Our philosophy in 5th grade

At Valentine Hills we choose high quality, award winning literature to discuss the standards and give background knowledge for future learning. Great stories will produce high quality engagement with a text.

Students in 5th grade are expected to read for about an hour in class and 20-30 minutes per day outside of school. This exercise is extremely important to their reading development. Some book choices will be required but most reading should be done with enjoyment in mind. Choice matters and building a life long love of reading has to be cultivated not forced. Let your son or daughter pick what they want to read if they don't have pressing assignments on their plate.

In class we will be analyzing and discussing common (or shared) stories for understanding the 5th grade Literacy standards. Whole class discussion with a read aloud novel gives everyone in class a bond to bounce insightful ideas off of one another. Collaboration and student discussion builds a trust to be free to share ideas. Book clubs and guided reading groups will let your 5th grader enjoy and relate with other students on an independent level. Intervention groups and strategy groups will be created as needed to support learners who need extra attempts at learning something new. Equity is a promise we take very seriously at VH.

Each day we work on:

• Stamina reading (Independently reading books at their level)
• Deepening our thinking about texts we read through stop and jots (Notebook/ post it note entries)
• Stretching ourselves in small guided reading groups, book clubs and strategy groups

Throughout the year we work on:

• Story elements
  • Plot
  • Charactes
  • Conflict
  • Themes
  • Settings
• Sharing our ideas in groups to find deeper meaning
• Writing detailed analysis about big ideas with a evidence from the text to show understanding
• BAS testing to show growth with GRL (Guided Reading Levels)

Our philosophy in 5th grade

Students will dive into the writing process on a daily basis. Like reading, writing is extremely important to a fifth graders literacy development. Each week we will involve parts of the writing process to create original and entertaining pieces of writing. Technical as well as creative strategies will be cycled throughout the school year to give 5th graders a wide variety of writing styles to choose from.

Throughout the year we work on:

• Different writing styles including:
  • Narratives (Small moments)
  • Informational books
  • Opinion papers (Persuasive)
  • Poetry
• Writers craft
• Sharing original work with the community

Our philosophy in 5th grade

Students are expected to engage with different words and word parts throughout the school year to strengthen their ability to read and write with a wider breadth. When you know where words come from and see the commonality you build a vocabulary with greater speed.

Throughout the year we work on:

• Learning new vocabulary
• Parts of speech
  • Nouns
  • Verbs
  • Adjectives
  • Adverbs
• Breaking down word parts
  • Prefixes
  • Bases
  • Suffixes
• Greek and Latin roots
• Etymology studies