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Common Core ELA5th GradeWriting

W.5.5: Plan, Revise, Edit and Try a New Approach

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.5 · Cluster: Production and Distribution of Writing.

All 43 5th Grade ELA Standards

The Official Wording

With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1-3 up to and including grade 5 here.)

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

What W.5.5 Means in Plain English

Fifth graders treat a draft as something to work on: a partner says the middle drags, and the writer cuts a sentence, adds a fact or reorders events. Editing fixes spelling and commas. Sometimes the fix is a rewrite, like starting the story at the exciting part.

Fourth grade (W.4.5) stops at planning, revising and editing. Fifth grade adds rewriting and trying a new approach, and editing now draws on the grade 5 Language standards. Sixth grade (W.6.5) asks for the same steps with only some guidance and support.

W.5.5 I Can Statements

  • I can use feedback from a partner or teacher to revise my draft.
  • I can edit my writing for grammar, punctuation and spelling.
  • I can rewrite a weak part or try a whole new approach.

W.5.5 Worked Example

Here the weak text is the first draft and the strong one is the same writer’s revision, a day and one partner conference later.

Prompt

Revise the opening of your story using your writing partner’s feedback: “It takes too long to get to the storm, and I can’t picture anything.” Then edit it for spelling and punctuation.

Not YetOn Saturday I woke up and ate breakfast and then my mom said we were going to the lake. We got in the car and drove there and it took a hour. When we got there it started storming really bad and we ran to the car.This is the draft before revision. The storm, the only exciting part, arrives in the last sentence, breakfast and the drive take up most of the space, and “a hour” and the run-on sentences still need editing.
Meets the StandardThe sky over Cedar Lake turned green just as I waded in up to my knees. Thunder cracked so close that I felt it in my chest. “Out of the water, now!” Mom shouted, already grabbing our towels. We sprinted across the hot sand while the first fat raindrops hit, and by the time we slammed the car doors, the windshield had disappeared behind a sheet of water. It had taken us an hour to drive there and about four minutes to leave.The writer tried a new approach, starting at the storm instead of at breakfast. Both of the partner’s points are answered: the action begins in sentence one, and there are sights and sounds to picture. Editing fixed “a hour” and split the run-ons.
Moves to Use
Turn each comment from the partner into one specific change.Try a new opening that starts closer to the important moment.Cut or shrink what the reader does not need, like breakfast.Edit last, for spelling, usage and commas, once the content is set.

Common Mistakes with W.5.5

Recopying neatly and calling it revised

The second draft is the first draft in nicer handwriting

Try this: Require one visible change for each piece of feedback, marked in colored pencil, before students recopy or retype anything.

Editing before revising

Spelling carefully fixed in a paragraph that later gets cut

Try this: Split the work into two sessions: content and order on the first day, spelling and punctuation on the second.

Feedback that says nothing

A partner writes “Good job!” and “Add more details.”

Try this: Give partners two sentence frames, “I got confused when…” and “I wanted to see more of…”, and have writers respond to both.

Where W.5.5 Fits

Comes BeforeW.4.5Plan, revise and edit with help from peers and adults, applying the grade 4 Language standards.
AlongsideL.5.2Capitalization, punctuation and spelling, including the comma after an introductory element.L.5.3Expand, combine and reduce sentences, the sentence-level side of revising.
Comes NextW.6.5The same process, rewriting and new approaches included, with only some guidance and support.

Practice W.5.5

Quick Check

  1. What two problems did the writing partner name?
  2. What new approach does the revised version try?
  3. Find one editing fix between the draft and the revision.

W.5.5: Other Names

W.5.5CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.5

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.