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 gain information.

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?

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

1.c  Locate and paraphrase the key/main ideas and supporting details in fiction and non-fiction.
1.g  Identify the meaning of unfamiliar words in context using word recognition skills and context clues.
4.c  Differentiate fact from opinion.
4.d  Make predictions and draw conclusions from text in various genre.
5.a  Use organizational features of printed text (for example: page numbering, alphabetizing, glossaries, chapter heading, changes in print, table of contents, indexes, captions) to locate information.
5.c  Summarize and organize information about a topic in a variety of ways (for example: graphic organizer, Venn diagram, outline, time line) from references, technical sources, and media.
6.b + 6.c  Identify characters, setting, problem/conflict, action/plot/events, resolution/solution, theme, and sequence in literature.
 

Colorado Basic Literacy Act Proficiencies
 

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

a Compare and contrast different texts with similar themes or ideas.

b Summarize fiction and non-fiction (for example: tall tales, historical fiction, adventure, procedural text, and

informational text).

c Locate and paraphrase the key/main ideas and supporting details in fiction and non-fiction.

d Infer using contextual clues.

e Identify sequential order in fiction and non-fiction.

f Locate and recall information in text with different structures (for example: cause and effect, enumeration,

and time order).

g Identify the meaning or unfamiliar words in context using word recognition skills and context clues.
 

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 and answer questions.

c Differentiate fact from opinion.

d Make predictions and draw conclusions from text in various genre.

e Recognize main idea.
 

Standard 5 Research 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, changes in print, table of contents, indexes, and captions) to locate information.

b Use organizational features of electronic information (for example: keyword searches and icons) to locate

information.

c Summarize and organize information about a topic in a variety of ways (for example: graphic organizer,

Venn diagram, outline, time line) from references, technical sources, and media.

d Select information to support ideas and justify the selection.

e Locate others’ ideas, images or information in bibliography, works cited page, or text features (for example:

quotations, italics, parentheses, and footnotes).

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

g Give credit for borrowed information by listing 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: novels, poetry, short stories, non-fiction, and plays)

that represents perspectives from places, people, and events that are familiar and unfamiliar.

b Identify characters, setting, problem/conflict, action/plot/events, resolution/solution, theme, and sequence in

literature.

c Use knowledge of literary techniques and terminology (for example: foreshadowing and figurative

language) to understand the text.

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