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Curriculum Overview
Curriculum Overview
Fifth-grade students read a wide range of materials, including literature from different times and cultures and informational text on grade-level topics in all subject areas. They practice the foundational reading skills learned in previous grades to read accurately and fluently, but the emphasis in fifth grade is on students’ comprehension of complex narrative and informational texts. Students read two or more texts on a topic and use a variety of comprehension strategies to compare, contrast, and integrate information from the texts. They analyze how structure, point of view, visual elements, and figurative language contribute to the meaning or tone of texts. In their writing, students learn to group related information logically; use words, phrases, and clauses to link opinions to reasons and to connect ideas to related ideas; and use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, description, and pacing, to develop the story line or characters. Students engage in the writing process. Students conduct research projects that provide them with practice in gathering information, using print and digital sources, and summarizing information. Students engage effectively in collaborative discussions on fifth-grade topics and texts, identify and analyze logical fallacies in speakers’ presentations or from media sources, and learn to deliver speeches in which they state an opinion and support it with a logical sequence of evidence. To support their writing and speaking, they learn the conventions of standard English grammar and usage, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling, such as using commas and quotations to set off dialogue. Students learn to use print and digital reference materials in all fifth-grade content areas. Info provided by IPSD Website
Units of Study
Units of Study
Below are the five curriculum units with the essential guiding question as well as the stories we use for our lessons.
Unit 1 - Journeys
Unit 1 - Journeys
Essential Question: How do journeys change us?
IMMIGRATION AND EXPANSION IN THE UNITED STATES
What motivates people to leave a place they call home?
Path to Paper Son
Louie Share Kim, Paper Son
THE PLACES SCIENTISTS WILL GO
What can scientist discover by traveling to distant places?
Life on Earth - and Beyond
THE GREAT MIGRATION
What do journeys teach us about ourselves?
Finding Langston
A POETRY MACHINE
What inspires people to start a journey?
Picturesque Journeys
Project Based Inquiry: Staying Alive!
At the end of each unit, students will get the chance to apply what they have learned. To end Unit 1, students will choose a country they would like to visit and research the culture, language, holidays, food, currency, transportation, and other characteristics that make this country an exciting destination. Students will then write a travel guide to convince others that it is the best country to visit.
Unit 2 - Observations
Unit 2 - Observations
Essential Question: How do we learn through our observations?
HOW SCIENTISTS STUDY OCEAN LIFE
Why do scientists explore and study oceans?
Far From Shore
PROTECTING HABITATS
What can people do to protect species from a changing environment?
A Place for Frogs
Hatchet
IN THE WORDS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT
What can we learn from studying animals in their natural habitat?
Tracking Monsters
SAVING NATURAL HABITATS
What are some different ways people can observe and protect wildlife?
Let Wild Animals Be Wild
Don't Release Animals Back to the Wild
Project Based Inquiry: Staying Alive!
At the end of each unit, students will get the chance to apply what they have learned. To end Unit 2, students will create a survival guide for visitors to a natural area, such as a national park, including information on how to use clues found in nature to track animals, determine if bad weather is coming, find your way if you are lost, and carry out other activities that help protect you in a natural area.
Unit 3 - Reflections
Unit 3 - Reflections
Essential Question: How to the experiences of others reflect our own?
MORNING SERENADE
What can we learn from the experiences of older generations?
Love, Amalia
HOW MANYS PETS?
What are some different ways in which people can reach a goal?
A Pet for Calvin
ART: THEN AND NOW
How are the experiences of people in ancient times similar to those of people in the modern world?
The Carp
The Hermit Thrush
RIDDLE ME THIS!
What can our families teach us about ourselves?
Poetry Collection
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT AND THE ROBIE HOUSE
How does art reflect people's experiences?
Life & Art
Project Based Inquiry: Unsung Heroes
At the end of each unit, students will get the chance to apply what they have learned. To end Unit 3, students will learn more about a person who has had a positive impact on their life (someone they know, a public figure, or a historical figure). They will research the person's childhood, education, career, family, personal life, and accomplishments and finally give a speech about why Illinois should dedicate a day to this person.
Unit 4 - Liberty
Unit 4 - Liberty
Essential Question: What does is mean to be free?
THE UNDERGROUNG RAILROAD
Why should people work together to help others achieve freedom?
Keeping Mr. John Holton Alive
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
How can ordinary people contribute to a fight for freedom?
The Scarlet Stockings Spy
OUR CONSTITUTION
What can governments do to protect our freedoms?
The Bill of Rights
THE EARLY CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
What are some things people can do when their freedom is limited?
Delivering Justice
Ezekiel Johnson Goes West
Project Based Inquiry: What It Means to Be Free
At the end of each unit, students will get the chance to apply what they have learned. To end Unit 4, students will conduct a survey to find out what freedom means to friends, family members, and others. They will then create a project (speech, poster, etc.) to show what they think it means to be free.
Unit 5 - Systems
Unit 5 - Systems
Essential Question: How do elements of systems change?
WHO ARE GEOLOGISTS?
How do rocks form and change over time?
Rocks and Fossils
THE WATER CYCLE
What can cause water to change form?
Earth's Water Cycle
HOW VOLCANOES WORK
How can Earth's change affect where and how we live?
The Dog of Pompeii
WASTE IS A PROBLEM
How do human actions create and change cycles?
Let's Talk Trash
It's Time to Get Serious About Reducing Waste, Feds Say
HOW PEOPLE INFLUENCE NATURAL SYSTEMS
How much should people try to influence natural systems?
People Should Manage Nature
Project Based Inquiry: Persuade the Public!
At the end of each unit, students will get the chance to apply what they have learned. To end Unit 5, students will write the script for an audio or video PSA that persuades people to improve the environment and describes specific ways they can help. Explaining how their advice will create a positive change in one of Earth's systems.
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