This parent guide supports parents in helping their child at home with the 5th grade ELA content.

In this lesson, students participate in a puzzle activity to identify leadership characteristics that Abraham Lincoln possessed. They review the changes in the $5 note and consider how Lincoln's leadership characteristics contribute to the fact that he is pictured on the $5 note. Students look at a timeline of Lincoln's life and identify significant events in his road to the White House. They will then play a game to review content learned in the lesson.

Students read about Lewis Latimer, an African American inventor and answer questions to help improve their reading and comprehension skills. An answer key is included.

In this lesson, students read and analyze an essay focusing primarily on one aspect of Ben Franklin's life - his work as a printer - and how he was an inventor and entrepeneur who also promoted the use of currency in the United States. Students will cite specific textual evidence regarding problems and solutions and will answer questions and complete a timeline. Then, using evidence and information gleaned from the text, students will write a fictious social media post defending the selection of Ben Franklin's portrait for the $100 note.

This lesson plan contains reading, writing, and science integration. Students will view onion cells under the microscope, read and answer questions from a selection about cells, learn a note-taking strategy, and create a writing piece from their outline notes. A rubric is provided for assessment of student work.

How do cells keep us alive? Through reading and hands-on activities, students learn about parts of a cell, and their functions in carrying out processes for life. Study skills are taught and modeled as students make entries in science notebooks.

This passage about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. includes three higher order thinking questions.

In this unit, students explore Colonial America through the building of timelines and investigating primary and secondary sources. This study of significant events in the colonization of North America and the aspects of everyday life in Colonial America is designed for students to gather, record, and organize their own Colonial Notebook. Students will take on the role of colonist in a given region and work with other 'colonists' of the same region to develop a report and presentation. The study will take students through the life and times of those early settlers and will have them preparing a colonial meal representative of their region of focus

A strong plot is a basic requirement of any narrative. Students are sometimes confused, however, by the difference between a series of events that happen in a story and the plot elements, or the events that are significant to the story. In this lesson, students select a topic for a personal narrative and then do the prewriting in comic-strip format to reinforce the plot structure. Finally, they write their own original narratives based on the comic strip prewriting activity, keeping the elements of narrative writing in mind. This lesson uses a version of "The Three Little Pigs" fairy tale to demonstrate the literary element; however, any picture book with a strong plot would work for this lesson.

In this lesson, students begin by discussing the meaning of “common good” and the impact of this concept on rights and responsibilities in the lives of US citizens. They then examine the Bill of Rights and other amendments to the US Constitution, focusing on how amendments over time have focused on the common good and have responded to current issues and problems. Finally, the students apply their understanding of common good and individual rights and responsibilities to the proposal of a new amendment to the US Constitution. This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

Students read and discuss the Founding Fathers of our country indulgence in gripe sessions. In fact, a list of grievances comprises the longest section of the Declaration of Independence; however, the source of the document's power is its firm philosophic foundation. You can capitalize on the inclination of your students to complain to increase student awareness of the precedents behind the Declaration of Independence. Students will summarize the contributions of the "Founding Fathers" to the development of our county as well as explain how key historical figures exemplified values of American democracy.

This lesson precedes students’ exploration of the US Constitution and gives them a foundation for their study of it. Students begin by discussing some trivia related to the Constitution and then, through Jigsaw grouping, read and summarize three documents that share basic principles with it. Once they have shared and discussed the connections among the three documents, they consider how democratic ideals are addressed in the documents, the Constitution, and everyday life. This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

As a way to support teachers with English Language Arts (ELA) instruction during the pandemic, the NCDPI ELA team created choice boards featuring standards-aligned ELA activities.The intended purpose of these choice boards is to provide a way for students to continue standards-based learning while schools are closed. Each activity can be adapted and modified to be completed with or without the use of digital tools. Many activities can also be repeated with different texts. These standards-based activities are meant to be a low-stress approach to reinforcing and enriching the skills learned during the 2019-2020 school year. The choice boards are to be used flexibly by teachers, parents, and students in order to meet the unique needs of each learner.Exploration activities are provided for a more self-directed or guided approach to independent learning for students. These activities and sites should be used as a way to explore concepts, topics, skills, and social and emotional competencies that interest the learner. 

In this lesson, students are placed in a role-playing scenario that builds off of the one described in the book/movie entitled "Divergent." A group of revolutionaries calling themselves "Emergent" organizes factions that must develop expertise on different aspects of the Bill of Rights. Students use their faction's expertise to collaboratively stop the "Secret Committee Against Rights for Everyone."

In this lesson, students use comprehension skills to discuss and respond to questions about a text.

In this lesson, students use comprehension skills to discuss and respond to questions about a text.

Students will be instructed to read a passage from the New York Times titled "A List of Previous Disasters in Haiti, a Land All Too Familiar With Hardship" by Inyoung Kang from October 4, 2016. It would be beneficial to link (http://nyti.ms/2duhKk1)the article to a classroom web page so students can access the links embedded within the article. This lesson was developed by Erin Plummer as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.

Students will be assigned to read a passage from the New York Times titled A List of Previous Disasters in Haiti, A Land All Too Familiar With Hardship by Inyoung Kang from October 4, 2016. It would be beneficial to link (http://nyti.ms/2duhKk1)the article to a classroom web page so students can access the links embedded within the article. This lesson was developed by Marissa Piersanti as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.            

Students will view photographs of Haiti to investigate the world beyond the classroom and recognize different perspectives while looking at different photographs. It is expected that student’s perspectives will be limited since they have not been exposed to a lot of information on Haiti. This lesson will be repeated at the end of the unit with different pictures to see how their perspectives have changed from the start of the unit. *This is the first lesson of an 8 lesson unit on non-fiction and Haiti. This lesson can be completed in isolation but it is highly suggested that the rest of the lessons follow, in order for the lesson to have the full effect on students. This lesson was developed by Kate Quigley as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.

Students will view photographs of Haiti to investigate the world beyond the classroom and recognize different perspectives while looking at different photographs. It is expected that student’s perspectives will be limited since they have not been exposed to a lot of information on Haiti. *This lesson is the 7th lesson in an 8 lesson unit on non-fiction texts and Haiti. It requires the completion of the entire lesson in order to make sense. This lesson was developed by Kate Quigley as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.