Arizona Standards
Arizona 5th Grade ELA Standards
All 44 Arizona English language arts standards for 5th grade, each explained in plain English. The official wording is in Arizona Department of Education's document, linked at the end of this page.
44 standards
Reading Standards for Literature
9 standards5.RL.1
Quote the exact words from a story that prove an answer, whether the story says it outright or only hints at it.
5.RL.2
Find a theme in a story, play or poem using details like how characters face challenges or how a poem's speaker reflects, and summarize the text.
5.RL.3
Compare two or more characters, settings or events in a story, using specific details such as how the characters treat each other.
5.RL.4
Figure out what words and phrases mean in a story, including a simile or metaphor such as the classroom was a zoo.
5.RL.5
Explain how the chapters of a novel, the scenes of a play or the stanzas of a poem build on one another to shape the whole.
5.RL.6
Describe how the narrator’s point of view colors the way events are told, like the same argument retold by each sibling.
5.RL.7
Analyze how pictures and multimedia, like the panels of a graphic novel or a narrated myth, shape a text's purpose, meaning or tone.
5.RL.9
Compare how two stories of the same kind, such as two mysteries, handle a similar theme or topic in different ways.
5.RL.10
By the end of fifth grade, read and understand grade-level stories, plays and poems skillfully and independently.
Reading Standards for Informational Text
10 standards5.RI.1
Quote the exact words from a story that prove an answer, whether the story says it outright or only hints at it.
5.RI.2
Find two or more main ideas in an informational text, show which details support each one, and summarize the text.
5.RI.3
Explain how two or more people, events or ideas in a history, science or how-to text connect, using facts the text gives.
5.RI.4
Work out the meaning of school words like analyze and subject words like photosynthesis in a text on a grade 5 topic.
5.RI.5
Compare how two or more nonfiction texts are organized, like one told in time order and another as problem and solution.
5.RI.6
Read several accounts of the same event and note how the writers’ points of view agree and differ.
5.RI.7
Use several books or websites to find the answer to a question or solve a problem quickly.
5.RI.8
Explain which reasons and evidence an author gives for each point in an informational text, matching each piece of support to its point.
5.RI.9
Combine facts from several texts on one topic, then write or speak about it like someone who has done the reading.
5.RI.10
By the end of fifth grade, read and understand grade-level history, science and technology texts skillfully and independently.
Reading Standards: Foundational Skills
2 standards5.RF.3
Read unfamiliar long words in and out of context using letter sounds, the six syllable patterns, word parts, and Greek and Latin roots like graph and port.
5.RF.4
Read 1st-grade books aloud smoothly and accurately with expression, understand them, and reread when a word or sentence does not make sense.
Writing Standards
10 standards5.W.1
Write an opinion piece that introduces the topic, states the opinion, gives reasons backed by facts, links them with phrases like for instance, and closes.
5.W.2
Write an informative piece that introduces a topic, groups related facts and definitions, links them with words like also, and closes with a final sentence.
5.W.3
Write a story, real or made up, that sets the scene, introduces the characters, uses dialogue and time words like later, and ends with a sense of closure.
5.W.4
Write clearly, shaping and organizing the piece for its task, purpose and reader, like a how-to for younger students versus a book review for the class.
5.W.5
With feedback from peers and adults, plan, revise, edit, rewrite or try a new approach to make their writing stronger, like a new opening.
5.W.6
With some adult help, use technology and the internet to publish writing and collaborate, and type well enough to complete a writing assignment.
5.W.7
Do short research projects with several sources that explore different sides of a topic and answer a specific question.
5.W.8
Gather facts from memory, books and websites, restate them in notes and the finished piece instead of copying, and list the sources.
5.W.9
Use evidence from stories and informational texts in writing, like details that show a character in depth or the reasons an author gives for a point.
5.W.10
Write regularly, from a report built over several days to a journal entry finished in one class, for different subjects, purposes and readers.
Writing Standards: Foundational Skills
1 standard5.WF.1
Keep building cursive by reading and writing every capital and lowercase letter, and copy ideas down neatly at a steady pace with spacing and indents.
Speaking and Listening Standards
6 standards5.SL.1
Join discussions on grade 5 topics prepared, follow the group’s rules and roles, build on others’ comments with questions, and sum up what was learned.
5.SL.2
Give a short summary of a text read aloud or of information shown in a video, a chart or a talk.
5.SL.3
Sum up a speaker’s main points, such as in a classmate’s persuasive talk, and tell which reasons and evidence back each claim.
5.SL.4
Give a talk on a topic, a book or an opinion with ideas in a sensible order, facts and details to back them, and clear speech at a steady pace.
5.SL.5
Add pictures, sound clips or a slide to a presentation when they help make the main ideas clearer.
5.SL.6
Change how they speak to fit the setting and task, switching to formal English for things like a class presentation.
Language Standards
6 standards5.L.1
Print many letters, use everyday nouns, verbs and little words like in and on, make plurals like dogs and wishes, ask with who and where, and speak in full sentences.
5.L.2
Capitalize the first word of a sentence and the word I, name the period and question mark, and spell simple words the way they sound, like kat for cat.
5.L.3
Notice the difference between formal and casual English, like Good morning, Mrs. Lee versus Hey, and choose which fits the moment.
5.L.4
Work out an unknown word on a grade 5 topic from context clues, from Greek and Latin roots like photo in photograph, or by checking a dictionary or glossary.
5.L.5
Explain a nonliteral phrase like take steps, name someone who is friendly to link a word to real life, and rank knew, believed and suspected by how sure they are.
5.L.6
Learn and use grade 5 school and subject words, including linking words that signal contrast or addition such as however, although and moreover.
The official Arizona documents
- Arizona English Language Arts Standards: Fifth Grade · adopted December 2016 · since 2018-19
The plain-English lines on this page are EMStudio's own explanations of Arizona's standards, not the official wording, which Arizona Department of Education publishes in the documents above. Codes and strand names identify each standard.