English/Language Arts

Overview of Reading/Language Arts, Grade 5: 

In fifth grade Language Arts, students will increase proficiency in vocabulary, reading comprehension strategies, and fluency.  Students will explore writing genres with emphasis in narrative and descriptive writing.  They will also increase skills in spelling,  and sentence structure.

The Reading/Language Arts curriculum for fifth grade follows a balanced literacy approach which provides experiences for students in reading, writing, listening and speaking. Balanced literacy is a research based approach which has shown to increase student achievement. Within the balanced literacy approach, students participate in whole group instruction with grade level text as well as small group instruction in which a student works with text at his/her instructional level. Small group instruction consists of a student-teacher ratio of no more than 6 students per teacher. Students are instructed in the research based five components of reading which include phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, comprehension and vocabulary.

By the end of fifth grade, students will be proficient in the following Iowa Core Standards:  

Foundational Skills

• Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words
• Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension

Reading Literature (Fiction)

• Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text
• Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, including how characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic; summarize the text
• Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact)
• Employ the full range of research-based comprehension strategies, including making connections, determining importance, questioning, visualizing, making inferences, summarizing, and monitoring for comprehension
• Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative language such as metaphors and similes
• Explain how a series of chapters, scenes, or stanzas fits together to provide the overall structure of a particular story, drama, or poem
• Describe how a narrator's or speaker's point of view influences how events are described
• Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text (e.g., graphic novel, multimedia presentation of fiction, folktale, myth, poem
• Compare and contrast stories in the same genre (e.g., mysteries and adventure stories) on their approaches to similar themes and topics
• By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas and poetry, at the high end of the grades 4-5 text complexity band independently and proficiently

Reading Information

• Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text
• Determine two or more main ideas of a text and explain how they are supported by key details; summarize the text
• Explain the relationships or interactions between two or more individuals, events, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scienfitic, or technical text based on specific information in the text
• Employ the full range of research based comprehension strategies, including making connections, determining importance, questioning, visualizing, making inferences, summarizing and monitoring for comprehension
• Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 5 topic or subject area
• Compare and contrast the overall structure (e.g., chronology, comparison, cause/effect, problem/solution) of events, ideas, concepts, or informaton in two or more texts
• Analyze multiple accounts of the same event or topic, noting important similarities and differences in the point of view they represent
• 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
• Explain how an author uses reasons and evidence to support particular points in a text, identifying which reasons and evidence support which points
• Integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably
• By the end of the year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, at the high end of the grades 4-5 text complexity band independently and proficiently

Writing

• Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information
• Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly
• Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
• Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose and audience
• With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or tyring a new approach. 
• With some guidance and support from adults, use technology, including the Internet to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of two pages in a single sitting
• Conduct short research projects that use several sources to build knowledge through investigation of different aspects of a topic
• Recall relevant information from experiences or gather relevant information from print and digital sources; summarize or paraphrase information in notes and finished work, and provide a list of sources
• Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research
• Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences

Speaking and Listening

• Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 5 topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly
• Summarize a written text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally
• Summarize the points a speaker makes and explain how each claim is supported by reasons and evidence
• Report on a topic or text, or present an opinion, sequencing ideas logically and using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace
• Include multimedia components (e.g., graphics, sound) and visual displays in presentations when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or themes
• Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, using formal English when appropriate to task and situation