History in Our Everyday Lives

Common Core Standards

This unit is designed to meet a variety of standards, but is designed in particular with the Common Core Standards in mind. I think it is important to note that Common Core Standards, adopted by 40 states including Illinois, are relatively broad; as such, a teacher in most of the 50 United States as well as its territories and other parts of the world could find it possible to adapt the content of this unit to meet their own unique sets of standards. And, this unit could be easily adapted and scaled up or down for students above or below my own students’ ninth grade level. So, instead of describing the discrete standards this unit addresses, I will list and annotate the anchor standards I believe students will meet upon successful completion of it.

Common Core Anchor Standards for English Language Arts

College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Reading

The following are standards that address Key Ideas and Details in a literary or informational text. This is essentially what some have referred to when speaking about Common Core Standards’ emphasis on close reading. This unit definitely addresses them: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.1; CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.2; and CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.3.

Then, there are standards that address reading across texts. These are gathered under the umbrella called Integration of Knowledge and Ideas. The activities where students have to compare old maps and plans to new provide opportunities to engage students in meeting these standards. There are two of the three standards in this strand that this curriculum unit addresses: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.8 and CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.9.

College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Writing

The Common Core allows for rhetorical analysis to be a part of the study of writing just as much as it does allow for the actual assessment of students’ writing products. This unit provides opportunities for such analysis and creation during Activities 3 and 4, when students are examining aural stories and producing podcasts. Students can analyze effectiveness and techniques in their own work as well as in others’ works. Ultimately, this gets at the Text Types and Purposes standards in CCSS, in particular: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.2 and CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.3.

Though formal writing is absent from this unit, the writing process is an integral part of it. All of the Production and Distribution of Writing standards, especially the portions that deal with editing, are applicable to students’ work in this unit: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.4, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.5, and CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.6.

And, as students will be conducting significant amounts of research throughout this unit so that they may contribute to the historical record, the standards called Research to Build and Present Knowledge are applicable. These standards are: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.7, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.8, and CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.9.

College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Speaking and Listening

Students will do a significant amount of speaking and listening in this unit-- among themselves in class discussions, on their own for podcasting, and with relative strangers for the community interviews. In all portions of the process, students will meet standards across both strands of Speaking and Listening Standards: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.1, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.2, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.3, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.4, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.5, and CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.6.

College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Language

Through the reading, speaking and listening, and writing-based activities in this unit, students will have many opportunities to demonstrate mastery in the language standards. Teachers can design mini-lessons around grammar and language usage appropriate to their students’ instructional levels and needs. But, it is likely that the following anchor standards will be met throughout this unit: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.L.1, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.L.3, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.L.4, and CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.L.6.