FIFTH GRADE

OVERVIEW

READING

In fifth grade, students broaden and deepen their understanding of informational and literary text. Students reflect on their skills and adjust their comprehension and vocabulary strategies to become better readers. Students discuss, reflect, and respond, using evidence from text, to a wide variety of literary genres and informational text. Students read for pleasure, choosing books based on personal preference, topic, genre, theme, or author.

WRITING
By the end of the fifth grade most students have developed a strong personal voice in their writing. This is reflected by the way they inject humor and tension into their narrative writing and how they add emphasis or opinion into informational and persuasive writing, especially in the content areas. Collaborative writing efforts are taken more seriously, often with assigned responsibilities and checklists. Scoring guides, often student-initiated, provide criteria for critiquing their own work and that of others. These guides are often detailed, addressing content, organization, style, and conventions.
A Quick Check:

Does the student:
• Write with a strong personal voice, using a range of techniques to express opinion, bias, and reactions?
• Apply an increasing knowledge of figurative language and stylistic techniques to enhance fiction writing?
• Use precise and specialized vocabulary appropriately and effectively in informational text?
• Write from a personal viewpoint as well as a more formal one?
• Synthesize research when doing informational writing?
• Use technology for the process of writing as well as the gathering of information?

MATH

In fifth grade, students become proficient using non-negative rational numbers to solve problems. They apply procedures to measure a variety of geometric figures and collect, display, and analyze data. Students examine the basis of probability, and also the mean. They solve problems involving area and perimeter and further develop algebraic sense through variable expressions and open sentences.

SOCIAL STUDIES

In fifth grade the main focus is on U.S. History: Civic Ideals and Practices.

The main themes are:

A. Colonization and Settlement

B. Independence

C. Founding the Nation

D. Related Social Studies Skills

SCIENCE

In fifth grade students begin to discover the inputs and outputs and determine the flow and transfer of energy within a system. They become more sophisticated in their analysis of the interconnections within systems. When investigating students use data to support their conclusions and logical arguments. They begin to determine factors that contribute to scientific bias. The guiding question is "How does our investigative process lead to new questions about the flow of matter and energy within a system?" We work on the investigative skills of Data analysis, Detecting scientific bias, and other Investigative Skills.