Year 5 English Content Descriptions - Language
Year 5
Content descriptions
Language for interacting with others
Understand that language is selected for social contexts and that it helps to signal social roles and relationships
WA5ELAI1
For example:
- maintaining and experimenting with formal speaking conventions during oral presentations or role-play, such as taking on the role of a politician in parliament
Understand how to move beyond making bare assertions by taking account of differing ideas or opinions and authoritative sources
WA5ELAI2
For example:
- making statements that take account of other opinions, such as Many people may disagree; however, …
- identifying bare assertions, such as it is the best film ever, or he is the greatest footy player in history and suggest phrases that temper them
- using phrases that temper bare assertions, such as Many people may enjoy swimming; however, … or Many people believe …
Text structure, organisation and features
Compare how texts across learning areas are typically organised into characteristic stages and phases and use language features depending on purposes in texts
WA5ELAT1
For example:
- comparing the phases contained in the opening stage (the thesis or position) of a number of expositions, such as an appeal, problem and/or a proposal
- comparing the phases in the descriptive stages of different types of information reports, such as flora and fauna in a report about a place, and diet and habitat in a report about an animal
- identifying why cause and effect conjunctions are used across a number of informative texts, such as explanations, reports and expositions
Understand how texts can be made cohesive by using the starting point of a sentence or paragraph to give prominence to the message and to guide the reader through the text
WA5ELAT2
For example:
- describing how the start of a sentence can change its emphasis, such as Snakes are reptiles. Reptiles include snakes and lizards.
- identifying the topic sentence of paragraphs in informative texts and using these to summarise the text
Language for expressing and developing ideas
Understand that the structure of a complex sentence includes an independent clause and at least one dependent clause, and understand how writers can use this structure for effect
WA5ELALA1
For example:
- expanding simple sentences through the use of subordinating conjunctions, such as Lea was a great singer although she needed to practise.
- replacing simple and/or compound sentences with a complex sentence for effect, such as I get frightened. Loud noises make me frightened. / I get frightened whenever I hear loud noises.
Understand how noun groups can be expanded in a variety of ways to provide a fuller description of a person, place, thing or idea
WA5ELALA2
For example:
- adding appropriate adjectives, classifying nouns and/or prepositions to a noun to enhance writing, such as the strange sea creature with the long black fur
Explain how the sequence of images in print, digital and film texts has an effect on meaning
WA5ELALA3
For example:
- interpreting a sequence of images in an infographic or short film
- explaining how the layout of text and visual elements in picture books creates salience or reading paths
Understand how vocabulary is used to express greater precision of meaning, including through the use of specialist and technical terms, and explore the history of words
WA5ELALA4
Use commas to indicate prepositional phrases, and apostrophes where there is multiple possession
WA5ELALA5
For example:
- including a comma after prepositional phrases that start a sentence, such as Later that same morning, Joe crept into the garden.
- using an apostrophe after the <s> in a plural, such as the boys’ jumpers (more than one boy owns a jumper)
Phonic and word knowledge
Use phonic, morphemic and vocabulary knowledge to read and spell words that share common letter patterns but have different pronunciations
WA5ELAP1
For example:
- reading and spelling words with common letter patterns but different pronunciation, such as <ough> cough, though, plough; <our> your, journey, hour
- reading and spelling words where the consonant sound changes with the addition of a suffix, such as the <t> in invite is sounded as a [sh] when the suffix <ion> is added, as in invitation
- identifying morphemic word families with common letter patterns and different pronunciations, such as sign, signature, signal
- providing definitions for common heteronyms (where words are spelled identically but have different pronunciations and meanings), such as graduate (noun, verb), read (past and present tense), wind, bow, record
Build and spell new words from knowledge of known words, base words, prefixes and suffixes, word origins, letter patterns and spelling generalisations
WA5ELAP2
For example:
- applying knowledge of base words, and prefixes and suffixes to spell new words, such as unhappiness and uncontrolled
- applying knowledge of word origins to spell new words, such as <circum> meaning around, in words, such as circumference
Explore less common plurals, and understand how a suffix changes the meaning or grammatical form of a word
WA5ELAP3
For example:
- spelling words with less common plurals, such as child/children, ox/oxen, deer/deer, half/halves
- changing the form of a word, such as
- from an adjective to a noun happy/happiness
- an adjective to an adverb slow/slowly
- a noun to an adjective beauty/beautiful
- verb tense, such as walks, is walking, walked