ELA / Kindergarten / Unit 6: What is Justice?
Students begin to explore African American history and the civil rights movement, serving as a launch for further discussions around discrimination, justice, and valuing individuals.
ELA
Unit 6
Kindergarten
Jump To
In this unit, students begin to explore African American history and the civil rights movement. Students will begin the unit by thinking about the ways in which people are similar and different, including skin color, and how those differences should not define who we are or how we are treated. In the second part of the unit, students will learn about the discrimination and injustices faced by African Americans leading up to and during the civil rights movement and why it was necessary to fight for change. They will learn about how communities came together to organize and stand up to injustice. Students will also explore how Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr.’s influential leadership influenced and inspired others to fight for change. It is our hope that this unit will help instill the values of diversity, justice, and action, and that it will serve as a launch for further discussions around discrimination, justice, and valuing individuals.
In reading, students are challenged to think about how authors include specific reasons and illustrations to help the reader understand a particular idea or point in the text. Students also continue to explore how details are connected, and how understanding the connection between details helps the reader understand the text. When participating in discussions, students use all of the strategies from previous units to hone in on their speaking and listening skills, focusing on continuing a conversation through multiple exchanges. As writers, students continue to work on building writing fluency by writing daily in response to Target Tasks. Students practice producing simple sentences, using conjunctions to expand sentences, and using different types of sentences depending on what they are writing. Across the unit, students also have multiple opportunities to build on what they learned in previous units to write informational pieces, naming a topic and then including some information about the topic.
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Book: All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold (Knopf Books for Young Readers; Illustrated edition, 2018) — AD370L
Book: Let’s Talk About Race by Julius Lester (HarperCollins; Illustrated edition, 2008)
Book: All the Colors of the Earth by Sheila Hamanaka (HarperCollins, 2020) — AD540L
Book: Just Ask!: Be Different, Be Brave, Be You by Sonia Sotomayor (Philomel Books; Illustrated edition, 2019)
Book: This Is the Dream by Diane Z. Shore and Jessica Alexander (Amistad; 1 edition, 2009)
Book: The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson (G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers, 2001) — AD490L
Book: Freedom Summer by Deborah Wiles (Aladdin; Reprint edition, 2005) — AD600L
Book: Rosa by Nikki Giovanni (Square Fish; Reprint edition, 2007) — 800L
Book: Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by Doreen Rappaport (Hyperion Book CH; Reprint edition, 2007) — 410L
Book: We March by Shane W. Evans (Square Fish; Reprint edition, 2016) — 290L
Book: A Sweet Smell of Roses by Angela Johnson (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers; Reprint edition, 2007) — AD480L
Book: I Have a Dream by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Kadir Nelson (Schwartz & Wade; Har/Com Re edition, 2012) — 1030L
Book: Be A King: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream and You by Carole Boston Weatherford (Bloomsbury USA Childrens; Illustrated edition, 2018) — 360L
A Place to Land: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Speech That Inspired a Nation — 990LL
These assessments accompany this unit and should be given on the suggested assessment day or after completing the unit.
Download Content Assessment
Download Content Assessment Answer Key
Download Cold Read Assessment
Download Cold Read Assessment Answer Key
Suggestions for how to prepare to teach this unit
Unit Launch
Prepare to teach this unit by immersing yourself in the texts, themes, and core standards. Unit Launches include a series of short videos, targeted readings, and opportunities for action planning.
The central thematic questions addressed in the unit or across units
Specific skills to focus on when giving feedback on writing assignments
Literary terms, text-based vocabulary, idioms and word parts to be taught with the text
boycott brave courageous custom deny diversity dream enforce freedom hopeful injustice inspire justice neutral nonviolent race racism segregation similarity threaten unique unequal vicious
To see all the vocabulary for Unit 6, view our Kindergarten Vocabulary Glossary.
Fishtank ELA units related to the content in this unit.
This unit builds a deeper understanding of the following Social Justice Standards: The Learning for Justice Anti-bias Framework (Learning for Justice):
To prepare for this unit, we recommend reading the following resources.
In order to ensure that all students are able to access the texts and tasks in this unit, it is incredibly important to intellectually prepare to teach the unit prior to launching the unit. Use the intellectual preparation protocol and the Unit Launch to determine which support students will need. To learn more, visit the Supporting all Students teacher tool.
Identify reasons to support the author’s point that all are welcome.
L.K.6 RI.K.7 RI.K.8 SL.K.1
Explain two reasons the author includes to support the idea that “Beneath the skin we all look alike. You and Me.”
L.K.6 RI.K.2 RI.K.7 RI.K.8 SL.K.1
Explain what the author means that children come in all colors of the earth.
Explain two reasons why the author says, “Each of us grows in our own way.”
Writing
Create an All About Me poster to highlight key aspects of identity.
L.K.1 L.K.2 W.K.2 W.K.5 W.K.8
Retell what happened in The Other Side.
L.K.6 RL.K.2 RL.K.3 SL.K.1
Explain how segregation impacts Joe and John Henry’s friendship.
Explain how life changed for Black people in the South after the civil rights movement.
Explain why Rosa Parks does not get up with the policeman asked her to.
L.K.6 RI.K.3 RI.K.7 RI.K.8 SL.K.1
Explain how the whole community made the Montgomery Bus Boycott a success.
Explain why Martin Luther King Jr. was important.
Explain how people came together during the March for Freedom.
RI.K.3 RI.K.7 RI.K.8 SL.K.1
Explain how Minnie and her sister showed courage.
Describe the dreams that Martin Luther King Jr. had.
RI.K.3 RI.K.7 RI.K.8 RI.K.9 RI.K.9 SL.K.1
Explain what it means to Be a King.
Writing – 2 days
Write about what you can do to Be a King.
Discussion
Discuss the unit essential questions.
SL.K.1 SL.K.3 SL.K.5 W.K.8
Assessment
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The content standards covered in this unit
L.K.1 — Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
L.K.2 — Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
L.K.6 — Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts.
RI.K.2 — With prompting and support, identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.
RI.K.3 — With prompting and support, describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text.
RI.K.7 — With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the text in which they appear (e.g., what person, place, thing, or idea in the text an illustration depicts).
RI.K.8 — With prompting and support, identify the reasons an author gives to support points in a text.
RI.K.9 — With prompting and support, identify basic similarities in and differences between two texts on the same topic (e.g., in illustrations, descriptions, or procedures).
RL.K.2 — With prompting and support, retell familiar stories, including key details.
RL.K.3 — With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.
SL.K.1 — Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about kindergarten topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.
SL.K.3 — Ask and answer questions in order to seek help, get information, or clarify something that is not understood.
SL.K.5 — Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions as desired to provide additional detail.
W.K.2 — Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic.
W.K.5 — With guidance and support from adults, respond to questions and suggestions from peers and add details to strengthen writing as needed.
W.K.8 — With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.
Standards that are practiced daily but are not priority standards of the unit
L.K.1.f — Produce and expand complete sentences in shared language activities.
L.K.4 — Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on kindergarten reading and content.
RI.K.1 — With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
RI.K.4 — With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text.
RI.K.5 — Identify the front cover, back cover, and title page of a book.
RI.K.6 — Name the author and illustrator of a text and define the role of each in presenting the ideas or information in a text.
RI.K.10 — Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding.
RL.K.1 — With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
RL.K.9 — With prompting and support, compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in familiar stories.
RL.K.10 — Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding.
SL.K.2 — Confirm understanding of a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media by asking and answering questions about key details and requesting clarification if something is not understood.
SL.K.4 — Describe familiar people, places, things, and events and, with prompting and support, provide additional detail.
SL.K.6 — Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.
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