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Common Core ELA5th GradeReading: Informational

RI.5.4: Work Out Academic and Subject Words

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.4 · Cluster: Craft and Structure.

Get the Word MapAll 43 5th Grade ELA Standards

The Official Wording

Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 5 topic or subject area.

Common Core State Standards, Grade 5, Reading: Informational Text · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RI.5.4 Means in Plain English

Fifth graders work out the meaning of two kinds of words in nonfiction: school words like gradually or analyze, and subject words like deposition. In a passage on the Mississippi Delta, deposition means a river dropping its sediment, and the sentence about slowing water proves it.

The move is the same as in fourth grade (RI.4.4), with harder words drawn from grade 5 science and social studies. Sixth grade (RI.6.4) adds figurative, connotative and technical meanings, so students also weigh how a word’s shade of meaning changes a sentence.

RI.5.4 I Can Statements

  • I can use context clues to work out a subject word.
  • I can figure out school words like analyze and gradually from context.
  • I can explain a word’s meaning using the words around it.

RI.5.4 Worked Example

The passage explains its own key words to anyone who reads the sentences around them, and the weak answer reaches for an everyday meaning instead.

Read the Story
Every year, the Mississippi River carries millions of tons of sediment, the sand, silt and mud that moving water has worn away from land upstream. This wearing away of land is called erosion.Near the Gulf of Mexico, the river slows down. Slow water cannot carry as much, so the sediment sinks and settles on the bottom. This process is called deposition.Over thousands of years, deposition built the wide, marshy delta of southern Louisiana, one layer of mud at a time.Today, levees hold the river in a single channel, so much of its sediment pours into deep water instead of spreading over the delta. Without new mud, parts of the delta are gradually washing away.
A short passage written for this page.
Question: What does deposition mean in this passage, and which words helped you figure it out?
Not Yet“Deposition means putting something in, like making a deposit at the bank.”That is the everyday meaning of a related word. It ignores the clues in the passage and does not fit what the river is doing.
Meets the Standard“Deposition is when moving water drops the sediment it was carrying. The clue is the sentence before it: the river ‘slows down,’ and the sediment ‘sinks and settles on the bottom.’ It is the other end of erosion, where water wears the land away and carries it off.”The meaning fits this passage, the clue words are quoted, and the answer ties deposition to erosion, a related subject word from the same text.
Question Stems to Use
What does … mean in this sentence?Which words nearby explain it?Is that the everyday meaning or the science meaning?Put your meaning back into the sentence. Does it still make sense?Which other word in the passage is related to this one?

Common Mistakes with RI.5.4

Using the everyday meaning

“Deposition means a deposit at the bank.”

Try this: Have students test the meaning by substituting it into the sentence, then reject any meaning that makes the river sound like a bank customer.

Reading only the sentence with the word

“It just says ‘This process is called deposition,’ so I can’t tell.”

Try this: Teach students to read one sentence before and one after the word, because science texts often explain a term just before naming it.

Skipping the general academic words

A word list with erosion and deposition, but not gradually or process

Try this: Ask students to list two school words alongside the subject words, since words like gradually and process carry meaning in every subject.

Where RI.5.4 Fits

Comes BeforeRI.4.4Work out general academic and subject words in a text on a grade 4 topic.
AlongsideL.5.4Use context, Greek and Latin roots, and dictionaries or glossaries to work out unknown words.L.5.6Learn and use grade 5 school and subject words, including linking words like however and although.
Comes NextRI.6.4Work out figurative, connotative and technical meanings of words as they are used in a text.

Practice RI.5.4

Vocabulary Worksheet GeneratorFree ToolType in the subject words from your current science or social studies unit and print word, definition and sentence practice.Your word listDefinitionsSentences
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Quick Check

  1. What is sediment, according to the passage?
  2. What does erosion mean in the passage?
  3. Why are parts of the delta washing away today?

RI.5.4: Other Names

RI.5.4CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.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.