Units for the K-5 Curriculum (6-8 Units coming soon!!)
Each grade level contains 4 units which address ALL Ohio social studies standards for the respective grade levels.
Units are built and organized with the 5E’s instructional framework to facilitate inquiry.
Each unit overview includes:
- Learning targets
- Teacher background information
- Links to all lessons and resources necessary to teach the unit
Designed with Progression in Mind
The units are organized and arranged in a logical instructional progression that build student understanding over the course of the year. Each unit is carefully planned in a learning progression that builds conceptual understanding of students. This is critical to long term retention and effective learning.
Utilizes Google Platform
Like the Ohio Science Explorers curriculum, this curriculum is also designed and created using the Google Platform so there is no new technology or software to learn or download. The units include hyperlinked Google doc unit organizers linked to all lesson and instructional resources.
Key Components
Learning Targets and Unit Summary
Each unit contains student learning targets to guide and communicate to students what they are responsible for learning. The units also have a summary to provide a brief overview of the unit’s content.
Direct Alignment to Ohio Standards
Each unit overview has exploration big questions that guide student exploration for the unit. It also includes the specific standards that are addressed for each specific unit.
Teacher Information
All units contain the important teacher information and guidance as to where the content was addressed previously and where it will be addressed in future grades. The information also includes the information of the Social Studies Model Curriculum for the ODE. The unit overview also includes the 5 E’s inquiry cycle stages of the learning progression.
Reinforces Literacy Standards
Explorers Curriculum understand that literacy skills are very important and the social studies oftentimes is taught with reading and writing. For this reason, the curriculum units also include a variety of lessons and resources to reinforce literacy skills.
Each unit contains a list of books that align with the unit to be used as read-alouds or be read by students. There are also writing activities to build students’ writing skills.
Edulastic Assessments
Each unit in grade 3-5 includes already created Edulastic/Pear Assessment assessments that assess the content of the unit. The assessments mirror items of the state tests such as drag and drop, multiple select, etc.
All assessments can be copied and edited in the Edulastic/Pear Assessment platform with a free Pear Assessment account.
Vetted Videos
Units include a variety of fun and engaging YouTube videos to introduce and reinforce the content of the units.
The videos are vetted and reviewed so teachers can be sure they are appropriate and completely aligned to the content they are teaching.
Unit Storylines
The Unit Storylines provide a breakdown of the activities in each inquiry stage to provide approximate times for each of the activities. This will assist teachers in pacing and planning their instruction.
The storylines also include the materials for each activity, as well as new, key vocabulary. Lastly, the storylines also include the student outcome for each inquiry stage. This will assist teachers in knowing what exactly students should be able to understand for each of the inquiry stages.
Engaging Student Activities
The curriculum units include a variety of hands-on activities that require students to apply their new knowledge in several different formats.
The curriculum includes all the student copies of materials, as well as teacher keys for easy of implementation. Many activities also have an inquiry nature which encourages students to explore, research and utilize the knowledge they gain.
Error and Correction Sheets
There is also a link to the Error and Correction Sheet for each grade level at the top of each Unit Overview.
The Errors and Corrections document is a SHARED, EDITABLE document that all grade level teachers have access to enter information on. This sheet is for teachers to report any errors or issues that need to be addressed in the units, such as a bad link or missing resource, etc..
Capstone Interactive eBooks
The curriculum includes links to Capstone Interactive eBooks on INFOhio’s website. The links in the curriculum should take you directly to the specific eBook.
The eBook can be assigned to the students through Google Classroom or any LMS.