The CCS clarify what students should know—content—and how to express it—the writing and research skills they should have.

Liberty Cap Foundation lesson plans address both foci. Each lesson references specific standards. Key standards and documents are linked below. This document offers clear and elegant presentation of the English Language Arts standards.

History and Social Sciences Analysis Skills (note that these are to be assessed in conjunction with content-based activities.)

Chronological and Spatial Thinking

• Key skills:

  • compare and contrast how the present is connected to the past

  • practice map skills

  • judge the significance of place via its advantages and disadvantages

Research, Evidence and Point of View

• Key skills:

  • distinguish primary from secondary texts

  • question documents, accounts, and other primary sources

  • distinguish fact from fiction

Historical Interpretation

• Key skills:

  • summarize and explain historical context and key events

  • identify and interpret multiple causes and effects of historical events

English Language Arts Anchor Standards for Writing:

Understand Text Types and Purposes

• Key skills:

  • Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

  • Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

  • Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.

Production and Distribution of Writing

• Key skills:

  • Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

  • Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.

  • Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others. *These broad types of writing include many subgenres. See Appendix A for definitions of key writing types.

Research to Build and Present Knowledge

• Key skills:

  • Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on focused questions, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.

  • Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism.

  • Draw evidence from literary and/or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

Range of Writing

• Key skill:

  • Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames