5th grade · Reading & Literature

What a 5th grade student learns in Reading & Literature

Grade 5 Reading & Literature centers on deeper analysis of complex stories, dramas, and poetry: students quote text precisely to support inferences, determine themes via character responses and speaker reflections, examine narrative structure and point-of-view influence, interpret figurative language, and compare same-genre approaches to shared themes.

The skills for the year

  • 1Quote accurately from literary text to explain explicit meaning and support inferences
  • 2Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from textual details
  • 3Analyze how characters respond to challenges (or how a poem’s speaker reflects on a topic) to reveal theme
  • 4Summarize stories, dramas, and poems objectively using key details
  • 5Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events drawing on specific textual details
  • 6Determine the meaning of words and phrases, including metaphors and similes, as used in literary text
  • 7Explain how a series of chapters, scenes, or stanzas fits together to create overall structure
  • 8Describe how a narrator’s or speaker’s point of view influences the description of events
  • 9Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to meaning, tone, or beauty of a literary text
  • 10Compare and contrast stories in the same genre (e.g., mysteries, adventures) on their treatment of similar themes or topics
  • 11Identify and discuss literary elements (plot, conflict, characterization) with precise textual evidence
  • 12Read and comprehend literature (stories, dramas, poetry) at the high end of the grades 4–5 complexity band independently and proficiently

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