5th Grade English Language Arts Standards

​Reading: Literature
Key Ideas and Details:
  • 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).
  • Craft and Structure:
  • 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.
  • Integration of Knowledge and Ideas:
  • 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.
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity:
  • 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: Informational Text
Key Ideas and Details:
  • 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, scientific, or technical text based on specific information in the text.
Craft and Structure:
  • 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 information 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.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas:
  • 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 point(s).
  • Integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably.
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity:
  • 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.
Reading: Foundational Skills
Phonics and Word Recognition:
  • Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
  • Use combined knowledge of all letter-sound correspondences, syllabication patterns, and morphology (e.g., roots and affixes) to read accurately unfamiliar multisyllabic words in context and out of context.
Fluency:
  • Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
  • Read grade-level text with purpose and understanding.
  • Read grade-level prose and poetry orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive readings.
  • Use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary.
​Writing
Text Types and Purposes:
  • Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information.
  • Introduce a topic or text clearly, state an opinion, and create an organizational structure in which ideas are logically grouped to support the writer's purpose.
  • Provide logically ordered reasons that are supported by facts and details.
  • Link opinion and reasons using words, phrases, and clauses (e.g., consequently, specifically).
  • Provide a concluding statement or section related to the opinion presented.
  • Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.
  • Introduce a topic clearly, provide a general observation and focus, and group related information logically; include formatting (e.g., headings), illustrations, and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.
  • Develop the topic with facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples related to the topic.
  • Link ideas within and across categories of information using words, phrases, and clauses (e.g., in contrast, especially).
  • Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic.
  • Provide a concluding statement or section related to the information or explanation presented.
  • Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
  • Orient the reader by establishing a situation and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally.
  • Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, description, and pacing, to develop experiences and events or show the responses of characters to situations.
  • Use a variety of transitional words, phrases, and clauses to manage the sequence of events.
  • Use concrete words and phrases and sensory details to convey experiences and events precisely.
  • Provide a conclusion that follows from the narrated experiences or events.
Production and Distribution of Writing:
  • Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1-3 above.)
  • With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1-3 up to and including grade 5.)
  • 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.
Research to Build and Present Knowledge:
  • 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.A
  • Apply grade 5 Reading standards to literature (e.g., "Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or a drama, drawing on specific details in the text [e.g., how characters interact]").
  • Apply grade 5 Reading standards to informational texts (e.g., "Explain how an author uses reasons and evidence to support particular points in a text, identifying which reasons and evidence support which point[s]"").
​Range of Writing:
  • 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 & Listening 
Comprehension and Collaboration:
  • 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.A
  • Come to discussions prepared, having read or studied required material; explicitly draw on that preparation and other information known about the topic to explore ideas under discussion.
  • Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions and carry out assigned roles.
  • Pose and respond to specific questions by making comments that contribute to the discussion and elaborate on the remarks of others.
  • Review the key ideas expressed and draw conclusions in light of information and knowledge gained from the discussions..
  • 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.
  • Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas:
  • 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. (See grade 5 Language standards 1 and 3 for specific expectations.)
​Language 
Conventions of Standard English:
  • Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
  • Explain the function of conjunctions, prepositions, and interjections in general and their function in particular sentences.
  • Form and use the perfect (e.g., I had walked; I have walked; I will have walked) verb tenses.
  • Use verb tense to convey various times, sequences, states, and conditions.
  • Recognize and correct inappropriate shifts in verb tense.*
  • Use correlative conjunctions (e.g., either/or, neither/nor).
  • Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
  • Use punctuation to separate items in a series.*
  • Use a comma to separate an introductory element from the rest of the sentence.
  • Use a comma to set off the words yes and no (e.g., Yes, thank you), to set off a tag question from the rest of the sentence (e.g., It's true, isn't it?), and to indicate direct address (e.g., Is that you, Steve?).
  • Use underlining, quotation marks, or italics to indicate titles of works.
  • Spell grade-appropriate words correctly, consulting references as needed.
Knowledge of Language:
  • Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening.
  • Expand, combine, and reduce sentences for meaning, reader/listener interest, and style.
  • Compare and contrast the varieties of English (e.g., dialects, registers) used in stories, dramas, or poems.
Vocabulary Acquisition and Use:
  • Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 5 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
  • Use context (e.g., cause/effect relationships and comparisons in text) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
  • Use common, grade-appropriate Greek and Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word (e.g., photograph, photosynthesis).
  • Consult reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation and determine or clarify the precise meaning of key words and phrases.
  • Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.
  • Interpret figurative language, including similes and metaphors, in context.
  • Recognize and explain the meaning of common idioms, adages, and proverbs.
  • Use the relationship between particular words (e.g., synonyms, antonyms, homographs) to better understand each of the words.
*Common Core Standards taken from corestandards.org