Grade 05 ELA - EC: E05.D.2.1.1
Grade 05 ELA - EC: E05.D.2.1.1
Continuum of Activities
The list below represents a continuum of activities: resources categorized by Standard/Eligible Content that teachers may use to move students toward proficiency. Using LEA curriculum and available materials and resources, teachers can customize the activity statements/questions for classroom use.
This continuum of activities offers:
- Instructional activities designed to be integrated into planned lessons
- Questions/activities that grow in complexity
- Opportunities for differentiation for each student’s level of performance
Grade Levels
5th Grade
Course, Subject
English Language Arts
Related Academic Standards / Eligible Content
Activities
- Identify prepositional phrases.
- Identify conjunctions in writing.
- Identify simple, compound, and complex sentences.
- Student defines what it means to expand sentences.
- Student defines what it means to combine sentences.
- Student defines what it means to reduce sentences.
- Describe reasons why various sentence lengths and structures can contribute to meaning, interest, and style.
- Apply an understanding of varying sentence structures by revising various sentences.
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- Expand this sentence: The girls are playing.
- Expand this sentence: The bird sang.
- Combine these sentences: The weather was warm. We went to the beach.
- Combine these sentences: My favorite food is pizza. I love when the pizza is fresh.
- Reduce this sentence: He put on some sunscreen, the sun was so extremely hot, and he wanted to go inside.
- Evaluate sentences to determine if they could be expanded, combined, or reduced for meaning, interest, or style.
- Construct sentences of various lengths that contribute to meaning, interest, or style.
Answer Key/Rubric
- Student identifies prepositional phrases. Recognizing and finding prepositional phrases helps student to consider how these serve to expand sentences. Prepositional phrases begin with a preposition and end with an object (noun or pronoun). Examples: in the room, by the door.
- Student identifies conjunctions in writing. Recognizing and finding conjunctions helps students consider how these work to combine sentences. Conjunctions might be coordinating, subordinating, or correlative.
- Student identifies simple, compound, and complex sentences. Simple sentences contain a subject and a verb and express a complete thought. Compound sentences contain two independent clauses (that could stand alone as sentences) and are joined by a coordinator. Complex sentences have an independent clause joined to one or more dependent clause.
- Student defines expanding sentences as expanding a short sentence that needs more detail.
- Student defines combining sentences as combining two or more short sentences in a row.
- Student defines reducing sentences as taking a long, run-on sentence that confuses the reader/listener and reducing it, or dividing it into two or more sentences that are complete sentences.
- Student describes why expanding, combining, and reducing sentences can aid in meaning, interest, and style. The student might consider the author’s purpose, the audience’s prior knowledge, the type of text, and other factors.
- Student applies an understanding of varying sentence structures by revising the following sentences:
- Expand this sentence: The girls are playing.
- Expanded sentence might include additions that answer some of these questions: Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?
- Possible answer: The teenage girls are playing soccer at the park by the river.
- Expand this sentence: The bird sang.
- Expanded sentence might include additions that answer some of these questions: Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?
- Possible answer: The injured robin sang wearily under the tree in my neighbor’s yard.
- Combine these sentences: The weather was warm. We went to the beach.
- Student needs to recognize that the sentences are closely related and use combining techniques correctly.
- Possible answer: Because the weather was warm, we went to the beach.
- Combine these sentences: My favorite food is pizza. I love when the pizza is fresh and hot.
- Student needs to recognize that the sentences are closely related and use combining techniques correctly.
- Possible answer: My favorite food is fresh, hot pizza.
- Reduce this sentence: He put on some sunscreen, the sun was so extremely hot, and he wanted to go outside.
- Student considers separating clauses or phrases using punctuation or a conjunction or rearranging the sentence.
- Possible answer: He put on some sunscreen because it was extremely hot, and he wanted to go outside.
- Student evaluates a variety of sentences to determine if they could or should be expanded, combined, or reduced for meaning, interest, or style. Some sentences (e.g. run-ons) are incorrect and must be corrected. Many times, sentences are already grammatically sound, but the writer might choose to change them to contribute to the meaning, interest, or style. Sentences may be right, but they can often be improved.
- Student constructs sentences of various lengths that contribute to meaning, interest, or style. The student constructs sentences and then carefully considers those sentences and determines if they could be improved by being revised.
