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Lower School
Grade Five Program Overview Ten-year-olds are remarkable for their competence in many areas. Students are shifting from a concrete orientation toward the world to a more abstract and analytical perspective. They are increasingly looking for the feedback of their peers rather than that of their families or teachers. They take relationships very seriously and, during this time, there are shifts in identity, friendships, and social groups. In fifth grade, students are asked to think deeply and critically about what they are learning. Language Arts
Fifth-grade language arts focuses on refining the skills and deepening the concepts of good communication, both oral and written. Students read to identify main ideas and summarize through oral presentation or in writing. Math The fifth-grade mathematics program is designed to develop mastery of skills in the three major areas of mathematics: concepts, solution strategies, and the language of math. During the fifth-grade year, students explore problems in depth and learn to use more than one solution strategy for many different kinds of problems. Students understand, order, and compare numbers up to one billion and understand systems for the four arithmetic operations and be able to explain how the systems work. Fifth-graders perform multi-digit division with 2-digit divisors and 4-digit dividends, with and without remainders. Students will extend their knowledge of measurement by measuring length, volume, mass, and temperature with accuracy. Students convert, expand, reduce, and perform algorithms for decimals, percentages, and fractions. Finally, students’ knowledge of 2-D and 3-D geometry expands to include an understanding of congruent figures, circumference, diameter, and radius. |
Social Studies In the fifth grade, students cover US history in the 1800s and the ways groups of people lived and responded to oppression. Students look at the socio-political aspects of the Cherokee and Seminole Nations, as well as the effects that European settlers had on their way of life. Fifth-graders examine Chinese and Irish immigration from several perspectives. It is through the study of these peoples that students come to understand the reasons why people leave their home country. Additionally, students consider the role immigrants play in American society and their experiences of oppression and assimilation in a new culture. The students will then look at Africans as they survived and resisted slavery in the United States. This journey begins by looking at the strength and diversity of Africa at this point in history. It will then follow the path of how Africans became enslaved and the myriad ways they persevered, despite the injustices they experienced. The unit will culminate with the African struggle for freedom with a focus on the Abolition Movement, and, more specifically, the African-American community in Boston in the mid-1800s. Students will examine the Fugitive Slave Act and the community’s response to it. Fifth-graders will learn about specific abolitionists and memorize parts of their speeches. Students will re-enact sections of well-known abolitionist speeches at the African Meeting House during a tour of the Black History Trail on Beacon Hill in downtown Boston. Resources TERC Investigations in Number, Data, and Space Fifth-Grade Curriculum Wordly Wise (Vocabulary Builders), Educators Publishing Services Action Strategies for Deepening Comprehension, by J. Wilhelm Mosaic of Thought, by Ellen Oliver Keen and Susan Zimmerman Lessons That Change Writers, by Nancie Atwell Rebecca Sitton Spelling Program A History of US: Book 5: Liberty for All? 1820-1860 (History of Us), by Joy Hakim A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America, by Ronald Takaki Journey to Gold Mountain: The Chinese in 19Th-Century America (The Asian American Experience), by Rebecca Stefoff and Ronald T. Takaki The Irish American Family Album (The American Family Albums), by Dorothy Hoobler, and Joseph P. Kennedy II From Slave Ship to Freedom Road, by Julius Lester and Rod Brown Rebels Against Slavery: Story Of American Slave Revolts, by Patricia C. Mckissack and Fred Mckissack
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