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Skills available for District of Columbia fifth-grade social studies standards

Standards are in black and IXL social studies skills are in dark green. Hold your mouse over the name of a skill to view a sample question. Click on the name of a skill to practice that skill.

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1 Inquiry in American History

2 War and Conquest in the West

  • 5.7 Evaluate historical perspectives about US imperial expansion, including Manifest Destiny and American exceptionalism, from multiple perspectives, including Indigenous Nations and peoples in the Pacific, Caribbean, Asia and Americas.

  • 5.8 Compare and contrast maps of Indigenous Nations and land at the start of each century from 1700 to the present, with a special focus on areas west of the Mississippi River.

  • 5.9 Use primary sources and Indigenous histories to explain the causes and consequences of significant events in the territorial conquest of sovereign Indigenous Nations territories between 1781 and 1877 including but not limited to the Louisiana Purchase and the Trail of Tears.

  • 5.1 Using primary sources, evaluate the legacy of American settlers, including the treatment of Indigenous Nations during the Lewis and Clark expedition and resistance to settler colonialism.

  • 5.11 Analyze the experiences and legacies of Black Americans in the Northwest Territory.

  • 5.12 Describe the causes of the Texas Independence movement and Mexican-American War from the perspective of Tejanos, enslaved Texans, Mexicans, American settlers and Indigenous Nations, with a focus on the impact of these events on individual lived experiences.

  • 5.13 Explain Indigenous resistance to territorial invasion, cultural and religious assimilation, and attack, including efforts to maintain sovereignty and independence (e.g., Geronimo, the Battle of Little Bighorn, Ghost Dance movement).

  • 5.14 Evaluate the environmental impact that settler colonialism had on the Great Plains region, West Coast, Northwest, and Southwest between the 19th and 20th centuries.

  • 5.15 Analyze the lived experiences of different immigrant communities between 1850 and 1900 (e.g., religious minority, Irish, German, Mexican, Italian, British, Southeast Asian, Chinese, and Japanese communities).

  • 5.16 Describe the motivations and lived experiences of people who migrated to the West in the 19th century, including Asian and African Americans.

  • 5.17 Compare the different artistic, cultural, political, and spiritual traditions of current-day Indigenous peoples and how those practices and ways of life persevered and still thrive today, including Two-Spirit identities.

3 Enslavement and Resistance

  • 5.18 Explain the importance of language when discussing challenging topics (e.g., "enslaved person" rather than "slave").

  • 5.19 Explain that white enslavers adopted and spread false beliefs about racial inferiority, and evaluate the impact of that ideology today.

  • 5.2 Describe how enslaved Africans in early America used religion, writing, speeches, rebellion, sabotage and maroon communities as resistance against the institution of chattel slavery.

  • 5.21 Evaluate how enslaved Africans practiced religion covertly through singing spirituals in the fields, gathering in hush harbors on Sundays for ring shouts, and fusions of Protestant Christianity and African-based spiritualities like Vodoun and Hoodoo.

  • 5.23 Compare and evaluate the strategies of abolitionists Venture Smith, Nat Turner, and Olaudah Equiano.

  • 5.24 Compare and contrast how the system of slavery operated in the North and the South.

  • 5.25 Discuss how the experience of enslaved people differed based on geographic location and labor performed.

  • 5.26 Explain how some contemporary music forms including but not limited to gospel, blues, and rock and roll, trace their roots to enslaved people.

  • 5.27 Describe how the Underground Railroad developed in the United States, including the work of activists from the District of Columbia in assisting enslaved people fleeing to the North.

4 Civil War

5 Reconstruction and the Early Struggle for Equality

  • 5.37 Evaluate the impact of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments on the lived experiences of formerly enslaved persons in the South, including the promise and shortcomings of each amendment.

  • 5.38 Analyze the early political successes of the Reconstruction era, including the election of approximately 2,000 Black Americans to local, state and national office.

  • 5.39 Explain the grassroots efforts by Black Americans to gain access to the American economy, political institutions, and social equality.

  • 5.4 Analyze the lived experiences of Black citizens after the Civil War and how laws passed after the end of slavery, such as the "Black Codes," impacted Black Americans' ability to work, vote and move in public spaces.

  • 5.41 Explain how white supremacist groups founded in the aftermath of emancipation, such as the Ku Klux Klan, enacted terror against Black people and also Jewish, Catholic, Latinx and Asian American communities.

  • 5.42 Evaluate the reasons for and impact of the Great Migration.

  • 5.43 Analyze the rise in Black art, music, literature, businesses and queer culture in the Black Renaissance period including but not limited to Harlem and DC (e.g., Black Broadway).

6 World War II and Postwar US

  • 5.44 Explain the causes of World War II and the rise of fascism in Italy and Germany, and explain how bias and prejudice led to the scapegoating of marginalized groups in Europe, including Jewish, Romani, Slavic, disabled, Jehovah's Witness and LGBTQ+ communities.

  • 5.45 Describe the causes and consequences of major events of World War II, including Pearl Harbor, D-Day and the decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan.

  • 5.46 Analyze changes at home as the US mobilized for and entered World War II, including social, economic, and political wartime opportunities for women and communities of color (e.g., women of color as riveters and war material assembly workers, Japanese American interpreters, Navajo coders, Tuskegee Airmen).

  • 5.47 Using primary sources from the perspective of American citizens of Japanese descent, analyze the struggles and resistance of those who were incarcerated during World War II.

  • 5.48 Compare the different experiences of servicemembers when they returned to the United States after the war, including white, Black, Latinx, Indigenous, LGBTQ+ and Asian American servicemen.

7 The Long Civil Rights Movement

  • 5.49 Analyze the work of activists, including but not limited to Ida B. Wells, W.E.B. Du Bois, and A. Philip Randolph, and grassroots acts of resistance following the end of slavery through the 20th century to determine when the Civil Rights Movement began.

  • 5.5 Evaluate the impact of Tape v. Hurley, Plessy v. Ferguson, Piper v. Big Pine School, Mendez v. Westminster and Brown v. Board of Education on school segregation and the movement for equality.

  • 5.51 Evaluate different strategies for resistance to Jim Crow laws in the South in the 20th century, such as boycotts, legal battles and direct action organized by grassroots groups such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE).

  • 5.52 Evaluate the reasons for and resistance to segregation in the North and West, including the impact of redlining and uprisings.

  • 5.53 Evaluate the impact of key moments and figures in the fight for Black equality and voting rights including but not limited to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Freedom Rides, sit-in protests, the Little Rock Nine and the March on Washington.

  • 5.54 Compare the efforts and impact of diverse groups and organizations inspired by the African American Civil Rights movement to address inequalities in American society including but not limited to the gay rights movement, the Stonewall Uprising, the American Indian Movement (AIM), the United Farm Workers, the Women's Liberation Movement, the Asian American Movement, the Disability Rights Movement, the Chicano Movement and Latinx resistance.

  • 5.55 Evaluate the impact and influence of historical movements for justice and equality on modern social movements and organizations.

  • 5.56 Analyze methods of impacting political change, and develop a plan for taking action to address an issue of local, national, or global concern.