New Meaning in Writing
Critical thinking skills and growing maturity will help your child tackle more complex projects.
By Ann Matturro Gault
In 5th grade, your child will continue to hone his writing skills and add new ones as well. He will be expected to research and write longer reports and essays to prepare for the more difficult work ahead, including standardized tests (the SAT now includes a writing section) and the long-term writing assignments that await him in middle school. In some schools, up to two hours a day are devoted to reading and writing, and it’s all geared to keeping the 5th grade writing muscle strong.
You’re apt to find that this year’s writing curriculum is more interesting simply because your child is able to delve into more complicated subject matter. Your budding adolescent is also busy forming views and opinions of the world around her. Writing takes on personal meaning, engaging students more deeply than in years past.
Common 5th grade goals include:
- Fine-tune note-taking
- Cite sources properly when writing reports
- Synthesize information in a book summary
- Improve handwriting, spelling, and grammar
- Practice writing essays and complete more complicated research assignments
An Integrated Approach
Emphasis on Essays
Focus on Revision
Testing Continues
Many 5th graders will take standardized language arts exams in the spring. Like tests given in the 3rd and 4th grades, they typically include reading comprehension, writing, and editing components (emphasizing capitalization, punctuation, grammar, and usage) with a combination of multiple choice and short answer questions.
The federal No Child Left Behind legislation signed into law in 2002 mandates that all states administer annual language arts/reading (but not necessarily writing) exams, and while many already have them in place, some are still working on it.
Some states, such as Mississippi, where testing has begun, put a lot of emphasis on the 5th grade exam. They use it not only to meet the NCLB mandate, but as a basic skills benchmark. Scores are received in time to give students who do not meet the benchmarks the additional instruction they’ll need to be successful in middle school. In Kentucky, scores are sent on to the middle schools. Teachers there will use them to provide supplemental services to students needing assistance.
An Integrated Approach
Fifth grade teachers use a variety of books to teach language arts, but they are a far cry from the textbooks found in classrooms a generation ago. At my children’s school, a “reader” combines art, social studies, science, and literature into one language arts primer. In addition to poetry and pictures of paintings, the book features folk tales and tall tales, short biographies, selections from classic literature, and news magazine articles about science and culture. It’s a more comprehensive — and perhaps more interesting — approach to education. Even though children learn from a variety of sources, all of the information is related.
Take, for example, a chapter in my children’s 5th grade primer that teaches a lesson in history and culture. A picture of an 1893 painting by Charles Webber called The Underground Railroad is featured, followed by the following queries: Who are the people in the painting helping? Why are they helping them? What do you think is going to happen? If the painting came to life, what would you tell the conductors on the train? Do you think the people escaping will find a better life? Children gain perspective and writing experience as they formulate their responses.
As in 4th grade, children are encouraged to read good literature. In teacher Jeff Monacelli’s language arts class at HB Whitehorne Middle School in Verona, New Jersey, 5th graders read Gary Paulsen’s novel, Hatchet, about a 13-year-old boy who survives 54 days alone in the Canadian wilderness with the aid of a hatchet. The gripping story provides scaffolding for a variety of writing assignments. Vocabulary and spelling words are pulled from its pages, and students learn a lesson in ecology — part of the 5th grade science curriculum. In one project, students work in pairs on the computer to research and compose a brochure that teaches survival tactics.
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Emphasis on Essays
Many teachers make a point of exposing their 5th graders to writing genres they may not have encountered before, such as biographies, autobiographies, plays, poetry, and short stories. For example Cora Lee Five, a teacher at Edgewood School in Scarsdale, New York, reads Ashes of Roses, by Mary Jane Auch, to her class as part of a social studies unit on immigrants in America — giving her students an introduction to historical fiction at the same time. The book tells the story of Margaret Rose Nolan, a newly-arrived Irish immigrant who finds work in the Triangle Factory prior to the devastating turn-of-the-century fire that destroyed the building and killed 146 laborers. Although some found the vivid descriptions of the fire upsetting, the class was riveted by the account. Cora Lee Five used the book to discuss the various skills involved in bringing to life a story from the past — by researching old newspaper accounts, reading personal journals, and interviewing people with expertise about fire and the garment industry.
There is a continued emphasis on essay writing. Using modeling as a teaching technique, teachers often have students study essays written by published authors. Selecting topics from the newspaper that children are familiar with and can relate to — a sports strike, for example — keeps interest high. Five uses a unit on the Erie Canal as a platform for essay writing. Her students read a variety of documents related to life on the canal, such as songs like "15 Miles on the Erie Canal," maps, and personal accounts of people who traveled the waterway. Students then write an essay with examples of how the canal changed life in communities along the route.
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Focus on Revision
Your child may feel more pressure when it comes to grades, simply because more is expected of him. But teachers are clear about what they want in order to give students every chance to succeed. For example, Monacelli hands out a scoring chart students can refer to when working on a project. By 5th grade, book reports and writing projects have several components with different due dates. The overall grade might assess timelines (have deadlines been met?), mechanics (spelling, capitalization, punctuation and grammar), and composition skills (are there examples from the book?) Neat handwriting is also rewarded. Some kids still prefer print to cursive, but teachers require at least half of the assignments to be completed in longhand so that fluency improves.
Because 5th graders have critical thinking ability, revising is emphasized. In the first few years of elementary school, children have a difficult time stepping outside their work to read it objectively. By age 10, however, students have the intellectual capacity to do so. They can see how to extend a character with dialogue, how a beginning paragraph can be made more interesting, how to sort out nonessential details, and how transition words can improve flow. Some teachers model strategies for revision on the overhead, while others mark up students’ writing to show areas for improvement.
Given that 5th graders are more independent thinkers, many now find it harder to accept criticism. “Children take great ownership in their work, and may argue with suggested changes,” says Mara Cohen, a writing teacher at the Douglas Graffland School in Chappaqua, New York. “I remind them that even Thomas Jefferson got a little help from his friends. Mr. Jefferson revised the Declaration of Independence 48 times before getting it right!”
All in all, writing in 5th grade is exciting, because students begin to develop insight into themselves and their world, which is reflected in their work. “They begin to think in-depth about all kinds of issues, and they have a sense that their writing is worthwhile,” says Cora Lee Five. In most classrooms, students store written work in a literacy folder, or writing portfolio. “Looking back through their work is a wonderful experience for them,” she adds. “It shows them how much they’ve grown and changed. And it helps them discover who they are.”
Ann Matturro Gault, a freelance writer and the mother of four children, lives in Verona, New Jersey.
