Skip to main content
Utah Standards

Utah 5th Grade ELA Standards

All 20 Utah English language arts standards for 5th grade, each explained in plain English. The official wording is in Utah State Board of Education's document, linked at the end of this page.

20 standards

Speaking and Listening

3 standards
5.SL.1
Join discussions on topics, books, and issues, asking questions, weighing views from several sides, backing replies with reasons, and noting when more facts are needed.
5.SL.2
Look into information from different formats and media to make informed choices and tell fact from fiction.
5.SL.3
Present claims and findings in a logical order, using relevant facts and details to develop main ideas, with clear speech, fitting grammar, and good volume.

Reading

12 standards
5.R.3
Read and spell unfamiliar long words in and out of context by drawing on letter sounds, syllable patterns, roots, affixes, and word histories.
5.R.4
Read fifth-grade texts accurately and fluently so that they understand what they read.
5.R.5
Find and cite evidence in a text to back up explanations of what it plainly says and the conclusions a reader can draw.
5.R.6
Work out a text's theme or central idea, including in texts from diverse cultures, show which details reveal it, and summarize the text.
5.R.7
Use text details to compare two story characters, settings, or events, and explain how people, events, or ideas interact in history, science, or technical texts.
5.R.8
Work out the meaning of words, phrases, figurative language, and academic and subject terms, and analyze how those word choices shape a text's meaning.
5.R.9
Clarify unknown and multiple-meaning words using context, Greek and Latin roots and affixes like port and bio, and dictionaries for exact meanings and pronunciation.
5.R.10
Analyze how chapters, scenes, or stanzas build a story's or poem's overall structure, and compare structures like cause and effect across two or more texts.
5.R.11
Explain how a narrator's or speaker's viewpoint shapes how events are told, and analyze how several accounts of one event agree and differ in point of view.
5.R.12
Analyze how visuals and multimedia add to a text's meaning, tone, or beauty, and use several sources, including media, to answer a question or solve a problem.
5.R.13
Trace how a writer backs each claim in a text, matching every reason and piece of evidence to the claim it supports.
5.R.14
Compare how stories in the same genre handle similar themes and topics, and combine information from several texts to speak or write knowledgeably on a subject.

Writing

5 standards
5.W.1
Write an argument that states a claim, groups ideas logically, ties evidence to the claim with linking words and clauses, varies sentences for style, and concludes.
5.W.2
Write to explain a topic in organized sections with text features or media, developing it with facts, quotations, and precise terms, linking ideas, and concluding.
5.W.3
Write a real or imagined story that sets up the situation, uses dialogue, description, pacing, and transitions, adds sensory details, and ends with a resolution.
5.W.4
Do short research projects to answer a question or build an argument, summarizing and paraphrasing sources, listing them, and working with others.
5.W.5
Write in cursive and print with speed and ease, like when taking notes or drafting a story.

The official Utah documents

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