Enduring Understandings - important ideas that students should carry with them years beyond the instruction received this year.

•  Different strategies and skills are required to understand a variety of materials.

•  People apply critical thinking skills when reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing.

•  People access, read, evaluate, and use a variety of resources to get information.

•  Throughout history, humans have used literature as a record of their experiences.

Essential Questions - most important “big picture” questions students should be able to answer after completing learning activities.

• What does it mean to "understand"? Why do we need to understand what we read or hear?
  How do we use strategies and skills to understand a variety of materials?

• What is critical thinking? Why is critical thinking important? How do we apply critical thinking skills? 

• Why do I need a variety of resources? How do I access information and use it responsibly? How do I evaluate resources?

• How and why do humans use literature to record their experiences? How has history influenced literature and vice versa?

CSAP Tested Standards  Highest Frequency Standards, High Frequency Standards, Other Standards & E-skills

1.c  Identify supporting details and main idea.
1.d  Draw inferences using contextual clues.
1.h  Use word recognition skills and resources (for example, phonics, context clues, picture clues, reference guides, roots, prefixes, and suffixes of words) for comprehension.
4.d  Make predictions and draw conclusions about stories.
5.a  Use organizational features of printed text (for example: page numbering, alphabetizing, glossaries, chapter heading, table of contents, indexes, captions) to locate information.
5.d  Sort information as it relates to a specific topic or purpose.
6.b  Identify setting, plot, character, problem, and solution.
 

Colorado Basic Literacy Act Proficiencies
 

Standard 1: Comprehension Students read and understand a variety of materials.

a. Use a full range of strategies to comprehend a variety of texts, such as non-fiction, rhymes, poems, and stories (for example, skim and scan, self-monitor for understanding.)

b. Summarize long text passages.

c. Identify supporting details and main idea.

d. Draw inferences using contextual clues.

e. Identify sequential order in expository text.

f. Set a purpose for reading.

g. Use bold print, italics, titles, subtitles, quotations, and underlined words to comprehend text.

h. Use word recognition skills and resources (for example: phonics, context clues, picture clues, reference

guides, roots, prefixes, and suffixes of words) for comprehension.
 

Standard 4: Thinking Skills Students apply thinking skills to their reading, speaking, listening, and viewing.

a. Determine author’s purpose.

b. Use reading to define and solve problems.

c. Differentiate fact from opinion.

d. Make predictions and draw conclusions.

e. Identify sequential order in expository text.

f. Recognize the author’s point of view.
 

Standard 5:  Research Skills Students read to locate, select, and make use of relevant information from a variety of media, references, and technological sources.

a. Use organizational features of printed text (for example: page numbering, alphabetizing, glossaries, chapter heading, table of contents, indexes, captions) to locate information.

b. Recognize organizational features of electronic information (for example: pull-down menus, keyword

searches, and icons) to locate information.

c. Take notes, outline, and identify main ideas in resource materials.

d. Sort information as it relates to a specific topic or purpose.

e. Give credit for borrowed information by listing sources.

f. Select appropriate definitions from the dictionary, glossaries, and other sources.
 

Standard 6:  Literature Students read and recognize literature as a record of human experience.

a. Read and respond to a variety of literature (for example: folk tales, legends, myths, fiction, rhymes, poems, and non-fiction).

b. Identify setting, plot, character, problem, and solution.

c. Use new vocabulary from literature in another context.

d. Read and respond to literature as a way to explore the similarities and differences among stories and the ways in which those stories reflect the ethnic background of the author and the culture in which they were written.

District 11 Diamond Units/Lessons Overview - includes information about the purpose, goals, and structure of these sample instructional units:

• Quarter 1: August Unit
• Quarter 1: September Unit
• Quarter 1: October Unit  Continued in Quarter 2
• Quarter 2: November Unit
• Quarter 2: December Unit
• Quarter 3: January Unit
• Quarter 3: February Unit
• Quarter 3: March Unit
• Quarter 4: April - May Unit