Grades 5 and 6
English Grades 5-6
Reading Students will read a variety of grade-level complex text with accuracy, automaticity, appropriate rate, and meaningful expression in successive readings to support comprehension. They will monitor while reading to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding when necessary. They will respond to text through discussion and/or writing, draw on several pieces of evidence from grade-level complex texts to support claims, conclusions, and inferences, including quoting or paraphrasing from texts accurately and tracing where relevant evidence is located.
Vocabulary Students will regularly engage in reading a series of conceptually related texts organized around topics of study to build knowledge and vocabulary. Students will apply knowledge of Greek and Latin roots and affixes to predict the meaning of unfamiliar words. They will use the relationship between particular words, including synonyms, antonyms, and analogies to better understand each word. Students will analyze the construction and meaning of figurative language, including simile, hyperbole, metaphor, and personification. Students will use newly learned words and phrases in multiple contexts, including in students’ discussions and speaking and writing activities.
Writing Students will write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or to alter an existing text, using a variety of precise words and phrases and transitional words to develop the characters, convey sequence, and signal shifts from one timeframe or setting to another. They will write expository texts to examine a topic or concept that develops the focus with relevant facts, definitions, concrete details, or other information from multiple credible sources, using structures and patterns (e.g., description, enumeration, classification, comparison, problem-solution, or cause-effect) to clarify relationships among ideas. They will write persuasively supporting a well-defined point of view with appropriate claims, relevant evidence, and clear reasoning that are logically grouped. They will write reflectively in response to reading to demonstrate thinking with details, examples, and other evidence from the text(s).
Research Students will formulate questions about a research topic, broadening or narrowing the inquiry as necessary. They will collect, organize, and synthesize information from multiple sources using various notetaking formats. They will evaluate and analyze the relevance, validity, and credibility of each source (primary, secondary, digital, and print), determining what information to include and exclude. Students will quote, summarize, and paraphrase research findings from primary and secondary sources, avoiding plagiarism by using own words and following ethical and legal guidelines. They will give credit for information quoted or paraphrased, using standard citations (e.g., author, article title and webpage, and publication date).
Social Studies
United States History
Students will use skills for historical and geographical analysis to explore the early history of the United States and understand ideas and events that strengthened the union. The standards for this course relate to the history of the United States from pre-Columbian times until the present. Students will continue to learn fundamental concepts in civics, economics, and geography as they study United States history in chronological sequence and learn about change and continuity in our history. They also will study documents and speeches that laid the foundation for American ideals and institutions and will examine the everyday life of people at different times in the country’s history through the use of primary and secondary sources.
World History
Students will explore the historical development of people, places, and patterns of life from ancient times until the present. The study of history rests on knowledge of dates, names, places, events, and ideas. Historical understanding, however, requires students to engage in historical thinking, raise questions, and marshal evidence in support of their answers. Students engaged in historical thinking draw upon chronological thinking, historical comprehension, historical analysis and interpretation, historical research, and decision making. These skills are developed through the study of significant historical substance from the era or society being studied. Attention will be given to political boundaries that developed with the evolution of nations. Significant attention will be given to the ways in which scientific and technological revolutions created new economic conditions that in turn produced social and political changes.
Math
Grade 5 places emphasis on solving problems, including those in context, with whole numbers, fractions, and decimals. Students will develop an understanding of prime and composite numbers, determine the prime factorization of a whole number up to 100, and solve problems using order of operations. Students will also solve problems involving area, perimeter, and volume. Students will determine the probability of an outcome by constructing a model of a sample space. Students will engage with the data cycle using line plots and stem-and-leaf plots. The data cycle includes formulating questions to be explored with data; collecting or acquiring data; organizing and representing data; and analyzing data and communicating results. Students will be introduced to expressions with a variable to support the development of algebraic concepts.
Grade 6 provides a transition from the emphasis placed on whole number arithmetic to an introduction to algebraic thinking. It includes a focus on single-step and multistep problems involving operations with integers and positive rational numbers. Students will determine equivalency, compare, and order decimals, fractions, and percents. Students will solve problems involving area and perimeter and begin to graph in a coordinate plane. In addition, students will continue using the data cycle by applying it to circle graphs and develop concepts regarding measures of center. Students will solve linear equations in one variable, write inequality statements, and use algebraic terminology. Students will use ratios to compare two quantities and represent proportional relationships as a precursor to the development of the concept of linear functions.
Science
Grades 5-6
Students examine abstract concepts, providing a foundation in the disciplines of science. They explore the characteristics of their world, from the Earth’s placement in the solar system to the interactions of water, energy, air, and ecosystems on the Earth. As students more closely examine the use of resources, they also consider how their actions and choices affect the future habitability of Earth. Students continue to develop scientific skills and processes as they pose questions and predict outcomes, plan and conduct investigations, collect and analyze data, construct explanations, and communicate information about the natural world. Mathematics and computational thinking gain importance as students advance in their scientific thinking. Students continue to use the engineering design process to apply their scientific knowledge to solve problems.
Students will complete units involving the following areas:
Force, Motion, Energy, and Matter
Living Systems and Ecosystems
Earth and Space Systems
Scientific and Engineering Practices
Reading Students will read a variety of grade-level complex text with accuracy, automaticity, appropriate rate, and meaningful expression in successive readings to support comprehension. They will monitor while reading to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding when necessary. They will respond to text through discussion and/or writing, draw on several pieces of evidence from grade-level complex texts to support claims, conclusions, and inferences, including quoting or paraphrasing from texts accurately and tracing where relevant evidence is located.
Vocabulary Students will regularly engage in reading a series of conceptually related texts organized around topics of study to build knowledge and vocabulary. Students will apply knowledge of Greek and Latin roots and affixes to predict the meaning of unfamiliar words. They will use the relationship between particular words, including synonyms, antonyms, and analogies to better understand each word. Students will analyze the construction and meaning of figurative language, including simile, hyperbole, metaphor, and personification. Students will use newly learned words and phrases in multiple contexts, including in students’ discussions and speaking and writing activities.
Writing Students will write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or to alter an existing text, using a variety of precise words and phrases and transitional words to develop the characters, convey sequence, and signal shifts from one timeframe or setting to another. They will write expository texts to examine a topic or concept that develops the focus with relevant facts, definitions, concrete details, or other information from multiple credible sources, using structures and patterns (e.g., description, enumeration, classification, comparison, problem-solution, or cause-effect) to clarify relationships among ideas. They will write persuasively supporting a well-defined point of view with appropriate claims, relevant evidence, and clear reasoning that are logically grouped. They will write reflectively in response to reading to demonstrate thinking with details, examples, and other evidence from the text(s).
Research Students will formulate questions about a research topic, broadening or narrowing the inquiry as necessary. They will collect, organize, and synthesize information from multiple sources using various notetaking formats. They will evaluate and analyze the relevance, validity, and credibility of each source (primary, secondary, digital, and print), determining what information to include and exclude. Students will quote, summarize, and paraphrase research findings from primary and secondary sources, avoiding plagiarism by using own words and following ethical and legal guidelines. They will give credit for information quoted or paraphrased, using standard citations (e.g., author, article title and webpage, and publication date).
Social Studies
United States History
Students will use skills for historical and geographical analysis to explore the early history of the United States and understand ideas and events that strengthened the union. The standards for this course relate to the history of the United States from pre-Columbian times until the present. Students will continue to learn fundamental concepts in civics, economics, and geography as they study United States history in chronological sequence and learn about change and continuity in our history. They also will study documents and speeches that laid the foundation for American ideals and institutions and will examine the everyday life of people at different times in the country’s history through the use of primary and secondary sources.
World History
Students will explore the historical development of people, places, and patterns of life from ancient times until the present. The study of history rests on knowledge of dates, names, places, events, and ideas. Historical understanding, however, requires students to engage in historical thinking, raise questions, and marshal evidence in support of their answers. Students engaged in historical thinking draw upon chronological thinking, historical comprehension, historical analysis and interpretation, historical research, and decision making. These skills are developed through the study of significant historical substance from the era or society being studied. Attention will be given to political boundaries that developed with the evolution of nations. Significant attention will be given to the ways in which scientific and technological revolutions created new economic conditions that in turn produced social and political changes.
Math
Grade 5 places emphasis on solving problems, including those in context, with whole numbers, fractions, and decimals. Students will develop an understanding of prime and composite numbers, determine the prime factorization of a whole number up to 100, and solve problems using order of operations. Students will also solve problems involving area, perimeter, and volume. Students will determine the probability of an outcome by constructing a model of a sample space. Students will engage with the data cycle using line plots and stem-and-leaf plots. The data cycle includes formulating questions to be explored with data; collecting or acquiring data; organizing and representing data; and analyzing data and communicating results. Students will be introduced to expressions with a variable to support the development of algebraic concepts.
Grade 6 provides a transition from the emphasis placed on whole number arithmetic to an introduction to algebraic thinking. It includes a focus on single-step and multistep problems involving operations with integers and positive rational numbers. Students will determine equivalency, compare, and order decimals, fractions, and percents. Students will solve problems involving area and perimeter and begin to graph in a coordinate plane. In addition, students will continue using the data cycle by applying it to circle graphs and develop concepts regarding measures of center. Students will solve linear equations in one variable, write inequality statements, and use algebraic terminology. Students will use ratios to compare two quantities and represent proportional relationships as a precursor to the development of the concept of linear functions.
Science
Grades 5-6
Students examine abstract concepts, providing a foundation in the disciplines of science. They explore the characteristics of their world, from the Earth’s placement in the solar system to the interactions of water, energy, air, and ecosystems on the Earth. As students more closely examine the use of resources, they also consider how their actions and choices affect the future habitability of Earth. Students continue to develop scientific skills and processes as they pose questions and predict outcomes, plan and conduct investigations, collect and analyze data, construct explanations, and communicate information about the natural world. Mathematics and computational thinking gain importance as students advance in their scientific thinking. Students continue to use the engineering design process to apply their scientific knowledge to solve problems.
Students will complete units involving the following areas:
Force, Motion, Energy, and Matter
Living Systems and Ecosystems
Earth and Space Systems
Scientific and Engineering Practices
