CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.5.5c

ELA5th GradeVocabulary Acquisition and Use

The Standard

Use the relationship between particular words (e.g., synonyms, antonyms, homographs) to better understand each of the words.

Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts

What This Standard Means

Students need to use nearby word clues and known word pairs to figure out meaning. They should compare words that mean almost the same thing, words with opposite meanings, and words that look alike but have different meanings. They also need to explain how the relationship helps them understand the sentence or passage.

Mastery looks like choosing a likely meaning and defending it with evidence from the words around it. Students often get stuck when they treat synonyms as exact matches, miss shades of meaning, or read a homograph with the wrong pronunciation or meaning.

Ways to Teach It

Give pairs of word cards, like scarce and plentiful, and have students sort them into synonym, antonym, or homograph groups with explanations.
Ask students to write: How does the word chilly change the meaning compared with freezing or cool?
Show four sentences with the word present, and ask students to label the meaning in each one.
Use a menu, map, or sports article and have students find one word whose meaning depends on its relationship to another word.