Fifth Grade Reading and Language Arts Academic Vocabulary
Common Core State Standards: Tier 3 Vocabulary
alliteration
Repeating the same sounds at the beginning of words for two or more words in a row.
Many men may meet monthly.
Girls gladly go gliding.
caption (identify)
A title, short explanation, or description accompanying an drawing or a photograph, or words on the bottom of television or movie.
The caption under the picture read: "Mr. Taylor's 4th grade, 2011-12."
comparative
A form of an adjective or adverb which compares one thing to another.
He is taller than his father.
There is less water in Arizona than in Louisiana.
coordinating conjunctions
Coordinating conjunctions connect words, phrases, and clauses.
The bowl of cereal is hot and delicious. (The coordinating conjunction is "and.")
excerpt
A passage, quotation, or segment taken from a longer work, such as a literary or musical composition, a document, or a film.
Mr. Taylor's Eclectic Spelling Book has excerpts from many books and poems.
fiction
Books and stories that come from the imagination of the writer.
Novels, short stories, detective mysteries and science fiction are fiction.
foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is the use of hints or clues to suggest what will happen later in the story.
There are many examples of foreshadowing in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
glossary
A list at the back of a book that explains or defines difficult or unusual words and expressions used in the book
Nearly all the science books used at Rio Vista have a glossary in the back.
graphic organizer
A graphic organizer is a you can use to help you plan what you're going to write.
Mr. Taylor does everything he can to get students to organize their thoughts using a graphic organizer before they start a writing.
homonym (also called a homophone)
Words that are spelled and pronounced the same way, but have different meanings.
The metal lead and the verb lead are homonyms.
hyperbole
Extreme exaggeration or overstatement, especially in written work.
Adalberto used hyperbole when he told the class the fish he caught was big as a shark.
idiom
An accepted expression in a given language that is not grammatically standard or cannot be understood from the meanings of its individual constituents.
She heard is straight from the horse's mouth is an example of an idiom.
interjections
Words, exclamations or phrases inserted into a sentence, often expressing an emotion.
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introductory paragraph
The first paragraph of an article or student writing should be attention grabbing and make the reader want to finish the article or story.
The introductory paragraph of an article on polar bears might get your attention by telling you that the estimated number of polar bears has grown from 5,000 to 25,000 between the 1950 and 2000.
labels
Descriptive words applied to persons, groups or objects.
Rio Vista Elementary School includes two labels: Elementary School tells you the level of the school; and Rio Vista is the name of a particular school.
magazine
A publication, generally published on a regular schedule (weekly, twice-monthly, monthly, etc.)
Time is a news magazine that has been published weekly for about 80 years.
main point
The most important idea in a piece of writing. a speech or a lecture.
The main point in Mr. Taylor's lecture was that students will be held responsible for completing their assignments.
moral
A moral is the lesson (don't steal, don't cheat, be nice, etc.) to be learned from a story or event.
One moral in the Aesop's fable of the Tortoise and the Hare is that "slow and steady wins the race."
myth
A traditional story that tries to explain nature (origin of man, disease, volcanoes, storms, floods, etc.) in which the main characters are gods and heroes.
In one Greek myth Zeus, the most powerful god, was afraid his wife Metis would give birth to a god more powerful than he was, so he swallowed Metis.
main idea/stated and implied
The main idea is the most important point in a piece of writing or a lecture. The main idea can be clearly explained (i.e., stated), or hinted at (i.e., implied).
The main idea of Mr. Taylor's Reading Boot Camp is stated to be improving student reading abilities so they can read to learn.
metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that uses an image or story represent an idea or quality.
Her eyes were glistening jewels is a metaphor.
narrative
A narrative is a story that describes a series of fictional or non-fictional events.
Yatzari's narrative of her experience on the roller coaster held our attention.
narrator
The character within a story who tells the story, or a person who tells the story to an audience.
Alivia was the narrator for the 4th grade class play.
news
Current events presented on TV, the internet, twitter, in newspapers or magazines, or shared by word of mouth.
More people get their news from TV and the internet than from newspapers.
novel
A novel is a long, fictional story.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is a novel.
onomatopoeia
A word that imitates the sound it describes.
Cuckoo, hiccup, zoom, bang, beep, splash and vroom are examples of onomatopoeia.
parts of speech
In grammar, categories of words.
Nouns and verbs are parts of speech.
personification
Giving animals, objects or concepts human characteristics.
Cartoon animal characters who talk and act like humans are examples of personification.
persuade
Convincing yourself or another to adopt an idea, attitude, or action using logic.
Sydney tried to persuade Frida to join the Rio Vista band.
persuasion
A process of guiding another person to adopt an idea, attitude, or action using logic.
Isaac tried using persuasion to get Hector to play soccer.
purpose
Purpose is a result, end, aim or goal of an action.
The purpose of flash cards is to learn words by reading them over and over.
plot
The order of events in a story.
The plot of a novel or story deals with what happens to the main character.
point of view/perspective
Writer's (or your) view of the world consisting of opinions, beliefs and experiences.
It is Mr. Taylor's point of view/perspective that reading boot camp will improve your reading ability.
prompt
In a writing assignment, the subject you are told to write about.
"What I did during my summer vacation" used to be a common prompt the first day of a new school year.
punctuation marks (colon/semi-colon)
Colon is the punctuation mark (:) used before a long quotation, explanation, example, or list of items.
A semi-colon (;) is a punctuation mark used most often to separate closely related clauses in a sentence.
Mr. Taylor expects at least three things from his students: 1) their attention; 2) completion of assignments; and 3) respect for other members of the class.
reference source
A source of information, the most common of which are: a dictionary; an atlas; a thesaurus; the internet, etc.
One reference source for my science project was the Encyclopedia Americana.
reference book
A source of information in book form, such as a dictionary, encyclopedia, atlas or thesaurus.
The best reference book for finding synonyms is the thesaurus.
reports
To give information (usually written or spoken) about something (person, place, thing, theory, etc.) to other people.
Our science reports are due in the spring.
resolution
Resolution has many meanings, one of which is to set a personal goal.
Mr. Jones' New Year's resolution was to run a mile every day this year.
resource
In education, a resource is something or someone that helps you learn.
The smart board is a resource that Mr. Taylor uses to get excited about learning.
root words ( as aids in determining meaning)
The basic word upon which other words are formed.
The meaning of new words can often be determined by identifying the root word
The root word of saddlery is saddle, so I can guess that saddlery has something to do with saddles.
rhythm
A regularly occurring physical motion or patten of speech.
Many poems have an interesting rhythm.
satire
A method of criticizing people in which you make fun of their bad habits, abuses and shortcomings--usually with the goal of shaming them into improving.
Punch was a famous British humor magazine which used a great deal of satire.
simile
A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two different things, usually by using the words "like," "as," or "than."
Cristian seemed to run as fast as a speeding bullet.
stanza
In a poem, a grouping of lines set off by a space.
Here are two stanzas of a poem:
Mary had a little lamb,
little lamb, little lamb,
Mary had a little lamb,
whose fleece was white as snow.
And everywhere that Mary went,
Mary went, Mary went,
and everywhere that Mary went,
the lamb was sure to go.
summarize
To state briefly.
We summarize the main idea of each chapter in our writing journals.
summary
A brief statement or account covering the main idea.
Each chapter summary in our writing journal must include at least five sentences.
superlative
Superior to or better than all others, of highest quality or supreme, usually a using a word ending in -est.
Mt. McKinley (Denali) is the highest mountain in North America.
thesaurus
A reference containing synonyms and antonyms.
The thesaurus says synonyms for small include petite, little , wee, tiny and teeny.
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