5th Literacy/ Social Studies

Welcome to Our Reading, Writing and Social Studies Resource Page!

Literacy

Literacy consists of reading, writing and word study. In 5th grade we use Lucy Calkins' award winning curriculum, Readers and Writers Workshop. Literacy in fifth grade is a huge growth period, as students are asked to read a great deal, and really dig deep into what they are reading as they jump into the middle school world. We focus on "real literature", with award-winning mentor texts we read together in class, small group book clubs and independent reading groups. First quarter our full group mentor text is "Home of the Brave" by Katherine Applegate. Students small group novels and independent reading is based off their Lexile level. Our small group texts will align to our immigration unit in social studies as much as possible. In addition we use Words Their Way curriculum to have focused study on the word patterns of the English language. Students are expected to be reading for at least 20 minutes a night and tracking their reading through their reading logs. Additionally students are taking comprehension quizzes on Accelerated Reader to help ensure they are understanding what they read.

Accelerated Reader quizzes can be found here.

Accelerated Reader Book Finder can be found here.

Social Studies

Our first quarter unit in social studies will be on immigration in the United States, and aligns up with our literacy work. Students will be exploring various resources from iCivics, Scholastic News, NewsELA and both fiction and non-fiction novels. Students are expected to keep a interactive binder of their learning in social studies, a physical record of all they are learning and growing over the course of the year. Additionally, each week students are expected to read at least one news article from the website NewsELA and complete a reflection sheet, found on our Google Classroom webpage. Please email me if you would like to be added as a guardian on our Google Classroom page, which will allow you to stay up to date on our assignments and events.

NewsELA can be found here.