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5th-Grade ELA Assignment

This assignment is weakly aligned to the standards.

Overview

Fifth-grade students read an excerpt from a story called “Zadie’s Adventure on the Lake,” then answer basic multiple-choice questions. The text is below grade-level, and the excerpt is too brief to give students a strong sense of the complete narrative or to demand significant analysis. The questions ask students to identify the story’s main character, setting, and problem, and the writing prompt asks them to discuss a personal connection to the text (“Describe a time when you had a difficult choice to make”).

About the Text

Title

"Zadie’s Adventure on the Lake"

What is the Lexile Level of this text?

700

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

2-3

Is the text qualitatively complex enough for the grade?

No

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?

No

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?

The third multiple choice question, which asks students to identify the main problem of the story, requires some degree of inference. But the question does not capture the more critical part of this standard, which is quoting 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 third multiple choice question also gets at the main idea of the text – but it does not require students to explain larger themes or summarize the text independently.

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?

The questions focus superficially on characters, setting and events, but not at the level of depth and rigor intended by this standard. There is no expectation of making comparisons among characters, setting or events; nor of drawing on specific details from the text.

L.5.1: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

Why is this assignment weakly aligned to this standard?

There is some opportunity to practice with language conventions, as students write a brief paragraph about their own experiences with difficult choices. But given the disconnection of this writing prompt from any meaningful, grade-level reading, the opportunity to demonstrate command of 5th grade-level language conventions is limited.

L.5.2: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

Why is this assignment weakly aligned to this standard?

There is some opportunity to practice with language conventions, as students write a brief paragraph about their own experiences with difficult choices. But given the disconnection of this writing prompt from any meaningful, grade-level reading, the opportunity to demonstrate command of 5th grade-level language conventions is limited.

Why is this assignment weakly aligned?

This assignment is not aligned because both the text and the task are weak:

The text is below grade-level and not worthwhile. It does not capture any significant content or cultural knowledge, and the excerpt is too brief for students to get a sense of the complete narrative.

The assignment does not allow students to engage in a literary analysis. Students only identify a few pieces of information from the text. They are asked to practice basic literacy skills, rather than engage in a close examination of a complex, worthwhile text.

Students are not required to draw on specific details from the text. The writing prompt asks students to reflect on a personal experience in loose connection with the content of this story. These generic questions could be applied to any fiction text and students are not required to use evidence from the text to support their ideas.

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.