Grade 5: Curriculum Map

Grade 5: Curriculum MapEL Education’s Grades 3–5 comprehensive literacy curriculum is 2 hours per day of content-based literacy: Module lessons (60 minutes of daily instruction): explicitly teach and formally assess allstandards and strands of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for English LanguageArts and LiteracyAdditional Language and Literacy (ALL) Block (60 minutes of daily instruction): providesadditional practice and differentiated support for all studentsThe module lessons and ALL Block work together to help students develop literacy skills asthey build knowledge about the world.The ALL Block addresses five areas: independent reading; additional work with complex text;reading and speaking fluency/grammar, usage, and mechanics; writing practice; word study/vocabulary. For additional information on the ALL Block, refer to EL Education’s 3–5 LanguageArts Curriculum introduction at the beginning of this book and the Implementing the ALLBlock introduction to your Module 1 ALL Block Teacher Guide and Supporting Materials.Structure of a Module Each module provides eight weeks of instruction, broken into three shorter units. Each module includes:— A final performance task that is a more supported project, often involving research— Six assessments (two per unit), which are almost always “on-demand”; students completean independent task on reading, writing, speaking, and/or listeningStructure of a Year of Instruction There are four modules per grade level.Teachers should teach the modules in order, beginning with Module 1 (which lays thefoundation for both teachers and students regarding classroom culture and instructionalroutines).EL Education Curriculum1

Stories of Human RightsHow to Read This MapThe purpose of this section is to provide a high-level summary of each module and name thestandards explicitly taught and formally assessed within them. The charts that follow outlinefor each module: Focus: The “focus” is the same across the Grades 3–5 band and signals the progression ofliteracy skills across the year as well as alignment to the CCSS instructional shifts.Title: This signals the topic students will be learning about (often connected to social studies or science).Description: This tells the basic “story” of the eight-week arc of instruction: the literacyskills, content knowledge, and central text(s).Texts: These texts are ones that all students either read themselves or hear read aloud. Thetext in bold is the central text for a given module: the text(s) with which students spend themost time. Recall that texts can be complex based on both qualitative and quantitative measures. Texts are listed in order from most quantitatively complex (based on Lexile measure)to least quantitatively complex. Texts near the bottom of the list are often complex in waysnot measured by the Lexile tool: meaning/purpose, text structure, language, and/or knowledge demands. Within a given module, the list shows the wide variety of texts students read,write, and speak about using evidence as they build knowledge about the topic. For a procurement list of specific texts that need to be purchased for use with the curriculum, visitour website.Lexile: This details the quantitative range of complexity for the given CCSS grade band—inthis case, Grades 3–5.Performance Task: This is a culminating project, which takes place during Unit 3 of everymodule. Performance tasks are designed to help students synthesize and apply their learningfrom the module in an engaging and authentic way. Performance tasks are scaffolded, andalmost always include peer critique and revision. Performance tasks are not “on-demand”assessments. (Note: The End of Unit 3 Assessment often addresses key components of theperformance task.)Unit-Level Assessments— Each unit includes two assessments, most of which are “on-demand” and designed toshow what students know or can do on their own.— Mid-unit assessments typically, though not always, are reading assessments: text-basedanswers.— End of unit assessments typically, though not always, are writing assessments: writingfrom sources.— Most assessments have a heavy emphasis on academic vocabulary, particularly determining words in context.— Assessments are designed to be curriculum-embedded opportunities to practice the typesof skills needed on state assessments.2

Grade 5: Curriculum Map— The curriculum map below lists the title of each assessment, CCSS assessed, and theformat. Selected response (multiple choice questions) Short constructed response (short answer questions) Extended response (longer writing or essays of the type that is scored using theGrades 3–5 opinion, informative, and narrative writing rubrics (either on-demand orscaffolded) Speaking and listening (discussion or oral presentation) Scaffolded essay (involving planning, drafting, and revision) Standards: For each module, the standards formally assessed are indicated with acheck mark.Note: The ALL Block is not shown in this curriculum map because it does not include formalassessments; however, it does include frequent opportunities for informal assessment of thestandards, and therefore is a critical component of this comprehensive curriculum. As statedabove, the ALL Block for a given module is on the same topic as the module lessons and supports, extends, and works in conjunction with those lessons. Teachers should use assessmentresults from module lessons as one data point to inform their homogeneous groupings for ALLBlock instruction.Consider spending significant time orienting to this map before the school year begins to determine which standards will repeat and which will not, in order to know where to prioritizetime when considering pacing in the module. Pay close attention to those standards addressedonly in Module 4 to ensure realistic pacing across the year so these standards are taught andassessed.EL Education Curriculum3

DescriptionModule TitleFocusStories of Human Rights4Module 1Module 2Module 3Module 4Becoming a Close Reader andWriting to LearnResearching to BuildKnowledge and Teach OthersConsidering Perspectives andSupporting OpinionsGathering Evidence andSpeaking to OthersStories of Human RightsBiodiversity in the RainforestAthlete Leaders of SocialChangeThe Impact of NaturalDisastersStudents launch the year bybuilding their close readingskills. They read the novelEsperanza Rising by PamMuñoz Ryan, and applytheir new learning abouthuman rights as one lensthrough which to interpretthe characters and themes inthis rich novel. Through closereading, interpretation, andanalysis of fiction and nonfiction texts, students beginto build their understandingof human rights. Throughoutthe first unit, students closelyread selected articles fromthe Universal Declarationof Human Rights (UDHR)related to events in EsperanzaRising where human rightsare threatened. They write afour-paragraph literary essaycomparing the response oftwo characters to a selectedevent from the novel, anddescribe how each characterresponds to the event. Inthe final unit, students plan,write, and ultimately performmonologues based on eventsfrom Esperanza Rising wherehuman rights are threatened.In this module, students readto build knowledge aboutthe rainforest and analyzeauthor’s craft in narrativewriting to build proficiency inwriting first-person narrativesabout the rainforest. In Unit1, they build backgroundknowledge on biodiversityin the rainforest in order tounderstand why scientists,like Meg Lowman in TheMost Beautiful Roof in theWorld by Kathryn Lasky,study the rainforest. Havingread texts about deforestation, students research usingseveral print and digitalsources to identify ways theycan help the rainforest, andthe challenges associatedwith being an ethical consumer, in order to participatein a collaborative discussion.In Unit 2, students explorehow authors of narrativetexts about the rainforesthelp the reader understandwhat it is like in the rainforestby analyzing author’s useof figurative, and concreteand sensory language. Witha deeper understandingof author’s craft, in Unit 3students write first-personnarratives, building out ascenario from The MostBeautiful Roof in the Worldusing concrete and sensorylanguage to describe therainforest as though theywere actually there.In this module, studentsconsider the factors thatcontribute to the successof professional athletes asleaders of social change.They read about a numberof professional athleteswho have been leaders ofsocial change. Studentsbegin by learning aboutJackie Robinson throughPromises to Keep: How JackieRobinson Changed America,written by Jackie’s daughter,Sharon. Students gatherfactors that led to JackieRobinson’s success in leadingsocial change and thendevelop an opinion on whichfactor (or factors) were mostimportant in his success.Students finish the module byreading about other athleteswho were leaders of socialchange, beginning with JimAbbott. They research andwrite essays to compareand contrast the factors thatcontributed to the success ofthe athletes they study withthose of Jackie Robinson.Once students have readabout a few athletes, theythen consider the commonfactors that contribute tobeing an effective leader ofsocial change and work inpairs to create a multimediapresentation highlightingthree of those factors. For theperformance task, studentswork in groups to create aposter highlighting a personalquality that effective leadersof change need to have.In this module, students readliterary and informationaltexts to understand theimpact of natural disasterson places and people. Theybegin by researching naturaldisasters in expert groups,reading informational texts,and creating PSAs (publicservice announcements)about how to stay safe duringa natural disaster. Studentsthen read and analyze literarytexts about the aftermath ofnatural disasters includingpoems, songs, and EightDays: A Story of Haiti byEdwidge Danticat—a storyabout a boy trapped underhis house for eight daysafter the 2010 earthquake inHaiti. They analyze the waythe illustrations and visualsin videos contribute to themeaning, tone, and beauty ofa text. Students then analyzehow the narrator’s or speaker’s point of view influenceshow events are described. Atthe end of the module, theytake action to help othersprepare for a natural disaster.They research supplies toinclude in an emergencypreparedness kit and writeopinion essays on the mostimportant items to include.For the performance task,they present their PSAs toa live audience, unpack anemergency preparedness kitgiving the rationale for theitems included, and distributean informational leaflet.