🏛️ Shirley Chisholm Reading Comprehension & RACE Writing

Black History & Women’s History Month | Grades 3–6 | No-Prep Reading Digital Resource

Celebrate Black History Month and Women’s History Month with this engaging, cross-curricular reading and writing resource highlighting Shirley Chisholm, the first African American woman elected to the United States Congress. This lesson blends ELA and Social Studies to explore her groundbreaking leadership, historic presidential campaign, and advocacy for civil rights and education.

Bring history and civic engagement to life while helping students analyze perseverance, leadership, and social impact through meaningful text-based discussion and structured writing.

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📸 Quick Snapshot

Perfect For:

• Black History Month (February)

• Women’s History Month (March)

• State test prep (AIR, PARCC, PSSA, STAAR, and more)

• Whole group or small group instruction

• Independent practice or tutoring

Skills Targeted:

• Reading comprehension

• Making inferences

• Citing textual evidence

• Paragraph writing

• RACE strategy

• Editing and revision

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🎯 If Your Students…

• Retell instead of analyze

• Struggle to cite strong text evidence

• Write responses that feel incomplete or disorganized

• Need support organizing their thinking for constructed responses

This resource provides structured reading support and RACE-based writing scaffolds to help students move from surface-level answers to clear, text-based analysis with confidence.

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📦 What’s Included

✔️ Teacher Resource Guide
✔️ Student Note-Taking Guide
✔️ Reading Comprehension Passage: “Shirley Chisholm”
✔️ 5 Post-Reading Comprehension & Inferential Questions
✔️ Differentiated Question Set
✔️ R.A.C.E. Strategy Open-Ended Question with Outline
✔️ Model RACE Response
✔️ Editing Checklist
✔️ Answer Keys
✔️ Perfect for February or March Test Prep

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📚 Instructional Alignment

• Supports Common Core standards for Reading Informational Text and Writing (Grades 3–6)

• DOK Levels 2–3 (comprehension, inference, analysis)

• Structured writing scaffold using the RACE method

• Encourages discussion of civic engagement, leadership, and social justice

• Strengthens constructed response skills aligned to state assessments

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🛠️ How to Use

Whole Group Instruction:
Read and annotate the passage together, model text evidence selection, and complete a RACE response as a class.

Small Group or Intervention:
Use the differentiated question set for targeted support or enrichment.

Independent Practice:
Assign digitally during literacy block or as structured homework.

Test Prep Spiral:
Use the RACE question and editing checklist to reinforce constructed response expectations leading into February and March assessments.

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💬 Themes & Discussion Topics

• Overcoming adversity

• Female trailblazers

• Black History & Women’s History

• Politics and civic engagement

• Civil rights and gender equality

• Leadership and standing up for what’s right

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⭐ Why LBTL Resources Are Different

Learning Between the Lines resources are intentionally designed to move students beyond “what happened” and into deeper thinking. Built on research-based literacy practices and classroom experience, each lesson supports structured academic writing while keeping implementation simple for teachers.

This is purposeful practice — not busywork.

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🗂️ File Details

• Digital resource

• Ready-to-use

• Answer keys included

• Ideal for grades 3–6

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🔗 Keep Building Strong Readers

Pair this resource with:

✨ Madame C.J. Walker Reading Comprehension + Writing Practice

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