Appendix
Relevant District of Columbia Standards
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (4th Grade):
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4.1 Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4.2 Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text; summarize the text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including those that allude to significant characters found in mythology (e.g., Herculean).
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4.5 Explain major differences between poems, drama, and prose, and refer to the structural elements of poems (e.g., verse, rhythm, meter) and drama (e.g., casts of characters, settings, descriptions, dialogue, stage directions) when writing or speaking about a text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4.6 Compare and contrast the point of view from which different stories are narrated, including the difference between first- and third-person narrations.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4.7 Make connections between the text of a story or drama and a visual or oral presentation of the text, identifying where each version reflects specific descriptions and directions in the text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4.9 Compare and contrast the treatment of similar themes and topics (e.g., opposition of good and evil) and patterns of events (e.g., the quest) in stories, myths, and traditional literature from different cultures.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poetry, in the grades 4-5 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
Social Studies Standards (4th Grade)
A note with regards to the social studies standards: 4th grade social studies standards primarily focus on the ancient history of the Americas. While this unit focuses on the ancient history of The Fertile Crescent and the Indus River Valley, these locations and the corresponding civilizations provide the setting for critical historical events that many the following standards address. For example, standard 4.2 asks students to “analyze how physical geography (e.g., natural resources, waterways, landforms)” influenced the choices that people make. The development of agriculture in both Mesopotamia as well as the Punjab heavily influenced the choices people in these regions made. More specifically, the development of agriculture directly influenced the development of writing. In other words, the development of agriculture allowed for the division of labor where early scribes developed the first writing systems. The argumentation of this curriculum is that students can explore this standard in the context of these regions to understand how human civilization first developed writing systems as a consequence of the development of agriculture. This is arguably foundational knowledge for students to understand, and develop that occurred before the development of writing systems in the Americas.
4.1
Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of different kinds of evidence (e.g., archeological evidence, artifacts, oral history, secondary sources) to understand events and life in the past.
4.2
Analyze how physical geography (e.g., natural resources, waterways, landforms) influences the choices people make and how people impact the natural environment.
4.4
Compare different theories about how and when people began to migrate around the globe and populate the Americas (e.g., land-bridge theory, Beringia, Yana Rhinoceros Horn Site and evidence of mammoth hunting, coastal-route theory, Clovis sites).
4.5
Compare the development of agricultural practices of Indigenous peoples across the Americas, including the Hohokam cultivation of corn, beans, squash and cotton.
4.7
Analyze the development of physical documentation in the early Americas, such as the writing and iconographic systems of Indigenous peoples across the Americas to make claims about historic societies (e.g., Cave of the Painted Rock in current-day Brazil, the writing system developed by the Maya, glyphs of the Grand Canyon).
Comments: