4th Grade Curriculum Notes

May Notes: We're in the final lap on our way to the close of the school year. It's a bittersweet time for students and teachers both. We'll have many opportunities to reflect on the past school year, memories we've made, and all that we've learned. We have a big project ahead of us to write a fictional narrative that includes elements of a good story (characters, problem, solution, details, and more). Students will create story maps to plan their plot and consider aspects of their characters with a graphic organizer. I'll complete one-on-one reading fluency and comprehension assessments with students. We'll create book  recommendation lists for summer reading and beyond that I'll share with you. 

Word Study:

April Notes: The return from Spring Break always means that the end of the year is coming soon. We have a lot of great learning planned for April! We will continue looking for and reviewing comprehension signposts in addition to learning a new one - Memory Moments. We will continue (and finish) reading our class novel mid-month and create a collaborative reflection activity when done. Students will continue reading their individually chosen books during independent reading, conferring with me and making progress toward their chosen goals. We begin our storytelling unit this month. Some of our picture books will be about the writing process and its challenges - many are both humorous and informative. We'll pay attention to story elements, especially in our class novel and picture books, and we'll create those kinesthetically with oral storytelling kits. All of these experiences build to a writing project where students will create their own fictional narrative (often known as creative writing). While students will continue to practice and build their individual sight word decks, our word study focus shifts from spelling patterns to morphology. Morphology is the study of morphemes, which are the individual parts of a word that contain meaning. Every word has a root or base, and many have 1+ prefixes and suffixes. We'll learn and practice a variety of prefixes and suffixes to assist word building as well as understanding longer, complex words. 

Word Study:

Save the date: Our class Poetry Reading will be on Thursday, May 2, 8:35 - 8:50 am. Fourth graders will read poetry that they wrote and are including in our class book.

March Notes:  This month we launched our new class novel, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. We will read it in a variety of ways (partner reading, solo reading, and round robin class reading) and students will respond to it through various methods (written reflection, question generation, table group discussion, and whole group discussion). It's a place where students can apply the comprehension signposts that we are learning and practicing together.  We will learn a new signpost this month called Words of the Wiser, and we will talk about the comprehension skill of inferring. For a few weeks we've been practicing a writing game that I learned at the literacy conference early in February where students put pencil to paper for 60 seconds (or more) in response to a specific prompt. Now that they have good experience with this tool/game, we'll use it for targeted purposes and even for spontanteous questions that arise during discussions. We'll use it as we read our class novel and  daily picture books, and it will help us in revision. In advance of April's National Poetry Month, students are polishing a self-selected poem to be part of a class book and they will read it aloud at a poetry reading for families in late April. After revising, editing, and typing their poems, they will illustrate them with Robert in Creative Design. Students are also invited to submit their poetry to a contest for national publication. Picture books will be ones that support our comprehension skills practice as well as ones that represent National Women's History Month, Ramadan, and other seasonal interests. 

Word Study:

February Notes: This month students will finish revising and editing their persuasive essays and typing best drafts to go on display in our room. We will continue reading about eminent creators from the Harlem Renaissance in our picture books, and we'll read poetry by Langston Hughes and stories by Zora Neale Hurston. Other picture books will support our practice with comprehension signposts. The first signpost learned was Contrasts and Contradictions, and the second one will be Again and Again. Students will continue reading individually chosen books for the Reading Challenge and conferring with me about their books and their progress. Near the end of the month, we'll launch our second round of Poetry and learn a new form called a "cinquain."

Word Study:

A note about our sight word practice...Each student is building a deck of words that they are practicing in order to become more automatic. Some of the words are challenging words chosen from a list of possible words (hence words like lieutenant, Fahrenheit, cordial). Other words are ones that I selected because I noticed them misspelled in their journals. If they correctly spell the word during two check ins in a row, that word card receives a star and is replaced by a new card in the deck. Students will always have ten words that they are actively working on. Some of the words will be the same as classmates' words, but not all. Students practice through games, visual studying, and repetitive writing, and they administer each other's check in. Each student self-corrects their own words.

January Notes: Welcome back to school! We will launch our month looking at resolutions and goals, and then choosing One Word to invite into our lives for 2024. This will entail a little writing and creative word art. We will finish reading our Mock Caldecott titles in the first week we return. Before voting the next week, students will compare and contrast two titles of their choice with a Double Bubble map. Students will also be planning and then writing a persuasive essay to convince an (imagined) award committee to vote for their personal favorite title, using the Caldecott Medal criteria and evidence in the book. These essays will wrap up after the official results are announced, hence our "imagined" committee. On the morning of January 22, the entire elementary school will gather for an 8:30am assembly to celebrate the school winners and then learn (and cheer!) the official results.  Midyear is a good time to pause and reflect how things have been going, as well as to do brief assessments to monitor progress. Students will write me a letter about Literacy class so far, we'll do a spelling check in, and I'll read with students to assess oral fluency. This month we will begin reading picture books to support 4th grade's exploration of the Harlem Renaissance in Social Studies with Ethel, and we will begin learning about comprehension signposts in our reading that encourage us to read more closely. 

Word Study:

December Notes: In December we will finish our first big writing project. Peer editing, editing with a teacher, and typing a best draft are the remaining steps of the process. We will print out our books and display them in the hallway by our classroom. We will participate in two mock awards this winter for books published in 2023. First is the Sibert Smackdown, where we will read 8 exemplary informational picture books and evaluate them on the criteria of Delight, Design, and Documentation. After our voting concludes for this award, we will begin our Mock Caldecott study, which focuses on the illustration quality of select picture books. That will carry over into January, which is when we'll vote. The entire elementary school is participating in Mock Caldecott, with each class choosing what they think will be the best picture book. Students will continue to read individually chosen books during class, working toward the Reading Challenge. Our first Battle of the Books club meeting, with 3rd to 5th grade participants, will take place in early December. 

Word Study:

November Notes: In November we will continue our nonfiction study and begin our first big writing project. Students will apply their learning about nonfiction books by reading a new-to-them title and then writing a book review that moves through all the stages of the writing process. The beginning of this process will focus on notetaking, drafting, and writing a good lead and conclusion. Near the end of the month they will revise with one another and begin editing in order to work toward a best draft. Students will continue reading their individually chosen books, working on the Reading Challenge. Themes and topics for ClassroomBookADay will include Veterans Day, Indigenous Peoples, and Gratitude. We will wrap up our Jacqueline Woodson author study this month. Word study is shifting this month toward a focus on grammar (noun, verb, adjective) to start, and then we’ll return our attention to spelling patterns. 

Author Visit: We will be meeting with author Laura Resau on Monday, 11/13. You can order her book here if you are interested:  Stand as Tall as the Trees

Word Study:

October Notes: We wrapped up our novel study of Love that Dog by Sharon Creech early in October, and students are creating a One Pager that captures their comprehension and thinking about the book. Look for samples of student poetry inspired by this book outside of our classroom. Next we will launch our Nonfiction unit by examining the variety of features found in nonfiction books, organization structures, and writers’ techniques (also called craft moves). Some of the picture books that we will read as part of ClassroomBookADay will support the SEL focus of Responsibility and Ethel’s colonial America unit. We’ll join the other elementary literacy classes in reading picture books by Global Read Aloud author, Jacqueline Woodson. Writing will happen every day, in support of our reading projects, quick writes, and monthly “gratitude” entries. We continue to review and learn common word families and spelling patterns in Word Study. Practice happens through games, dictation, and written tasks.

Spelling patterns:

September Notes: This month we will launch our routines that will serve us all year long for reading, writing, and word study. We’ll begin the 4th Grade Reading Challenge, create Heart Maps, and write every day. Our first novel study, Love That Dog, will start about mid-September and will provide model poems for us to emulate. Word study spelling patterns will be updated frequently right here. Some of the picture books that we read as part of ClassroomBookADay will support the SEL focus of Respect, and others may be about stamina, 9/11, or Hispanic heritage. You can follow our reading here as well, on the #classroombookaday page in the navigation menu. A lot of our work stays at school because it’s in journals or is part of a longer-term project. Occasionally there will be items in Friday Folders, so do keep an eye out for them.

Spelling patterns: