Woodrow Wilson: U.S. President Biography and Assessment

Item description

This US History reading and assessment activity helps address several Common Core ELA Standards that are listed below this introduction and is suitable for Grades 5-8. Students read an engaging 950-word biographical text on the great 20th century American president Woodrow Wilson. The passage examines his career in politics, which began late in his life and encompassed ten of the most tumultuous years in American history (1910-1920). Wilson’s reforms such as the Federal Reserve, Child Labor Act, and Federal Trade Commission survive and affect the nation to this day, and his failed dream of bringing the United States into the League of Nations after World War I ended undeservedly cloud his mostly successful career in the Oval Office. After the reading are eighteen fill-in-the-blank, multiple-choice, and written questions that require application of Common Core Standards to a thorough close reading of the biography. There is also a crossword puzzle for your early finishers or to use as another form of assessment included with this resource. Answers are provided for all questions.
Informational Text Standards
RI.4.1: Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
RI.4.3: 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.
RI.5.3: Analyze how a particular sentence, paragraph, chapter, or section fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of the ideas.
RI.5.7: Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources, demonstrating the ability to locate an answer to a question quickly or to solve a problem efficiently.