5th Grade: Hispanic Heritage

Explicit ELA: Knowledge Power — Grade 5 Hispanic Heritage Unit

Our Voices, Our Identity

Bring Hispanic Heritage Month, Social Studies, and rigorous ELA instruction together in one connected learning experience.

This 11-day Grade 5 Knowledge Power unit uses an ongoing fictional storyline to help students learn about Hispanic heritage naturally through conversations, classroom experiences, historical figures, traditions, service, representation, and national identity.

Students follow five friends — Camila, Nono, Ariel, Jezlyn, and Adelynn — as their teacher, Mr. Short, challenges them to answer a larger question: How have Hispanic Americans helped shape the identity of the United States?

Rather than reading a collection of disconnected biographies, students encounter real historical people and contributions inside a continuing fictional story. As the characters learn, question, debate, and revise their thinking, students do the same.

Throughout the unit, students explore Hispanic American contributions connected to civil rights, women’s rights, politics, military service, science, representation, cultural traditions, and national identity.

Students will encounter:

• Dolores Huerta and advocacy for fairness and workers’ rights
• Dr. Héctor P. García and service, citizenship, and civil rights
• Hispanic American contributions to politics and representation
• Hispanic women who broke barriers and opened doors
• Ellen Ochoa and contributions to science, exploration, and opportunity
• Hispanic American military service
• The diversity of Hispanic customs, traditions, language, art, music, and family experiences
• A final synthesis of how these contributions become part of the larger American story
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ELA Skills Embedded Throughout

Students practice Central Idea, Text Evidence, Inference, Author’s Purpose, Character Analysis, Character Change, Compare/Contrast, Synthesis, Multi-Select, Short Constructed Response, and Extended Response.

Each day also includes Word Power vocabulary work designed to strengthen students’ understanding of important academic and Social Studies language such as heritage, contribution, representation, advocacy, opportunity, national identity, and legacy.

What’s Included

22 student pages total:

11 reading/story pages

11 Think, Prove & Write response pages

Response pages include multiple-choice practice, evidence-based multi-select questions, constructed response opportunities, Word Power application, sentence stems/scaffolds, and recurring Heritage Voices Notebook reflections.

The writing support gradually decreases across the unit so students move toward greater independence.

Why Knowledge Power?

The goal is not simply to teach students facts for Hispanic Heritage Month.

It is to help them understand that history and culture are carried through people, choices, accomplishments, traditions, service, and stories — and then use strong reading and writing skills to analyze what those contributions mean.

Many People. Many Stories. One American Story.



Perfect for Grade 5 ELA/Social Studies integration, Hispanic Heritage Month, knowledge building, small-group instruction, whole-class reading, and cross-curricular literacy instruction.