De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Chicago's First Leader [Pdf]

"Chicago's First Leader" is a one page, biographical passage about Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, the first non-native American to settle in Chicago. He started a trading post around which the city grew. It is followed by an open-ended question which requires students to provide evidence from the story; it includes writing a reflective paper about why DuSable was important to Chicago using textual information to support ideas. This passage aligns with Common Core Anchor Reading Standards 1 and 2 requiring close reading, textual evidence, main idea, and summarizing.