Fifth-graders appreciate the use of games in the classroom. At the fifth-grade level, your students are learning more complex vocabulary words, the proper use of the elements of grammar --- e.g., nouns, adjectives, verbs --- and how to read, comprehend and respond to written pieces. For word games that focus on vocabulary and grammar, try traditional games such as word searches, bingo, hangman, classroom spelling bees and speed spelling quizzes. Give small prizes away to students for each point they earn during the games. Award pizza parties to the winning team of a difficult game. Rather than grade student participation in these games, hold games often, with little to no pressure put on a student's success at these games.
Incorporate the use of visual aids into your language arts lessons as often as possible. Use a projector to show pictures relating to the material. Show short movies or clips on the classroom television. Ask students to come to the board and write or draw out definitions, meanings and answers to a question. Develop classroom material into catchy rap songs: Teach the song to your students and instruct them to sing it out loud together before each lesson. A visual sensory aid may be hung up in the classroom as a constant reminder, or an auditory aid may be sung once a day until it becomes memorized. Sensory aids help with repetition and consistency.
Turn language arts lessons into fun, memorable in-class or take-home projects. Projects require students to reproduce the information they learned in class in a creative manner. Instruct students to make art pieces such as collages or paintings relating to the material, then present them to the class. Assign book reports in which students pick one part of the book they liked most and write a two-page paper on the details of the passage. Ask students to choose their favorite character from a book and act out a monologue in front of the other students. When in doubt, let students choose and propose their own projects so that they invest in them completely.
Assessments are essential for understanding how well students grasp the material. The issue arises when teachers rely on only one type of assessment, such as a written exam, marginalizing students who aren't successful test-takers, although they might have other strengths. Book reports, projects, oral exams, written exams, quizzes, student interviews and parent-teacher conferences, among other methods, should all be employed to assess comprehension in a fifth-grade language arts class. With feedback from a variety of assessments, a teacher will know what aspects of her teaching style need adjusting and which are working well.