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

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, 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.

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.

In this lesson, students participate in read-alouds and discussions about memories and family. After this exploration, students brainstorm questions to ask family members in order to learn more about important and/or memorable family events. Once students determine a list of questions, they interview family members, taking notes on the events and giving each a positive or negative rating. Using their interview notes, students create a graphic family timeline which includes illustrations or photographs.

In this lesson students explore expository texts about natural disasters that focus on cause-and-effect relationships. As a class students record their understandings in a graphic organizer. Students then work in small groups and write paragraphs outlining the cause-and-effect relationships they have found.

Lesson 8 gives students the opportunity to express themselves after reading the fiction text, The Hundred Dresses, in lesson 7. If students were not able to read the story, they can still contribute their thoughts on the issue of childhood immigration and the impact it has in their school and community. They will discuss their opinions about what needs to improve and what they can do to improve or change the conditions. Students have had exposure to a wide variety of perspectives on the life of immigrants. They now have an awareness and have begun to develop strong opinions and feelings on the subject. With the creation of an immigration awareness brochure to share with classmates and/or their families, students become change agents in their part of the world and their school." This is a 1 hour 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.

Today students will observe, analyze and interpret immigration data. This is a 1 hour per day/2 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.

This lesson explores the impacts of immigration on children using a complex fiction text, The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes. Although this book is not an open resource, this lesson was included because after reading the book, students have an even deeper understanding of the immigration and the effects and challenges that it can have on a person, especially a young child. This is a 1 hour per day/5 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.

This is the unit launch that introduces students to the context of Immigration in the United States and throughout the world using a variety of videos. These videos provide background knowledge with pictures, stories and language that engage students to think independently as they begin to "take notes" on the topic using a graphic organizer. The lesson will encourage students' development of basic skills and habits as an English Language Learner, such as active listening, effective speaking and concise writing. This is a 1 hour per day/2 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.

Students will investigate how they can adapt their behavior to live in changing habitats. The students have been discovering and researching how animals adapt to their environments in various ways. Students will now play a role in how they can adapt their behaviors in order to make an impact on the habitat in which they live. In earlier lessons they had learned about the disappearing honeybees and the polar bears adaptation to severe conditions. Students will now have to solve a problem within their own habitat. The students will become part of a team in which they will complete a Problem Based Learning activity (PBL). In this PBL they will have to solve the "phone book problem". Students will become part of a team to clean up the mess of old and unused phone books. They will identify and collaborate what to do with them through the PBL. This lesson was developed by Victoria James 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.            

The students will investigate the world's ecosystems and identify what attributes may be helpful or harmful to an ecosystem and its production. Students will read about honeybees and how their nationwide disappearances are endangering the productivity of our crops and stability of life. They will investigate ways to protect them from natural and man-made enemies. The students will recognize the importance of having a balanced ecosystem and how protecting the balance is important for sustaining life. Students will read a nonfiction text about honeybees. They will then discuss and complete a Problem Based Learning Project to implement the plans they will create to help protect such a valuable species. This lesson was developed by Victoria James 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.            

For this lesson, the students will work in small collaborative groups to investigate ways to recycle large quantities of paper such as a phone book. Students will need to know what the Three R’s represent and how countries all over the world play a part in preserving their ecosystems. Students will complete a Performance Based Learning (PBL) activity in which they will have to find reasons for recycling phone books. This lesson was developed by Lindsey Chavis-Turner 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.            

For this lesson, the students will need to work in small collaborative groups to investigate the honeybee’s decrease in population. They will need to discuss and decipher the information presented to them in order to generate opinions on the causes and solutions. Students will apply what they have learned about the honeybees and effects of them being removed from an ecosystem by sharing those perceptions through a presentation of their completed PBL. This lesson was developed by Lindsey Chavis-Turner 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 generate their own list of superheroes from popular culture. They work in groups to read selected books and develop a list of superhero traits from these titles. They then compare the book superheroes with their pop culture counterparts using the online Venn Diagram or the Venn Diagram mobile app. Finally, students explore individual superheroes from multiple perspectives, using a list of guiding questions that encourages them to consider how superheroes might differ depending on audience, gender, or setting.

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 4th Grade English Language Arts.

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 4th Grade English Language Arts. 

In this lesson, children's literature is used to provide students with an opportunity to explore the concept that all individuals have strengths, abilities, and talents. Through whole-class and small-group dialogue, students determine what each story means in the context of their classroom and themselves as individuals. Students also develop the necessary skills for cooperative learning.

In this lesson, students will participate in small group Collaborative Reasoning about issues of social justice and diversity. Students will read articles and answer questions that spur them to think critically about issues and discuss with others, using evidence and experiences to support their personal beliefs. Each group will create an online Persuasion Map to share whole class.