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COMPREHENSION TOOLS Name:

Identify Central Idea

GRADE 6 Identify Central Idea 1 of 6©Curriculum Associates, LLC Copying permitted for classroom use.

TEXT A

Read the text, and underline details that support the central idea. Then, complete the activity on page 3.

DIRECTIONSThe First Women’s Rights Convention

1 In 1848, a convention of historic importance took place in Seneca Falls, New York. The small town was the site of the first women’s rights convention. At the convention, people voted on a series of proposals. One of them was that women should have the right to vote. Many people at that time were opposed to this idea. But the convention helped build support for women’s voting rights, which eventually became the law of the land.

2 The idea for the convention began eight years earlier. In 1840, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott were among a group of women who went to London to attend the World Anti-Slavery Convention. Once there, they were kept out of the conference because they were women. So, the group decided to meet on their own. Stanton and Mott agreed that another convention should be held. That convention would address women’s rights. Eight years passed before the two women achieved this goal. In 1848, Mott was visiting her sister near Seneca Falls. Stanton was living there at the time. Mott and Stanton met again. With three other women, they agreed to plan a convention. Its purpose would be “to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of women.”

3 Stanton agreed to write a Declaration of Sentiments. It would be the basis for discussion at the meeting. She modeled her document on the Declaration of Independence. That document said that “all men are created equal.” Stanton wrote that “all men and women are created equal.” She then listed eighteen injustices against women. The Declaration of Independence aimed the same number of charges at England’s king. Stanton also wrote eleven resolutions. They pointed to areas where action should be taken to correct injustices against women. The ninth resolution proposed that women should have the right to vote.

proposals: plans to be considered

resolutions: formal statements voted on by a group

COMPREHENSION TOOLS Name:

Identify Central Idea

GRADE 6 Identify Central Idea 2 of 6©Curriculum Associates, LLC Copying permitted for classroom use.

TEXT A

4 Three hundred people came to the convention in July of 1848. Forty of them were men. Everyone present voted yes to all of Stanton’s resolutions except the ninth one. Then Frederick Douglass, who was formerly enslaved, spoke in favor of women having the right to vote. He convinced the convention to pass the resolution. One hundred women and men signed the declaration. Many people criticized and made fun of the document and those who signed it. But harsh words did not stop the cause for women’s voting rights. The small convention had begun a big revolution.

5 The Seneca Falls Convention started women on a long pursuit for the right to vote. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and many others devoted their lives to the cause. Women finally won the right to vote 72 years after the convention in 1920. Of all the women who signed the convention’s Declaration of Sentiments, only one lived long enough to exercise her right to vote. But the Seneca Falls Convention made it possible for future generations of women to vote and to pursue equality in other areas as well.

devoted: dedicated yourself to something

COMPREHENSION TOOLS Name:

Identify Central Idea

GRADE 6 Identify Central Idea 3 of 6©Curriculum Associates, LLC Copying permitted for classroom use.

Find Key Details Record key details about how the Seneca Falls Convention helped women gain voting rights.

ACTIVITY A

Central Idea

Detail

Detail Detail

COMPREHENSION TOOLS Name:

Identify Central Idea

GRADE 6 Identify Central Idea 4 of 6©Curriculum Associates, LLC Copying permitted for classroom use.

Gandhi: A Life of Peaceful Protest

1 When Mohandas K. Gandhi was born in 1869, India was ruled by Great Britain. When Gandhi died in 1948, India was an independent nation. Gandhi devoted his life to Indian independence. His commitment to peaceful protest was the moral backbone of the movement to free India.

2 When Gandhi was a young man, he made a decision that would change his life. He took a job in South Africa. The British ruled parts of South Africa. Indians living there did not have the same freedoms that white people had, simply because of their skin color. This injustice moved Gandhi to action.

3 Shortly after moving to South Africa, Gandhi took a business trip. He bought a first-class railroad ticket. At one stop, a white man boarded the train. He insisted that Gandhi could not sit in the first-class car because he was a “non-white.” Gandhi protested. He showed his first-class ticket and refused to move. He was thrown off the train. This prejudice that Gandhi faced inspired him to win rights for Indians in South Africa.

4 During his twenty years in South Africa, Gandhi developed the idea of peaceful protest. Some called it nonviolent resistance. This principle guided Gandhi’s life. Gandhi believed that if people disobeyed unjust laws without using violence, the lawmakers would see the injustice of their laws. Truth and fairness would sway the rulers and force them to change the laws.

5 In 1915, Gandhi returned to India to impart his program of peaceful protest. For a year, he traveled throughout India. Gandhi thought the people of India should make three improvements to their society. First, Gandhi wanted Hindus and Muslims to find ways to live together peacefully. Differences between the two religious groups sometimes caused conf lict. Second, he wanted better treatment for people who society unjustly considered to be inferior. Third, Gandhi thought people should live simpler lives. He urged them to learn to weave and to wear homespun cotton

prejudice: preferring one group over another

impart: to tell

inferior: not as good as something else

Read the text, and underline repeated words and ideas. Then, complete the activity on p. 6.

DIRECTIONS

TEXT B

COMPREHENSION TOOLS Name:

Identify Central Idea

TEXT B

clothing. He spun cotton for his own clothing. In fact, the spinning wheel became a symbol of his movement.

6 As part of their fight for freedom, Gandhi said that Indians should not cooperate with their British rulers. He wanted Indians to boycott, or reject, all things British. He did not want Indians to use the British law courts. Gandhi also said Indians should not send their children to British schools or take jobs in British businesses. They should reject the type of clothing worn in Britain, and even reject British cloth. Gandhi believed he could unite Indians by encouraging them to be self-sufficient and proud of their culture.

7 In 1930, Gandhi’s party called for complete independence from Britain. Gandhi chose an unusual protest to support this demand. He planned a march to the coast of the Arabian Sea. There, he would pick up some salty sand. Why would Gandhi do this? At that time, a law stated that only the British could make or sell salt. The British taxed the salt heavily, which made it very expensive. Because all humans need salt to live, even the poorest Indians had to buy it. Breaking the salt law was one way to protest an unfair law that kept India dependent on Britain.

8 In March 1930, Gandhi set out with 78 followers to walk 240 miles to Dandi on the sea. Each day more people joined them. By the end, there were 50,000 marchers. At Dandi, Gandhi picked up some wet, salty sand. In the days that followed, people all over India broke the law by drying seawater to make salt. Thousands, including Gandhi, were put in jail. Yet, the peaceful protest continued.

9 Britain saw little hope of holding on to India with force. Peaceful protests had proved more powerful than violence. Finally, after World War II, Britain agreed to grant India independence.

10 Even after India gained independence, Gandhi continued to work toward making peace among the different groups of people in India. But on January 30, 1948, Gandhi was killed by a man who disagreed with his policies. Millions of people around the world mourned the death of the man many called Mahatma, or the Great Soul. Gandhi’s commitment to peaceful protest had earned him this name.

COMPREHENSION TOOLS Name:

Identify Central Idea

Recognize Key Concepts Identify and record details to describe key concepts in Gandhi: A Life of Peaceful Protest.

ACTIVITY B

Key Concept Key Concept

Key Concept

Central Idea

peaceful/nonviolent protest