5th Grade Historical Literacy Curriculum outlines the content of social-studies integrated units taught within the readers' and writers' workshop framework and taught daily for 90 minutes. Each six week unit contains standards, teaching points, vocabulary, and assessments. Readers' and writers' workshop naturally differentiates for all learners. By June of 2020, each unit will have a slide deck associated with it that contains the teaching points, integrated grammar work, vocabulary, and strategies for partner practice. Our district places careful emphasis on vocabulary, as we have a high percentage of English Language Learners.

This sequence of lessons is based on text-dependent questions that are answered through a close reading of the article, "Girl Power" from the Washington Post's Kids' Post.

This activity offers resources to guide students through lessons on determining whether sites are hoaxes or real, a skill necessary in everyday life.  Students analyze and evaluate using a guided worksheet whether a website passes the criteria.  In the lesson, there are plenty of examples to use as models or a guided reading lesson.  Links and activity are engaging for students.

Help Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus from Exrinction is a website dedicated to the survival of a unique species of octopus - or is it? How can we tell if a website is a credible source? Even if it looks good on the surface, is that information true? Use this website to teach students how to evaluate a website for it's usefulness and credibility.

This website offers a free, reliable, and easily accessible source of information that shows both sides of today's controversial issues. It is created by a nonprofit public charity and has been online since 2004. The mission statement of this site is: "Promoting critical thinking, education, and informed citizenship by presenting controversial issues in a straightforward, nonpartisan, primarily pro-con format." The site follows strict guidelines for bias and strives to ensure that even the graphic and color choices won't sway you to one side of a topic or the other.

Students explore the legal and ethical dimensions of respecting creative work. First, they learn a basic foundation of legal principles and vocabulary related to copyright. They understand how such factors as the rules of copyright law, the values and intent of the original creator, and the audience and purpose should affect their decisions about using the creative work of others. Using the Mad Men Student Handout, students then apply these principles to a simulation activity in which they act as advertising executives who have to choose a photo for an ad campaign.

Students explore the concept of fair use, apply it to case studies, and
create an original work of fair use.
Students learn how to judge whether something is protected by fair use
by using the Four Points of Fair Use Student Handout. They
apply the four points of fair use to two case studies, a remixed video and
a mash-up song, to judge whether or not they fall under fair use.
Students then create an original work of fair use by reworking
copyrighted material to create a collage or a remix video.

Zoom In provides 18 guided lessons on historical events where students focus on reading primary and secondary documents closely, gathering evidence, and writing an argumentative or explanatory essay. Throughout the process students are asked to do the following:
Read documents closely and criticallyIdentify author's point of view and purposeEngage in higher-order, text-based discussionsWrite explanatory and argumentative essays grounded in evidence