2. ELA Grade 4

Grade 4 English Language Arts Learning Standards
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As students enter the intermediate grades, there is increasing emphasis on independent application of literacy strategies as they construct
meaning from a variety of texts. Students are expected to make predictions, connections, visualize, and ask questions as they read independently.
Teachers model the more sophisticated comprehension strategies of inferring and determining importance in text. After modeling with many texts
across disciplines, students implement these strategies in a controlled situation with the teacher guiding their application, and then independently.
Students are engaged in either guided reading or shared reading. During guided reading, small groups of students read books at their instructional
levels; during shared reading, all students read the same book with varying amounts of
support. All fourth grade students read Because of Winn Dixie by Kate Dicamillo and Sarah
Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan. In addition, all students read books at their
independent reading level daily.
While experiencing a variety of writing experiences, fourth grade students focus on
writing multi-paragraph personal narratives and two-paragraph compare/contrast essays.
Writing instruction emphasizes the writing process including brainstorming, drafting,
revising, and editing. Students develop appropriate graphic organizers to plan their
thoughts before writing. They revise for clarity of ideas, paragraph organization, topic
sentences, supporting details, and conclusions; they edit for conventions of writing
including spelling, grammar, punctuation, and usage.
Reading, writing, and oral communication are interdependent. Participation in
meaningful oral discussions improves students’ reading and writing skills. Through an
exchange of ideas, students are exposed to different points of view and are able to extend
their own thinking.
Fourth grade is a key year for students as they develop more independent learning
behaviors and become more critical thinkers, readers, and writers.
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Grade 4 English Language Arts Learning Standards
Understanding
Students will understand that
Using reading strategies will help
them construct meaning from
text.
Essential Questions
Knowledge And Skills
• What are reading decoding
strategies and how do they help?
• What are reading comprehension
strategies and how do they help?
• What are the different genres and
their characteristics?
• Students will apply phonics skills to decode words
fluently and automatically.
• Students will utilize word parts to decode and
determine word meaning.
o compound words
o base words
o prefixes and suffixes
o inflectional endings (s, es, ed, ing)
• Students will use context clues and schema to
identify and establish meaning of unfamiliar words.
• Students will continue to develop an automatic
sight vocabulary through wide, varied reading.
• Students will identify elements of a narrative text
including plot, problem, and solution.
• Students will determine important ideas in order to
summarize text with the appropriate amount of
detail.
• Students will use evidence from text to support
their thinking about setting, characters, & events.
• Students will make text-to-self, text-to-text, and
text-to-world connections.
• Students will identify cause and effect relationships
in text.
• Students will identify main idea and supporting
details.
• Students will draw conclusions from text.
• Students will identify speaker and point of view.
• Students will generate questions to aid and
advance active engagement with text.
• Students will make basic inferences when reading
teacher-chosen texts.
• Students will synthesize text with teacher
guidance.
• Students will visualize text while reading
independently.
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Technology
Possible products or outcomes
• Use Inspiration, Literary Web, to identify
elements of a narrative text including plot,
problem and solution.
• Use Inspiration to web important ideas in
order to summarize text with the
appropriate amount of detail.
• Using a word processor, publish a BioPoem about a character in a book, i.e.
Chester Cricket, using evidence from the
text to support one’s thinking about the
character.
• Use a teacher created Inspiration template,
to map the effect of an event in a book on
characters, community and the future.
• Use Inspiration to web the main ideas and
supporting details of a book.
• Create an Inspiration web as a written
response to reading subcategories to
include vocabulary, setting, predictions and
characterizations.
Grade 4 English Language Arts Learning Standards
Understanding
Students will understand that
Essential Questions
Knowledge And Skills
Technology
Possible products or outcomes
• Students will identify the characteristics of genres:
o
o
o
o
Literature deepens their
understanding of the world.
• In what ways do your personal
experiences influence your
comprehension of text?
• How does reading affect your
world view?
Oral discussion enhances their
abilities as readers, writers, and
oral communicators.
• How does discussion help you
understand text?
• How does discussion make you a
better writer?
• How does participation in
discussions improve your skills
as an oral communicator?
• What constitutes a good oral
discussion?
• What constitutes a good oral
presentation?
biography
legends
mystery
nonfiction
• Students will analyze and interpret the meaning of
grade-appropriate poetry.
• Students will analyze the structure of poetry,
including similes, metaphors and sensory
language.
• Students will identify a stanza in a poem.
• Students will sustain independent reading for
20-30 minutes daily.
• Students will adjust their reading rate based on
text.
• Students will begin to recognize cultural similarities
and differences through exposure to multicultural
texts.
• Students will read texts from a variety of time
periods in order to begin to develop a basic
historical perspective.
• Students will recognize the change and growth in
characters due to events in the story.
• Students will participate in informative, focused
oral discussions.
o understand and follow the rules (listen
attentively and respectfully).
o exchange ideas and personal experiences.
o display confidence in oral expression.
o stretch ideas (brainstorm and question).
o speak audibly and inclusively while
maintaining eye contact.
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• Use Inspiration, Comparison, to compare
cultural similarities and differences
between a main character and oneself.
• Use Timeliner to create a parallel timeline
of the events in a historical fiction book and
the actual events in history.
• Use Timeliner to record the changing
growth in characters due to events in a
story.
• Make a slide show to enhance an oral
presentation.
• Use Inspiration’s, Rapidfire feature, to
organize ideas from a class discussion.
• Create a written response using ideas
organized in an Inspiration web/outline
during a class discussion.
Grade 4 English Language Arts Learning Standards
Understanding
Students will understand that
Essential Questions
Knowledge And Skills
Technology
Possible products or outcomes
• Students will make an oral presentation.
o show evidence of planning/rehearsing,
organizing, and integrating information.
o establish rapport with the audience through
eye contact, posture, and projection.
Writing is a process used for a
variety of purposes.
• What are the different types of
writing and when are they used?
• What are the steps of writing?
• What is the writing process?
• How do standard English
conventions impact written
communication?
• What is a good written response?
• Students will incorporate ideas presented during
oral discussion into written response to text.
• Students will write journal entries responding to
reading and describing personal events.
• Students will respond to a variety of prompts.
• Students will recognize and write various forms of
texts including open response, expository, and
poetry.
• Students will understand and apply the
components of an organized multi-paragraph
essay including topic sentence, 3-4 supporting
details with explanations and a closing sentence.
• Students will write a multi-paragraph personal
narrative in sequential order incorporating rich
language, a strong topic sentence, 3-4 supporting
details, and a concluding sentence.
• Students will write a rough draft utilizing a graphic
organizer.
• Students will apply appropriate revising and editing
tools.
o self-revision
o teacher conferences/corrections
• Students will write a final product incorporating
revisions and editing.
• Students will apply standard English conventions
to written products including end marks and
commas.
• Students will apply rules of capitalization including
proper nouns, titles, and sentence beginnings.
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• Use Inspiration to create a web to respond
to a prompt.
• Use Inspiration, Comparison, to compare
similarities and differences on a variety of
topics.
• Use Inspiration graphic organizer to plan
student thoughts before writing various
forms of texts including narrative,
compare/contrast, open response,
expository, and poetry.
• Use a word processor to write a rough
draft.
• Use word processing tools to revise and
edit a rough draft.
• Use a word processor to publish a final
product.
• Use a word processor to publish a compare
and contrast essay e.g. the prairie and the
seashore (Sarah Plain and Tall), two
versions of a fairy tale, two classmates, two
characters from books, or a book and a
movie.
• Use a word processor to color code the
topic sentence, supporting details and
conclusion of a three-paragraph piece.
• Use a word processor to color code
construct structures in sentences.
Grade 4 English Language Arts Learning Standards
Understanding
Students will understand that
Research is the process of
obtaining information and/or
knowledge from a variety of
sources.
Essential Questions
• What are the steps in the
research process?
Knowledge And Skills
• Students will use varied sentence structure to
enhance writing products including transitional
words and rich vocabulary.
• Students will recognize and utilize construct
structures: basic appositives (1), basic series (2),
compound sentences (3) and dates/addresses (9).
• Students will identify a noun (person, place, thing,
or idea).
• Students will identify and apply parts of speech
including common nouns and proper nouns, verbs,
adjectives, and conjunctions (fanboys).
• Students will identify pronouns, adverbs, and
possessive nouns in a directed lesson.
• Students will identify and utilize past and present
tense.
• Students will identify usage of future tense.
• Students will identify subject and predicate.
• Students will understand and apply proper subject
and verb agreement.
• Students will sequence ideas/information.
• Students will incorporate fourth grade highfrequency words into their writing.
• Given a topic and a researchable question, with
teacher support and direction, students will
complete the following:
o locate two sources of information.
o take notes on information paraphrasing
ideas.
o organize notes using a teacher-supplied
format.
o write a first draft.
o revise and edit with teacher support.
o produce a final copy with a basic bibliography
including author, title, and page numbers.
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Technology
Possible products or outcomes
• Use Inspiration to create a parts of speech
web, including nouns, verbs, adjectives and
conjunctions. Include a definition and two
examples of each.
• Use a teacher created mixed-up story and
sequence the information using cut and
paste.
• Use teacher approved curriculum websites,
or curriculum appropriate CD-ROMs as a
source of information to take notes using
paraphrasing techniques.
• Use a teacher created graphic organizer to
compile notes.
• Use a word processor to draft, revise, edit,
and publish a research report.
Grade 4 English Language Arts Learning Standards
Use the following websites to enhance student learning:
Sarah Plain and Tall
http://www.mce.k12tn.net/reading3/sarah.htm
http://teacher.esuhsd.org/webquests/webquests/sarah_plain_and_tall/WQ059.html
http://infosys.pls.uni.edu/nielsen/nielsen/spatintro.html
http://www.gslis.utexas.edu/~schapa/page.html
http://www.nt.net/~torino/sarah.html
Because of Winn Dixie
http://www.readingonline.org/electronic/elec_index.asp?HREF=/electronic/boswell
http://www.rebeccacaudill.org/2002/DiCamillo/Dicamillocurr.htm
http://www.mce.k12tn.net/dogs/dixie/because_of_winn_dixie.htm
General Teacher Resources
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/writing/index.asp?topic=Research
http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/poetry/index.htm
http://www.readwritethink.org/student_mat/index.asp
www.wordcentral.com,
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