This parent guide supports parents in helping their child at home with the 4th grade ELA content. Within the folder you will access Parent Guide PDFs in FIVE Languages: Arabic, English, Hindi, Spanish, and Vietnamese to help on-going communication with caregivers. 

This unit engages students in a variety of different reading standards through face to face and online components. In this unit, students will practice many skills to aid them in reading and understanding nonfiction texts.

Students read about Elijah McCoy, an African American inventor and answer questions to help improve their comprehension. An answer key is included.

Students read about Lewis Latimer, an African American inventor and answer questions to help improve their reading and comprehension skills. An answer key is included.

Students read about Patricia Bath, an African American inventor and answer questions to help improve their reading and comprehension skills. An answer key is included.

In this lesson, traditional stories of the Native peoples (i.e., narrative text) introduce students to the study of animals in Alaska (i.e., expository text). Students use the Internet to listen to a Yu'pik tale told by John Active, a Native American living in Alaska. They also use online resources to find facts about animals in Alaska. Students compare and contrast the two types of text in terms of fiction and nonfiction. The narrative stories provide students with a context to begin studying a content area topic; this lesson emphasizes the integration of curriculum.

This lesson is for Grades 4 - 5 on literacy. At Home Learning Lessons are a partnership between the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, PBS North Carolina, and the William and Ida Friday Institute for Educational Innovation.  Each lesson contains a video instructional lesson, a PDF lesson plan with a transcript, and a PDF file of extension activities.

This lesson will teach how characters evolve across a story, and that often times the important changes are subtle. This lesson uses accountable-talk during a read aloud of One Green Apple by Eve Bunting to demonstrate how, as readers, students can use the traits of their character as a lens through which to interpret deeper, more significant changes stirring within. They will ultimately use those observations about their characters to author an epilogue for their books. The epilogue will allow students to demonstrate what they have learned about their main character, and it will allow the teacher to assess how well the students understand their characters and the changes their characters experienced across the text.

Can your group make a balloon to look like a favorite book character, famous person or Superhero which will be driven by a Sphero and Sphero Chariot?

Students examine books, selected from the American Library Association Challenged/Banned Books list, and write persuasive pieces expressing their views about what should be done with the books at their school.

This passage about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. includes three higher order thinking questions.

This lesson teaches students to investigate published texts to help them learn how to revise their writing to add words and phrases that will create sharp, sensory-rich experiences for their readers. Students will learn to use “the experts” for inspiration in their own writing, creating personal connections with various authors. The published texts that students use to inform their writing will become their personal “mentor texts.”

As a way to support teachers with English Language Arts (ELA) instruction during the pandemic, the NCDPI ELA team created choice boards featuring standards-aligned ELA activities.The intended purpose of these choice boards is to provide a way for students to continue standards-based learning while schools are closed. Each activity can be adapted and modified to be completed with or without the use of digital tools. Many activities can also be repeated with different texts. These standards-based activities are meant to be a low-stress approach to reinforcing and enriching the skills learned during the 2019-2020 school year. The choice boards are to be used flexibly by teachers, parents, and students in order to meet the unique needs of each learner.Exploration activities are provided for a more self-directed or guided approach to independent learning for students. These activities and sites should be used as a way to explore concepts, topics, skills, and social and emotional competencies that interest the learner. 

This is an example of a personalized learning path using the Nearpod system. Students complete a pre-assessment to discover the skills they should continue to practice as well as an extension activity for student who already show mastery.

Students will identify why and how Feynman started to look at the world through the eyes of a scientist. Students will both learn how memoirs can be as deeply revealing as fiction and how to unpack the meaning of a first person narrative.

This activity is designed to be used with the Feature Story, A Whale of an Ocean, and students in grades 4-5. After reading the text, students work in pairs to match questions and answers posted around the classroom. The PDF document includes questions and answers, directions, and an answer key.

Students will research on the computer. Students will create a poster about their Australian animal. This lesson was developed by Sara Kull as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.            

Students will read through a nonfiction text picking out key ideas and details. Students will create their own note taking sheet using boxes and bullets based on teacher modeling. This lesson was developed by Sara Kull as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.            

Teacher will introduce nonfiction using any book on Australia and Oceania. Teaching Point: Readers summarize chunks of text by pausing and saying to themselves "What is the one big thing that this text is teaching, and how do other details support this idea?" This lesson was developed by Tina Deal as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.

In this lesson, readers become experts on a topic by teaching others what they know, and by using main ideas and supporting details to help explain the text. Students will also make a poster with a picture of their animal in its habitat with facts about the animal on it. This lesson was developed by Tina Deal as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.