Humanities

All Kindergarten students participate in Wilson Fundations as our adopted early literacy learning program.  

Please click here to review Kindergarten Fundations Curriculum Outcomes.

Fundations is taught everyday, all year to ensure student growth and literacy success!
 

To see more about Fundations, please visit www.wilsonlanguage.com/programs/fundations/

Unit 1:  My Communities and Me 

Enduring Understandings:

• Citizens examine the need for rules and consequences. 
• Citizens have roles, rights and responsibilities.
• Communities are important, and citizen involvement is key to effective communities.

Students Will Do:

• Play with images, pictures, and objects to develop story-telling capabilities.
• Participate in role-playing scenarios in order to tell a new story or retell a story they have heard.
• Work together as a community (decision making, rules, improvement of life quality, taking care of each other and resources, sharing).
• Know and understand that we have school and classroom norms that help our communities work together.
• Learn about and explain the members of communities and describe their roles and responsibilities (people in authority, community members).
• Learn about individuals and groups who have shaped history and significant historical changes (holidays, civic movements).
• Identify and understand the reasons for events in the past.
• Generate questions in response to reading and listening.
• Respond to others when in discussion (whole class, small group, partner).
• Respond to texts or peers using evidence/support for individual ideas.
• Explain purpose for rules.
• Explain how people work together and improve communities.
• Identify benefits of making decisions and make good decisions.

Click Connecticut Core Standards for English Language Arts and Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks to learn more.
 

Unit 2:  We are Readers & Writers

Enduring Understandings:

• Good readers think about what they are reading/hearing read to them.
• Readers use print to read, notice details, and understand.
• Readers and writers think of themselves as readers and writers through daily immersion in authentic reading and writing experiences. 
• Readers and writers talk, draw, and write about the world around them.                              
• Writers observe and study real things (like leaves) and draw and write lots of details to teach others.
• Writers study and learn from books they read and try some of those things in their own writing.

Students Will Do:

• Continue to develop early concepts about print, including:
  • Following words from left to right, top to bottom, and page by page
  • Recognizing that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of letters
  • Understanding that words are separated by spaces in print
  • Recognizing and naming all upper- and lowercase letters
  • Demonstrating the basic features of print (handwriting)
• Understand the routines and structures of the Reading Workshop.
• Work collaboratively with reading partners.
• Utilize pictures and words to learn and talk about information.
• Utilize story language and narrative structure to “read” familiar emergent story books.
• Gather information from stories to answer questions from the teacher and peers.
• Use sounds and letters to write labels and record learning.
• Choose topics by interest.
• Work together to research topics.
• Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
• Identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.
• Describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text.
• Use knowledge of sounds and letters to convey thinking in writing.
• Play with images, pictures, and objects to develop story-telling capabilities.
• Participate in role-playing scenarios in order to tell a new story or retell a story they have heard.
• Identify the routines and structures of Writing Workshop, especially how to independently access and use materials needed (ie. folders, paper choice, pens, date stamp, revision tools, etc.).
• Identify the structure of how stories are told, including an understanding of story elements such as characters and plot.
• Study pictures closely to notice more details and understand stories.
• Tell a story to match the pictures you created or curated.
• Talk with others about what you have “read.”
• “Read” and “reread” by looking closely at books that are well-known to tell stories.
• Determine how the character in a story feels.
• Connect writing and storytelling to one topic and go in order from beginning to end.
• Cycle through the steps of the writing process (think of a topic, plan out loud, draw, revise to add more specificity/detail, and edit).
• Draw detailed pictures to represent a topic and story.
• Listen and record sounds to label and write words.
• Revise writing by adding more information and detail to pictures and/or labels and words.
• Edit/make changes to pictures to clarify meaning.
   

Click Connecticut Core Standards for English Language Arts and Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks to learn more.

Unit 3: My Family & Me and Reading & Writing More

Enduring Understandings:

• The past is represented through a sequence of events.
• People from the past can be alike and different from people today.
• Families are unique.  
• Experiences shape who we are today (family, home, school).
• Places change over time (my community, my house, my school).
• Writers draw and write sentences that tell a true story.
• Writers revise to make their stories more fun to read.
• Readers use what they know about letters and sounds to read new words.
• Readers use pictures to help them understand new words.
• Readers think about what’s happening in a story and why.
• Readers talk about stories

Students Will Do:

• Compare family life today and in the recent past.
• Explore and explain how personal experiences shape individuals and families.  
• Explore: How does my family’s past affect me today?
• Explore: Were people in the past the same as people today?
• Study the perspectives of people in the past and in the present.
• Review and understand that different kinds of historical sources can be used to study the past
• Gather information from historical sources in order to teach others
• Make claims/take a stance and use evidence to support claims/stance
• Use a variety of tools, such as a word wall, partners, and checklists to write for readers.
• Revise and edit prior to publication, ensuring--
  • Clear and detailed pictures
  • Descriptive labels
  • Multiple letters and words
  • Spaces between words
  • Punctuation at the end of sentences 
• Ask questions to clarify meaning.
• Use mentor texts to learn how to write and ending that includes a strong feeling. 
• Understand and use sound-symbol relationships to extend their knowledge of letters and sounds to read unknown words.  
• Integrate previously learned reading patterns and skills to read and understand more challenging books.
• Use letter-sound knowledge to read unknown words..
• Use the whole picture to better understand what is happening in stories/books.
• Retell books, with a partner, using the story’s structure.
• Learn to be flexible and independent problem solvers.
• Reread texts for meaning.
• Read with a partner to check for understanding.

Click Connecticut Core Standards for English Language Arts and Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks to learn more.

Unit 4: Nonfiction Reading and Writing 

Enduring Understandings:

• Readers and writers question the world around them
• Readers read for pleasure and to learn new information.
• Readers read nonfiction texts differently than how they read fiction/stories.
• Writers choose their words carefully.
• Readers know books can make you think more about something you already know.
• Writers teach others about things by writing information books.
• Writers write and revise.
• Writers tell everything they know about a topic.
• Writers use text features to help readers understand a topic.

Students Will Do:

• Apply strategies to read nonfiction texts with understanding.
  • Ask questions before, during, and after reading (I wonder why…? Where does…? What is this…?)
  • Compare and contrast the information on different pages
  • Collect "expert" words from nonfiction text to improve comprehension. 
• Read nonfiction to learn about topics of interest.
• Read with a partner and share “wow” pages in order to learn more about a topic.
• Read multiple texts about one topic to learn more about the topic.
• Read about a topic and ask the author questions.
• Combine learning from more than one text.
• Compare and contrast information in multiple books. 
• Synthesize information from pictures and words in order to better understand the topics they're reading about. 
• Teach someone else about an interesting topic using pictures.
• Before writing, generate a list of multiple topics.
• Write about one thing at a time.
• Plan before you write.
• When writing, explain a different fact on each page. 
• When writing, make sure you write about everything in your picture/s.
• When writing, make the ending count!  Endings in nonfiction texts can--
  • Sum up the main idea
  • Bring all the separate information together on one page
  • Ask the reader to do something
• Talk to peers and act things out to explore different topics of interest. 
• Teach about a topic by writing words and drawing pictures on multiple pages.
• Use text features to improve reading comprehension and nonfiction writing (captions, images, diagrams, charts, labels, bold words, titles, subtitles).

Click Connecticut Core Standards for English Language Arts and Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks to learn more.

Unit 5: Reading & Persuasive Writing

Enduring Understandings:

• Reading is an interactive process.
• We read to learn new information and write to share information.
• Avid readers think and talk about stories, nonfiction texts, and poetry.
• Readers and writers learn about and react to nonfiction books.
• Writers can persuade readers using reasons and consequences. 
• We can use our words to make changes in the world.
• Writers use pictures to tell stories.
• Writers choose their words carefully.
   

Students Will Do:

• Play reading games to reinforce early literacy skills. 
• Think about, talk about, and participate in role-playing to bring books to life. 
• Monitor your understanding of what you read.
• Develop and maintain stamina and focus while reading. 
• Use words effectively to make positive change in the world.
• Before writing, generate a list of multiple topics.
• Write about one thing at a time.
• Plan before you write.
• Make lists, signs, and petitions, using words and pictures.  
• Convince an audience of their opinion. 
• Provide reasons and consequences to convince people. 
• When writing, explain a different fact on each page. 
• When writing, make sure you write about everything in your picture/s.
• When writing, make the ending count!  
• Talk to peers and act things out to explore different topics of interest. 
• Teach about a topic by writing words and drawing pictures on multiple pages.
• Use text features to improve reading comprehension and nonfiction writing (captions, images, diagrams, charts, labels, bold words, titles, subtitles).

Click Connecticut Core Standards for English Language Arts and Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks to learn more.

Unit 6: My Place & Me

Enduring Understandings:

• Maps and globes are used for many reasons.  
• Weather and seasonal changes affect how people live.
• My community has physical features and specific types of weather.
• Weather influences our homes, our activities, and how our community works.
• Readers apply strategies when they get stuck, and they do not give up.
• Readers read with accuracy, expression, and fluency.
• Readers improve their fluency by rereading stories and texts.
   

Students Will Do:

• Explore the following ideas:
  • How does the geography and weather where I live affect my life?
  • How is my life the same or different from the lives of others in different places?
  • What does my family do differently during different seasons?
  • How does my family use maps?
  • How do we use maps and globes to learn about the world?
  • What are the key features of any map?
  • Why do different places on a map look different? 
• Apply the concepts of directionality, spatial relationship, and size.  
• Explain how maps, globes, photographs and other representations document places (they may show physical relationships, interactions, cultural and environmental characteristics).
• Know how weather, climate, and other environmental characteristics affect people’s lives in places or regions.
• Construct maps and graphs.
• Describe the relationships between various places and regions.
• Identify cultural and environmental characteristics.
• Explain how weather and climate affect people’s lives.
• Use strategies to figure out the hard parts--
  • Notice when you are stuck.
  • Ask yourself, “Does this look right?” “Does this sound right?” “Does this word make sense?”
  • Talk to a peer/reading partner.
    • What do you already know about this story/topic?
    • What part is tricky?  Why is this part tricky?
    • How else could you figure out what this word/part means?
  • Use resources such as context and pictures to figure out hard parts
• Preview a book/text before reading (front cover, back cover, first page, flip through the pictures, predict what they book/text will be about).
• Read with a purpose in mind, and retell stories to check for meaning.
• Reread stories to improve fluency.
• Help partners get unstuck and fix errors when reading and writing.
• Read aloud and in your head with expression and fluency.
• Read a story multiple times to make sure you understand everything the writer is trying to convey.

Click Connecticut Core Standards for English Language Arts and Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks to learn more.

All first-grade students participate in Wilson Fundations as our adopted early literacy learning program.  

Please click here to review Grade 1 Fundations Curriculum Outcomes.

Fundations is taught everyday, all year to ensure student growth and literacy success!
 

To see more about Fundations, please visit www.wilsonlanguage.com/programs/fundations/

Unit 1: Citizenship in Our Community + Writing How-To Books

Enduring Understandings:

• Communities have rules.
• Sometimes rules change over time to help communities be a better place to live. 
• There is a relationship between the roles of citizens and the functioning of a community.
• Rules help the community be a better place to live
• You can help make your community a better place to live.
• Writers teach others about things they know to do well. 
• Writers develop each step of the writing process.
• Writers learn to do different types of writing.
• Writers can use diagrams and words to teach people how to do something, step by step.
   

Students Will Do:

• Describe how a community is a group of people with something in common.
• Identify and understand everyone belongs to a number of communities.
• Follow and understand the importance of rules at home, school, and in my community.
• Know that people have roles and responsibilities in the communities of which we are members.
• Understand people in authority in your home and school community have roles and responsibilities.
• Identify ways in which actions affect others who live in a community.
• Write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure.
• Participate in shared research and writing projects (e.g., explore a number of "how-to" books on a given topic and use them to write a sequence of instructions).
• With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question. 
• Use a combination of words and pictures to represent ideas.
• Generate writing ideas independently and expand upon them through thoughtful collaboration with their peers.  
• Study craft moves from mentor texts to enhance their writing. 
• Write a book to teach others.
• Plan their books across pages.
• Sketch and write.
• Collaborate with writing partners to make sure their writing is clearly written. 
• Apply grade appropriate language conventions in their writing.

Click Connecticut Core Standards for English Language Arts and Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks to learn more.
 

Unit 2:  Building Good Literacy Habits

Enduring Understandings:

• Readers develop habits for reading more and more books and for longer periods of time.
• Readers tackle hard words in their books.
• Reading partners build good habits for reading and talking about books together.
• Writers choose topics, plan, and write stories about moments from their lives.
• Writers bring their stories to life.
• Writers learn from other writers.
   

Students Will Do:

• Participate in collaborative conversations about texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.
• Retell stories by including only key details and describe characters and settings in a story.
• Identify and explain the central message or lesson of a text.
• Recognize the distinguishing features of a sentence (first word, capitalization, ending punctuation).
• Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds.
• Use knowledge that every syllable must have a vowel sound to determine the number of syllables in a printed word.
• Begin to spell untaught words phonetically, drawing on phonemic awareness and spelling conventions.
• Read independently for longer periods of time.
• Demonstrate perseverance when text presents as difficult.
• Write narratives to recount two or more appropriately sequenced events, include some details regarding what happened, use words to signal event order, and provide closure.
• Use a combination of words and pictures to represent ideas. 
• Study craft moves from mentor texts to enhance their writing. 
• Edit and revise writing with support of mentor texts.
   

Click Connecticut Core Standards for English Language Arts and Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks to learn more.

Unit 3:  Reading & Writing Nonfiction + Social Studies: Home, School & Community

Enduring Understandings:

• Readers read to learn. 
• Readers solve hard words in their books in order to keep reading and learning.
• Readers make their reading voices sound like experts.
• Writers write a lot.
• Writers revise and edit their work.
• Writers organize information to teach all about a topic.
• People’s past actions and beliefs can influence and change our community. 
• You can make a difference in your community.
   

Students Will Do:

• Identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.
• Describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text.
• Know and use various text features (e.g., headings, tables of contents, glossaries, electronic menus, icons) to locate key facts or information in a text.
• Pay attention to craft and structure to enhance fluency. 
• Linger on each page.
• Study the information in photographs and illustrations.
• Read smaller print like labels and captions.
• Distinguish between information provided by pictures or other illustrations and information provided by the words in a text.
• Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts, including using frequently occurring conjunctions to signal simple relationships (e.g., because).
• Write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure.
• Do research by conducting interviews, studying photographs, and asking questions of “experts.”
• Apply appropriate punctuation skills in order to influence the way the reader reads their piece. 
• Utilize a checklist in order to self-assess their work and set goals for themselves.
• Determine what information is critical to their piece and take out the examples or information that does not fit.
• Compare life in the past to life today.
• Study and Explain:
  • What were communities like in the past? 
  • Why are communities changing? What changes them? 
  • What causes people to want change in their communities?
  • What are ways that people influence change?
  • Where can you go to find important information about things that happened in the past in your community?
     

Click Connecticut Core Standards for English Language Arts and Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks to learn more.

Unit 4: Readers and Writers Have Big Jobs (Writing Reviews) 

Enduring Understandings:

• Readers take charge of their own reading to solve problems.
• Readers are flexible when using strategies to solve a reading challenge.
• Readers self-monitor as they read.
• Readers use everything they know to solve and check hard words.
• Readers make sure they understand what they are reading.
• Opinion writers elaborate on reasons by writing information to persuade others to agree with their opinion. 
• Writers write about things they like (and don’t like) to convince others.
• Opinion writers work quickly and smartly to publish pieces that will affect others
   

Students Will Do:

• Think about what is happening in the story to solve a problem with an unknown word.
• Integrate all three cueing systems as they read (meaning, structure, and visual).
• Think about what is happening in the story to search for meaning.
• Envision the scene as they are reading, using the pictures and the words to make a movie in their minds.
• Reread to improve fluency and comprehension.
• Build on others' talk in conversations by responding to the comments of others through multiple exchanges.
• Ask questions to clear up any confusion about the topics and texts under discussion.
• Know that opinions are different from facts and must be supported by reasons.
• Convince others of an opinion by crafting a clear and meaningful piece of writing.
• Include introductions and conclusions that grab the reader's attention and talk in a persuasive voice. 
• Read writing to partners with feelings to check for varied (and suitable) end punctuation.
   

Click Connecticut Core Standards for English Language Arts and Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks to learn more.

Unit 5:  Our Needs as a Community & Geography 

Enduring Understandings:

• Needs and wants affect how we live.
• Maps tell us about the communities where we live.
• People’s lives are different based on where they live.  
• Different types of maps, graphs, and globes represent places in various ways.
   

Students Will Do:

• Explore the difference between wants and needs and how a lack of resources affects everyone. 
• Analyze basic functions of earning/spending and the role of money while broadening their perspective of the world.
• Examine map features and functions while drawing conclusions and comparing various locations.
• Explore man-made and geographical landforms and how we use and need maps.
• Needs are things people must have to live; wants are things people can live without.
• Your needs and wants affect the decisions you make. 
• A good is a thing that is made or grown. A service is work that someone does for someone else.
• The goods and services are produced locally in different communities.
• People earn money by working in various jobs.
• Community helpers affect our community.
• We use maps, graphs and globes as geographic tools.
• Maps, graphs, or other geographical tools represent familiar places and help you find your way. 
• Weather and climate affect the environment and people's lives.
• Build on others' talk in conversations by responding to the comments of others through multiple exchanges.
• Ask questions to clear up any confusion about the topics and texts under discussion.
• Analyze a text to identify the main topic.
• Know and use various text features (e.g., headings, tables of contents, glossaries, electronic menus, icons) to locate key facts or information in a text.
• Distinguish between information provided by pictures or other illustrations and information provided by the words in a text.
   

Click Connecticut Core Standards for English Language Arts and Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks to learn more.

Unit 6: Fiction Reading & Writing

Enduring Understandings: 

• Readers read make inferences and connections to better understand a story. 
• Readers study the characters, setting, and story events to better understand what is happening.
• Readers discover the lessons stories teach.
• Writers invent characters and take those characters on many different adventures. 
• Writers plan and write stories about pretend characters.
• Writers sometimes develop a series of books about a pretend character.
• Writers get ready to publish.

Students Will Do:

• Build meaning before, during, and after reading. 
• Understand rereading is important in order to notice details readers miss the first time around. 
• Know how characters feel and how and why those feelings change across a story. 
• Consider the lessons characters learn. 
• Connect the pages together as they read, noticing how parts fit together (i.e. with the title of the story, or the title of the chapter, or the details from the blurb, or the big problem in the story).
• Infer the lessons characters learn in a story.
• Act out and tell the story as part of the oral rehearsal process. 
• Write a series based on a new character or one they have already written about. 
• Experiment with many different characters. 
• "Show, Not Tell" by focusing on tiny realistic details. 
• Include chapters to make sure their pieces have a clear beginning, middle and end. 
• Use patterns in their series writing to elaborate.
• Self-assess, revise, and edit using writing checklists.
• Reflect and set goals for their writing. 
• Produce multiple fiction stories. 
• Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson.
• Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.
• Identify words and phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses.
• Compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in stories

Click Connecticut Core Standards for English Language Arts and Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks to learn more.

Second grade students at Cos Cob School, Hamilton Avenue School, Julian Curtiss School, and New Lebanon School participate in Wilson Fundations as the adopted early literacy learning program.  

Please click here to review Grade 2 Fundations Curriculum Outcomes.

Fundations is taught everyday, all year to ensure student growth and literacy success!
To see more about Fundations, please visit www.wilsonlanguage.com/programs/fundations/

*COMING 2021-2022*
All second grade students across GPS will participate in Wilson Fundations as our adopted early literacy program.

Unit 1:  Rights and Responsibilities of Citizens

Enduring Understandings:

1. Authors choose their words carefully in order to convey specific meaning/s within a story/text
2. A story has a beginning, middle, and end
3. Stories can teach readers a lesson about life
4. You are a citizen.
5. Citizens have rights, responsibilities and roles.
6. American ideas impact your community.  
7. Everyone is responsible for promoting democratic principles
    

Students Will Do:

• Identify what the author wants the reader to learn from a story (fiction) and text (nonfiction)
• Retell a story/text in sequential order
• Describe the beginning, middle, and end of a story/text
• Use known root words/ word families
• Reread in order to confirm or self-correct word meaning/s
• Read fiction and nonfiction texts with improved fluency and comprehension
• Explain what it means to be a “good” citizen in class, at school, and in town
• Understand how American ideas such as equality, liberty, and fairness, impact my class, school and town
• Explain how are people who uphold American ideas are like me, my family, and my class
   

Click Connecticut Core Standards for English Language Arts and Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks to learn more.

Unit 2: Growing Readers & Writers

Enduring Understandings:

• Writers are able to effectively interest a variety of audiences on different informational topics. 
• Writing has many purposes (to entertain, inform, persuade, and express emotions and feelings) depending on the audience.
• Readers use strategies to understand what they are reading.
• Readers are resilient.
• Writers use craft language to appeal to a reader’s senses.
• Readers “see” what they’re reading in their mind
• Readers use meaning, structure, and visual information to make sure they understand what they read.
• Readers self-monitor for meaning (rereading, pausing, searching the page for clues).
• Readers make attempts and check their attempts in order to decode tricky words
   

Students Will Do:

• Demonstrate a deeper understanding by using dey details to create a movie in their mind
• Create illustrations to explain the movie in their mind
• Use word-attack strategies independently in order to improve reading comprehension
• Engage with a text in order to understand it more deeply 
• Employ strategies to improve comprehension
• Write narratives to recount an event or short sequence of events, include details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings, use transition words, and provide a sense of closure
• Focus on a topic and strengthen writing as needed by revising and editing
• Answer open-ended questions by recalling information from experiences and gathering information from provided sources 
• Use adjectives and adverbs to describe
• Use events from you own life to get ideas for stories
• Replicate an author's style (from a favorite book or story)
• Study of how people both past and present have made a difference in their community and beyond
• Develop insights and make comparisons across a book series 
• Write about your ideas and support your ideas with reasons 
• Generate thoughts and ideas that can be supported with examples from the text 
• Organize ideas so they are clear and easy for the reader to follow
• Use transition words
   

Click Connecticut Core Standards for English Language Arts and Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks to learn more.

Unit 3: People & Groups We Remember + Writing Nonfiction

Enduring Understandings:

• Readers grow their knowledge about a topic when they read multiple texts on the same topic.
• Just as readers can learn from books, writers can teach others.
• Writers use details to clearly share their message.
• People can make a difference in their community in a variety of ways.
• Perspectives differ based on personal and lived experiences.
   

Students Will Do:

• Read texts to learn about a topic
• Use text features such as headings, to figure out what the text is mostly about, the main topic and key details
• Be flexible and persistent when solving words, understanding concepts, and learning domain specific vocabulary
• Preview texts to determine the topic of the book
• Compare and contrast information within a text and across multiple texts
• Write! Write! Write several mini nonfiction books
• Teacher peers about a favorite topic through their writing
• Write with clear details
• Prepare to write by generating ideas and organizing information
• Use and create Tables of Contents
• Study how people both past and present have made a difference in their community and beyond
• Explore and explain:
  • What does it mean to make a difference? 
  • How do people make a difference in their class, school, and town?
  • How do what people do in their jobs contribute to the community?
• Create chronological sequence to explain historical events
• Generate questions in order to information you are seeking
• Explain people’s perspectives and or why they differ or are the same
• Explain human impact on places
   

Click Connecticut Core Standards for English Language Arts and Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks to learn more.

Unit 4: Nonfiction Reading & Writing

Enduring Understandings:

• Nonfiction readers understand more about a topic by reading more books about the topic.
• Readers talk about what they are learning from books.
• Writers pose questions and seek to answer those questions.
• Writers communicate clearly, so others can learn from their writing.

Students Will Do:

• Read more complex texts that provide more information and detail, in order to grow bigger ideas about texts, topics, and author’s craft
• Compare and contrast ideas across texts
• Take turns sharing information, listen to each other, and respond in relevant ways to grow their ideas about a topic beyond fact sharing
• Think and then revise their thinking when reading independently and after talking with their clubs.
• Use what they already know how to do to build on the new nonfiction reading and writing work
• Use tools to  keep track of the knowledge they are gaining and the ideas they are growing 
• Study science books as a model to recreate this genre of writing
• Understand that a scientist must ask and record a question
• Reflect and internalize scientific procedures and writing processes so you can teach others 
• Understand that precise writing procedures are important so your experiments can be replicated
• Write with domain-specific vocabulary 
• Revising to include new vocabulary.
• Write an information book that teaches readers all about a topic that the writer knows well
   

Click Connecticut Core Standards for English Language Arts and Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks to learn more.

Unit 5: Readers as Writers

Enduring Understandings:

• Good readers reread to better understand what they are reading.
• Readers notice when an author uses special language to enhance the reader’s experience.
• Readers visualize and predict while they read.
• Readers read with voice and meaning even when they are reading silently.
• Writers are able to effectively interest a variety of audiences on different informational topics. 
• Writing has many purposes (to entertain, inform, persuade, and express emotions and feelings) depending on the audience.
   

Students Will Do:

• Tackle new vocabulary and tricky words with greater effort and skill
• Visualize and make predictions about the characters and the story
• Explain the importance of the details in a story
• Participate in book clubs to reflect on what we are learning 
• Read with voice and meaning
• Identify and use the special language that authors use in their text to better visualize
• Re-read in order to better understand a story or topic
• Question what you read and why the author made certain decisions
• Study an author’s word choices 
• Read texts closely and consider what an author might be trying to show or do through his or her word choice and use of literary language 
• Share your opinions and love of books with others 
• Read to learn about writing

Click Connecticut Core Standards for English Language Arts and Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks to learn more.

Unit 6: Remembering the Past  + Nonfiction Book Clubs

Enduring Understandings:

• Nonfiction readers understand more about a topic by reading more books about the topic.
• Readers talk about what they are learning from books.
• Writers pose questions and seek to answer those questions.
• Events occur in chronological order.
• People have tried to improve their communities over time.
• Places have specific environmental and cultural characteristics.
• Humans affect the culture and environment of places/region.
   

Students Will Do:

• Read more complex texts that provide more information and detail, in order to grow bigger ideas about texts, topics, and author’s craft
• Compare and contrast ideas across texts
• Take turns sharing information, listen to each other, and respond in relevant ways to grow their ideas about a topic beyond fact sharing
• Think and then revise their thinking when reading independently and after talking with their clubs.
• Use what they already know how to do to build on the new nonfiction reading and writing work
• Use tools to  keep track of the knowledge they are gaining and the ideas they are growing 
• Explore how communities evolve as time and culture progress
• Compare life past and present and how people tell the same story differently
• Generate questions and reasons for events
• Identify sources and origins of sources
• Use geographic representations to identify places
• Explain human impact on places
   

Click Connecticut Core Standards for English Language Arts and Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks to learn more.

Unit 7: Series Book Clubs & Writing Poetry 

Enduring Understandings:

• Stories have rhythms and predictable patterns.
• Reading helps us stretch our imagination.
• Poetry is inspired by objects and feelings transferred into words.
• Line breaks and word placement are essential in poetry.
• Poetry can take many forms, story poems, back and forth structure, and list poems.
• Poets revise their poems for careful language, edit and celebrate their poems in many ways.

Students Will Do:

• Develop insights and make comparisons across a book series 
• Write about your ideas and support your ideas with reasons 
• Use partnerships and clubs to talk across texts and to build an understanding of story and character
• Read texts closely and consider what an author might be trying to show or do through his or her word choice and use of literary language
• Read with voice and meaning
• Iidentify and use the special language that authors use in their text to better visualize
• Re-read in order to better understand a story or topic
• Use line breaks to create the rhythms and phrasing for their poems
• Draft one poem several ways
• Edit their poems for spelling
• Understand how poets use language to convey meaning
• Think deeply about their word choice to find words that convey the meanings of their poems
• Understand how poets use repetition to convey meanings or feelings
• Read their poems aloud to a partner to find opportunities for revision
• Study the structure of poems to replicate what other authors have tried
   

Click Connecticut Core Standards for English Language Arts and Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks to learn more.

Unit 8: Writing Gripping Fictional Stories 

Enduring Understandings:

• Writers use craft language to appeal to a reader’s senses.
• Sequence is an important part of story-telling
• Authors choose their words carefully in order to convey specific meaning/s within a story/text
• Writers carefully develop characters by showing how they respond to major events and challenges

Students Will Do:

• Study author’s craft to improve your own writing
• Understand story structure and use that understanding to determine the components of a good short story
• Use language to denote the passage of time
• Write a conclusion that brings the story together
• Stretch out the most important part of a story (focus)
• Write like a known author, practicing craft
• Revise writing with peers
• Publish writing
• Write stories to recount an event or short sequence of events, include details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings, use transition words, and provide a sense of closure
• Focus on a scene and strengthen writing as needed by revising and editing
• Use events from you own life to get ideas for stories

Click Connecticut Core Standards for English Language Arts and Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks to learn more.

Unit 1: Building a Reading Life + Crafting True Stories

Enduring Understandings:

• Readers make sense of complex texts.
• Readers study characters, story structures, and textual clues, in order to develop a clearer, more in depth understanding of text. 
• Participating in a structured writing workshop can support writers in creating their best work. 
• Writing is more about a process than a final product. 
• Writers create with an audience in mind. 
• Understanding narrative structure and craft helps writers craft strong narratives.
• Writers are storytellers.
   

Students Will Do:

• Identify the certain elements of books which require more attention than others.
• Interact with texts by asking questions and making comments.
• Predict and retell a text to support an understanding of text.
• Discuss texts with peers serves to deepen understanding.
• Respond thoughtfully in writing and talk about books.
• Interpret stories using key details from the text including characters, setting, problem, turning point, solution, conclusion, and plot.
• Analyze texts through discussion with peers to deepen understanding.
• Use feedback from peers and adults to support developing work.
• Develop and strengthen written work through planning, and then continuous revising and editing.
• Draw on strategies consistently and flexibly to craft a successful piece of writing.
• Craft narratives that consist of descriptive details, clear event sequences, introductions, and organizational sequences.
• Co-construct an interactive and trusting writing community.
• Develop stamina, fluency, and confidence as writers.
• Apply the writing process to plan, develop, and publish a piece independently.
• Write several small moment stories using a variety of strategies.
• Revise on an ongoing basis using craft techniques (engaging leads and endings, dialogue, descriptions of actions and feelings in writing).
   

Click Connecticut Core Standards for English Language Arts and Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks to learn more.

Unit 2:  Geography & Economy + Informational Reading & Writing

Enduring Understandings:

• Readers learn through reading.
• Readers look for text structures that can support new learning. 
• Readers grow their own ideas through reading, writing, and talking with peers. 
• Cultural and environmental characteristics affect distribution and movement of people, goods, and ideas.
• Human settlements and movements relate to locations and the use of natural resources.
• KEnvironmental and technological events affect human settlements and migration.
• Writers make thoughtful decisions when collecting, organizing and presenting factual information to an audience. 
• Writers also choose an organizational structure and adhere to it when crafting their informational writing. 
• Writer’s craft decisions are made with an audience in mind.

Students Will Do:

• Generate, ask, and answer questions to deepen understanding text.
• Understand how authors present their own point of view and compare it to your own.
• Read information in both illustrations and text.
• Gather and compare & contrast information from multiple nonfiction texts (print and graphics).
• Ask questions and locate answers within text by consulting multiple texts, if necessary.
• Locate the main idea of a text and locate supporting details, as well.
• Use text features and search tools (e.g., key words, sidebars, hyperlinks) to locate information and grow ideas.
• Distinguish your own point of view from that of the author of a text.
• Compare and contrast the most important points and key details presented in two texts on the same topic.
• Understand, identify, and analyze causes and effects of events.
• Use maps to describe and explain relationships between places and their characteristics.
• Explain trade between individuals and businesses
• Construct maps
• Explain cultural and environmental characteristics
• Explain human and settlements
• Select and evaluate sources
• Make claim statements to construct arguments and support with explanations
• Construct expository paragraphs that are research based with topic sentences and factual details that support each topic sentence.
• Use transitions.
• Create text features when useful to aid reader comprehension.
• Comprehend informational articles by analyzing text structures and identifying how information is purposefully organized.
• Understand articles are carefully developed using information from various multimedia sources.
• Use correct citations when researching and embedding research.
• Develop a consistent note-taking system and use the notes to develop articles.
• Put information learned in your own words (paraphrase).
• Structure articles and group related information.
• Use information from various multimedia sources.
• Develop and strengthen writing by planning, simultaneously drafting and revising, and editing for publication.
   

Click Connecticut Core Standards for English Language Arts and Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks to learn more.

Unit 3:  History of Govt in Greenwich & Persuasive Writing

Enduring Understandings:

• Governmental decisions are made at the local, state, and federal level and have changed overtime.
• Rules and laws are important for our society.
• The United States is a democracy.
• Connecticut people and geography have changed over time.
• Writers convey their opinions in order to inspire their readers to behave or think differently.
• Writers present their opinion about a cause in a way that will inspire the audience to do something or think differently.
• Opinion writing includes essays but also petitions, editorials, and persuasive letters.
   

Students Will Do:

• Know that Government officials at various levels and branches of government and in different times and places have different responsibilities and powers.
• Understand that a democracy relies on people’s responsible participation.  
• Explain the implications for how individuals should participate in a democracy.
• Describe how rules and laws change society and that people change rules and laws.
• Explain which groups of people make rules in order to protect freedoms and create responsibilities.
• Know policies are developed to address current public problems.  
• Explain how life in other historical time periods is different than life today.
• Use different kinds of historical sources to explain events in the past.
• Determine that historical sources have intended audiences and purposes that can be inferred from information within the source itself.
• Respond to texts thoughtfully in writing.
• Analyze expository and persuasive texts through discussion with peers to deepen understanding.        
• Analyze how readers are motivated through a nonfiction writer's craft.
• Begin to develop your own writer's craft.
• Understand that revision is an ongoing process.
• Analyze speeches to understand that they follow a clear organizational structure where reasons and evidence are organized in hierarchical fashion in order to drive your audience to action; model writing your own speech based on this analysis.
• Identify when and how speech writers refute opposing arguments within their speech.
• Develop an opinion based on current and historical sources.
• Support an opinion using textual evidence and real-life experiences.
• Analyze how specific words can affect readers in different ways and evoke strong emotions, and incorporate what is learned through this analysis in your own writing. 
• When writing persuasive pieces, incorporate ways to motivate an audience to take action.
   

Click Connecticut Core Standards for English Language Arts and Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks to learn more.

Unit 4:  Reading Character Studies & Writing: Once Upon a Time

Enduring Understandings:

• Readers get to know characters deeply by studying them and investigating patterns that disclose character traits and motivations. 
• Readers use these observations to make theories and predictions about characters. 
• Readers compare and contrast characters across books.
• Readers can develop their nonfiction reading skills by conducting short research projects.
• Writers create with an audience in mind. 
• Understanding narrative structure and craft helps writers craft strong narratives.
• Writers are storytellers.
• Writers determine the organizational structure that will serve to support the advancement of their story.
   

Students Will Do:

• Analyze characters in order to make inferences.
• Notice character patterns to building theories about characters and plot.
• Use inferences and theory-making about a character to deepen understanding of the character and the text.
• Analyze and synthesize a story in relation to the story arc (plot diagram). 
• Compare and contrast characters across books. 
• Notice predictable character patterns to build theories.
• Locate information relevant to a given topic using text features.
• Consult illustrative components (map, graphs, charts) to support understanding of the text. 
• Determine the main idea of a text with supporting details.
• Monitor for meaning as you read grade level texts.
• Consider why the character's achievements matter to the world and ourselves.
• Grow ideas and theories about people, events, and concepts while reading.
• Follow fiction structures in order to better understand specific components of a text.
• Identify and analyze descriptive details and clear event sequences that move a story forward.
• Identify and use dialogue to develop experiences or events and show how characters respond to situations.
• Develop a narrative that incorporates the elements and follows the structure of a folktale or fable.
• Apply the steps of the writing process to publish a piece. 
   

Click Connecticut Core Standards for English Language Arts and Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks to learn more.

Unit 5:  Colonial CT & Indigenous People + Reading Research Clubs

Enduring Understandings:

• Colonists in Greenwich were a part of the American Revolutionary War.
• Greenwich was purchased by colonists from indigenous people.
• Indigenous people and colonists affected the history and culture of Greenwich and Connecticut.
• Readers compare and contrast biographical information across books.
• Readers can develop their nonfiction reading skills by conducting short research projects.
   

Students Will Do:

• Synthesize information from multiple sources.
• Compare and contrast the most important points and key details presented in two texts on the same topic.
• Create sequence of events
• Compare developments across a timeline
• Compare historical time periods
• Generate questions based on what you know about a topic and what is presented about a topic.
• Explain historical connections to today.
• Summarize historical sources.
• Compare information gathered from multiple sources.
• Use historical citations (marker, dates, place of origin, intended audience) to evaluate a source
• Compare benefits and costs
• Explain cultural influence
• Explain cultural and environmental characteristics
• Adapt, present, construct, and critique arguments and explanations
   

Click Connecticut Core Standards for English Language Arts and Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks to learn more.

Unit 1:  Interpreting Characters & The Arc of Story Writing

Enduring Understandings:

• Characters are like people you know.
• Point of view influences the way the story is told.
• Writers create and develop stories and characters that feel real.
• Fictional writers draft with an eye toward believability.
• Readers build interpretations about characters.
   

Students Will Do:

• Use clues provided by characters to make inferences about plot.  
• Deepen theories about character motivation and plot using evidence from text. 
• Refer directly to text to identify what characters do, say, and think in order to confirm or refute inferences.
• Examine characters' thoughts and feelings and how they change or evolve.
• Evaluate characters through their traits, thoughts, actions and changes.
• Formulate big ideas based on what you know about the characters and support your reasons with details and evidence from the text.
• Use mentor texts and your own life to write a fictional short story.
• Create depth of character by including the character’s thoughts and feelings in your fictional short story.
• Determine embed a theme that can be generalized and applied to the world at large.
• Fictional narratives are developed through the use of descriptive details, dialogue, and clear even sequencing.
• Fictional narratives follow a clear organizational structure throughout and have distinct transitions and conclusions.
• Analyze multiple mentor texts to experiment with literary devices.
   

Click Connecticut Core Standards for English Language Arts and Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks to learn more.

Unit 2: Nonfiction Reading & Writing + Environment and Climate of Northeast

Enduring Understandings:

• Readers and writers organize their ideas in functional ways.
• Readers integrate information from multiple texts when researching a topic. 
• Readers apply knowledge about one topic to support research on another topic. 
• Maps are one way people understand, represent, and interpret the world around them.
• Landforms, bodies of water, climate, and man-made structures influence the lives of people living in a region.

Students Will Do:

• Read and decipher multimedia texts.
• Determine a nonfiction text structure (e.g., chronology, comparison, cause/effect, problem/solution).
• Determine sub-genres of nonfiction texts.
• Develop questions while reading nonfiction texts and consult multiple sources to find the answers. 
• Use a text’s structure to support note-taking and ideas.
• Construct meaning by reading expository texts with a specific purpose in mind.
• Compare information from multiple texts on the same topic.
• Categorize new learning into a structure that exemplifies the main ideas and supporting details of a topic.
• Synthesize new learning in order to write or speak about a topic.
• Apply knowledge of nonfiction text features to support comprehension.
• Work as part of a writing community and seek to improve writing after feedback is provided.
• Consider the audience when writing. 
• Follow a clear organizational structure throughout a piece and have distinct transitions and conclusions.
• Work through the writing process.
• Read maps and other geographical tools to better understand familiar and unfamiliar places.
• Explain relationships between people of differing places and regions.
• Identify and analyze causes and effects of events and developments in the past.
• Support a claim about the past using textual and personal evidence.
   

Click Connecticut Core Standards for English Language Arts and Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks to learn more.

Unit 3: Movement of People & Ideas: The US Regions

Enduring Understandings:

• Environmental, cultural, and economic factors influence human migration and settlement.
• Individual choices have both benefits and costs.
• Incentives influence the decisions people make.
• Resources are used to produce goods and services.
• Natural resources affect human settlements and movements.
• Environmental and technological events affect human settlements and migration.
   

Students Will Do:

• Analyze multiple mentor texts to experiment with literary devices.
• Determine how and why history shapes people’s perspectives today.
• Identify how cultural and environmental characteristics affect the movement of people.
• Analyze how human capital, productivity, and future incomes are interrelated.
• Develop questions while reading nonfiction texts and consult multiple sources to find the answers.
• Categorize new learning into a structure that exemplifies the main ideas and supporting details of a topic.
• Synthesize new learning in order to write or speak about a topic.
• Analyze how and why nonfiction texts have been split subsections; mimic in your own writing. 
• Explain connections among historical contexts and people's perspectives at the time.
• Explain how cultural and environmental characteristics affect the distribution and movement of people, goods, and ideas.
• Explain how human settlements and movements relate to the locations and use of various natural resources.
• Analyze the effects of catastrophic environmental and technological events on human settlements and migration. 
• Compare the benefits and costs of individual choices.
• Identify positive and negative incentives that influence the decisions people make.
• Identify examples of the variety of resources (human capital, physical capital, and natural resources) that are used to produce goods and services.
• Explain the relationship between investment in human capital, productivity, and future incomes
   

Click Connecticut Core Standards for English Language Arts and Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks to learn more.

Unit 4: Reading & Writing Like a Historian 

Enduring Understandings:

• Writers can learn more about a topic in history by writing an information piece about it. 
• The research a writer does can lead to new ideas, alternate perspectives, and greater learning than if the writer was just to do the reading research alone.
• Writers choose an organizational plan that matches their intended content and works to forward their central idea.
• Reading historical books helps us understand the world today. 
• Readers tackle complex texts with peers.
• Readers interpret complex historical texts.
• Readers understand how literature and history intersect.
   

Students Will Do:

• Write research reports by reading several research-based books.
• Analyze how and why nonfiction books have been split into chapters; mimic in your own writing.
• Choose a structure and sub-genre that works best for each chapter in your own writing.
• Weave together facts, quotations, stories, and ideas to make a compelling nonfiction piece.
• Use precise language to convey ideas.
• Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, and editing.
• Recall relevant information from experiences in addition to learned information.
• Gather relevant information from print and digital sources.
• Take accurate notes with proper citations while researching.
• Identify small details that hold big meaning.
• Use primary sources to help better understand the time period in which a book is set. 
• Pay attention to who, what, when & where to organize new knowledge.
• Synthesize information about a subtopic by reading an overview text, then reading across several sources about that subtopic and thinking about how new information fits with what has already been read in order to more fully develop ideas about the topic.. 
• Identify how historical narratives are like personal narratives (require descriptive details, dialogue, and a clear story structure).
   

Click Connecticut Core Standards for English Language Arts and Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks to learn more.

Unit 5:  Social Responsibility + Reading with the Lens of Power & Perspective

Enduring Understandings:

• Readers look for who is telling a story and why.
• Readers & writers understand perspective affects how a story is told.
• Writers weave world issues into their texts.
• Living things are interdependent on each other to grow or survive.
   

Students Will Do:

• Read texts using a social issues lens. 
• Understand imbalances of power in stories and current events in the world.
• Compare and contrast how different authors approach the same topic from different perspectives. 
• Build the ability to talk about social issues and raise awareness in the world.
• Understand which characters in a story have more or less power or are gaining or losing power. 
• Identify and analyze different kinds of power, including the power to resist evil, and do good.
• Identify how the person telling the story affects the message of the story. 
• Compare perspectives and discuss analyses.
• Apply their skills outside of the classroom, moving through the world with more alertness to power and perspective, and more of a questioning stance.
• Identify the world issues that authors have woven into their texts. 
• Determine how regions are shaped by historical events.
• Describe how societies change over time
• Determine the cause and effect of social issues and events.
• Compare choices made by various historical players.
• Explain cultural influences and environmental characteristics of a place.
• Explain population distribution.
• Writing and talking about social issues can lead to change.
   

Click Connecticut Core Standards for English Language Arts and Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks to learn more.

Unit 6:  Historical Fiction Book Clubs & Writing Literary Essays 

Enduring Understandings:

• Readers understand how literature and history intersect.
• Readers and writers consider prior knowledge and formulate ideas as new information is found. 
• Writers will step into a character's shoes in order to tell their story. 
• When writing historical fiction, writers keep an eye on historically accurate plotlines, details and characters.
• Stories are about more than just plot and characters.  They also include inferential central ideas. 
• Essays about character and themes may contain ideas from more than one text.
• Readers interpret themes in and across texts.
• Writing about reading helps to advance ideas about literature and deepen our own understanding about an author's craft and central messages. 
• Writers draw on everything they have learned about literary essay writing in order to write other types of analyses.
   

Students Will Do:

• Analyze text and an author's choices in order to uncover inferential central ideas. 
• Compare and contrast the way a topic is handled similarly and differently in different texts.
• Determine how different authors approach the same topic or historical idea.
• Write a literary essay which includes a thesis that is based on close reading of the text.
• Support your thesis using your own ideas in addition to using quoted and paraphrased material.
• Support your interpretations about a text by analyzing craft moves the author has made.
• Recall relevant information from experiences and gather relevant information from print and digital sources in order to grow an idea about a literary text.
• Create and follow an organizational structure, choose reasons that support their ideas, and connect ideas/evidence with appropriate transitions.
• Embed sources correctly without changing the original message.
• Paraphrase and quote accurately and to advance your central message.
• Analyze how character timelines fit within historical timelines. 
• Determine and describe how characters' perspectives are shaped by their roles in a story.
• Identify small details that hold big meaning.
• Use primary sources to help better understand the time period in which a book is set. 
• Read with peers to help deepen and/or adjust a theory. 
• Create character timelines that fit within historical timelines. 
• Learn about a topic by identifying and  accessing resources to build background knowledge.
   

Click Connecticut Core Standards for English Language Arts and Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks to learn more.

Unit 1:  Reading: Interpretation Book Clubs, Writing: Narrative Craft

Enduring Understandings:

• Readers work to strengthen understandings about themes to become better writers. 
• Readers analyze texts to determine themes that are applicable to their own lives.
• Readers build community and deepen understanding through the art of literary conversation.
• Writers draw on all they know about narrative writing structures to create stories. 
• Writers ground their writing in a wealth of specificity reaching for the exact details that serve to elaborate their work. 
• Writers convey meaning and significance through the stories they share with their literary community.
   

Students Will Do:

• Write and speak about reading with voice and investment.
• Synthesize the ideas presented by a text to isolate central themes that are applicable to your life.
• Build community and deepen understanding through the art of literary conversation.
• Identify an author's perspective/point of view and explain in speech and writing how it influences how events are described. 
• Discuss themes with a peer group.
• Write about reading in such a way that the writing supports a developing understanding.
• Develop larger ideas and theories from a collection of evidence.
• Recognize that authors make specific choices in order to advance a theme throughout a text.
• Understand how craft and revision are driven by communication and rework your own writing in response.
• Redraft a story to bring out more meaning. 
• Craft and revise writing based on feedback from teachers and peers. 
• Imitate craft from mentor texts written by authors they admire. 
• Redraft a story to help to expose meaning. 
   

Click Connecticut Core Standards for English Language Arts and Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks to learn more.

Unit 2:  Indigenous People & Early Settlers + Reading & Writing History

Enduring Understandings:

• Readers consider text structure and text features in order to develop a complete understanding of a nonfiction text.
• Readers accumulate knowledge on a topic by synthesizing information from multiple nonfiction resources.
• The relationships between the settlers and the indigenous people were shaped by a series of conflicts and compromises.
• Writers teach about a topic and simultaneously engage readers.
• Informational writing is distinctly different from narrative writing.
• Writers choose a structure to best convey their ideas.
• Writers revise sentences and phrases to improve the clarity of their writing. 
   

Students Will Do:

• Discern parts of nonfiction texts that are more important than others. 
• Determine the main idea of complex nonfiction texts.
• Identify and describe why texts are structured in various ways from sentence level to the structure of the entire piece.
• Write analytical responses about a text.
• Locate information from multiple print and/or digital sources, demonstrating the ability to locate an answer to a question or solve a problem efficiently.
• Identify and use text structures to navigate through nonfiction text and enhance comprehension.
• Persist when the reading becomes difficult.
• Use chronological sequences of related events to compare developments that happened at the same time.
• Explain how, during the same historical period, individuals and groups can have different perspectives.
• Describe connections among historical contexts and people’s perspectives.
• Identify a variety of causes and effects of events and developments.
• Explain how various groups of people have made rules to create responsibilities and protect freedoms.
• Determine how people benefit from and are challenged by working together, including through government, workplaces, voluntary organizations, and families.
• Explain core civic virtues and democratic principles and describe how each guides government, society, and communities.
• Use maps, satellite images, photographs, and other representations to explain relationships between the locations of places and regions and their environmental characteristics.
• Determine how culture influences the way people modify and adapt to their environments.
• Structure expository writing to convey an idea in an accessible and easy way.
• Craft a thesis that is supported throughout the writing.
• Investigate different aspects of a topic through short, targeted, research projects.
• Provide a list of sources for all quoted, paraphrased, and summarized information.
• Examine & analyze the structure of published newspapers and magazine articles.
• Summarize, paraphrase, and quote other’s writing to support thesis statements.
• Link ideas using transitional phrases.
• Use precise language and domain specific vocabulary.
• Determine how and why sources provide varying information about the past.
• Identify and describe the causes and effects of events and developments.
   

Click Connecticut Core Standards for English Language Arts and Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks to learn more.

Unit 3:  The Thirteen Colonies and Europe

Enduring Understandings:

• Readers read to build theories and think critically.
• Readers see how various authors approach the same topic differently, swaying the readers to think in particular ways.
• Writers choose a structure to best convey their ideas.
• Writers revise sentences and phrases to improve the clarity of their writing. 
• The relationships between the thirteen colonies and Europe were shaped by a series of conflicts and compromise.

Students Will Do:

• Determine how and why sources provide varying information about the past.
• Identify and describe the causes and effects of events and developments.
• Describe policies that are developed to address public problems.
• Determine the positive and negative incentives that influence the decisions people make.
• Examine a variety of resources (human capital, physical capital, and natural resources) and how they are used to produce goods and services.
• To explain a historical event, carefully evaluate and  select relevant sources, gather information, generate a controlling idea, and use textual evidence to support your explanation. 
• Construct arguments and explanations based on your readings.
• Analyze social problems and attempt to create explanations and solutions.
• Summarize while reading and after reading.
• Analyze information to identify the author's purpose.
• Take notes to organize your thinking as you read.
• Craft a thesis that is supported throughout the writing.
• Investigate different aspects of a topic through short, targeted, research projects.
• Provide a list of sources for all quoted, paraphrased, and summarized information.
• Link ideas using transitional phrases.
   

Click Connecticut Core Standards for English Language Arts and Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks to learn more.

Unit 4: Reading Like Writers + Writing Literary Essays

Enduring Understandings:

• Readers participate in literary conversations in order to deepen understanding.
• Readers read and reread in the wake of such conversations. 
• Readers collect evidence in order to make and support a claim.
• Writers generate thesis statements that forecast an essay's structure and content; collect evidence intended to make a claim; and craft mini-stories that are angled to a specific point of view. 

Students Will Do:

• Identify and analyze multiple themes while reading and identify which are most supported by the text.
• Consider how themes are shown both in the content of the text and in the author's craft.
• Compare and contrast how similar themes are developed differently across two texts. 
• Determine in what ways literary essays advance a theme (by using mini stories, evidence that supports a claim, and a clear structure). 
• KWrite in a style that effectively weaves evidence from a text with one's own opinions and perspectives on a topic. 
• Use words, phrases, and clauses to link opinions or controlling ideas and reasons.
• Write using a coherent structure with a clear introduction, body, and conclusion.
• Draw evidence from literary or informational text to support analysis, reflection, and research.
• Present ideas about a text, emphasizing and supporting the identified (written or inferential) theme.
• Plan and draft a literary essay.
   

Click Connecticut Core Standards for English Language Arts and Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks to learn more.

Unit 5: SS: The American Revolutionary War + Argument Reading and Writing

Enduring Understandings:

• The relationships between the thirteen colonies and England were shaped by a series of conflicts and compromise, leading up to and during the American Revolution.
• Groups of people make rules to create responsibilities and protect freedoms.
• People benefit from and are challenged by working together, including through government, workplaces, voluntary organizations, and families.
• Core civic virtues and democratic principles guide government, society, and communities
• Researchers read across related texts, integrating and analyzing information learned, so that they can develop their own opinions on the topic.
• Writers develop an arguable claim and build a well structured, well researched essay.
• Writers cleverly craft and support a position.
• Writers build powerful arguments in order to persuade others.
• Writers write for real-life purposes and audiences. 

Students Will Do:

• Study and explain:
  • What were the causes of the French and Indian War and its effect on the colonies?
  • What were the major events that started the actual conflict between the British and the colonies? How did the colonies unite to fight the against the British?
  • What role did slavery play in the American Revolution?
  • How were the battles of the American Revolution different from those of previous wars?
  • What was the role of Connecticut in the Revolutionary War?
  • What were the vital roles that indigenous peoples, women, and slaves played in the Revolutionary War?
• Compare and contrast written and multimedia text sets emphasizing opposing points of view and perspectives.
• Analyze an author's claim/s for validity. 
• Investigate multimedia text sets with an eye toward author's perspective. 
• Create and effectively organize individualized notes regarding contradictions in opposing same-topic texts to support idea development.
• Employ knowledge of text structures to enhance their comprehension.
• Collect, synthesize and then provide evidence of knowledge on a specific topic.
• Integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write and speak about the topic knowledgeably.
• Research a topic using texts and imedia resources (video, print, audio).
• Collect and organize ideas from multiple texts logically.
• Create cogent arguments by gathering supporting evidence.
• Analyze both sides of an argument with an analytical lens searching for multiple perspectives and views in order to effectively debate a topic.
• When writing, create and apply an appropriate organizational framework that aligns with the essay’s content and purpose.
• Write an opinion piece supported with reasons and information that is logically organized.
• Refute an opposing opinion.
• When debating and writing, introduce a topic and conclude in such a way that the thesis is reiterated but not simply restated.
• Pose and respond to questions with comments that contribute to or elaborate on a topic being discussed.
   

Click Connecticut Core Standards for English Language Arts and Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks to learn more.

Unit 6: Fantasy Book Clubs & Writer’s Craft

Enduring Understandings:

• Readers learn that fantasy reading skills can improve skills in reading other genres. 
• Readers learn to construct and navigate other worlds in order to learn life lessons and thematic patterns.  
• Readers learn to deal with complexity in fantasy novels. Fact is combined with fantasy. 
• Readers use strategies to hold onto the storyline when the plot gets tangled and the main characters seem confusing.
• Writers use parts of their real life when crafting fantasy tales.

Students Will Do:

• Compare and contrast stories within the fantasy genre.
• Identify and analyze metaphorical allusions in text and use them to understand the text at a deeper level.
• Determine and describe how a narrator’s or speaker’s point of view influences how events are described.
• Use strategies to untangle your thinking when reading complex texts.
• Use thematic understandings in other genres to understand themes in fantasy fiction.
• Recognize and analyze symbolism, allusion, metaphor, and craft. 
• Read fantasy text critically to consider how multiple cultures are represented.
• Explain how a series of chapters, scenes, or stanzas fit together to provide the overall structure of a particular story, drama, or poem.
• Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.Search for the truth and significance when re-telling a story, rather than recounting the event moment by moment. 
• Orient the reader to their story by establishing a situation and introducing a narrator and characters skillfully.
• Utilize the writing process and previous crafting techniques as figurative language, sentence fluency, and word choice to bring forth their depth of meaning. 
• Use dialogue, description, and pacing to develop events and show character responses to situations.
• Write a fantasy story that shows something important about who you are.
   

Click Connecticut Core Standards for English Language Arts and Connecticut Elementary and Secondary Social Studies Frameworks to learn more.