Social Skills Reading Comprehension Passages — Grade 5

About this resource

Are some people born good at social skills, or can anyone build them? These social skills reading comprehension passages give Grade 5 readers ten texts at F&P levels S–V that answer the question, showing that social skills are learned habits that shift with the setting, the community and a person’s age, whether someone is quiet or outgoing. It’s SEL reading comprehension in Relationship Skills for the top of elementary school.

What students practice

• Using courtesy in shared public spaces
• Introducing themselves to a new group
• Hosting a guest across a language barrier
• Winning and losing well as a group
• Seeing social skills as habits anyone can build

What’s inside

• 10 passages at F&P levels S–V, from a how-to guide for buses and ferries to a class newspaper article
• 5 multiple-choice questions after each passage
• 2 open-ended questions per passage that ask students to apply the skill in their own world
• Answer key for the multiple-choice questions on the last page
• 44 pages

A look inside

• The New Kid at Drumming Class: Vusi studies a group that already knows each other and finds the right moment to introduce himself.
• How Your Brain Reads a Face in a Flash: why the brain reads expressions so quickly, and why checking in still matters.
• The Old Telephone Remembers: a family phone looks back on how phone manners changed and which habits never did.
• Big Kids Become Manners Mentors: fifth graders coach kindergartners on sharing, turns and greetings through role-plays.

How to use these social skills reading passages in Grade 5

• A small group reading “Hosting a Guest Who Spoke Another Language” at level T
• Shared reading with a partner, then the open-ended questions
• Take-home work, checked with the answer key
• The spark for a whole-class conversation about how people get along, using “The Scrimmage Scoreboard Problem”

Grade fit

Fifth graders are ready for the bigger idea behind the everyday moves. Levels reach V, and these reading passages with questions step beyond the classroom: transit, a weekend drumming class, a community center front desk, a visiting student from a partner school abroad.

Digital version

With the interactive digital version, you share one link and students read each passage and answer the questions on any device, with no student logins. At the end they download an answer sheet to hand in.

Pairs well with

For short written prompts on the same skills, try Social Skills Task Cards.