• Fifth Grade

    Mrs. Kelly

    Mrs. Erickson

    Mr. Degreenia

    Fifth Grade Curriculum 

    i-Ready Diagnostic and Personalized Path
    This year, our students will take the i-Ready diagnostic. This diagnostic is a short series of questions that will help teachers know how to group students to best address their needs and build on their strengths. The i-Ready diagnostic is administered on the computer. Once your student has finished the assessment the program creates a personalized series of games and learning activities. We ask that each student spend 10 -15 minutes each day on reading and math i-Ready activities.To learn more about i-Ready, please go to www.aacps.org/iready.
     
    Literacy
    AACPS embraces a balanced approach to literacy instruction at the elementary level; whole language and phonics instruction are both valued. A compilation of learning blocks work in tandem to address the variety of needs of developing readers and writers. These include:
     
    •Explicit Comprehension: Explicit Comprehension instruction provides students with skills and strategies they use to understand grade level texts. In Explicit Comprehension, students engage in a short lesson in which teachers model a new skill or strategy with a familiar book prior to giving students the opportunity to try it out with a partner or independently with a new book. Teachers check in with students during the independent time to monitor progress and assess students’ understanding of the lesson.
     
    •Interactive Read Aloud: Interactive Read Aloud instruction provides students with a daily opportunity to interact with complex books. During Interactive Read Aloud, students meet in a common area to listen as the teacher reads aloud and shows how skilled readers read, think and talk about books. The teacher pauses as he or she reads to share his or her thinking with students and asks questions that prompt students to discuss the book and develop a deeper understanding of content and ideas.
     
    •Writer’s Workshop: The Units of Study for Writing Curriculum is used to teach Writer’s Workshop. Writer’s Workshop provides student choice and ownership of writing. During Writer’s Workshop, students engage in a short lesson in which teachers model a new skill or strategy prior to giving students the opportunity to try it out in their independent writing. As students write independently, the teacher works with small groups of students or individual students to apply the skill or strategy to their own writing or provide feedback.
     
    •Guided Reading: Guided Reading instruction provides students with an opportunity to read books at their reading level based upon the Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System. Students meet in small groups to receive direct instruction from the teacher. After a brief introduction to the book, students read the book independently, whisper reading in the early grades and transitioning to silent reading. After students read the book, the teacher uses questions to engage them in a discussion of the book. This differentiated instructional time provides teachers an opportunity to target students’ precise strengths and needs as developing readers.
     
    Mathematics
    AACPS Mathematics PreK-5 program implements the Maryland College and Career-Ready Standards. These standards are a set of high-quality academic goals which provide rigor, focus, and coherence to prepare our students to be college and career ready by the time they graduate from high school. Instruction will include these mathematical domains:
     
    •Number & Operations: Fractions – use all four operations to solve problems with fractions
    •Number & Operations: Base Ten – place value including decimals, decimal operations with multi-digit whole numbers
    •Operations and Algebraic Thinking – write and interpret numerical expressions, analyze relationships
    •Geometry - classify figures based on properties, use a coordinate plane to solve problems
    •Measurement and Data – Convert units of measurement, represent and interpret data, understand concepts of volume
     
    AACPS values creating a positive math culture in the classroom by inspiring success for all students through growth mindset and risk taking. AACPS embraces opportunities to make math visible with the use of concrete manipulatives and representations to develop conceptual understanding. Math is a social experience as students engage in meaningful conversations with their peers.
     
    AACPS strives to inspire students to see the beauty in math through games and real-world problem-solving. Students can practice mathematics at home including building sets and relating them to multiplication, measuring/estimating the distance from the house to the playground, estimating or determining elapsed time when they clean their room, cooking with a family member and using the world around them to name shapes and describe their attributes. It is important for students to continue their math learning at home using their Ready Common Core student instruction book, i-Ready My Path and First In Math.
     
    Social Studies
    The Social Studies Office wishes to share information with you regarding the content of Grade 5. Students will engage in the following topics throughout the year:

    • Federal, State and Local  Government

    • Articles of Confederation and preparing for a new government

    • Constitution and the Bill of Rights

    • War of 1812

    • Conflicts leading to the Civil War

    • Life after the Civil War

    • 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments

    • Urbanization, Industrialization and Immigration

    • Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Rosenwald Schools in AA County

    • Civil Rights in Maryland and in The United States

     

    This year, students will have the opportunity to explore the cultures, achievements and contributions of many different groups of people in United States history. They will also learn about the displacement, enslavement and destruction of Indigenous peoples, land and culture as well as the Atlantic Slave Trade and the enslavement of African Americans in the Civil War era. Students will also investigate how our Constitution has changed and been amended over time to allow for more groups of people to truly achieve life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Much learning will be conducted through the use of primary sources. These topics are complex and may require extended conversation in the home.


    Social Studies in Anne Arundel County Public Schools is designed to promote active citizenship by giving students opportunities to evaluate historical sources and critically think about the impact. In 4th and 5th grades, students are challenged to start this journey that will extend through the rest of their school career. 


    Families may want to consider extending the classroom discussions at home by engaging students in conversation around the impacts of these topics. Students may grapple with the violence and trauma associated with this history. Students will continue to learn about the institution of slavery and the far-reaching impacts throughout  their secondary social studies courses. 

     

    Resources to help with discussion at home and at school

     

    Science
    Through exploration of the Next Generation Science Standards curriculum, students engage in scientific inquiry. Throughout this process, students generate questions around real-world science phenomena and develop investigations to find the answers to these questions. They take measurements, collect data, and analyze information to find solutions to scientific problems. Students study patterns and relationships within science and learn to build evidence-based arguments in response to claims. The topics are:
     
    •Food Webs in Ecosystems
    •Stars and Constellations
    •Interactions of the Four Spheres of Earth
    •Phases & Interactions of Matter
    •Engineering Design
     
    In the spring, students can apply what they learned by taking part in the Innovators of Science and Engineering Challenge.
     
    Environmental Literacy & Outdoor Education
    Maryland Environmental Literacy Standards are integrated into curriculum through engaging units that connect students with their local natural world. Students answer the question, “How do state and local laws address environmental issues?” During the fourth quarter in social studies, they examine state and local laws related to an environmental issue. They conduct r esearch and investigate, then students act as responsible citizens and promote the common good by taking action on the issue.
     
    Drownproofing
    The Drownproofing Program is a comprehensive aquatic safety program for AACPS fifth graders. Students learn personal water safety skills through teacher and Drownproofing staff led lessons. The instruction is aligned with the language arts and physical education curriculum. Water safety instruction is provided by certified aquatic safety instructors. Lessons focus on personal water safety, use of personal flotation devices, safe rescues, cold water survival techniques, hypothermia and ice safety.
     
    English Language Acquisition Program (ESOL)
    English Language Acquisition instruction and ESOL classes meet the requirements of Title III of ESSA. The goal of English Language Acquisition instruction is to enable English Learners to construct meaning from oral and written language, express complex ideas and information, as well as access grade-level instruction across content areas. In order to accomplish this goal, the ELA curriculum is based on WIDA English Language Development (ELD) standards:
     
    •Language for Social and Instructional Purposes
    •Language for Language Arts
    •Language for Mathematics
    •Language for Science
    •Language for Social Studies
     
    The WIDA English Language Development standards framework represents the social, instructional, and academic language that students need to engage with peers, educators, and grade-level content curriculum. As such, the framework for teaching language is integrated with the Maryland State Standards for College and Career Readiness, as well as National and State Content Standards. All students who have been identified as eligible to receive English Language Acquisition services will take WIDA’s ACCESS for ELLs, the annual assessment to measure English language proficiency.
     
    Media Arts
    Students experience a heightened level of art access through a unique medium of artistic expression that can amplify and integrate the four traditional art forms by incorporating the technological advances of the contemporary/world with emerging skill sets available to students and teachers. In the Media Arts, students cultivate both artistic abilities and a technological aptitude. The media artist utilizes a fundamental understanding of the mediums of analog and digital media to integrate digital technologies with traditional forms of artistic expression. Artistic processes are the cognitive and physical actions by which arts learning and making are realized. National Core Arts Standards are based on the artistic processes of Creating; Performing/ Producing/Presenting; Responding; and Connecting.
     
    Technology
    Students increase their creativity, communicate and collaborate with others and gather, evaluate and analyze information and data using computers. They solve problems and make decisions in a manner that demonstrates their understanding of the social, ethical, and human issues related to technology.
     
    Health Education
    Students increase their awareness in the health skills of analyzing influences, nutrition, safe living environment, communication, disease prevention and control, decision making, conflict resolution, self-management and advocacy through identified literacy texts within the 5th grade curriculum.
     
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