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

This unit is focused on figurative language, covering common core standards in language, literature for reading, and speaking and listening with the final assessment.  It is designed to be used with a workshop model, where there is some form of opening for brief instruction, partner and/or independent work time, and a closing time for sharing within each lesson.

This lesson employs direct instruction and small-group discussion to help students learn new vocabulary skills while reading Patricia Polacco?s Pink and Say.

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.

In this lesson, students overcome their fears by using a traditional poem to teach students about alliteration. After reading the book, A My Name Is... by Alice Lyne, students use a variety of print and online resources to brainstorm their own alliterative word lists. They then create a poetry link that uses the traditional poem they have read together as a framework for their own poems.

Four Questions Protocol is a good strategy for students to use when reading the material.

Three Column Notes is a great resource to use as students read and pace themselves through reading material.

Three Column Notes is a great resource to use as students read and pace themselves through reading material.

Three Column Notes is a great resource to use as students read and pace themselves through reading material.

Three Column Notes is a great resource to use as students read and pace themselves through reading material.

To scaffold, AVID offers 2 and 3 column notes for different grades. See link at the bottom of the document.

Three Column Notes is a great resource to use as students read and pace themselves through reading material.

To scaffold, AVID offers 2 and 3 column notes for different grades. See link at the bottom of the document.

Three Column Notes is a great resource to use as students read and pace themselves through reading material.

In this lesson, collaborative groups will read a variety of American tall tales, then report elements of their story to the whole class. Students add story information to a collaborative, whole-class character study matrix that summarizes all the stories. In a writing activity, students compare two characters of their choice. The lesson process is applicable to any set of related texts.

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.

Black Beauty is a novel told in the first person (or "first horse") as an autobiographical memoir told by a highbred horse named Black Beauty-beginning with his carefree days as a colt on an English farm, to his difficult life pulling cabs in London, to his happy retirement in the country.

Source: Sewell, A. (1870) Black Beauty New York: F.M. Lupton Publishing Co.

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 resource, Character Perspective Charting, is an instructional method designed to reflect the actual complexity of many stories and is a practical instructional alternative to story mapping. This strategy delineates the multiple points of view, goals, and intentions of different characters within the same story. By engaging in Character Perspective Charting, students can better understand, interpret, and appreciate the stories they read.

This is an example reading log I've used before to help students document their reading at home while practicing foundational skills. As an extension activity, students will choose one book as they complete reading and use Flipgrid to do a digital book review of the materials. Download the script guide to assist students as they begin to organize and develop video book reviews.

In this lesson, students will see how artistic materials can extend knowledge. This lesson provides opportunities for students to explore and experience the meaning potential of everyday writing and drawing tools in their own writing. The lesson can adapted for older students.

In this lesson, students begin by working in small groups to analyze differences and similarities among a selection of comics from a variety of subgenres. Based on their discussion, they determine what subgenres are represented and divide the comics accordingly. Students then analyze the professional comics' uses of conventions such as layout and page design. Finally, they create their own comics using an online tool.