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What is Justice?
Students begin to explore African American history and the civil rights movement, serving as a launch for further discussions around discrimination, justice, and valuing individuals.
ELA
Unit 6
Kindergarten
Unit Summary
In this unit, students begin to explore African American history and the Civil Rights Movement. Students will begin the unit by thinking about the different aspects of identity that make someone who they are. They will study the ways in which people are similar and different, including skin color, and how differences in identities should not impact how people are treated. Students will then learn about the discrimination and injustices faced by African Americans leading up to and during the Civil Rights Movement and why it was necessary to work toward change. They will learn about how communities came together to organize and stand up to injustice, including how Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s influential leadership inspired others to work toward change. It is our hope that this unit will help instill the values of diversity, justice, and action, and that it will serve as a launch for further discussions around discrimination, justice, and valuing individuals.
Students are encouraged to think about how authors include specific reasons and illustrations to help the reader understand a particular idea or point in the text. Students also continue to explore how details are connected and how understanding the connection between details helps the reader understand the text. When participating in discussions, students use all of the strategies from previous units to hone in on their speaking and listening skills, focusing on continuing a conversation through multiple exchanges.
Students continue to work on building writing fluency by writing daily responses to the Target Task question. Students practice producing simple sentences and expanding simple sentences to include a reason. Across the unit, students have multiple opportunities to build on what they learned in previous units to write informational pieces, naming and then including some information about a topic.
Please Note: In October 2025, this unit and its lesson plans received a round of enhancements. This unit is now 19 instructional days (previously 18 days). The unit's Essential Questions have been adjusted, and teachers should pay close attention as they intellectually prepare to account for the updated pacing, sequencing, and content.
Two texts have been added as core texts to this unit: How Do You Spell Unfair by Carole Boston Weatherford (ISBN: 978-1536215540, Teacher Copy) and Mixed Me! by Taye Diggs (ISBN: 978-1250047199, Teacher Copy). Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman is now used in this unit instead of Unit 1. Four texts have been removed from this unit: All the Colors of the Earth by Sheila Hamanaka; Just Ask!: Be Different, Be Brave, Be You by Sonia Sotomayor; Freedom Summer by Deborah Wiles; and A Place to Land: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Speech That Inspired a Nation by Barry Wittenstein. Our Skin: A First Conversation about Race by Megan Madison and Jessica Ralli has been added to the book list for further reading.
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Texts and Materials
Some of the links in the sections below are Bookshop affiliate links. This means that if you click and make a purchase, we receive a small portion of the proceeds, which supports our non-profit mission.
Core Materials
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Book: All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold and illustrated by Suzanne Kaufman (Knopf Books for Young Readers; Illustrated edition, 2018) — AD370L
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Book: Let’s Talk About Race by Julius Lester and illustrated by Karen Barbour (HarperCollins; Illustrated edition, 2008)
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Video: “PBS KIDS Talk About Race, Racism & Identity” (PBS KIDS)
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Book: Mixed Me! by Taye Diggs and illustrated by Shane W. Evans (Feiwel & Friends, 2015) — AD540L
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Book: Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman and illustrated by Caroline Binch (Dial Books, 1991) — AD680L
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Book: The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson and illustrated by E. B. Lewis (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2001) — AD490L
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Book: How Do You Spell Unfair?: MacNolia Cox and the National Spelling Bee by Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrated by Frank Morrison (Candlewick, 2023) — 840L
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Book: This Is the Dream by Diane Z. Shore and Jessica Alexander and illustrated by James Ransome (mistad Books for Young Readers, 2009)
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Book: Rosa by Nikki Giovanni and illustrated by Bryan Collier (Square Fish; Reprint edition, 2007) — 800L
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Book: Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by Doreen Rappaport and illustrated by Bryan Collier (Jump at the Sun, 2007) — 410L
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Book: A Sweet Smell of Roses by Angela Johnson and illustrated by Eric Velasquez (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers; Reprint edition, 2007) — AD480L
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Book: I Have a Dream by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and illustrated by Kadir Nelson (Dragonfly Books, 2024) — 1030L
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Book: Be A King: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream and You by Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrated by James E. Ransome (Bloomsbury USA Childrens; Illustrated edition, 2018) — 360L
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Assessment Text: “We March” by Shane W. Evans (Square Fish; Reprint edition, 2016) — BR290L
Supporting Materials
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Rubric: Editing Checklist (GK, U6)
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Resource: Mentor Text (GK, U6, L7)
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Resource: Front Cover Template (GK, U6, L7)
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Resource: Mentor Text (GK, U6, L17)
- Resource: Book List for Further Reading
Assessment
The following assessments accompany Unit 6.
Content Assessment
The Content Assessment pushes students to synthesize unit content knowledge or unit essential questions in writing. The Content Assessment should be used as the primary assessment because it shows mastery of unit content knowledge and standards.
Cold Read Assessment
The Cold Read Assessment tests students' ability to comprehend a "cold" or unfamiliar passage and answer standards-based questions. The Cold Read Assessment can be given in addition to the Content Assessment as a pulse point for what students can read and analyze independently, a skill often required for standardized testing.
Unit Prep
Intellectual Prep
Essential Questions
- What makes us who we are?
- How did people work toward justice during the Civil Rights Movement?
Reading Focus Areas
- Authors include specific reasons and illustrations to support points in a text.
- To understand an informational text, readers think about how details are connected.
Writing Focus Areas
Informational Writing Focus Areas
- Name the topic and write 2–3 supporting details about the topic.
- Use the word "I" when writing an informational text about yourself. The word "I" is always written with an uppercase letter.
- Include a title to tell the reader the topic of the text.
Emergent Writing
Use the Emergent Writing Teacher Tool to regularly study students' Target Task responses. During Independent Writing, prompt students using the supports relevant to their individual Emergent Writing phase. By the end of Unit 6, students should demonstrate mastery of some skills within Phase 4: Conventional Writing.
Speaking and Listening Focus Areas
- Continue a conversation through multiple exchanges.
- Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.
Vocabulary
Text-based
boycottdenydiversitydiscriminationdreamenforcefreedomhonorhopefulidentityinjusticeinspirejusticemultiracialneutralnonviolentraceracismracial identityresistsegregationthreatenunequalvicious
To see all the vocabulary for Unit 6, view our Kindergarten Vocabulary Glossary.
Supporting All Students
In order to ensure that all students are able to access the texts and tasks in this unit, it is incredibly important to intellectually prepare to teach the unit prior to launching the unit. Use the intellectual preparation protocol and the Unit Launch to determine which support students will need. To learn more, visit the Supporting All Students Teacher Tool.
Content Knowledge and Connections
This unit builds a deeper understanding of the following Social Justice Standards: The Learning for Justice Anti-bias Framework (Learning for Justice):
- Identity 1: I know and like who I am and can talk about my family and myself and name some of my group identities.
- Identity 2: I can talk about interesting and healthy ways that some people who share my group identities live their lives.
- Diversity 7: I can describe some ways that I am similar to and different from people who share my identities and those who have other identities.
- Diversity 8: I want to know about other people and how our lives and experiences are the same and different.
- Justice 12: I know when people are treated unfairly.
- Justice 13: I know some true stories about how people have been treated badly because of their group identities, and I do not like it.
- Justice 14: I know that life is easier for some people and harder for others and the reasons for that are not always fair.
- Justice 15: I know about people who helped stop unfairness and worked to make life better for many people.
- Action 17: I can and will do something when I see unfairness; this includes telling an adult.
- Action 20: I will join with classmates to make our classroom fair for everyone.
To prepare for this unit, we recommend reading the following resources.
