You may like to know what students will learn in 5th grade ELA. It is a class about making the most out of reading, and learning ways to express ideas in speaking and writing. We study 10 units from Benchmark. These units include fiction and non-fiction with a wide range of topics, some of which link to science and social studies content. One highlight is the Water unit. We connect this to Dowling's environmental focus and our location on the Mississippi River.

Part of our class time is spent on writing. Students will have one or two big writing assignments each quarter. These may include a narrative, an opinion essay, a biographical research project in conjunction with Media, and a speech. It is important to learn the structures that make a sentence, paragraph, and story or essay during this year.

There will also be time for guided or independent reading during the ELA class period. We have lots of support to help students advance their reading level. We partner with neighbors for the Becketwood Buddies in which 8 students each session have a 1-to-1 reading tutor. We also work in class with the ELL teacher and reading specialist. Students reading at grade level will be at letter S,T and U. Advanced readers are assigned an historical fiction unit of study for their guided reading during the year and work more independently. Students reading at grade level or below may choose this unit if they have strategies and support to meet the expectations.

Reading at home is very important. We assign 30 minutes of reading each day as homework. Spelling and cursive, as well as unfinished classwork may be assigned as homework at times. All homework should be recorded in student planners.