Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks 5th Grade Social Studies Activities

Standards for History and Social Science Practice – Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 12

1 Demonstrate civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions.

Civic knowledge includes the core knowledge in the Content Standards relating to civics and government, economics, geography, and history.

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.

3 Organize information and data from multiple primary and secondary sources. Student researchers gather and organize information from a variety of online, print, and other sources. In the history and social science fields, they pay close attention to whether the source is primary or secondary. Primary sources were created during the period under study (e.g., census data, a map, an interview, a speech, or an artifact such as a building, painting, or tool). Secondary sources are later interpretations or commentaries based on primary sources. Often students will use primary and secondary sources together to compose an argument, because each source provides a different type of information. This Standard corresponds to Reading Standards 1-3 for Literacy in History and Social Science.

4 Analyze the purpose and point of view of each source; distinguish opinion from fact. Students need to be exposed to readings that represent a variety of points of view in order to become discerning and critical readers. They need to be able to identify the purpose of a document and the point of view of its author. As students search primary sources for answers to questions such as What really happened in Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775?, they begin to understand that eyewitness accounts of the same event can differ. This Standard corresponds to Reading Standard 6 for Literacy in History and Social Science.

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.

5 Describe the overall structure of how a text presents information (e.g., chronological, compare/contrast, problem/solution, cause effect), including how written texts incorporate features such as headings.

6 Compare and contrast a firsthand and secondhand account of the same event.

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

7 Interpret information presented in charts, graphs, timelines, and illustrations and explain what that information contributes to the overall text.

9 Integrate information from two texts in order to write or speak about a history/social science topic.

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 5 – United States History to the Civil War and the Modern Civil Rights Movement

Topic 1. Early colonization and growth of colonies – Supporting Question: To what extent was North America a land of opportunity, and for whom?

1 Explain the early relationships of English settlers to Native Peoples in the 1600s and 1700s, including the impact of diseases introduced by Europeans in severely reducing Native populations, the differing views on land ownership or use, property rights, and the conflicts between the two groups (e.g., the Pequot and King Philip’s Wars in New England).

3 Analyze the reasons why English colonists had the strongest influence on the language, political institutions, and political principles of the country that became the United States of America, even though other major European nations also explored North America (e.g., the relatively small number of colonists from other nations, England’s history of self- government, high rates of literacy, and strong economic, and military position in the world).

4 On a map of the United States, locate the first 13 colonies and describe the impact of regional differences in climate on the types of crops that could be grown or harvested profitably in the Northern, mid-Atlantic, and Southern colonies; describe varied sources of labor (e.g., self-employed colonists, apprentices, employees, indentured servants, free and enslaved Africans).

5 Describe the origins of slavery, its legal status in all the colonies through the 18th century, and the prevalence of slave ownership, including by many of the country’s early leaders (e.g., George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, George Mason.)

6 Describe the Triangular Trade and the harsh conditions of trans-Atlantic voyages (called the Middle Passage) for enslaved Africans.

7 Compare and contrast the living and working conditions of enslaved and free Africans in the colonies in the 18th century, and explain how some enslaved people sought their freedom.

a. Enslaved African Americans were property that could be bought, sold, and separated from their families by their owners; they were generally not taught to read or write, and generally owned no property; they suffered many kinds of abuse and could be punished if they were caught after running away from their masters. A number of slave rebellions resulted from these harsh conditions.

b. Many enslaved Africans became skilled artisans, such as cabinetmakers, coopers, and ironworkers and could be hired out to work.

c. Some Africans came to America as indentured servants or sailors and were freed when their service was completed; some former slaves were granted freedom and some in the North took legal action to obtain their freedom (e.g., in Massachusetts, Elizabeth Freeman, Quock Walker, and Prince Hall).

Topic 2. Reasons for revolution, the Revolutionary War, and the formation of government – Supporting Questions: Why did most Native Peoples side with the French against the British in the French and Indian Wars? Were the colonists justified in rebelling against Great Britain in the American Revolution?

8 Explain the reasons for the French and Indian War and how its costs led to an overhaul of British imperial policy; explain key British policies and the colonial response to them:

a. policies: the Proclamation of 1763, the Sugar Act (1764), the Stamp Act (1765), the Townsend Duties (1767), the Tea Act (1773), the Intolerable Acts (1774)

b. the slogan, “no taxation without representation”

c. the roles of the Stamp Act Congress, the Sons of Liberty, and the Boston Tea (1773), the Suffolk Resolves (1774), in which Massachusetts declared a boycott of British goods, the early battles between Massachusetts colonists and the British soldiers in Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill (1775) and the evacuation of the British from Boston (1776)

d. the role of women in the boycott of British textiles and tea, in writing to support liberty, in managing family farms and businesses, raising funds for the war, and supporting the Continental Army (1760s-1780s)

9 On a historic map of the Boston area in the 1770s, locate important sites in the pre- Revolutionary and Revolutionary period and analyze the role and the significance of Massachusetts people such Samuel Adams, Crispus Attucks, John Hancock, James Otis, Paul Revere, John and Abigail Adams, Mercy Otis Warren, Phillis Wheatley, Peter Salem.

10 Explain the development of colonial governments and describe how these developments (e.g., legislative bodies, town meetings, and charters on individual freedoms and rights) contributed to the Revolution.

11 Read the Declaration of Independence (1776), explain its main argument, the reasons given for seeking independence, the meaning of the key ideas on equality and natural and legal rights, and the rule of law.

12 Describe the impact of events as the Revolutionary War continued; locate the sites of events on a map, and explain the factors leading to American victory and British defeat:

c. The battle of Yorktown in Virginia (1781)

13 Explain that many Americans remained loyal to the British Crown or remained neutral in the conflict and that Native Peoples and free and enslaved Africans fought on both sides in the Revolution.

14 Compare and contrast the impact of the actions of important leaders (e.g., John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, King George III, Edmund Burke, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, George Washington, the Marquis de Lafayette) during the Revolution and the early years of the United States Republic.

15 Explain the reasons for the adoption of the Articles of Confederation in 1781, the weaknesses of the Articles as a plan for government, and the reasons for their failure.

16 Analyze the causes of Shays’ Rebellion of 1786-1787 and explain why it was one of the crucial events leading to the Constitutional Convention.

Topic 3. Principles of United States Government – Supporting Question: How did the Constitution attempt to balance competing interests, the question of power, and ideas about slavery?

17 Read the Preamble to and sections of the Constitution and explain how these writings reflect the following political principles: individual rights and responsibilities, equality, the rule of law, general welfare, limited government, representative democracy.

18 Explain how the framers of the Constitution divided and shared powers among the three branches of the United States government; describe the function of each branch and the system of checks and balances.

19 Describe the responsibilities of government at the federal, state, and local levels (e.g., protection of individual rights and the provision of services such as law enforcement and the building and funding of schools).

20 Analyze the significance of the major issues debated by members of the Constitutional Convention (e.g., the distribution of political power, the rights of individuals, rights of states, tensions between states with large and smaller populations, the make-up of the Senate and electoral college, slavery and the question of how slaves were to be counted in the Census); explain why the framers agreed to the 3/5 Compromise in order to keep the states united and how the decision reinforced the institution of slavery and the power of states in which slavery was particularly prevalent.

21 Explain that voting rights and property rights did not extend to women in the new Constitution.

Topic 4. The growth of the Republic – Supporting Question: How did events of the early Republic test the newly-founded United States?

22 Read the Bill of Rights and explain the freedoms it guarantees; research the historical background of one of the first ten Amendments and make an argument using evidence for its inclusion in the Bill of Rights in 1791.

23 Identify the first three Presidents of the United States (George Washington, 1787-1797, John Adams, 1797-1801, and Thomas Jefferson, 1801-1809); summarize key developments during their time (e.g., the founding of political parties in the 1790s; the first Bank of the U.S., the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798; the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the Haitian Revolution in 1804), and evaluate their leadership of the new nation.

24 Evaluate the importance to the nation of the Louisiana Purchase and trace the expedition of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, with Sacagawea and the Corps of Discovery, from 1803 to 1806.

25 Describe the causes of the War of 1812 and how events during the war contributed to a sense of American nationalism:

a. British restrictions on trade and impressment

b. Major battles and events of the war, including the role of the USS Constitution, the burning of the Capitol and the White House, and the Battle of New Orleans

27 Explain 19th century conflicts between Native Peoples and national, state, and local governments in the United States over land ownership and rights to self-government:

b. President Andrew Jackson and the Indian Removal Act (1830), which forced native communities to move from their ancestral lands in the Southeast to territory west of the Mississippi River

d. the significance of the Trail of Tears (1838) for the Cherokee and other native communities in the Southeast

Topic 5. Slavery, the legacy of the Civil War, and the struggle for civil rights for all – Supporting Question: What ideas and events of the 19th century led to the expansion of civil rights in the 20th and 21st centuries?

29 Identify the major reasons for the Civil War (e.g., slavery, political and economic competition in Western territories, the emergence of the Republican Party) and the war’s most important outcomes (e.g., end of slavery, Reconstruction, expanded role of the federal government, industrial growth in the North).

30 Explain the ideas and roles of some of the people of the pre-Civil War era who led the struggle against slavery (abolitionism) and for voting and property rights for African Americans (e.g., Harriet Tubman, Nat Turner, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Harriet Beecher Stowe).

31 Identify the major military leaders and battles of the Civil War (e.g., Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, William Tecumseh Sherman, Stonewall Jackson; Battles of Bull Run, Shiloh, Fredericksburg, Vicksburg, Gettysburg, Appomattox).

32 Describe the role of Abraham Lincoln in the development of the Republican Party and his actions as President during the Civil War, including the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution.

33 Explain the consequences of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments for the rights of African Americans:

a. advocacy for women’s rights surrounding the passage of the 14th and 15th Amendments and its relationship to the later movement for women’s rights

b. women’s attainment of the right to vote with the passage of the 19th Amendment of 1920

34 Describe living conditions for African Americans following the Civil War, during the Jim Crow era, including limited educational and economic opportunities, separate public facilities (e.g., segregated schools and colleges, neighborhoods, sections in buses, trains, restaurants, and movie theaters), the organized perpetuation of white supremacist beliefs and the threat of violence from extra-legal groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. Describe the role African American churches, civic organizations, and newspapers played in supporting and unifying African American communities.

35 Research and analyze one of the people, organizations, events, or legislative acts from the-20th century that contributed to expanding civil rights of African Americans, women, and others in the United States.

36 Explain how the 20th century African American Civil Rights movement served as a model for other movements for civil rights (e.g., the second phase of the women’s movement in the 1960s and 1970s, the disability rights movement, the LGBTQ movement).