Grade 5 English Language Arts
10 units matched to the BC Curriculum. Kids see this subject as “Language Arts”.
Big Ideas
- Language and story can be a source of creativity and joy.
- Exploring stories and other texts helps us understand ourselves and make connections to others and to the world.
- Using language in creative and playful ways helps us understand how language works.
- Questioning what we hear, read, and view contributes to our ability to be educated and engaged citizens.
- Developing our understanding of how language works allows us to use it purposefully.
Units
Unit 1
Reading Detectives
Reading original stories, a poem and nonfiction passages, then finding the theme and main idea, making inferences, describing characters, summarizing and working out word meanings.
Learning standard: Reading strategies (inferring, summarizing, finding the main idea) and literary elements such as theme and character; forms and genres of text including stories, poems and nonfiction
Unit 2
Plot and Conflict
The five parts of a plot, types of conflict (person vs. person, nature or self), and telling first-, second- and third-person point of view apart.
Learning standard: Literary elements: plot (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution), conflict, protagonist and antagonist, and point of view
Unit 3
Figurative Language
Spotting similes, metaphors, personification, hyperbole, onomatopoeia and alliteration, and explaining what common idioms really mean.
Learning standard: Literary devices: simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, idiom, onomatopoeia and alliteration
Unit 4
Purpose and Structure
Deciding whether a text informs, persuades or entertains, recognizing five common text structures and their signal words, and using text features like the glossary and index.
Learning standard: Forms, functions and genres of text; text features; text structures (description, sequence, compare and contrast, cause and effect, problem and solution)
Unit 5
Context Clues
Using the words around an unfamiliar word to figure out what it means, naming the type of clue, and choosing the right meaning of words like “bat” or “bank.”
Learning standard: Reading and metacognitive strategies: using context clues (definition, antonym, examples) to work out unfamiliar and multiple-meaning words
Unit 6
Greek and Latin Roots
Learning common Greek and Latin roots (like tele = far, port = carry, rupt = break) and using them to figure out long words such as “spectator” or “interrupt.”
Learning standard: Language features: word patterns and word families, including Greek and Latin roots (tele, graph, port, bio, struct, rupt…)
Unit 7
Verb Tenses
Choosing irregular past-tense verbs (brought, swam, froze), making verbs agree with their subjects, naming tenses and keeping tense consistent within a sentence.
Learning standard: Language features, structures and conventions: verb tenses, irregular verbs, consistent tense and subject–verb agreement
Unit 8
Complex Sentences
Choosing conjunctions like although, because and unless, finding dependent and independent clauses, telling simple, compound and complex sentences apart, and combining sentences.
Learning standard: Language features, structures and conventions: sentence structure (simple, compound, complex), independent and dependent clauses, subordinating conjunctions; writing processes
Unit 9
Punctuation Power
Placing commas after introductory words, using colons before lists, writing possessives and contractions, choosing its/it's and their/there/they're, and punctuating dialogue.
Learning standard: Conventions: commas (introductory words, lists, direct address), colons, apostrophes (possessives and contractions) and quotation marks
Unit 10
Media Smarts
Spotting the tricks ads use, telling facts from opinions, and asking smart questions about who made a message and why.
Learning standard: Persuasive techniques in media (bandwagon, testimonial, exaggeration, emotional appeal, repetition, facts and figures); questioning what we read and view; fact and opinion
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