Our reading curriculum includes implicit instruction in lessons through a variety of increasingly complex novel studies with a focus on comprehension and vocabulary followed by time to practice skills taught, conference with teachers, and reflect and set goals. Through novel studies, fifth grade students continue to develop their vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, and reading stamina. Daily oral language development is practiced through language activities and skills practice. Vocabulary development is also practiced through Wordly Wise. Comprehension strategy instruction remains a hallmark of our fifth grade curriculum focus. Students are encouraged to use one more comprehension strategies to make sense of new texts they encounter. In fifth grade, students take charge of their own learning by utilizing comprehension strategies as they read to further understand texts. Students continue to develop comprehension strategies to understand complex fiction and non-fiction texts including: writer’s craft skills, cause and effect, classify and categorize, compare and contrast, fact and opinion, main idea and details, making inferences, sequence, asking and answering questions, clarifying, making connections, predicting/confirming predictions, summarizing, and visualizing. Students are assessed through weekly reading assignments/tests. Teachers administer the STAR Reading Test- a computer adaptive assessment that measures key aspects of a student’s knowledge of reading and language. The STAR reading test is given at the beginning, middle, and end of the year and it is used to help understand a student’s strengths and needs in reading.
Accelerated Reader is a digital enrichment program that students may access. Student’s may choose a book from the AR list of books, read it at his/her own pace, and then complete a quiz on the book. Points are awarded based on the number of questions answered correctly. The points accumulate to reach milestones and awards.
Through our writing curriculum, fifth grade students write book reports and focus on poetry, narrative, persuasive, descriptive, and expository pieces of writing. Grammar, usage, mechanics, and spelling remains a crucial part of the ELA portion of each lesson.
5th Grade Writing Units of Study: By the time children enter fifth grade, they will have been introduced to most if not all of the new skills expected of fifth-graders. The sequence of fifth grade units consolidates those skills and introduces the learning objectives called for in the sixth-grade standards: how to conduct research using primary sources, how to write narratives that are reflective and theme-based, and how to write argument essays that use counterargument to clarify a position. Unit 1, Narrative Craft, helps students deliberately use their knowledge of narrative craft to make their stories more thematic. In Unit 2, The Lens of History: Research Reports, students draw inspiration and understanding from mentor texts, historical accounts, primary source documents, maps, and timelines to write focused research reports that engage and teach readers. Building on these new skills, Unit 3, Shaping Texts: From Essay and Narrative to Memoir helps students grasp that form follows content, learning to take insights about their lives and decide whether these are best expressed in narratives, in essays, or in a hybrid genre created especially to convey the writer’s content. In the concluding unit of this series, The Research-Based Argument Essay, fifth-graders learn to build powerful arguments that convincingly balance evidence and analysis to persuade readers to action.
Through our math curriculum, Progress in Mathematics, students build on skills in numbers and operations, fractions and decimals, proportion and measurement, probability and statistics, ratio, and percent, and mastery of math facts. The approach used builds deep conceptual understanding of key math skills and concepts at a developmentally appropriate level. Skills taught: place value, addition, and subtraction, multiplication, division, number theory and fractions, fractions: addition and subtraction, fractions: multiplication and division, probability and statistics, decimals: addition and subtraction, decimals: multiplication and division, geometry, measurement topics, metric measurement, area, and volume, ratio, proportion, and percent, algebraic concepts, and problem solving.
In fifth grade, students become scientists as they observe, classify, and record data collected through science investigations. The core areas of the fifth grade science curriculum include concepts in life, earth, and physical science. They engage in weekly STEM and science experiments. 5th grade students participate in the SCISA science fair. Social Studies concepts taught in fifth grade include American history and geography.
