You will learn how to synthesize and make logical connections between ideas within a text and across two or three texts representing similar or different genres (including literary text) and support the findings with textual evidence.

This resource is a demonstration lesson presented at the 2014 Write for Texas Summer Institute. It provides a snapshot of a four to five week unit that engages students in the reading and writing workshop model.

You will learn how to summarize the main ideas and supporting details in text and understand that a summary does not include opinions.

You will be able to explain how different organizational patterns (e.g., proposition and support, problem and solution) develop the main idea and the author’s viewpoint.

Grade 5 additional resources

You will learn how to determine the meaning of grade-level academic English words derived from Latin, Greek, or other linguistic roots and affixes.

You will learn how to use context (e.g., cause and effect or compare and contrast organizational text structures) to determine or clarify the meaning of unfamiliar or multiple-meaning words.

You will learn how to infer the implicit theme in a work of fiction, distinguish theme from topic, and make complex inferences using textual evidence.

The goal of the Texas State Literacy Plan (TSLP) is to ensure that every Texas child is strategically prepared for the literacy demands of college or career by high school graduation.

The goal of the Texas State Literacy Plan (TSLP) is to ensure that every Texas child is strategically prepared for the literacy demands of college or career by high school graduation.

The goal of the Texas State Literacy Plan (TSLP) is to ensure that every Texas child is strategically prepared for the literacy demands of college or career by high school graduation.

In these two lesson plans, students will learn to identify issues of importance, form their opinions, and support those opinions with evidence and reason. They will also learn how to state their feelings in a persuasive manner.

In this 3rd through 5th grade video, students connect exercise and literacy. The teacher reads a sentence aloud and students must identify the action verb that was read and then act it out accordingly. This is a great lesson to combine focus on cognitive and psychomotor skills.

Watch as two teachers create Book Buddies with 3rd and 5th graders in this half-hour video from Engaging with Literature. Book Buddies offers students a chance to explore a book they are familiar with in new ways.

Download this lesson builder template as a framework for reviewing and analyzing your classroom literature lesson.

In this video segment from Nature, witness the joy an elephant family experiences when a new baby elephant is born. This birth was a celebration within elephant society. 

Find out how young Thomas Edison’s curiosity got him into trouble, and how, during his teen years, he lost his hearing but gained confidence as an aspiring inventor, in this video adapted from AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: Edison.

Using textual evidence, you will be able to explain how authors create meaning through stylistic elements and figurative language emphasizing the use of personification, hyperbole, and refrains in prose and poetry.

You will be able to identify the literary language and devices used in memoirs and personal narratives and compare their characteristics with those of an autobiography.

You will learn how to explain a playwright’s use of dialogue and stage directions.