Fifth Grade Language Arts

 

Instructor: Evelyn Metcalf

 

Curriculum Map, Class Page

 

In Language Arts, students begin to understand the connection between geography, culture, and stories. Students explore various methods of communication and investigate how different cultures communicate. We read mythology, folktales, and legends from indigenous peoples of the Americas and Oceania, then look for threads of those stories in contemporary American and Latin American fiction.  Students read novels in small literature circle groups and and conduct in-depth discussions for deeper understanding and higher ordering reasoning.  We continually explore the theme of leadership in several fiction novels, as well as in nonfiction text as we examine various indigenous cultures and their government structures, comparing them to our own U.S. Government.  We look at what is real and imaginary in stories and begin to critically analyze fiction, fantasy, and magical realism.  Novels, short stories, informational text, plays, and poems, are all components of the Language Arts program at this grade level.

 

Writing is an integral part of the Language Arts curriculum. Writer’s Workshop is purposefully created to model different types of writing as the students understand the writing process. Students understand that writing is a very interactive process as they conference regularly with the teacher and their peers in order to revise, edit, and publish their writing. Fifth graders focus on narrative, expository, and persuasive writing. Students write compositions, taking advice on all aspects of fiction creation from a young-adult author, Gail Carson Levine.  They research information from a variety of sources and convey that information through expository writing pieces.  They cultivate their creativity in the first trimester as they publish a children's book for the Young Authors Bookwriting Contest sponsored by Charlotte Parent Magazine. They generate an original story idea, develop the plot and characters, and formulate an engaging story for young children. Students work on their book illustrations in art class, using a variety of mediums.  By the fifth grade year, students are expected to have mastered basic grammar rules and apply that knowledge in their written work. There are continuous opportunities for students to become fluent speakers through oral presentations.

 

 

 

Guiding questions:

• How does the world communicate?
• What can we learn about our world through literature?
• How does one’s place in the world affect his or her voice?

 

 

2007-2008 Archives 5th LA and SS

 

 

 

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