Grade 5 – Learning through Literacy

Learning Through Literacy for Grade 5 supports students in extending and applying curriculum learning through purposeful reading, discussion, and writing. Across a range of content areas, students engage with rich texts that support the development of background knowledge while strengthening comprehension, academic vocabulary, and increasingly complex language structures.

Content-specific subject learning is intentionally embedded, enabling students to make connections across disciplines and use language to deepen understanding and communicate learning in meaningful ways.

General Resources

• ONlit Learning Through Literacy Junior Educator Guide
• ONlit Learning Through Literacy TIDE Organizers
• ONlit Learning Through Literacy Syntax Templates

Structured Writing in Grade 5

Structured writing in Grade 5 emphasizes writing as a process for organizing ideas, refining understanding, and communicating content knowledge with clarity. Through a guided writing cycle, students study mentor texts to explore how authors develop and connect ideas, use different text structures to support explanations, and select language that conveys information precisely.

Students apply these features in their own writing through supported planning, drafting, and revising, with the use of exemplars, explicit vocabulary instruction, and guided practice. Writing is used to consolidate learning from reading and content areas, supporting deeper comprehension and the development of transferable skills across the Ontario curriculum.

Grade 5 Units

• Unit 1: Turning Stress into Strength
• Unit 2: Who Does What in Canada? Comparing Governments
• Unit 3: Hurricane-Proof Homes: How Structures Stay Safe in Storms
• Unit 4: Canada’s Fresh Water: A Precious Resource
• Unit 5: The Problem with Plastic: Five Friends Take Action
• Unit 6: Drums – The Heartbeat of Cultures – coming soon