Gifted and Talented Language Arts 5 B

In this unit, your student will explore the theme of how people and animals adapt to new and challenging situations. She will read a variety of selections including prose, drama, and nonfiction selections. Reading instruction will help your student draw conclusions, generalize, and use graphic sources of information. Throughout the unit, your student will continue to practice fluency skills, as well as vocabulary development strategies such as understanding word roots, context clues, and word structure. She will gain additional confidence as a writer as she learns to compose longer works, including an e-mail, journal entry, narrative story, play, and descriptive piece. Spelling instruction addresses a variety of topics. Grammar instruction focuses on pronouns and antecedents.

In this unit, your student will explore the theme of how people seek and experience adventures. She will read a variety of selections including humorous and science fiction, narrative and expository nonfiction as well as an interview. Reading instruction will help your student use graphic sources, recognize character, plot, author's purpose as well as cause and effect. Throughout the unit, your student will continue to practice fluency skills, as well as vocabulary development strategies such as using a dictionary or glossary, context clues, and word structure. She will gain additional confidence as a writer as she learns to compose longer works, including an editorial, biographical sketch, and advertisement. Spelling instruction addresses a variety of topics. Grammar instruction includes contractions, negatives, adverbs, and adjectives.

In this unit, your student will read various selections that focus on the theme of what we can learn from encounters with the unexpected. He will also continue to build on the reading skills introduced in earlier units, such as drawing conclusions, finding the main idea, understanding comparing and contrasting, distinguishing between fact and opinion, and understanding sequence. This unit contains a wide range of reading selections, from expository nonfiction to myth. In addition, your student will read, A Wrinkle in Time, a science fiction novel by Madeleine L’Engle, which describes the adventures of three children through space and time. Fluency and vocabulary development strategies taught in previous units are reinforced throughout the unit. Writing instruction in this unit will develop your student's ability to understand and create informational texts. In addition to learning how to take notes and create an outline, your student will write a humorous poem and an informational article submitted as part of his writing portfolio. Spelling instruction focuses on suffixes and final syllables as well as compound words and words that include ei and ie. Grammar instruction develops your student’s understanding of writing conventions, including conventions for modifiers, conjunctions, commas, quotations and quotations marks, and punctuation.