Fifth Grade Reading
Course Description
Reading is a meaning-making process that requires the synthesis of skills to effectively communicate. Students are immersed in daily opportunities to explore, inquire, practice and apply reading strategies and skills in a variety of genres to advance toward grade level reading, in addition to becoming self-motivated readers. They will learn how to effectively use before, during, and after-reading strategies, build vocabulary, improve fluency, and select their own independent reading texts in order to become more informed citizens. Students will independently use their learning to grapple with increasingly complex texts from a variety of genres and time periods to gain a reservoir of literary and cultural knowledge.
Fifth grade is a time for children to hone their intellectual independence. In the first unit, Interpretation Book Clubs: Analyzing Themes, students draw on a repertoire of ways for reading closely, noticing how story elements interact, understanding how different authors develop the same theme, and comparing and contrasting texts that develop a similar theme. In the second unit, Tackling Complexity: Moving Up Levels of Nonfiction, children investigate the ways nonfiction texts are becoming more complex, and they learn strategies to tackle these new challenges. This unit emphasizes the strong foundational skills, such as fluency, orienting to texts, and word solving, that are required to read complex nonfiction. In the third unit, Argument and Advocacy: Researching Debatable Issues, students read complex nonfiction texts to conduct research on a debatable topic, consider perspective and craft, evaluate arguments, and formulate their own evidence-based, ethical positions on issues. In the final unit for fifth grade, Fantasy Book Clubs: The Magic of Themes and Symbols, students work in clubs to become deeply immersed in the fantasy genre and further develop higher-level thinking skills to study how authors develop characters and themes over time. They think metaphorically as well as analytically, explore the quests and themes within and across their novels, and consider the implications of conflicts, themes, and lessons learned.
Grade Level(s): Fifth Grade
Related Priority Standards (State &/or National): K-5 Missouri Learning Standards & ELA Priority Standards
Essential Questions
- How do I know when I am stuck?
- How do I figure out why I am stuck?
- How do I purposefully apply effective strategies to help comprehend?
- How do I motivate myself to read complex text?
- Why am I reading? For what purpose?
- How has my thinking changed?
- How can I transfer the strategies to real life experiences?
Enduring Understandings/Big Ideas
Students will understand that:
- Reading is a meaning-making process that requires application of self-monitoring strategies to deepen the level of comprehension.
- Self-directed reading leads to character and knowledge development.
- Reading helps a reader extend and deepen their knowledge.
- Reading develops critical thinking skills to evaluate reasoning.
- Reading provides insights into the human condition.
Course-Level Scope & Sequence (Units &/or Skills)
- Unit 1: Interpretation Book Clubs
- Unit 2: Tackling Complexity - Nonfiction
- Unit 3: Argument and Advocacy
- Unit 4: Fantasy Book Clubs
* The above adjustments to scope and sequence are pending Board approval on August 22, 2022.
Course Resources & Materials
- Units of Study for Teaching Reading: A Workshop Curriculum
- Sonday System Essentials
- Heggerty Phonemic Awareness
Date Last Revised/Approved: 2014