each comparison with specific evidence and explain a likely cultural influence.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may treat culture as only food, clothing, or holidays. They may assume everyone within a region shares one culture or confuse physical features with human-made landscapes.
How to Assess It
- Show a photograph of a regional landscape and ask: "Name two cultural features and explain one influence that helped shape them."
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give groups regional photo cards to sort by language, architecture, settlement, and land use, then have them defend two placements.
Ask students to write which cultural influence has most shaped their region, using two visible examples as evidence.
Play a region matching game with cards showing place names, languages, buildings, foods, and settlement patterns.
Use an online street map to compare two cities and record evidence of migration, language, architecture, and land use.
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