This parent guide supports parents in helping their child at home with the 4th grade ELA content.

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.

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 is a multi-day culminating activity based on unit 2 of the 4th grade Wonders curriculum. Students will work in groups to research a chosen animal off of a given list. After researching the animal, they will create a visual using four nonfiction text features to describe the animal. Students will connect a Makey Makey to their presentation and record audio describing each section. After projects are complete, students will participate in a gallery walk. A rubric accompanies this activity so teachers have guidelines on how to assess student work.

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.

In this informational text, LeeAnn Blankenship discusses the success of Willard Wigan, a famous artist who creates sculptures that can only be seen using a microscope. As students read, they take notes on why Willard creates tiny art.

In this informational text, LeeAnn Blankenship discusses the success of Willard Wigan, a famous artist who creates sculptures that can only be seen using a microscope. As students read, they take notes on why Willard creates tiny art.

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.

Misty Copeland is an American ballet dancer for American Ballet Theater. In 2015, Copeland became the first African American woman to hold the highest-ranking ballet position at the dance company. In this informational text, Sara Matson discusses Copeland’s journey to success. As students read, they take notes on the challenges that Misty Copeland has faced as a ballet dancer.

Misty Copeland is an American ballet dancer for American Ballet Theater. In 2015, Copeland became the first African American woman to hold the highest-ranking ballet position at the dance company. In this informational text, Sara Matson discusses Copeland’s journey to success. As students read, they take notes on the challenges that Misty Copeland has faced as a ballet dancer.

Most people read and understand better when reading print. Usually when we are online, we are jumping around from place to place. To read online and really understand, we need to slow down and really think about what we are reading. In this lesson, students practice strategies to help them read deeply online. These strategies are based on the article in the lesson resources: "Strategies to Help Students 'Go Deep' When Reading Digitally" by Katrina Schwartz.Teacher copies the text from an online article into a Google Doc and shares it with students. Students use the highlighting tool to mark the most challenging vocabulary words and use strategies to determine their meaning. Then they develop a main idea for a paragraph by choosing one, two, three, and finally four words that make up the main idea. They type this above the paragraph and use formatting tools to make it a heading. As they repeat this process with additional paragraphs they are developing a summary of the article in the document outline.

Most people read and understand better when reading print. Usually when we are online, we are jumping around from place to place. To read online and really understand, we need to slow down and really think about what we are reading. In this lesson, students practice strategies to help them read deeply online. These strategies are based on the article in the lesson resources: "Strategies to Help Students 'Go Deep' When Reading Digitally" by Katrina Schwartz.Teacher copies the text from an online article into a Google Doc and shares it with students. Students use the highlighting tool to mark the most challenging vocabulary words and use strategies to determine their meaning. Then they develop a main idea for a paragraph by choosing one, two, three, and finally four words that make up the main idea. They type this above the paragraph and use formatting tools to make it a heading. As they repeat this process with additional paragraphs they are developing a summary of the article in the document outline.

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.

The Inuit are a group of people who have lived in the Arctic regions of Greenland, Canada, and Alaska for over a thousand years. In this excerpt from “Inuit,” Carol White describes the Inuit people’s way of life. As students read, they take
notes on how the Inuit survive in their cold environment.

Students explore different abilities of characters in a literature study of five different novels. Students select their own novel based on interest and readability, conduct research, and create a presentation on the disability of the character(s) in their novel. In addition, students visit an adaptive special education classroom to observe, interact and participate in learning with differently-abled peers. Students collaborate to communicate results of their research with peers, parents, and staff. They are visited by representatives from an organization such as Canine Companions for Independence to learn about how their organization works to improve the quality of life for individuals with disabilities.

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.

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.            

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.

In this lesson, students will learn about immigration to the United States using primary sources: children's autobiographical stories and videos. In teams, students will practice their conversation and problem solving skills by reading the texts by determining the most important details for the five identified subtopics of the unit: causes, effects, challenges, emotions, and hopes. Students will document their findings in visual representations of each immigrant child. This is a 1 hour per day/4 day lesson. This lesson was developed by Tsianina Tovar 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.