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Common Core ELA5th GradeLanguage

L.5.4: Figure Out Unknown Words

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.5.4 · Cluster: Vocabulary Acquisition and Use.

Make a Roots QuizAll 43 5th Grade ELA Standards

The Official Wording

Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 5 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.

Common Core State Standards, Grade 5, Language · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What L.5.4 Means in Plain English

Fifth graders who hit a new word in a science or social studies text choose the strategy that fits: a cause-and-effect or comparison clue in the sentence, a Greek or Latin root like photo or graph, or a dictionary or glossary to confirm meaning and pronunciation.

Fourth graders (L.4.4) used definitions, examples and restatements in the text as clues. Fifth grade adds cause-and-effect and comparison clues and a wider set of roots. Sixth grade (L.6.4) adds a word’s position in the sentence as a clue and checking a guessed meaning.

L.5.4 I Can Statements

  • I can use cause-and-effect and comparison clues to work out a word.
  • I can use Greek and Latin roots like photo and graph as clues.
  • I can check a word’s meaning and pronunciation in a dictionary or glossary.

L.5.4 Worked Example

One unfamiliar word, two guesses at it. The strong answer uses three strategies and they all point the same way.

Prompt

Which meaning fits? Work out dormant in this sentence: “Because the volcano had been dormant for six hundred years, the villagers had planted orchards right up its slopes.”

Not YetDormant means dangerous, because volcanoes are dangerous.The answer comes from what the student already thinks about volcanoes, not from the sentence. If the volcano were dangerous, nobody would plant orchards on it.
Meets the StandardDormant means quiet, not active right now. The sentence says the villagers planted orchards up the slopes because of it, so the volcano can’t have been erupting. The root dorm, like in dormitory, means sleep, so it’s a sleeping volcano. The dictionary says the same thing.It reads the cause-and-effect clue (because… the villagers had planted), backs it with the Latin root dorm, and confirms the meaning in a dictionary. Three strategies, one answer.
Moves to Use
Look nearby for because, so or like: a cause-and-effect or comparison clue.Break the word into parts and match any root you know: dorm, as in dormitory.Put your meaning back in the sentence and check that it makes sense.Confirm it in a dictionary or glossary, and check how to say it.

Common Mistakes with L.5.4

Skipping the word

Reading straight past dormant and missing why the orchards matter

Try this: Have students circle any unknown word and write a guessed meaning in the margin before reading on.

Taking the first dictionary meaning

Defining current in “the current carried the raft away” as “happening now”

Try this: Have students read every numbered meaning and choose the one that makes sense when placed back in the sentence.

Forcing a root that isn’t there

“A pediatrician must have something to do with feet, like a pedal.”

Try this: Teach students to test every root guess against the sentence and a dictionary, since the same letters can come from different roots.

Where L.5.4 Fits

Comes BeforeL.4.4Use definitions, examples and restatements as clues, plus roots like graph in autograph.
AlongsideRI.5.4Work out the meaning of school and subject words in an informational text.L.5.6Learn and use grade 5 academic and subject words.
Comes NextL.6.4Use a word’s position in the sentence as a clue, and check a guessed meaning in context or a dictionary.

Practice L.5.4

Vocabulary Quiz GeneratorFree ToolA matching quiz from your own list: Greek and Latin roots with their meanings (photo, light; graph, write; dorm, sleep), then the unit’s new words.RootsUnit wordsMatching
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Quick Check

  1. What clue in the sentence shows that dormant does not mean erupting?
  2. Which Latin root helps with dormant, and what other word shares it?
  3. The root photo means light. What does that tell you about photosynthesis?

L.5.4: Other Names

L.5.4CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.5.4

Common Core State Standards © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved. Official wording from the Common Core State Standards PDFs at corestandards.org, last checked October 14, 2026. The explanation, I can statements, example, mistakes and practice on this page are EMStudio’s own, written beside the official wording. They are not part of the standard.