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Language Arts - Elementary Curriculum English Language Arts Grade 5
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Writing Standard 1

Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information.
  • Balancing Three Branches at Once
    This page contains 4 EDSITEment lessons in which students use primary source documents to investigate of how the three branches of the American government can check each other.
  • Can You Convince Me?: Persuasive Writing
    In this ReadWriteThink lesson, students are introduced to the basic concepts of lobbying for something that is important to them and making persuasive arguments. Through a classroom game and resource handouts, students become aware of the techniques used in persuasive oral arguments and apply them to independent persuasive writing activities.
  • Dear Librarian: Writing a Persuasive Letter
    Students will develop and support a position on a particular book by writing a persuasive letter about their chosen title; use a guide to help them organize their persuasive ideas into written form; outline a persuasive piece that expresses points in a clear, logical sequence so the reader can follow their reasoning; publish their persuasive piece as a letter.
  • Fifth Grade On-Demand Opinion Writing Samples
    Sample opinion pieces written by fifth graders in response to a uniform text-based prompt.
  • Fifth Grade Range of Writing Opinion Writing Samples
    These pieces provide examples of opinion writing for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences, over both extended and shorter time frames.
  • How Big Are Martin's Big Words? Thinking Big about the Future
    Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a Caldecott Honor book, Coretta Scott King Honor book, and an Orbis Pictus Award winner, tells of King's childhood determination to use "big words" through biographical information and quotations. Using this book as well as other resources on Dr. King, students explore information on King's "big" words. They discuss both the literal and figurative meanings of the word "big" and how they apply to Dr. King's words. They read an excerpt from Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech and note the "big" words. Students then choose one of two options: (1) they write about their own "big" words and dreams in stapled or stitched books, or (2) they construct found poems using an excerpt from one of King's speeches.
  • Persuasive Writing Resources
    A collection of online resources to help students write effective persuasive essays and argumentative reports.
  • Slave Narratives: Constructing U.S. History Through Analyzing Primary Sources
    In these activities, students research narratives from the Federal Writers' Project and describe the lives of former African slaves in the U.S. - both before and after emancipation.
  • The Preamble to the Constitution: How Do You Make
    This page contains 5 EDSITEment lessons in which students investigate the purposes of the U.S. Constitution, as identified in the Preamble to the Constitution, and study fundamental values and principles as they are expressed in the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution.
  • Where I Come From
    In this lesson, from EDSITEment, students take research into their heritage a step beyond the construction of a family tree, traveling through cyberspace to find out what's happening in their ancestral homelands today and explore their sense of connection to these places in their past.


UEN logo http://www.uen.org - in partnership with Utah State Board of Education (USBE) and Utah System of Higher Education (USHE).  Send questions or comments to USBE Specialist - Sara  Wiebke and see the Language Arts - Elementary website. For general questions about Utah's Core Standards contact the Director - Jennifer  Throndsen.

These materials have been produced by and for the teachers of the State of Utah. Copies of these materials may be freely reproduced for teacher and classroom use. When distributing these materials, credit should be given to Utah State Board of Education. These materials may not be published, in whole or part, or in any other format, without the written permission of the Utah State Board of Education, 250 East 500 South, PO Box 144200, Salt Lake City, Utah 84114-4200.