2020 Colorado Academic Standards Online
Use the options below to create customized views of the 2020 Colorado Academic Standards. For all standards resources, see the Office of Standards and Instructional Support.
Current selections are shown below (maximum of five)
clear Content Area: Social Studies // Grade Level: Fifth Grade // Standard Category: All Standards Categories
Social Studies
Fifth Grade, Standard 1. History
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Prepared Graduates:
- 1. Understand the nature of historical knowledge as a process of inquiry that examines and analyzes how history is viewed, constructed, and interpreted.
Grade Level Expectation:
1. Analyze primary and secondary sources from multiple points of view to develop an understanding of early United States history.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Recognize how historical context can affect the perspective of historical sources.
- Examine significant historical documents. For example: the Stamp Act, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution.
- Interpret timelines of eras and themes in North America from European colonization through the establishment of the United States Government.
- Analyze cartoons, artifacts, artwork, charts, and graphs related to eras and themes in North America from European colonization through the establishment of the United States Government.
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Make observations and draw conclusions from a variety of sources when studying American history. (Entrepreneurial Skills: Inquiry/Analysis)
- Identify and explain multiple perspectives when exploring events, ideas, issues in United States history. (Civic/Interpersonal Skills: Global/Cultural Awareness).
Inquiry Questions:
- How do sources with varied perspectives help us to understand what happened in the past?
- Why is important to understand the historical context of events?
- How might history be different without the Declaration of Independence?
Nature and Skills of History:
- Historical thinkers analyze and interpret primary and secondary sources to make inferences about various time periods and show cause-and-effect relationships.
- Historical thinkers seek people, places, and events that tell the story of history from multiple perspectives.
- Historical thinkers examine data for point of view, historical context, distortion, or propaganda.
- Historical thinkers apply the historical method of inquiry to continuously interpret and refine history. For example, political cartoonists portray multiple perspectives of events, and newspapers may be biased in coverage of events throughout time.
- Historical thinkers generate questions about individuals and groups who have shaped significant historical changes and continuities.
- Historical thinkers explain why individuals and groups during the same historical period differed in their perspectives.
- Historical thinkers explain connections among historical contexts and people’s perspectives at the time.
- Historical thinkers summarize how different kinds of historical sources are used to explain events in the past.
- Historical thinkers gather relevant information from multiple sources while using the origin, structure, and context to guide the selection.
- Historical thinkers use evidence to develop claims in response to compelling questions.
Disciplinary, Information, and Media Literacy:
- Analyze multiple accounts of the same event or topic, noting important similarities and differences in the point of view they represent.
- Integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably.
- Provide logically ordered reasons that are supported by facts and details.
- Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.
- Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
- Articulate the most effective options to access information needed for a specific purpose.
- Communicate information through the use of technologies.
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Prepared Graduates:
- 2. Analyze historical time periods and patterns of continuity and change, through multiple perspectives, within and among cultures and societies.
Grade Level Expectation:
2. The historical eras, individuals, groups, ideas, and themes in North America from European colonization through the establishment of the United States Government.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Identify and explain cultural interactions between the European colonists, American Indians, and enslaved individuals. For example: the Columbian Exchange, and various trade networks.
- Identify and describe the significant individuals and groups of American Indians and European colonists before the American Revolution.
- Explain the development of political, social and economic institutions in the British American colonies.
- Explain important political, social, economic, and military developments leading to and during the American Revolution.
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Identify and explain multiple perspectives when exploring events, ideas, issues in United States history. (Civic/Interpersonal Skills: Global/Cultural Awareness).
Inquiry Questions:
- How did historical events and individuals contribute to diversity in the United States?
- How did important American documents shape American beliefs and values?
- To what extent did individuals and their ideas contribute to the establishment of the United States government?
Nature and Skills of History:
- Historical thinkers use chronology to organize and study cause-and-effect relationships across time.
- Historical thinkers study people, places, and events to tell the story of history from multiple perspectives.
- Historical thinkers examine the context and information from the past to make connections and inform decisions in the present. For example: the concept of liberty continues to be defended by lawyers and citizens; and the rights and responsibilities of citizens continue to evolve through the work of policy makers, legislators, judges, lawyers, and individuals.
- Historical thinkers generate questions about individuals and groups who have shaped significant historical changes and continuities.
- Historical thinkers explain connections among historical contexts and people’s perspectives at the time.
- Historical thinkers summarize how different kinds of historical sources are used to explain events in the past.
- Historical thinkers use evidence to develop a claim about the past.
- Historical thinkers construct explanations using reasoning, correct sequence, examples, and details with relevant information and data.
Disciplinary, Information, and Media Literacy:
- Integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably.
- Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.
- Introduce a topic clearly, provide a general observation and focus, and group related information logically; include formatting (e.g., headings), illustrations, and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.
- Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic.
- Conduct short research projects that use several sources to build knowledge through investigation of different aspects of a topic.
- Report on a topic or text or present an opinion, sequencing ideas logically and using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.
- Communicate information through the use of technologies.
Social Studies
Fifth Grade, Standard 2. Geography
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Prepared Graduates:
- 3. Apply geographic representations and perspectives to analyze human movement, spatial patterns, systems, and the connections and relationships among them.
Grade Level Expectation:
1. Use geographic tools and sources to research and answer questions about United States geography.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Answer questions about regions of the United States using various types of maps.
- Use geographic tools to identify, locate, and describe places and regions in the United States and suggest reasons for their location.
- Describe the influence of accessible resources on the development of local and regional communities throughout the United States.
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Investigate geographic resources to form hypotheses, make observations, and draw conclusions about communities in the United States. (Entrepreneurial Skills: Inquiry/Analysis)
Inquiry Questions:
- How can various types of maps and other geographic tools communicate geographic information incorrectly?
- How do you think differently about data when it is displayed spatially?
- How and why do we label places?
- How have places and regions in the United States been influenced by the physical geography of North America over time?
Nature and Skills of Geography:
- Spatial thinkers use geographic tools to evaluate data in order to answer geographic questions.
- Spatial thinkers locate places and identify resources, physical features, regions, and populations using geographic tools.
- Spatial thinkers use geographic technologies to enhance the ability to locate and analyze maps to answer questions. For example: historians use maps to help re-create settings of historical events, and individuals use maps to learn about different geographic areas.
Disciplinary, Information, and Media Literacy:
- Analyze multiple accounts of the same event or topic, noting important similarities and differences in the point of view they represent.
- Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic.
- Conduct short research projects that use several sources to build knowledge through investigation of different aspects of a topic.
- Report on a topic or text or present an opinion, sequencing ideas logically and using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.
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Prepared Graduates:
- 4. Examine the characteristics of places and regions, and the changing nature among geographic and human interactions.
Grade Level Expectation:
2. Causes and consequences of movement.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Identify variables associated with discovery, exploration, and migration.
- Explain migration, trade, and cultural patterns that result from interactions among people, groups, and cultures.
- Describe and analyze how specific physical and political features influenced historical events, movements, and adaptation to the environment.
- Analyze how cooperation and conflict among people contribute to political, economic, and social divisions in the United States.
- Give examples of the influence of geography on the history of the United States.
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Consider purpose, formality of context and audience, and distinct cultural norms when planning the content, mode, delivery, and expression of analysis of historical events and movements. (Civic/Interpersonal Skills: Communication)
- Identify and explain multiple perspectives when exploring ideas about conflict in the United States. (Civic/Interpersonal Skills: Global/Cultural Awareness)
Inquiry Questions:
- What human and physical characteristics have motivated, prevented, or impeded migration and immigration over time?
- How can migration and immigration be represented geographically?
- How has the movement of people and their belongings affected the environment both positively and negatively?
Nature and Skills of Geography:
- Geographic thinkers study patterns of human movement.
- Geographic thinkers understand how technology has influenced movement to, colonization of, and the settlement of North America.
- Geographic thinkers examine how the migration of individuals affects society including economic and environmental impacts.
Disciplinary, Information, and Media Literacy:
- Draw evidence from geographic tools or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
- Determine the kinds of sources that will be helpful in answering compelling and supporting questions, taking into consideration the different opinions people have about how to answer the questions.
Social Studies
Fifth Grade, Standard 3. Economics
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Prepared Graduates:
- 5. Understand the allocation of scarce resources in societies through analysis of individual choice, market interaction, and public policy.
Grade Level Expectation:
1. Trade shaped the development of early America.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Identify examples of the productive resources and explain how they are used to produce goods and services. For example: land, labor, and capital.
- Compare ways in which people and communities exchanged goods and services. For example: barter and monetary exchange.
- Identify the goods and services that were traded among different cultures and regions.
- Describe how patterns of trade evolved within early America.
- Explain some of the challenges that American colonists faced that would eventually lead them to the creation of commercial banks.
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Investigate to form hypotheses, make observations and draw conclusions about the development of the systems of exchange in the United States. (Entrepreneurial Skills: Inquiry/Analysis).
- Recognize how members of a community rely on each other through trade and exchange. (Civic/Interpersonal Skills: Collaboration/Teamwork)
Inquiry Questions:
- How did different cultures or communities in early America interact with each other?
- Why do people trade?
- Why do most modern societies choose to use money?
- How are financial institutions important to society?
Nature and Skills of Economics:
- Economic thinkers analyze trade and the use of money.
- Economic thinkers describe and study the importance of exchange in a community.
- Economic thinkers understand the actions of financial institutions in a market economy.
- Economic thinkers make decisions about how to use scarce resources to maximize the well-being of individuals and society.
- Economic thinkers voluntarily exchange goods and services when both parties expect to gain as a result of the trade.
- Economic thinkers understand that the principles of markets apply to markets for goods and services, labor, credit, and foreign exchange.
- Economic thinkers understand why people specialize and trade, and how that leads to increased economic interdependence in the world economy.
- Economic thinkers gather information from a variety of sources and evaluate the relevance of that information when constructing opinions, explanation, or arguments.
Disciplinary, Information, and Media Literacy:
- Determine the kinds of sources that will be helpful in answering compelling and supporting questions, taking into consideration the different opinions people have about how to answer the questions.
- Integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably.
- Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
- Identify cause and effect, and fact versus opinion.
- Conduct research by locating, gathering, and organizing information using online and print resources.
- Explain content through the use of maps, graphs, charts, diagrams.
- Use content specific technology tools to support learning.
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Prepared Graduates:
- 6. Apply economic reasoning skills to make informed personal financial decisions (PFL).
Grade Level Expectation:
2. Examine how individuals use financial institutions to manage personal finances (PFL).
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Differentiate between saving and investing.
- Establish the function of banking.
- Distinguish between different types of financial institutions such as banks and credit unions, and the services provided. For example: checking accounts, savings accounts, investments, and loans.
- Create a way to keep track of money spent and money saved.
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Make connections between information gathered and personal experiences to apply and/or test solutions when choosing a financial institution or financial product. (Entrepreneurial Skills: Critical Thinking/Problem Solving)
- Express one’s own emotions, thoughts, and values and identify how they influence behavior when making decisions regarding choosing a financial institution or financial product. (Personal Skills: Self-Awareness)
- Ask questions to develop further personal understanding when choosing financial institutions and financial products. (Professional Skills: Self-Advocacy)
Inquiry Questions:
- What risks and benefits are associated with spending versus saving and investing?
- How can a checking account help to decide how to spend and save?
- Why do people use financial institutions rather than self-banking?
- How do people choose a financial institution?
Nature and Skills of Economics:
- Financially capable individuals research, analyze, and make choices regarding their needs when using financial institutions.
- Financially capable individuals identify positive and negative incentives that influence the decisions people make.
- Financially capable individuals use technology to track and graph the interest accrued on “virtual” investments, checking and savings accounts, investments, and loans.
Disciplinary, Information, and Media Literacy:
- Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.
- Conduct short research projects that use several sources to build knowledge through investigation of different aspects of a topic.
Social Studies
Fifth Grade, Standard 4. Civics
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Prepared Graduates:
- 7. Express an understanding of how civic participation affects policy by applying the rights and responsibilities of a citizen.
Grade Level Expectation:
1. Construct an understanding of the foundations of citizenship in the United States.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Describe and provide sources and examples of individual rights.
- Give examples of group and individual actions that illustrate civic ideals in the founding of the United States. For example: freedom, rule of law, equality, civility, cooperation, respect, responsibility, and civic participation.
- Explain the reasons for the settlement of the American colonies.
- Define the criteria and process for becoming a citizen.
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Recognize how members of a community rely on each other through a variety of ways when creating rules and norms. (Civic/Interpersonal Skills: Collaboration/Teamwork)
- Connect knowledge of the foundations of citizenship in the United States to personal ideas/understandings. (Civic/Interpersonal Skills: Civic Engagement)
Inquiry Questions:
- How might citizens view an issue differently because of their backgrounds?
- What is the most important right of a citizen?
- What is the most important responsibility of a citizen?
- How does government meet its responsibility to citizens?
- Who is government?
Nature and Skills of Civics:
- Civic-minded individuals understand that civic virtues such as civility, cooperation, respect, and responsible participation are foundational components of our society.
- Civic-minded individuals understand the significance of peaceful assembly by groups and respectful behavior during a performance or speech.
- Civic-minded individuals understand that the foundations of citizenship in the United States ensure that citizens' rights are being protected. For example: the rule of law applies to everyone in society and all individuals and groups are treated with respect.
- Civic-minded individuals analyze critical historical documents to investigate the development of the national government.
- Civic-minded individuals understand the responsibilities of the national government to its citizens.
- Civic-minded individuals understand that in order to act responsibly and effectively, citizens must understand the important institutions of their society and the principles that these institutions are intended to reflect.
- Civic-minded individuals gather information from a variety of sources and evaluate the relevance of that information when constructing opinions, explanation, or arguments.
Disciplinary, Information, and Media Literacy:
- Integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably.
- Conduct research by locating, gathering, and organizing information using online and print resources.
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Prepared Graduates:
- 8. Analyze the origins, structures, and functions of governments to evaluate the impact on citizens and the global society.
Grade Level Expectation:
2. The origins, structures, and functions of the United States government.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Explain the historical foundation and the events that led to the establishment of the United States government. For example: the colonial experience, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution.
- Identify political principles of American democracy and how the Constitution and Bill of Rights reflect and preserve these principles.
- Explain the origins, structures, and functions of the three branches of the United States government and the relationships among them.
- Describe how the decisions of the national government affect local and state government.
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Identify and explain multiple perspectives when exploring the events leading to the creation of the United States government and the principles of American democracy. (Civic/Interpersonal Skills: Global/Cultural Awareness)
Inquiry Questions:
- What are democratic ideals and practices and their historic origins?
- Were the founding fathers correct in keeping the Constitution open for flexibility and interpretation? Why?
- How have historical documents defined and distributed power?
Nature and Skills of Civics:
- Civic-minded individuals understand the concept of individual rights as a cornerstone to American democracy.
- Civic-minded individuals understand the relationships between individual rights and personal responsibility.
- Civic-minded individuals know that the origins, structure, and function of the United States government are studied to create an informed, civically literate, and responsible society. For example: fundamental principles and liberties are still evolving as judges interpret the Constitution, and legislators make laws and local city councils and boards create regulations.
- Civic-minded individuals understand that in order to act responsibly and effectively, citizens must understand the important institutions of their society and the principles that these institutions are intended to reflect.
- Civic-minded individuals understand that civics teaches the principles—such as adherence to the social contract, consent of the governed, limited government, legitimate authority, federalism, and separation of powers—that are meant to guide official institutions such as legislatures, courts, and government agencies.
Disciplinary, Information, and Media Literacy:
- Integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably.
- Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.
- Determine the kinds of sources that will be helpful in answering compelling and supporting questions, taking into consideration the different opinions people have about how to answer the questions.
- Identify and discuss primary and secondary sources.
Need Help? Submit questions or requests for assistance to bruno_j@cde.state.co.us