My job this year is to make sure your child can read and write at the level SBAC measures. That test asks students to do complex thinking: synthesizing ideas across texts, making inferences, reading below the surface of what's written. That kind of thinking takes mental effort, and if a student is still spending that effort just decoding words, there's little bandwidth left for the deeper thinking SBAC requires. In my experience, reading speed and automaticity, not raw ability, is one of the biggest factors separating students who pass from students who don't. The resources below exist to close that gap.
Each skill depends on the one before it, and class time is spent almost entirely on the last step. Most students arrive in 5th grade already comfortable with print itself; what varies is everything built on top of it, and a weak layer anywhere in the middle makes every layer above it harder. Class time is built for grade-level comprehension work, so closing a gap lower in the stack takes individual practice class time isn't built for.
One more piece of context: almost every grade in my class is based on student writing. Even comprehension gets assessed through what a student writes about it, not just whether they understood it. That adds a layer most families don't see: I'm teaching comprehension and the writing needed to demonstrate it, at the same time. I'm confident in my ability to make every student a stronger writer; that part is squarely in my wheelhouse. What I can't do in the time I have is also close a reading gap underneath it. Writing instruction doesn't fix a shaky phonics or decoding foundation, and there simply isn't enough time in the school day to rebuild that from scratch and teach the grade-level content. That's exactly what the resources below are for.
A short video walking families through exactly what's below and how to use it at home.
These are the four to prioritize. Used consistently, this is the highest-leverage thing you can do outside of class.
I often point students already reading at or above grade level toward these, but they're genuinely useful for any student.
A short video on the enrichment and acceleration activities below, for students who are ready to go further.
A few habits that make a bigger difference than which resource you pick.
15 minutes most days builds more skill than an hour once a week. Short and frequent is how automaticity actually forms.
Silent practice doesn't build the sound-symbol automaticity these skills depend on. Speaking it out loud is what makes it stick.
If your child is fluent, lean into the enrichment resources. If reading still feels effortful or slow, prioritize the core four first.
I'm glad to point you to the right starting place for your specific child rather than guessing from this page alone.
One more thing: this page describes what each resource is built to support. It's not a guarantee of mastery on its own. The consistency of the practice matters as much as the tool itself.
Common Core ELA Standards, Grade 5, organized by strand.
Sample grade-band reading lists (see the Grades 4–5 section) showing the complexity and range of texts the standards are calibrated against.
Open Appendix B (PDF) →