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

In this lesson, traditional stories of the Native peoples (i.e., narrative text) introduce students to the study of animals in Alaska (i.e., expository text). Students use the Internet to listen to a Yu'pik tale told by John Active, a Native American living in Alaska. They also use online resources to find facts about animals in Alaska. Students compare and contrast the two types of text in terms of fiction and nonfiction. The narrative stories provide students with a context to begin studying a content area topic; this lesson emphasizes the integration of curriculum.

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

This lesson focuses on identifying and analyzing the compare and contrast text structure within expository texts. First, students are introduced to the terms compare and contrast and asked to find similarities and differences between two common items. Next, students work in small groups to identify texts that are comparing and contrasting information.

In this lesson after viewing the video, students develop an informed opinion about which animal makes a better pet, cats or dogs. Students complete a T-chart and use information from the video to write an opinion paragraph. A rubric for assessment is included.

During this lesson, students will discover how social media plays a vital part in today's society. This lesson focuses mainly on the usage of cell phones and text messaging used during the Nigerian Riots. Students will discuss how social media has changed over the years, the pros and cons of cell phones, researching the Nigerian Riots, determining how text messages influenced the Nigerian Riots, and will conclude with writing/blogging about how cell phone text messaging influences issues that occur in our everyday lives. This lesson was developed by Christina Hartzell 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.

In this lesson, students read The Houdini Box by Brian Selznick. Students then follow the steps of the writing process to create a new ending for this book. Students gain experience brainstorming, drafting, editing, and polishing their writing. Because their story endings must flow well with the rest of the book, students must understand what the book is about. The goal is for them to understand what they’re reading and to demonstrate their knowledge of the book’s content and their own creativity through a writing piece.

While students are reading and learning about the U.S Constitution (using Wonders Unit 2 Weeks 1 and 2 as well as information learned during their Social Studies curriculum) they will use a digital timeline to create an interactive Makey Makey timeline. Students will work in cooperative groups to create an interactive timeline to share important events in history according to their personal opinion and from information gathered during their readings. After students create the interactive timeline and share they will then work on an individual Journal entry using Book Creator. The journal entry will feature a writing piece on what it was like to live during the times of American colonists. Students will be able to read other classmates’ journal entries and discuss important viewpoints. At the end of the lesson, students will record themselves using Flip Grid to express how the U.S Constitution is relevant to today’s society.

This Project GLAD unit will address human body systems and their interactions.  It is an integrated science and ELA unit for 5th grade.  Students will know major body systems, their parts, and how those systems work together in the human body.

This unit is designed for students to learn to make judgments and decisions based on facts, and to use informational and imaginative speech to present their personal viewpoint and opinion to others. Students experience, first hand, taxation without representation, and will develop a very real sense for the need to preserve the inherent freedoms of man. Using the American flag as a graphic organizer, students will develop a clear understanding of the actions and reactions of the American colonists to British rule and to our most important national holiday, the 4th of July. Historically significant events will be studied and organized through exploration of facts and opinions and interaction with informational text and class discussion.

Build up your students’ reading comprehension as they learn about the various features of nonfiction text structure.

Build up your students’ reading comprehension, as they learn about the various features of nonfiction text structure.

This resource contains resources that will help students understand that writers use different structures to organize nonfiction texts and that readers need to know a variety of reading strategies appropriate for the text and their purpose for reading such text. Reading strategies to use before, during, and after reading are shared as well as graphic organizers.

Part 1 of this lesson will teach students about the 5 different types of text structures through videos, slide presentation, discussion, and note-taking. Part 1 will take approximately 5 days.Part 2 of this lesson is a small-group scavener hunt (in the classroom or media center) for examples of each type of text structure. Groups will then present and defend their examples to the class. Part 2 will take 2-3 days. 

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 5th Grade ELA. 

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 5th Grade English Language Arts. 

This resource accompanies our Rethink 5th Grade ELA course. It includes ideas for use, ways to support exceptional children, ways to extend learning, digital resources and tools, tips for supporting English Language Learners and students with visual and hearing impairments. There are also ideas for offline learning. 

Graphic organizers, anchor charts, and lesson ideas are included to teach text structure, which refers to how authors organize information in a text.