Curriculum Guide for Fifth Grade Parents 2002-2003

La Entrada Middle School has traditionally maintained a comprehensive, rigorous course of study for all students. In recent years the State of California has developed content standards in the areas of mathematics, English-language arts, science, and history-social sciences designed to bring our state’s public schools “on par with those in the best educational systems in others states and nations”. Our curriculum has been reviewed and updated in the main academic areas to insure the state standards are the core of our academic program.

La Entrada Middle School has traditionally encouraged and supported teachers to implement curriculum using a variety of instructional strategies designed to meet the needs of each student. Each teacher’s strengths and expertise are recognized and valued as the means and methods for delivering a quality education to every child. While the content standards describe what to teach, they are not intended to define how to teach. Teachers interpret and adapt the curriculum to reach all students through differentiated instruction.

Well-communicated standards provide you with the information you need to have a better understanding of what your child is to learn in a specific grade level and in a specific subject. Your knowledge of the standards will help you frame your questions for parent-teacher conferences and counselor conferences; select reading and writing materials for the home; and shape your visits to public libraries and other places of interest. This curriculum guide is intended to inform parents of what fifth graders need to know and be able to do by the end of fifth grade.

Websites

To obtain additional information about State of California standards, and curriculum instruction visit the following California Department of Education websites:

CDE www.cde.ca.gov

Mathematics www.cde.ca.gov/ci/math.html

Science www.cde.ca.gov/ce/science.html

History-Social Science www.cde.ca.gov/cilbranch/sca/history/history.html

Reading/Language Arts www.cde.ca.gov/ci/reading/html

English-Language Arts

The English-Language Arts Standards for California Public Schools Introduction states that:

“The ability to communicate well -to read, write, listen, and speak- runs to the core of human experience. Language skills are essential tools not only because they serve as the necessary basis for further learning and career development but also because they enable the human spirit to be enriched, foster responsible citizenship, and preserve the collective memory of a nation.”
“Reading, writing, listening, and speaking are not disembodied skills. Each exists in context and in relation to the others....(and should be linked) to other core curricula including history, social science, mathematics, and science.”
“Through reading and writing students may share perspectives on enduring questions, understand and learn how to impart essential information, and even obtain a glimpse of human motivation.”

The English-language arts standards are organized into four sections.

Reading

1.0 Word Analysis, Fluency, and Systematic Vocabulary Development

1.1 Read aloud narrative and expository text fluently and accurately and with appropriate pacing,

intonation, and expression

1.2 Use word origins to determine the meaning of unknown words

1.3 Understand and explain frequently used synonyms, antonyms, and homographs

1.4 Know abstract, derived roots and affixes from Greek and Latin and use this knowledge to analyze

the meaning of complex words (e.g., controversial)

1.5 Understand and explain the figurative and metaphorical use of words in context

2.0 Reading Comprehension (focus on informational materials)

Students read and understand grade-level-appropriate material. They describe and connect the essential ideas, arguments, and perspectives of the text by using their knowledge of text structure, organization, and purpose. By grade eight students read one million words annually on their own. In grade five, students make progress toward this goal.

2.1 Understand how text features (graphics, maps, etc.) make information accessible and usable

2.2 Analyze text that is organized in sequential or chronological order

2.3 Discern main ideas and concepts presented in texts

2.4 Draw inferences, conclusions, or generalizations about text and support them with

textual evidence and prior knowledge

2.5 Distinguish facts, supported inferences, and opinions in text

3.0 Literary Response and Analysis

Students read and respond to historically or culturally significant works of literature. They begin to find ways to clarify the ideas and make connections between literary works.

3.1 Identify and analyze the characteristics of poetry, drama, fiction, and nonfiction

3.2 Identify the main problem or conflict of the plot and explain how it is resolved

3.3 Contrast the actions, motives, and appearances of characters in a work of fiction

3.4 Understand theme refers to meaning or moral of a selection and recognize themes

3.5 Describe the function and effect of common literary devices (imagery, metaphor)

3.6 Evaluate meaning of archetypal patterns and symbols found in myth and tradition

3.7 Evaluate the author’s use of various techniques to influence readers’ perspectives

Writing

1.0 Writing Strategies

Students write clear/coherent/focused essays. Writing shows awareness audience/purpose. Essays contain formal introductions/supporting evidence/conclusions, and progress through stages of writing process

1.1 Create multiple-paragraph narrative compositions: establish/develop situation/plot;

describe setting; present ending

1.2 Create multiple-paragraph expository compositions: establish topic/ideas/events in

sequence; provide details and transitions to link paragraphs

1.3 Use organizational features of text to locate relevant information

1.4 Create simple documents by using electronic media and organizational feature

1.5 Use a thesaurus to identify alternative word choices and meanings

1.6 Edit and revise manuscripts to improve the meaning and focus of writing

2.0 Writing Applications

Students write narrative, expository, persuasive, descriptive texts of at least 500 to 700 words.

2.1 Write narratives: establish a plot, point of view, setting, and conflict; show, rather

than tell, events of story

2.2 Write responses to literature: demonstrate understanding; support judgments;

develop interpretations that exhibit careful reading and understanding

2.3 Write research reports about important ideas/issues/events: frame questions to lead

investigation; establish topic; develop with facts, details, examples, explanations

2.4 Write persuasive letters or compositions: state position clearly; support position with

relevant evidence; follow organizational pattern; address reader concerns

Written and Oral Language Conventions

1.0 Written and Oral English Language Conventions

1.1 Identify and correctly use prepositional phrases, appositives, and independent and

dependent clauses; use transitions and conjunctions to connect ideas

1.2 Identify/correctly use verbs that are often misused (e.g., lie/lay, sit/set, rise/raise),

modifiers, and pronouns

1.1 Use a colon to separate hours/minutes and to introduce list; use quotation marks around exact words of a speaker and titles of poems, songs, short stories, etc.

1.4 Use correct capitalization

1.5 Spell roots, suffixes, prefixes, contractions, and syllable constructions correctly

Listening and Speaking

1.0 Students deliver focused, coherent presentations that convey ideas clearly and relate to the backgrounds and interests of the audience. They evaluate the content of oral communication.

1.1 Ask questions that seek information not already discussed

1.2 Interpret a speaker’s verbal and nonverbal messages, purposes, and perspectives

1.3 Make inferences or draw conclusions based on an oral report

1.4 Select a focus, organizational structure, and point of view for an oral presentation

1.5 Clarify and support spoken ideas with evidence and examples

1.6 Engage the audience with appropriate verbal cues, facial expressions, and gestures

1.7 Identify, analyze, and critique persuasive techniques; identify logical fallacies

1.8 Analyze media as sources for information, entertainment, persuasion, interpretation

of events, and transmission of culture

2.0 Speaking Applications

Students deliver well-organized formal presentation employing traditional rhetorical strategies.

2.1 Deliver narrative presentations: establish situation/plot/point of view/setting with

descriptive words/phrases; show, rather than tell listener what happens

2.2 Deliver informative presentations about an important idea/issue/event: frame

questions to direct investigation; establish controlling idea/topic; develop topic with

facts/details/examples/explanations

2.3 Deliver oral responses to literature: summarize significant events/details; articulate

understanding of ideas/images; use examples/textual evidence to support conclusions

Adopted program: SRA Open Court Reading, published by McGraw •Hill Companies, 2002

This comprehensive program includes reading, writing, grammar, and spelling.

Website: www.harcourt.com/parents/

Core books: all fifth grade students will study the following: My Brother Sam Is Dead,

A Wrinkle in Time, and Esperanza Rising

Additional materials/resources: Extended core literature list, 6 Traits of Writing,

Daily Oral Language PLUS, Daybook

Mathematics

The Mathematics Content Standards for California Public Schools Introduction states that:

“Mathematics is critical for all students, not only those who will have careers that demand advanced mathematical preparation but all citizens living in the twenty-first century.
Proficiency in most of mathematics is not an innate characteristic; it is achieved through persistence, effort, and practice by students.
Students require a strong foundation in basic skills. All students must be able to add, subtract, multiply, and divide easily.
Mathematics makes sense to students who have a conceptual understanding of the domain. They know not only how to apply skills but also when to apply them and why they should apply them.”

Mathematics content standards* are organized into five strands.

Number Sense

1.0 Students compute with very large/small numbers, positive integers, decimals, and fractions and understand the relationship between decimals, fractions, and percents.

1.1 Estimate/round with very large/small numbers

1.2 Compute/use percents; understand percent/fraction/decimal equivalents

1.3 Understand/compute positive integer powers

1.4 Determine prime factors through 50; write numbers using exponents

1.5 Compare/order decimals/fractions/positive/negative numbers

2.0 Students perform calculations and solve problems involving addition, subtraction,

and simple multiplication and division of fractions and decimals:

2.1 Compute decimals, negative integers, etc.; verify reasonableness of results

2.2 Divide by multidigit divisors/decimals

2.3 Add/subtract fractions/mixed numbers; express simplest form

2.4 Understand multiplication/division of fractions

2.5 Multiply/divide simple fractions; apply to problem solving

Algebra and Functions

1.0 Students use variables in simple expressions, compute the value of the expression for

specific values of the variable, and plot and interpret the results:

1.1 Use graph/equations to answers questions

1.2 Write/evaluate simple algebraic expressions

1.3 Know/use distributive property

1.4 Identify/graph ordered pairs

1.5 Write equations/graph/solve problems w/linear functions w/integer values

Measurement and Geometry

1.0 Students understand and compute the volume and area of simple objects

1.1 Compare formulas for areas of geometric shapes

1.2 Compute surface area of cube/rectangular box

1.3 Understand/compute volume of rectangular solids in metric/standard systems

1.4 Measure appropriately two-/three-dimensional objects (perimeter/area/ volume)

2.0 Students identify, describe, and classify the properties of, and the relationships

between, plane and solid geometric figures:

2.1 Draw/measure angles, lines, shapes with tools

2.2 Know the sum of angles of triangles and quadrilaterals to solve problems

2.3 Draw two-/three-dimensional objects from rectangular solids

Statistics, Data Analysis, and Probability

1.0 Students display/analyze/compare/interpret different data sets, including sets of different sizes:

1.1 Know/compute/compare mean, median, and mode

1.2 Organize/display single-variable data appropriately

1.3 Use fractions/percents to compare data sets

1.4 Identify/interpret data from a graph

1.5 Write ordered pairs correctly

Mathematical Reasoning

2.0 Students make decisions about how to approach problems:

2.1 Analyze problems, identify relationships/patterns

2.2 Determine when/how to break problems into simpler parts

3.0 Students use strategies, skills, and concepts in finding solutions:

3.1 Use estimation to verify reasonableness of results

3.2 Apply strategies/results from simpler problems to complex problems

3.3 Use variety of methods to explain math reasoning

3.4 Express solutions clearly and logically

3.5 Indicate appropriateness of exact or approximate solutions

3.6 Make precise calculations and check validity of results in context

4.0 Students more beyond a particular problem by generalizing to other situations:

4.1 Evaluate reasonableness of solution

4.2 Note method of deriving solution and solve similar problems

4.3 Develop generalizations of results and apply in other contexts

* A more detailed guide to the content standards is located at the back of the textbook.

Adopted text: McGraw-Hill Mathematics, California Edition, 2002.

Websites: www.mhschool.com/math and www.cde.ca.gov/standards/

Additional material/resources: manipulatives, regrouping, challenge math

Science

The Science Content Standards for California Public Schools Introduction states that:

“...the content of science education includes the essential skills and knowledge students will need to be scientifically literate citizens in the twenty-first century.
“Elementary and middle school standards provide foundational skills and knowledge for students to learn core concepts, principles, and theories of science at the high school level.
“The Investigation and Experimentation standards should be integral to, and directly and specifically support, the teaching of content strands and disciplines.
“Students have the opportunity to build connections that link science to technology and societal impacts.... community health, population, natural resources, environmental quality, natural and human-induced hazards, and other global challenges.”

During the fifth grade year students will have the opportunity to learn science by doing laboratory investigations and experiments, solving problems, and reading textbooks and supplemental materials. These experiences will allow them to make a concrete association between science and the study of nature as well as provide them with many opportunities to take measurements and use basic mathematical skills. In addition, students will attend a five-day, overnight environmental program at Jones Gulch near La Honda.

Physical Sciences

1. Elements and their combinations account for all the varied types of matter in the world.

Life Sciences

2. Plants/animals have structures for respiration/digestion/waste disposal, transport of materials.

Earth Sciences

3. Water on Earth moves between oceans and land through processes of evaporation and condensation.

4. Energy from Sun heats Earth unevenly, causes air movements resulting in changes in weather pattern

5. The solar system consists of planets and other bodies that orbit the Sun in predictable paths.

Investigation and Experimentation

6. Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations. Students should develop their own questions and perform investigations.

Resources: FOSS (Full Option Science System, published by Delta and developed by the Lawrence

Hall of Science, Berkeley, CA, revised 2001

Harcourt-Brace Science, 2000

San Mateo County Environmental Education Program

Websites: www.fossweb.com and www.delta-ed.com and www.harcourt.com/parents/

History-Social Science

The History-Social Science Standards for California Public Schools Introduction states that:

“Mastery of standards ensures students know facts and understand common/complex themes of history, making connections among own lives, lives of people who came before, and lives of those to come.”
“These standards emphasize historical narrative, highlight the roles of significant individuals throughout history, and convey the rights and obligations of citizenship.”
“Students develop the critical thinking skills to study the past and its relationship to the present.”
“Students will learn to distinguish the important from the unimportant, to recognize vital connections between the present and the past, and to appreciate universal historical themes and dilemmas.”
“The disciplines, history/geography/civics/economics,....are woven together within for grades four through eight. The methods of instructional delivery remain the responsibility of local educators.”

Students in grade five study the development of our nation up to 1850,with an emphasis on the people who were already here, when and from where others arrived, and why they came.

5.1 Students describe the major pre-Columbian settlements.

5.2 Students trace the routes of early explorers and describe the early explorations of the Americas.

5.3 Students describe the cooperation and conflict that existed among the American Indians and between the Indian nations and the new settlers.

5.4 Students understand political/religious/social/economic institutions that evolved in the colonial era.

5.5 Students explain the causes of the American Revolution.

5.6 Students understand the course and consequences of the American Revolution.

5.7 Students describe the people and events associated with the development of the U.S. Constitution and analyze the Constitution’s significance as the foundation of the American republic.

5.8 Students trace the colonization, immigration, and settlement patterns of the American people from 1789 to the mid-1800s, with emphasis on the role of economic incentives, effects of the physical and political geography, and transportation systems.

5.9 Students know the location of the current 50 states and the names of their capitals.

Analysis Skills

Students demonstrate the following intellectual, reasoning, reflections, and research skills: chronological and spatial thinking; research, evidence, point of view; historical interpretation.

Adopted text: Early United States, published by Harcourt Brace, 2000.

Additional materials/resources: internet/library research, use of primary source documents

Websites: Harcourt Brace - www.harcourt.com/parents/

Colonial Williamsburg - www.history.org/history/index.html

Plimouth Plantation - http://www.pilgrims.net/plimothplantation/vtour/