Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks
Standards for History and Social Science Practice – Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 12
1 Demonstrate civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions.
Civic intellectual skills encompass knowing how to identify, assess, interpret, describe, analyze and explain matters of concern in civic life.
Civic participatory skills encompass knowing how to make and support arguments, use the political process to communicate with elected officials and representatives of government, and plan strategically for civic change.
Civic dispositions encompass values, virtues, and behaviors, such as respect for others, commitment to equality, capacity for listening, and capacity for communicating in ways accessible to others.
Literacy Standards for History and Social Science
Grades 3-5 Reading Standards for Literacy in the Content Areas: History/Social Science
Key Ideas and Details
1 Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences (See grades 3-5 Writing Standard 8 for more on paraphrasing.)
2 Determine the main ideas of a text and explain how it is supported by key details; summarize a text.
3 Explain events, ideas, and concepts in a civics, geography, economics, or history text, based on specific information in the text.
Craft and Structure
4 Determine the meaning of general academic vocabulary and words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary specific to domains related to history/social studies.
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
10 Independently and proficiently read and comprehend history/social studies texts exhibiting complexity appropriate for the grades 3-5.
Grade 3 – Massachusetts, Home to Many Different People
Topic 6. Massachusetts in the 18th century through the American Revolution – Supporting Questions: Why is Massachusetts important to the nation’s history? How did different views about the fairness of taxes and government lead to the American Revolution?
19 Explain how, after the Revolution, the leaders of the new United States had to write a plan for how to govern the nation, and that this plan is called the Constitution. Explain that the rights of citizens are spelled out in the Constitution’s first ten Amendments, known as the Bill of Rights; explain that full citizenship rights were restricted to white male property owners over the age of 21 in the new Republic.