CurriculumGrade 5English Language Arts

Unlocking Unknown Words

Aligned to L.5.4 — Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts.

What this lesson teaches

When you meet a new word, use nearby clues, familiar roots and affixes, or a dictionary. Greek and Latin roots appear in many English words.

Worked example

You don't know 'biography.' The root 'bio' means life and 'graph' means writing, so a biography is writing about someone's life.

Practice questions

  1. Guess a word's meaning from its sentence, then check it.
  2. Use a root or prefix to define a new word.
  3. Look up one word and write its meaning.

Watch the lesson

Every lesson comes with a video taught in English and Spanish — the same video the QR code in the printed workbook opens.

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En español

Descifrar Palabras Desconocidas

Cuando encuentres una palabra nueva, usa las pistas cercanas, las raíces y afijos conocidos, o el diccionario. Muchas raíces griegas y latinas también aparecen en español.

Ejemplo: No conoces 'biografía'. La raíz 'bio' significa vida y 'grafía' significa escritura, así que una biografía es un escrito sobre la vida de alguien.

More Language lessons

Grammar, Conventions & VocabularyL.5.1Capitals, Commas & SpellingL.5.2Combining & Shaping SentencesL.5.3Figurative Language & Word ShadesL.5.5Using Grown-Up & Subject WordsL.5.6

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