Benchmark Advance: Language Arts

Includes 10 Units for the year. We will spend about 4 to 5 weeks in each Unit.

Unit One: Government at Work

Essential Question:  Why do we need a government? 

In this unit, students read and compare selections about the government to understand what the government does and why it is important.

• Skills and Strategies for Making Meaning
• Comprehension Skills: - Identify Key Story Events, Identify Author's Purpose, Identify Differences in Points of View - Making Predictions
• Phonics Skills: Short vowels, Blends, Final blends; consonant digraphs (ch, sh, tch, dge); consonant digraphs (th, wh, ph)
• Grammar Skills: What is a sentence? Naming parts of a sentence. Action parts of a sentence. Use Collective Nouns, Use past tense irregular verbs
• Fluency and Phrasing: Read on-level with purpose and understanding 

Unit Two: Characters Facing Challenges

Essential Question:  What can we learn when we face problems?

In this unit, students read and compare selections featuring different character who work to resolve problems.

• Comprehension Skills : Compare and Contrast - Fact and Opinion - Categorize/Classify
• Phonics Skills: Long vowel team syllable patterns (o, oa, ow, oe) Long e vowel team syllable patterns (e, e_e, ee, ea, y, ey, ie); Ong i vowel team syllable patterns ( i, ie, y, igh)
• Grammar Skills: Telling sentences and Questions, Commands, Exclamations/ Add -s and es to Nouns, Use adjectives and adverbs, Use contractions, Use irregular past tense verbs
• Vocabulary Skills: Compound words, Antonyms, Multiple Meaning Words 

Unit 3:Plants and Animals in Their Habitats

Essential Question: How do living things get what they need to survive?

In this unit, students read and compare selections about plants and animals to understand how living things get what they need in their habitats. 

• Story Structure: Nonfiction
• Comprehension Skills: Compare and Contrast, Use Text Features to locate Information, Use Context Clues, Analyze Story Structure, Identify Key Details and Determine Main Ideas, Making Inferences - Sequence of Events
• Phonics Skills: long u vowel team syllable patterns (u, ew, ue), R-controlled? ar? syllable patterns (er, ir, ur)
• Grammar Skills: Use commas in greetings and closings, Capitalize geographic names, Produce complete simple and compound sentences
• Vocabulary Skills: ABC order in the dictionary, Beginning, Middle, End in a dictionary, using Context Clues, Dictionary Guide Words

Unit 4: Many Characters Many Points of View

Essential Questions:  How can a story change depending on who tells it?

In this unit, students read and compare selections with varying points of view and analyze who point of view affects the reader's understanding of a story.

• Story Structure: Read a Fable about characters with different points of view/Read a folktale about characters with different points of view/Read a poem about characters with different points of view.
• Comprehension Skills: Identify and annotate key events
• Phonics Skills: r-controlled  /or/ syllable patterns  (or, oar,ore),r controlled syllable patterns (ear, eer, ere); contractions 't, 's
• Grammar Skills: Use dictionaries to check and correct spellings, Produce complete simple and compound sentences, Use comparative adjectives and adverbs
• Vocabulary Skills: Dictionary Entry Words, Using a thesaurus, Parts of Dictionary Entry

Unit Five: Solving Problems Through Technology

Essential Question: Where do ideas for inventions come from?

In this unit, students read and compare selections about technology, innovations, and innovative thinkers and analyze the role technology plays in society.

• Story Structure: Nonfiction - Realistic Fiction
• Comprehension Skills: Making Generalizations, Following directions, Making Judgments, Sequence of Events, Making Predictions
• Phonic Skills: The -er ending in two-syllable words; Contractions; the -le ending in two-syllable words; Sound of y at the end of longer words; Prefix -un; Base words and endings -ed, -ing; Silent consonants gh, kn, b
• Grammar Skills: Verbs; Verbs that tell about now; Verbs past tense; Verbs -is/are, was/were
• Vocabulary Skills: Dictionary word meanings, Homophones, Dictionary words with endings 

Unit Six: Tales to Live By

Essential Question: What can different cultures teach us?

In this unit, students read and compare selections from around the world to analyze how literature can provide insight into different cultures.

• Story Structure: Realistic Fiction
• Comprehension Skills: Author's viewpoint, Noting details, Problem Solving, Following Directions, Sequence of Events, Making Predictions
• Phonic Skills: Vowel pairs oo, ew, ue, ou, Long i (igh, ie), Basewords with -ed, ing, Dropping final e
• Grammar Skills: Irregular Verbs, Adjectives, including a, an, the, Comparing with adjectives
• Vocabulary Skills: Word Families, Multiple Meaning Words, Using Context Clues