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

Students will focus on the characters in stories; choose precise words and reasoning to describe characters and how their actions contribute to the story.

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.

This lesson introduces students to ideas on how they can make the world a more beautiful place. Students will discuss trash vs. recycling, decomposition rates of various items, and how to refuse and choose alternatives to single-use items. This lesson was developed by Lee Ann Smith 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.

This lesson will involve students in the process of identifying and labeling geography on a "blank" classroom World Map. The students will hear about historical and current immigration with pictorial representation and words to support students' understanding. Using these visuals, students have a deeper understanding of immigration around the world and are able to make inferences about cause and effect, feelings, time (era), and location. 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.            

Students will learn about homonyms by correctly using frequently confused words and be able to spell grade-appropriate words correctly, consulting references as needed.

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.

Students will learn the difference between the genres, then work collaboratively to identify genres and subgenres. Lessons within the unit have a powerpoint introduction, group work, as well as homework.

Students will learn how point of view can change and in what way point of view can be used in text to influence events.

Students Share Their Reading Through A Short Movie! Integrates plot structure, main ideas and summarizing.
Much better than a written report!

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. 

This lesson encourages students to use common Greek and Latin affixes and roots to deconstruct and construct words. If they learn, for example, that micro means small and scope means see, they can deduce that a microscope is a device that enables an individual to see small objects. The students use the Morpheme Match-Ups handout and the Word Central website to engage in morphemic analysis of familiar and unfamiliar words. This lesson allows teachers to easily substitute their own affixes and roots for each activity.

In this lesson, students will develop a deeper understanding of chemical and physical changes as they participate in an activity to see the effect salt has on the body, participate in discussions about making healthy choices about salt and then research/share findings about reasons (pro and con) for reducing salt intake. Extension activities included.