Standards Alignment

• Standard: 4.1 Students demonstrate an understanding of the physical and human geographic features that define places and regions in California.
  • Chapter 7, line 45: To bring California’s history, geography, diverse society, and economy to life for students and to promote respect and understanding, teachers emphasize its people in all their ethnic, racial, gender, and cultural diversity.
  • Chapter 7, line 53: In grade four, emphasis is also placed on the regional geography of California. Students analyze how the different regions of the state have developed through the interaction of physical characteristics, cultural forces, and economic activity and how the landscape of California has provided different resources to different people at different times, from the earliest era to the present. Through an understanding of maps, geographic information, and quantitative analysis, students should come away from their California history course with an understanding of the important interactions between people and their environment.
• Standard: 4.2 Students describe the social, political, cultural, and economic life and interactions among people of California from the pre-Columbian societies to the Spanish mission and Mexican rancho periods.
  • Chapter 7, line 143: …Students learn about the social organization, beliefs, and economic activities of California Indians.
• Standard: 4.4 Students explain how California became an agricultural and industrial power, tracing the transformation of the California economy and its political and cultural development since the 1850s.
  • Chapter 7, line 480: …students examine the special significance of water in a state in which agricultural wealth depends on cultivating dry regions that have longer growing seasons and warmer weather than much of the rest of the nation. Students study the geography of water, the reclamation of California’s marshlands west of the Sierra Nevada, and the great engineering projects that bring water to the Central Valley and the semiarid south.
  • Chapter 7, line 582: The extension of water projects, including canals, dams, reservoirs, and power plants, supported the growing population and its expanding need for electrical power and drinking and irrigation water. Students examine the impact of these engineering projects on California’s wild rivers and watersheds and the long-term consequences of California’s heavy demand on its ground water resources.

California’s Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS, adopted 2013):

• ESS2.E: Biogeology, grades 3-5
  • Living things can affect the physical characteristics of their environment.
  • By the end of grade 5: Living things affect the physical characteristics of their regions (e.g., plants’ roots hold soil in place, beaver shelters and human-built dams alter the flow of water, plants’ respiration affects the air).
• Grade 4, Earth and Human Activity
  • 4-ESS3-1 Obtain and combine information to describe that energy and fuels are derived from natural resources and their uses affect the environment. [Clarification Statement: Examples of renewable energy resources could include wind energy, water behind dams, and sunlight; non-renewable energy resources are fossil fuels and fissile materials. Examples of environmental effects could include loss of habitat due to dams, loss of habitat due to surface mining, and air pollution from burning of fossil fuels.]
• Grade 4, From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes
  • 4-LS1.D Different sense receptors are specialized for particular kinds of information, which may be then processed by the animal’s brain. Animals are able to use their perceptions and memories to guide their actions.

California Common Core State Standards: California adopted Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Mathematics in 2010, modified 2013.

• ELA Standards:
  • RI4.3 Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text, including what happened and why, based on specific information in the text.
  • W4.1 Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information.
  • W4.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.
  • W4.8 Recall relevant information from experiences or gather relevant information from print and digital sources; take notes, paraphrase, and categorize information, and provide a list of sources. CA
  • W4.9 Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
  • SL4.2 Paraphrase portions of a text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively and orally.
  • SL4.3 Identify the reasons and evidence a speaker or media source provides to support particular points. CA.