Reading in Social Studies (Grades 2-6)

62 core topics + 18 prerequisite topics taught as needed · approximately 23 hours of instruction including spaced review

How the course runs

An adaptive diagnostic (up to 40 questions) places the student on the course's knowledge graph - topics already known are credited, and instruction begins exactly at the learning frontier. Every topic is taught with a worked-example lesson and auto-graded practice; a topic is mastered at 75%+ and then maintained through spaced reviews on an expanding schedule. Mixed checks follow every 6 lessons; each unit ends with a 12-item quiz, and course-wide assessments appear at 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% mastery. Prerequisite gaps below the course are detected and taught rather than skipped, so completion certifies the whole tower, not just the top.

Core curriculum

Main Idea & Supporting Details · 7 topics

Topic or Main Idea? [M]	Tell what a text is about from what it says about it.
Finding the Main Idea [M]	Say in one sentence what a whole text is telling you.
Main Ideas That Are Not Written Down [H]	Work out the main idea when no sentence states it.
Details That Back It Up [M]	Find the fact in a text that supports a particular idea.
Choosing the Best Title [M]	Pick a title that names the main idea rather than one detail.
Writing a Summary [H]	Retell a text keeping only what matters.
Telling a Detail from the Main Idea [M]	Spot the sentence that is only a detail.

Text Structure in Nonfiction · 8 topics

Words That Give the Shape Away [M]	Spot the words and sentences that tell you how a nonfiction text is organized.
Description: Groups, Parts and Kinds [M]	Recognize a text that describes one thing closely or sorts things into kinds.
Sequence: Time Order and Steps [M]	Follow a text built on the order things happen or the order they are done.
Compare and Contrast [M]	Read a text that sets two things side by side and says how they are alike and different.
Cause and Effect [M]	Trace a text where each thing described makes the next thing happen.
Problem and Solution [M]	Read a text that states a difficulty and then what was done about it.
Naming the Structure of a Whole Text [H]	Decide which structure a whole passage is built on, and notice when it uses more than one.
Why the Writer Chose That Shape [H]	Explain what a text's structure does for the reader, and what would be lost in another shape.

Inference, Evidence & Summarizing · 8 topics

Stated or Implied? [H]	Tell what a text says outright from what it only lets you conclude.
What One Detail Tells You [H]	Draw the conclusion a single detail supports, and stop there.
The Line That Proves It [H]	Given a claim, find the sentence in the text that actually supports it.
Putting Two Details Together [H]	Reach a conclusion that no single sentence in the text states.
An Objective Summary [H]	Say what a text argued, in its own terms, without taking a side.
Deciding What to Leave Out [H]	Cut the details a summary can lose, and keep the ones it cannot.
Which Evidence Is Strongest [H]	Choose between two relevant details by asking which one settles it.
Inference or Guess? [H]	Spot the step that goes past what the text can carry.

Reading in Social Studies: American History (2-4) · 7 topics

The Main Idea of a History Text [M]	Find what a history passage is really about.
Putting Events in Time Order [M]	Work out what happened first, and how much time passed.
History Words in Context [M]	Work out what a historical term means from the text around it.
Causes and Consequences [M]	Explain why something happened, and what it led to.
Evidence in a History Text [M]	Point to the detail that actually proves a claim.
Whose Story Is Being Told [H]	Notice whose point of view a history text takes, and who is missing.
What the History Actually Says [H]	Use what the passage taught you to answer a real history question.

Reading in Social Studies: American History (5-6) · 9 topics

Reading a Source Like a Historian [H]	Ask who made a source, when, and what they wanted it to do.
Claims and the Evidence Under Them [H]	Separate what a history text asserts from what it shows.
When Sources Disagree [H]	Compare accounts of the same event instead of trusting one.
What the Wording Gives Away [H]	Notice how a writer's word choices shape what you conclude.
Putting a Source Back in Its Moment [H]	Read a source against what its writer could and could not know.
Summarizing Without Losing the Argument [H]	Write a summary that keeps the point, not just the facts.
Chains of Cause in History [H]	Follow why one thing led to another, and where the chain stops.
Whose Account Is This [H]	Work out whose view a history text carries, and who is missing.
What the History Actually Says [H]	Answer questions about the events themselves, from the text.

Reading in Social Studies: Civics & Government · 7 topics

Civics Words With Exact Jobs [H]	Work out what a government word means from the sentence around it.
Who Holds Which Power [H]	Sort any government action by which job it is and at which level.
Steps, and Where They Stop [H]	Follow a civic process in order and find the points where it can end.
The Claim and the Support Under It [H]	Separate what a civics text asserts from what actually backs it up.
What a Rule Does After It Is Made [H]	Trace the effects a rule produces, including the ones nobody wrote down.
Who a Rule Lands On [H]	Ask whose interest a rule or an account serves, and who it leaves out.
What This Text Wants From You [H]	Identify what a civic text was written to make its reader do or think.

Reading in Social Studies: Geography & Maps · 8 topics

What the Key Tells You [M]	Read a map's key first, so its marks turn into meaning.
Which Way Is That? [M]	Say where one place is in relation to another, using the compass rose.
How Far Is That Really? [M]	Use a map's scale to turn a distance on paper into a distance on the ground.
Finding a Place Exactly [H]	Use grid squares, latitude and longitude to pin down where a place is.
Choosing the Right Map [H]	Match the kind of map to the question you are trying to answer.
The Shape Words [M]	Turn a geography text's shape words into a picture you can reason with.
People and the Land [H]	Explain how land shapes what people do, and how people change the land.
What a Map Cannot Tell You [H]	Name what a map left out, and judge what it can honestly be asked.

Reading in Social Studies: Economics & Culture · 8 topics

Economics Words in Context [H]	Pin down an economics term from the sentences around it.
The Cost of What You Did Not Choose [H]	Name what was given up when somebody in the text made a choice.
Why a Price Moved [H]	Explain a change in price by what happened to supply or to demand.
Reading the Numbers in the Text [H]	Work out what a figure in a social studies text does and does not measure.
Claims About Money, and What Backs Them [H]	Separate what an economics text asserts from what it actually shows.
Who Gains and Who Loses [H]	Trace a decision to the people it helped and the people it cost.
How Culture Moves and Changes [H]	Follow a practice as it travels between peoples and is changed by them.
What the Social Studies Actually Says [H]	Answer questions about the economics and the cultures themselves.

Prerequisite material - taught automatically when the diagnostic finds gaps

High-Frequency Words & Sight Vocabulary · 2 topics

Recognizing High-Frequency Words	Know the most common words on sight, instantly.
High-Frequency Words in Sentences	Use common words correctly inside a real sentence.

Print Concepts & Early Comprehension · 2 topics

Listening Comprehension	Understand a story that is read out loud to you.
What Happened First, Next, Last	Put the events of a story in the order they happened.

Context Clues (Grades 2-3) · 5 topics

When the Sentence Just Tells You	Find a word's meaning written into the sentence itself.
A Nearby Word That Means the Same	Use a synonym elsewhere in the passage to unlock a word.
When a Contrast Points the Other Way	Use a contrast word to work out the opposite meaning.
Working Back From Examples	Use a list of examples to work out the category.
When There Is No Clue Word	Work out a meaning from the whole situation.

Figurative Language & Idioms · 2 topics

Noticing When Words Are Not Literal	Tell when a sentence is not meant exactly as written.
Working Out What It Really Means	Say in plain words what a figure of speech is telling you.

Retelling, Sequence & Summary · 7 topics

Who the Story Is About	Name the character a story follows.
First, Next, and Last	Say what happened first, what came in between, and what came last.
Putting the Whole Story in Order	Arrange all the events of a story from beginning to end.
Finding the Problem	Name what goes wrong in a story.
Finding the Solution	Say how a story's problem gets resolved.
Summarizing a Story	Retell a story keeping only what matters.
Knowing What to Leave Out	Spot the detail a summary does not need.

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