5th Grade CCSS: Reading: Informational Text

For fifth graders, this Common Core area helps students gain mastery of the deeper tasks involved in reading a non-fiction text. No matter what they are reading, the standards require students to increase the complexity in the texts they read and deepen their understanding of the connections within and between texts. Among the complete standards for this grade, fifth graders will be asked to: explain a text explicitly and accurately, using quotes, understand the theme of a piece of informational text and be able to summarize it, describe the overall structure of events or information in a text including elements like chronology, comparison and cause and effect, analyze multiple accounts of the same events or topics in a text, get information from a number of different print or digital sources, explain the author’s evidence within a text, read informational texts at grade band level, increasing in complexity throughout the year.

African American Inventors: Granville T. Woods

Granville Woods died in 1910. He contributed much to the electrical world with his inventions, ideas, and devices. Students will read about his life and answer questions in this comprehension activity.

African American Inventors: Lewis Latimer

Students can learn about African American inventor Lewis Latimer with this worksheet. First, they will read an excerpt and then answer questions to test comprehension.

Main Idea Tree

Use this image of a large tree to help your students understand the components of a paragraph. With this worksheet, students will be asked to write a main idea and follow it with three supporting details. What a great way for students to visualize the importance of the main idea in a paragraph!

The Christmas Tree

Everything has a history! Print out this worksheet about the history of the Christmas tree for your students and let the learning begin!

Absolute Location

Week 12 Reading Comprehension (E-12). A segment about how latitude and longitude is used for navigation. Cross-Curricular Focus: History / Social Sciences.

Active and Passive Transport

Week 5 Reading Comprehension (E-5). This reading segment describes how a membrane allows things to move in and out of the cell. Cross-Curricular Focus: Life Science.

Anatomy of a Circle

Week 30 Reading Comprehension (D-30). A short explanation about the radius, diameter, and center of a circle. Cross-Curricular Focus: Mathematics.

Apprentice System

Week 34 Reading Comprehension (E-34). A passage about the apprentice system practiced in early North America. Cross-Curricular Focus: History / Social Sciences.

Atmospheric Layers

Week 32 Reading Comprehension (E-32). A segment about how Earth’s atmosphere is made up of several layers of gases in different mixtures. Cross-Curricular Focus: Earth Science.

Bartering for Basics

Week 6 Reading Comprehension (E-6). A passage about early Native American Indian groups and how they bartered for goods. Cross-Curricular Focus: History / Social Sciences.

Basic Geometry Terms

Week 25 Reading Comprehension (D-25). A short summry of the different terms used in geometry. Cross-Curricular Focus: Mathematics.

Branches of Government

Week 29 Reading Comprehension (D-29). A reading segment about the different branches of government. Cross-Curricular Focus: History / Social Sciences.

Broken Promises

Week 24 Reading Comprehension (E-24). A passage about how history’s story is a never-ending struggle for control over land. Cross-Curricular Focus: History / Social Sciences.

Chaparral Ecosystems

Week 3 Reading Comprehension (D-3). A passage and questions about relatively rare shrubland communities called Chaparral ecosystems. Cross-Curricular Focus: Life Science.

Colonization: for Gold, God, and Glory

Week 13 Reading Comprehension (E-13). A passage and questions about early exploration and colonization. Cross-Curricular Focus: History / Social Sciences.

Conflict Over North American Lands

Week 18 Reading Comprehension (E-18). A passage about the time between the early 15th century and the mid 17th century. Cross-Curricular Focus: History / Social Sciences.

Convection Currents

Week 27 Reading Comprehension (E-27). A passage about convection currents, loops of moving air or water that transfer energy. Cross-Curricular Focus: Earth Science.

Converting Fractions to Decimals

Week 26 Reading Comprehension (E-26). A math segment about converting fractions to decimals. Cross-Curricular Focus: Mathematics.

Customs and Traditions

Week 3 Reading Comprehension (E-3). Reading passage and questions about the customs and traditions of native American Indian groups in rth America Cross-Curricular Focus: History / Social Sciences.