Skip to main content
Massachusetts Standards

Massachusetts 5th Grade ELA Standards

All 43 Massachusetts English language arts standards for 5th grade, each explained in plain English. The official wording is in Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's document, linked at the end of this page.

43 standards

Reading Standards for Literature

9 standards
RL.5.1
Back up what a story says outright and what you infer from it by quoting it or putting its words accurately into your own.
RL.5.2
Work out a theme of a story, play, or poem from its details, like how characters face challenges or how a poem's speaker reflects, and summarize it.
RL.5.3
Compare two or more characters, settings or events in a story, using specific details such as how the characters treat each other.
Common Core RL.5.3
RL.5.4
Figure out what words and phrases mean in a text, and identify and explain what figurative language like metaphors and similes adds to it.
RL.5.5
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.
Common Core RL.5.5
RL.5.6
Describe how the narrator's or speaker's point of view shapes the way events are told in a story, myth, poem, or play.
RL.5.7
Explain what the pictures in a graphic novel, or the sound and images in a filmed poem or myth, add to its meaning, mood or beauty.
Common Core RL.5.7
RL.5.9
Compare and contrast how stories in one genre, like two mysteries or two adventure stories, handle similar themes and topics.
RL.5.10
Read grade 5 level literature or harder on your own with full understanding, choosing from many genres, cultures, and perspectives.

Reading Standards for Informational Text

10 standards
RI.5.1
Quote or accurately paraphrase an article or nonfiction book to show what it states directly and to support the inferences you draw.
RI.5.2
Identify one or more main ideas of a nonfiction text, explain how key details support each one, and summarize the text.
RI.5.3
Explain how two or more people, events, ideas, or concepts connect in a history, science, math, or technical text, using specific facts from it.
RI.5.4
Figure out the meaning of academic words and subject terms in a text about a grade 5 topic, like erosion or fraction.
RI.5.5
Describe how an author organizes information using one or more structures, like time order, comparison, cause and effect, or problem and solution.
RI.5.6
Analyze several accounts of the same event or topic, noting the key ways their points of view agree and differ.
RI.5.7
Use several books or websites to find the answer to a question or solve a problem quickly.
Common Core RI.5.7
RI.5.8
Explain which reasons and evidence an author gives for each point in an informational text, matching each piece of support to its point.
Common Core RI.5.8
RI.5.9
Combine information from several texts on one topic so you can write or speak about it with real knowledge.
RI.5.10
Read grade 5 level nonfiction or harder on your own with full understanding, including history, science, math, and technical texts.

Reading Standards for Foundational Skills

2 standards
RF.5.3
Say the main sound of each consonant, know the long and short sounds of a, e, i, o and u, and read common sight words like the, of and you.
Common Core RF.K.3
RF.5.4
Read 1st-grade books aloud smoothly and accurately with expression, understand them, and reread when a word or sentence does not make sense.
Common Core RF.1.4

Writing Standards

10 standards
W.5.1
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.
Common Core W.4.1
W.5.2
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.
Common Core W.3.2
W.5.3
Write stories in prose or as poems with a clear setup, dialogue, pacing, sensory details, transitions, and an ending, modeled on forms like myths or ballads.
W.5.4
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.
Common Core W.4.4
W.5.5
Make writing stronger through planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or a fresh approach, using correct grade 5 conventions and fitting vocabulary.
W.5.6
Use technology and online platforms to publish writing and work with others, and type at least two pages in one sitting.
W.5.7
Do a short research project that looks at several sides of a topic, such as a planet’s size, surface and moons, using several sources.
Common Core W.5.7
W.5.8
Gather facts from memory, books and websites, restate them in notes and the finished piece instead of copying, and list the sources.
Common Core W.5.8
W.5.9
Pull evidence from literature or nonfiction to support written analysis, reflection, and research, using grade 5 reading skills as needed.
W.5.10
Write regularly, from a report built over several days to a journal entry finished in one class, for different subjects, purposes and readers.
Common Core W.3.10

Speaking and Listening Standards

6 standards
SL.5.1
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.
Common Core SL.5.1
SL.5.2
Give a short summary of a text read aloud or of information shown in a video, a chart or a talk.
Common Core SL.5.2
SL.5.3
Sum up a speaker’s main points, such as in a classmate’s persuasive talk, and tell which reasons and evidence back each claim.
Common Core SL.5.3
SL.5.4
Give a talk on a topic, text, procedure, or math solution, or state an opinion, ordering ideas logically with facts and details and speaking clearly at a good pace.
SL.5.5
Add multimedia and visual displays to presentations when they help develop the main ideas or themes.
SL.5.6
Adjust the way you speak to fit different settings and tasks, switching to formal English when the situation calls for it.

Language Standards

6 standards
L.5.1
Use correct grammar when writing or speaking, like choosing verb tenses to show time and conditions, fixing tense shifts, and using active, passive, and perfect verbs.
L.5.2
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.
Common Core L.K.2
L.5.3
Notice the difference between formal and casual English, like Good morning, Mrs. Lee versus Hey, and choose which fits the moment.
Common Core L.2.3
L.5.4
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.
Common Core L.5.4
L.5.5
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.
Common Core L.3.5
L.5.6
Learn and correctly use grade 5 academic and subject words, including linking words like however, although, moreover, and in addition.

The official Massachusetts documents

The plain-English lines on this page are EMStudio's own explanations of Massachusetts's standards, not the official wording, which Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education publishes in the documents above. Codes and strand names identify each standard.