1. Grade 5

2. 3. Speaking and Listening 4. Language
Four strands
1. Reading
Literature
Informational
Foundational Skills
2. Writing
3. Speaking and Listening
4. Language
There are four strands throughout the standards.
Let’s begin with Reading. Within the reading strand your child will read both literary and informational texts (You may know these better as fiction and nonfiction. ) using text features and illustrations to support their understanding. An additional component of this strand is Foundational Skills which focuses on the continued development of the phonics skills that will help your child develop multiple strategies for reading unknown words. Second graders will also work on reading text with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression.
Writing is an equally important strand for students as they continue to write pieces that include more details focused on a single topic with a clear beginning, middle, and end. Students will work with their teacher and peers to edit and revise their writing before selecting a way to publish their final copy. Second graders will also write narratives, opinion pieces, and informative or explanatory pieces and participate in shared research projects with their class and peers.
Speaking and Listening is a new standard that helps our students learn how to participate in classroom conversations and discussions to clarify and extend their learning.
Language includes both conventions of standard written and spoken English as well as vocabulary development and understanding.

3. Summarizing the key details of stories, dramas, poems, and nonfiction
The big ideas
Summarizing the key details of stories, dramas, poems, and nonfiction
Identifying and judging evidence that author’s use to change the reader’s point of view
Integrating information from print and digital sources to answer questions and solve problems
The big ideas are:
Summarizing the key details of stories, dramas, poems, or nonfiction to identify themes or main ideas.
Identifying and judging evidence that supports particular ideas in an author’s argument to change a reader’s point of view.
Integrating information from several print and digital sources to answer questions and solve problems. As our fifth graders engage in 21st century learning, they will find that they will have to use multiple resources and formats to gather information and then they must integrate it with efficiency.

4. Building knowledge of academic words
The big ideas
Writing opinions that offer reasoned argument and provide facts and examples
Coming to classroom discussions prepared and engaging fully and thoughtfully with others
Building knowledge of academic words
The big ideas are:
- Fifth graders will write opinions that offer a reasoned argument by providing facts and examples to help persuade the reader to agree with their opinion.
Students will be expected to come to classroom discussions prepared with information and understanding about the topic and then engaging fully and thoughtfully with others.
Fifth graders will continue to build their knowledge of academic words with an emphasis on those that signal a contrast in ideas or logical relationships such as on the other hand, similarly, and therefore.

5. In Mathematics, we have two sets of standards: Content and Practice
In Mathematics, we have two sets of standards: Content and Practice. The Standards for Mathematical Content will focus on WHAT students are learning. The Standards for Mathematical Practice will focus on HOW students are learning.

6. Instructional time will focus on three critical areas:
Content Standards
Instructional time will focus on three critical areas:
Developing fluency with addition and subtraction of fractions, and developing understanding of the multiplication of fractions and division of fractions in limited cases.
Extending division to 2-digit divisors, integrating decimal fractions into the place value system and developing understanding of operations with decimals to hundredths, and developing fluency with whole number and decimal operations.
Developing understanding of volume.
Critical areas have been identified at each grade level. Although these are not the ONLY skills students are responsible for mastering, it does focus the work at each grade.

7. Standards for Mathematical Practice include:
Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them
Reason abstractly and quantitatively
Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others
Model with mathematics
Use appropriate tools strategically
Attend to precision
Look for and make use of structure
Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning
The practice standards are the same K-12, providing a coherent vision to be applied to the teaching and learning of the mathematical content standards.
Standards for Mathematical Practice describe the characteristics and habits of mind that all students who are mathematically proficient should be able to exhibit.

8. Five strands include: History Geography and Environmental Literacy
New to social studies is the exploration of
content through five strands.
Five strands include:
History
Geography and Environmental Literacy
Civics and Government
Culture
Economics and Personal Financial Literacy
The changes in curriculum will bring about significant shifts in the way that instruction is delivered in the Social Studies classroom. The new curriculum will provide opportunities for students to become more critical thinkers. There will be a greater emphasis on teaching students to make connections and to see the big picture. In doing so, there will be less focus on recalling facts. In many instances, students will investigate collaboratively to grow their learning as well as create work products with the use of instructional technology. There will be an increased focus on using primary and secondary sources to analyze historical events through multiple perspectives. This means that students will actually read and study and analyze historical documents rather than just hear about them.
Specifically, instead of the geographic study of the United States, Canada, Mexico and Central America, students will study US History from pre-colonial times to reconstruction but what is significantly different is that you are looking at this period in American History through the LENSE of the new strands – simply put – through Geography, Economics, Civics and Culture.

9. Areas of Focus: Ecosystems Human Body Systems Motion & Design Weather
Science instruction continues
to be inquiry-based
Areas of Focus:
Ecosystems
Human Body Systems
Motion & Design
Weather
With inquiry-based science, instruction begins with open-ended questions or demonstrations. Students do experiments or collect data and take a “hands-on” approach to science. They experience science rather than merely read about it. Fifth graders will build and observe model aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems to determine how they are interconnected. They will begin to explore genetics and major systems of the human body such as the nervous, digestive, and respiratory systems. Fifth graders will explore forces and begin to develop an understanding of concepts such as friction and inertia. They will also investigate factors that affect weather in North Carolina, such as the Jet Stream, Gulf Stream, and Global Winds.