5th Grade Reading Skills
- Inferring-- this includes making educated guesses about what will happen next in a text, or how a character is feeling, using what the text explicitly says + what the students already know. Inferring is like solving a puzzle by putting everything you know together.
- Determining the Main Idea-- this skill requires students to read a lengthy piece of text, with multiple details, and decide what the text was mainly about. We teach many skills throughout the year to help students master main idea!
- Identifying the Theme-- the theme of a book is a central message the author wants us to get out of it after reading. Common themes include: friendship, justice, perseverance, honesty, and survival (just to name a few!).
- Creating Summaries-- this skill requires students to identify what happened in a text they read. Students will learn to differentiate between events that were vital to the story, and those that can be left out. A great way to help with summaries at home, is asking your student about the 5 Ws of their story: who, what, when, where, and why!
- Interpreting and Understanding Characters-- teaching students to note, and follow character development is a skill that will be modeled and practiced all year. When characters use the Notice & Note Signposts (listed above), it will help them begin to better understand a character. If a student understands their character, they can better track story events (plot), and make correct inferences, summaries, identify themes, etc!