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By the time students have finished fifth grade they have accumulated
most of the reading skills they need to do well in school and
beyond. They have learned how to write for academic, social and
business purposes, they can speak confidently in public and in
every day discourse and they access to learning tools such as
libraries, periodicals, dictionaries and the internet. They have
developed vocabularies and read grade-level-appropriate materials
with an eventual goal of reading one million words per year.
Fifth grade reading lists are a great combination of fantasy, historical fiction,
animal stories and humor. Children can read to themselves silently
or read aloud, using intonation and other techniques to make the
story flow. These students make reading choices that include poetry,
drama and non-fiction and have learned to read for understanding
and re-read as necessary for deeper meaning or more detail. They
differentiate in their reading between opinion and fact. Fifth
graders recognize main ideas that are both stated and implied,
sequences of events and cause and effect relationships. They understand
the meaning of semantics and syntax and can describe and demonstrate
each. They use phonetic strategies to decode words by sounding
them out either aloud or silently in their heads while they are
reading.
Students can write responses to materials they have read which
show understanding of content and style. They use facts, examples
from literature and cite sources to support their responses. They
can identify main and secondary characters, point of view, setting
and author intent. Students in fifth grade recognize character
motivation and emotion. They are able to draw conclusions and
make predictions based on previous knowledge.
Fifth graders have developed writing strategies that result in
essays of more than one paragraph. They write to an intended audience
with a specific goal, whether it is entertainment, education or
persuasive argument. Their papers are written with an introductory
paragraph containing a thesis sentence, evidence to support and
a satisfying conclusion. The student follows a process that includes
generating ideas, writing a first draft, rewriting and revising
and then editing for final copy. The students use a variety of
sentence structures and use a thesaurus to find alternative word
choices. When research is called for, students are familiar with
using the internet for up-to-date information. Students know how
to cite and credit their sources.
Written projects follow the standard rules of American grammar
and punctuation. The students can identify and use properly prepositional
phrases, independent and dependent clauses and transitions and
conjunctions to connect phrases and thoughts. They know when and
where to use commas versus semicolons, semicolons versus colons.
They know the proper use of punctuation within quotation marks
and the rules of capitalization. They have accumulated rules of
spelling that allow them to accurately make constructions of words
that may be unfamiliar to them. They know to check spelling with
dictionaries and more modern technologies if they have any doubts.
Students can apply traditional rhetorical strategies when delivering
formal presentations. They are able to paint a picture in the
minds of their audience to illustrate the narrative they are presenting.
When making a presentation with the intent to inform, the fifth
grader uses plenty of relevant examples and current facts and
statistics. The students are aware of their audience and engage
them using dramatic touches such are facial expressions and hand
gestures.
By the time these students leave fifth grade they are able to
adapt their speech patterns to suit the situation by following
conventions for conversations involving peers or adults. These
children are able to communicate effectively using descriptive
language and can retell stories they have heard, read or witnessed.
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