Course Description

As a prerequisite to this level, students must be able to develop well-written essays needing minimal correction of grammar or conventions.  Students will learn more complex applications of their writing skills.  Students will be asked to support their written arguments using outside sources of information such as drawing examples from other books, movies, and personal and historical experiences.  Employing each of these strategies will bolster their effectiveness in writing persuasively which is a strong emphasis in this level of writing as students transition toward writing more analytically.

What we think about Level 5:

Fifth Grade Reading Activities

Start a Book Club: It can include family members, your child’s friends and their parents, or just the two of you. Select a book together and establish small reading assignments (perhaps one or two chapters per week). Talk about the book's themes, using concrete examples you find in the text. After you finish one book, pick another by the same author about a similar topic (or in the same genre) and compare the two.

Gain Perspective: Read two different texts about an event you and your child attended (or you can each write your own personal account of it). Ask your child to compare the differences in the perspectives they are written from.

Read and Research: Help your child come up with a question about a topic of interest, and work together to explore a variety of sources for the answer. Use technology, books, magazines, newspapers, and, if relevant, poetry and fiction.

Fifth Grade Writing

Fifth graders build on the skills they learned in 4th grade to become clearer and more developed writers. They pursue many different kinds of pieces covering a variety of topics, and use details and organization to strengthen their writing. As they work on pieces in class, students are taught to use writing to share their own unique ideas and perspectives — not just those of others.   

To build writing skills, your fifth grader:

• Writes opinion pieces, which include:
  •  an introduction and conclusion
  • a logical and clear structure
  • evidence that supports the author’s opinion
• Writes informational pieces that:
  • explain a topic using details such as definitions, quotations, and facts
  • include an introduction and conclusion
• Writes narrative pieces that:
  • introduce and describe an event in a logical way
  • use details such as dialogue, thoughts, and emotions
  • provide a conclusion
• Plans, revises, and edits their writing.
• Thinks about the best way to approach their writing and tries different ways to do so — such as writing in a different tense, or from a different perspective.
• Uses technology (under adult supervision) to publish writing, research, and communicate with others.
• Types at least two pages of text in one sitting.
• Uses multiple sources to write and create a research project.
• Takes notes on information and cites the sources used.
• Writes pieces that take long periods of time (a few weeks) and short periods of time (one sitting or a couple of days).

Fifth Grade Writing Activities

Practice Typing: Experiment with the many different ways your child might do this — for instance, they can play typing games, type something they have written, or transcribe a conversation you have together.

Edit, Edit, Edit: You and your child can both write your own pieces, or your child can choose a short piece of writing from another source. Whatever they choose, ask your child to “revise” or “edit” the text, aiming to improve it by adding more detail and descriptions.

Pick a New Perspective: Use a piece you or your child wrote or pick a text written by someone else, like a short story or article. Ask your child to rewrite the piece from a different perspective, like that of another character in the story or a person who witnessed the event. Talk to your child about the differences in those perspectives.