Standards and Backwards Mapping

As an aspiring middle grades instructor, I work especially hard to find standards that are cross-curricular and applicable outside of academia so that students can see their importance. My largest area of interest is English/Language Arts, but at the school I am hoping to work for in the fall, the ELA teacher also teaches at least one section of Social Studies, so I tried to keep the possibility of teaching both of those subjects, possibly to the same group of students, in mind. The standard I ended up choosing is one that has been adapted from an ELA standard to fit with Social Studies.

Common Core Standard
RH.6-8.6: Identify aspects of a text that reveal an author's point of view or purpose (e.g., loaded language, inclusion or avoidance of particular facts).

Reason for Choice
The reason I picked this standard in particular is because it is so important for students to be critical readers and consumers of information. Being able to identify the author's point of view will allow students to notice when an author is presenting a biased view on a topic. This skill is useful whether students are reading about a scientific advancement, a historical event from hundreds of years ago, or the upcoming election. These are all topics that will at some point be relevant to these students, and the ability to critically evaluate the information being presented based on the author's view point is exceptionally important to developing a complete understanding of the topic.

Three Proficiencies, Assessments, and Learning Activities
The proficiencies, assessments, and learning activities below serve as an organized way of tying together everything students need to master in order to be proficient in the standard. Each proficiency will be connected to both one of the assessments and one of the learning activities as to truly make the best use of backwards mapping. For the purposes of this module, the standards discussed will all be taught in a unit on the Civil War.

Three Proficiencies

1. Identify loaded language used in a text that supports the author's point of view.
2. Identify instances of inclusion or avoidance of facts that support the author's point of view.
3. Compare and contrast two texts on the same topic and determine differences in point of view.

Three Assessments  
All assessments will be completed individually.

1. Formative Assessment: Students will be given a short text on the Civil War written from the perspective of an African American slave and will be asked to underline instances of loaded language and include annotations explaining how they knew the language was loaded. Students will be asked whose perspective the passage was written from, and they will be expected to use textual evidence to support their claim.
2. Formative Assessment: Students will be given a short text written from the perspective of Abraham Lincoln on the Civil War and will be asked to underline instances facts being included AND left out and include annotations explaining the author's choices. Students will be asked whose perspective the passage was written from, and they will be expected to use textual evidence to support their claim.
3. Summative Assessment: Students will be given two passages written from different perspectives and will be asked to 1) identify instances of loaded language, 2) inclusion/exclusion of facts, and 3) the perspective of each passage. Students will be asked to conduct a short essay explaining how the passages are similar, how they are different, and how the students knew which perspective each passage was written from. Special attention will be paid to the ability to identify an author's point of view when comparing two different texts with different points of view.

Three Learning Activities

1. Students will work in small groups to identify loaded language in a passage about the Civil War written from the perspective of a Confederate soldier that discusses the reasons the war started and who was good/bad in the war. They will underline instances of loaded language and include annotations explaining how they knew that the language was loaded.
2. As a class, students will read a factual, largely unbiased account of the Civil War and discuss which facts are included in the passage, paying special attention to any facts that make one side sound especially good or bad. Then, students be broken into pairs to read a passage written from the perspective of a Union soldier. Students will then identify key facts that were included in the second passage or left out and will explain why the author chose to include or leave out specific items.
3. As a class, students will create a list of facts and instances of loaded language that support each of the following perspectives: Union soldier, Confederate soldier, African American slave, and Abraham Lincoln. Students will discuss similarities and differences between each of the perspectives.
    

References:
Common Core. (2016). English/Language Arts Standards: History/Social Studies: Grades 6-8. Retrieved from http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RH/6-8/