Reading in Social Studies (Grades K-12)

94 core topics + 72 prerequisite topics taught as needed · approximately 49 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.

Reading in History & Social Studies (Grades 9-12) · 8 topics

Who Made This, and For Whom [H]	Read a document's provenance before its sentences, and say what that provenance lets it be evidence of.
What the Writer Could Actually Know [H]	Separate what a writer saw, counted or was told, and weigh each claim by the position it was made from.
What the Date Does to the Evidence [H]	Use when a document was written to decide what it can be evidence of, rather than to rank it against other accounts.
Who Was Meant to Read It [H]	Trace how the intended reader shapes what a document says, omits, and concedes.
What the Document Takes For Granted [H]	Name the belief a document never argues for, and treat it as evidence of what its readers were expected to grant.
Where Two Accounts Come Apart [H]	Compare two records of one event, locate what each was measuring, and name the third source that would settle it.
What Happened and Why It Happened [H]	Tell a claim about events apart from a claim about causes, and hold each to the evidence its kind requires.
What Is Not in the Document [H]	Judge what an omission can and cannot prove, using what the document was built to record.

Reading in History: Founding & Legal Documents (Grades 9-12) · 8 topics

Shall, May, Must: Duty Against Discretion [H]	Tell what a legal text commands from what it merely permits, and say who is bound by each.
The Definition Section Runs the Document [H]	Read a defined term as the document defines it, and trace what a change in the definition does to every section that uses the word.
Conditions, Triggers, and Deadlines [H]	Find what must happen before a legal provision does anything, and work out what follows when the condition fails.
Scope, Exception, and Proviso [H]	Work out exactly who and what a provision covers, and what an exception takes back out of it.
Who Is Given the Power, and How Far It Reaches [H]	Identify a grant of power in a governing document and state the limits written around it.
When Two Provisions Collide [H]	Decide whether two provisions really conflict, and use the document's own rules to say which governs.
Holding, Reasoning, and What a Court Did Not Decide [H]	Separate what a court decided from what it merely said, and read a reservation as the open question it is.
How a Dissent Reads the Majority [H]	Locate the exact point where a separate opinion parts from the majority, and test its account of the majority against the words it quotes.

Reading in History: Economics & Public Policy (Grades 9-12) · 7 topics

What the Number Actually Counts [H]	Say what a figure counts, what it is divided by, and what it leaves out, before letting it settle anything.
Compared With What [H]	Find the year, the group or the imagined alternative that a claim of change is measured against.
Who Ends Up Paying [H]	Separate the party who hands over the money from the party whose income is smaller once prices have adjusted.
How the Measure Is Supposed to Work [H]	Trace the chain of steps from an instrument to the result it promises, and name the link that could fail.
What the Estimate Takes For Granted [H]	Find the condition a projection needs in order to come true, especially when the document never states it.
How the Tradeoff Is Framed [H]	Describe what a writer has put on each side of a scale, in what units, and what was left off it entirely.
What People Do Next [H]	Predict how people rearrange themselves around a measure, and what that does to the numbers the measure was sold on.

Reading in Social Studies: People and Places (Grades K-1) · 9 topics

What This Text Is About [E]	Say what a social studies text is mostly about.
Finding a Fact [E]	Point to a fact the text actually gives.
A New Word for a Place Thing [E]	Work out a social studies word from the sentence that gives it.
Where Things Are [E]	Use a text to say where something is.
Who Does What [M]	Sort people by the work they do.
What Came First [M]	Put the steps of a process in order.
Then and Now [M]	Tell how life long ago is different from life today.
The Reason Behind It [M]	Say the reason a text gives for a rule or a choice.
Which Reason Is Better [M]	Weigh two reasons and say which one really answers the question.

Prerequisite material - taught automatically when the diagnostic finds gaps

Phonological & Phonemic Awareness · 5 topics

Counting Syllables	Break a word into its beats.
Hearing the First Sound	Tell which sound a word starts with.
Hearing the Last Sound	Tell which sound a word ends with.
Hearing the Middle Vowel Sound	Find the vowel sound in the middle of a short word.
Blending Sounds into Words	Push separate sounds together to make a word.

Phonics: Letters, Sounds & Short Vowels · 5 topics

Capital and Lowercase Letters	Match every capital letter to its lowercase partner.
Letter Sounds	Say the sound each letter stands for.
Short Vowel Sounds	Hear and write the five short vowel sounds.
Reading Short Words	Sound out and read consonant-vowel-consonant words.
Word Families	Read a whole set of words by learning one ending.

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 · 3 topics

How Books and Print Work	Know the parts of a book and which way print goes.
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.

Sentence & Capitalization Basics · 2 topics

What Makes a Sentence	Tell a complete sentence from a group of words.
Naming Part and Telling Part	Split a sentence into who it is about and what happens.

Prefixes & Suffixes · 6 topics

Finding the Base Word	Strip the extra parts off a word to find the word underneath.
What a Prefix Means	Know what the common prefixes do to a word.
Using a Prefix to Read a Word	Work out what a prefixed word means without being told.
What a Suffix Means	Know what the common suffixes add to a word.
Using a Suffix to Read a Word	Work out what a word with a suffix means.
Reading a Word You Have Never Seen	Work out an unfamiliar word from its prefix, base, and suffix.

Greek & Latin Roots · 1 topics

What a Root Is

Find the root inside a long word and tell it from a base word.

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.

Academic Vocabulary · 2 topics

Three Kinds of School Word	Sort a word into everyday, used in every subject, or belonging to one subject.
The Words Every Subject Uses	Give the exact meaning of the words that show up in every subject.

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.

Nonfiction Basics: Topic & Key Details · 2 topics

What the Whole Text Is About	Say in a few words what a whole true text is about.
Key Details You Can Point To	Find a fact the text really states, and point to where it says so.

Author's Purpose & Point of View · 5 topics

Why the Author Wrote It	Name what a text was built to do, not just what it is about.
The Evidence for a Purpose	Point to the move in the text that proves what the writer wanted.
Who It Was Written For	Work out the reader a text was aimed at, and how you can tell.
The Author's Point of View	Say what the writer thinks about the subject, even when no opinion is stated.
Facts, Judgments, and Honest Uncertainty	Sort what can be checked from what is argued, and spot a writer naming their own limits.

Integrating Multiple Sources · 3 topics

What Your Sources Are Really About	State the one question a set of sources is answering, precisely enough to compare them.
Where Sources Agree	Find the ground two sources share before you look at where they split.
Where Sources Disagree	Locate the exact sentence where two sources stop agreeing.

Sentence Types, Fragments & Run-Ons · 1 topics

Spotting a Fragment

Tell when a group of words stops before it is a sentence.

Writing Strong Sentences · 2 topics

Knowing When You Have a Sentence	Tell a finished sentence from a piece of one.
Saying More Than the Bare Fact	Add detail that answers a question a reader would ask.

Paragraphs & Topic Sentences · 2 topics

The Sentence the Others Are About	Find or choose the sentence a paragraph is built on.
Details That Actually Support	Choose detail that backs the claim you made.

Opinion & Argument Writing · 4 topics

A Claim or a Fact?	Tell a position someone could argue with from a fact they could check.
The Reason Under a Claim	Find the sentence that says why a position holds.
Evidence That Actually Proves It	Tell measured evidence from a stronger way of repeating an opinion.
Answering the Other Side	Answer the strongest objection instead of talking past it.

The Rhetorical Situation · 2 topics

Exigence: What Made This Necessary	Identify the pressure that called a text into being, and separate it from the occasion.
The Audience Under the Audience	Tell apart who a text is addressed to, who it is written for, and who is meant to overhear it.

Argument: Claim, Evidence & Reasoning · 4 topics

Finding the Claim	Locate the exact proposition an argument is asking you to accept.
What the Evidence Can Carry	Judge evidence by relevance, sufficiency and where it came from, not by how impressive it sounds.
The Reasoning in Between	Name the unwritten step that connects a piece of evidence to the claim it is offered for.
Concession, Rebuttal, and the Difference	Tell apart granting a point, answering it, and refusing to engage with it.

Academic Vocabulary (Grades 9-12) · 7 topics

What the Parts Can and Cannot Tell You	Narrow an unfamiliar academic word with its parts, then let the sentence choose.
Words That Are Not Interchangeable	Hold apart two academic words that look almost the same and claim different things.
When an Ordinary Word Is a Technical Term	Read a familiar word in the exact sense its field gives it, and restate it without smuggling the everyday sense back in.
The Phrases Academic Prose Is Built From	Choose the verb that a fixed academic phrase actually takes.
The Word That Names the Logical Move	Pick the connective that states the exact relation between two claims.
Saying What a Source Did	Characterize another writer's move with a verb that claims exactly what she claimed.
Exactly How Much Is Being Claimed	Choose the wording that claims precisely what a record supports, and name the fault when a claim outruns it.

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