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. 

Students will be reading historical fiction book at their own level. They will read, summarize, and create three book projects that correlate with some of the 4th grade common core reading standards.

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 unit, students will become familiar with fables and trickster tales from different cultural traditions and will see how stories change when transferred orally between generations and cultures. They will learn how both types of folktales employ various animals in different ways to portray human strengths and weaknesses and to pass down wisdom from one generation to the next. Use the following lessons to introduce students to world folklore and to explore how folktales convey the perspectives of different world cultures.

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.

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.

Lyman Frank Baum (1856-1919), also known as L. Frank Baum, was an American author, best known for his children’s books. Baum is the author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its sequels. He wrote 14 novels in the Oz series. In this excerpt from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Dorothy and her friends arrive at the Emerald City. As students read, they take notes on how the Great Oz is described to Dorothy and her friends.

In this activity, students read a story and answer questions about the text. The resource contains guided reading and assessment questions.

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 activity, Glenna Marra tells the story of Amanda Clement, the first woman who was paid to umpire a baseball game. The resource contains guided reading and assessment questions.

In this lesson, students compare the classic tale with a version set in the pre–Civil War South, Moss Gown by William Hooks, noting the architecture, weather, time period, and culture as depicted in the text and illustrations. Internet research projects and Story Map graphic organizers then provide background for a discussion of how the setting of a story affects the characters and plot. Students read one or more other versions of the Cinderella story and compare them using a Venn diagram. During the final two sessions, students plan, write, and peer edit their own Cinderella stories.

This lesson supports the use of a text set (paired fiction and nonfiction texts on a similar topic) to increase student interest in and understanding of content area material and to develop critical writing skills. The more familiar format of narrative fiction introduces the topic and generates confidence in exploring the less familiar genre of nonfiction. Students then demonstrate what they have learned about the topic and about genre by writing an original piece that blends together narrative and expository elements.

Stacey’s original project was created for a 3rd grade lesson with students creating book summary graphics on Canva.com / This idea was remixed for 4th grade AIG and Library collaboration

In the AIG ELA classroom, students will read fiction books in their genre book study groups, as determined by the AIG coordinator. Throughout their reading, students will use Google Keep to manage notes and submit occasional check-in reflections using Google Classroom, with both the AIG coordinator and librarian available to read and respond to these reflection questions.

At the completion of their book, students will use their Google Keep notes and Classroom reflections to create a sharable artifact on a digital platform. Students will be given instruction for three separate digital tools that can be used for their summary: Canva for a graphic, Anchor for a podcast, and Flipgrid for a video.

In the digital artifact, students must include key details (no endings), character and setting descriptions, themes, as well as a “rating”. Students will create their artifact and present them in a digital gallery for other readers in the school to access from the library.

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.

In this activity, students read a story and answer questions about the text. The resource contains guided reading and assessment questions.

In this activity, students read a story and answer questions about the text. The resource contains guided reading and assessment questions.

In this activity, students read a story and answer questions about the text. The resource contains guided reading and assessment questions.

In this first lesson of two, students understand how a folk talke changes when its language is translated to another culture.

Students understand why the plot and setting of a story changes as it is translated into a different culture. Students also discover what literary elements of a story are universal and important to the overall meaning of a story.