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5th-Grade ELA Assignment

This assignment is partially aligned to the standards.

Overview

Fifth-grade students read the first two chapters of "Frindle," a novel by Andrew Clements, then fill out a chart that describes the actions of two main characters, as well as what these actions suggest about the characters. While the text is grade-appropriate, the accompanying task does not give students an opportunity to write substantively about either character, nor to make comparisons between characters. Instead, students are only required to jot brief descriptive phrases about the characters. There is no expectation that they use evidence from the text to support their descriptions.

About the Text

Title and Author

"Frindle" by Andrew Clements

What is the Lexile Level of this text?

830

Based on Lexile, which grades is this text intended for?

4-5

Is the text qualitatively complex enough for the grade?

Yes

Is this text fiction or non-fiction?

Fiction

Is this text authentic or was it written for educational purposes?

Authentic

Does the text provide sufficient detail to build knowledge of a worthwhile topic and/or is it worth reading closely and re-reading?

Yes

Related Standards

We looked at how well the assignment aligned to the following standards:

RL.5.1: Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.

Why is this assignment weakly aligned to this standard?

Students make inferences about the characters’ qualities based on their behaviors in the story. But the task does not capture the more critical part of this standard: drawing on specific language from the text to support inferences.

RL.5.2: Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, including how characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic; summarize the text.

Why is this assignment weakly aligned to this standard?

The assignment concerns the characters, and potentially how they respond to challenge (if students choose to discuss this). But it misses the mark on the substance of this standard, which is making connections between the characters and the story’s larger themes.

RL.5.3: Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact).

Why is this assignment weakly aligned to this standard?

Again, though the task focuses students on the characters, it does not prompt them to compare/contrast characters or other story elements.

Why is this assignment partially aligned?

This assignment is partially aligned because the text is strong, but the task is not:

The assignment exposes students to a grade-appropriate text. "Frindle" is realistic fiction that is likely to be engaging and accessible to many fifth-grade readers.

Students are not required to carefully analyze the characters in the text, making connections between the characters and the larger themes in the text or comparing and contrasting the characters. Students are only asked to fill out a graphic organizer with events from the text that suggest certain traits in the main characters, then name these traits with a few brief words and phrases.

Students have no opportunity to use evidence from the text. The task does not require students to substantiate their ideas about the characters or use evidence to support those ideas, a critical fifth-grade literacy skill.

Additional ELA Resources

Common Core ELA Standards
Read the standards and find out what they require of students.
Instructional Shifts in Literacy
Understand the key instructional shifts the ELA standards call for.
Student Work Review Tool – ELA
Use this tool to understand if an assignment is worthwhile for students.