Units vary in length; students receive daily 90 minute lessons with opportunities for enrichment in research, technology integration, and inquiry.
Lessons included Reading, Writing, Grammar, Morphology, and Spelling
Writing consists of 3 genres:
Opinion: State a strong opinion, support it with evidence, and conclude
Narrative: Use perspective and descriptive sensory details to tell a story with beginning, middle/rising action/crux, and ending
Informational: Inform about a topic by introducing, providing well-organized facts (with citations), and conclude
Mechanics: Students are expected to automatically capitalize the start of a sentence, proper nouns, and cities/states; use punctuation including 3 types of commas, exclamation marks, periods, and quotation marks for citing evidence with page number
Spelling: Students transition to content-specific spelling words in order to apply them to their writings authentically (for example, they learn 'parliament' when we study the Revolutionary War)
Grammar and Morphology: Students are expected to identify nouns/proper nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives as well as common affixes to determine word meaning
Periodic Unit Assessments help evaluate students' reading comprehension, understanding and retention of academic and domain-specific vocabulary words, as well as the grammar and morphology skills targeted in some Units. Daily work will often come home with stars on the paper- meaning the teacher has seen it as formative.
Key note: NOT ALL UNITS CONTAIN SPELLING- different units focus on different skills, so please make sure you're checking the YELLOW CKLA Coversheet to see which skills we're working on during that unit.
- Writing personal narratives with attention to sensory details and figurative language
- Understanding narrative elements
- Developing descriptive language
- Practicing/reviewing grammar and punctuation
- Fall Fastbridge assessments will be completed and discussed at conferences
- Writing opinion/persuasive paragraphs and practicing the writing process: planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing
- Grammar skills: nouns and adjectives, prefixes 'un', 'non', and 'arch', synonyms and antonyms
- Spelling List 1 (these are content words to know and help with informational paragraph building)
- Reading focuses on answering questions and citing evidence from the text
- Formal Assessment and graded paragraph will come home
- Writing informational paragraphs and practicing the writing process: planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing
- Grammar skills: nouns and adjectives, prefixes 'un', 'non', and 'arch', synonyms and antonyms
- Spelling List 2 (these are content words to know and help with informational paragraph building)
- Content: Discovering European medieval life and learning about castles and knights; exploring the feudal system and social classes
- Every student will receive a CKLA Poetry Journal/workbook for this unit
- Writing personal narrative poetry (Students will read different poetry, analyze it, and apply it to their own writing)
- Focus on figurative language (similes, metaphors)
- Applying poetic devices (anaphora, rhyme, repetition, stanza writing)
- Formal Assessment and presentation rubric will come home at the end of the Unit
- Reading: identifying key details and citing evidence
- Reading: Summarizing
- Students focus on developing durable skills and team collaboration
- Speaking and Listening will be assessed at the end of the unit by judging student "pitches" about a new product (no formal written assessment)
- The Earth is composed of layers that, through heat and pressure, form geological features on the surface
- Plate tectonics are studied as well as the rock cycle
- Students will review the writing process by writing Wikis, creating pamphlets, and creating descriptive paragraphs
- Writing piece is informational but will also include using figurative language to convey information
- Spelling list 3 will come home
- Students will read "House On Mango Street" (excerpts only)
- Writer's Journals will have students responding to text
- Students will practice writing narrative prose with support
- Figurative language is applied in writing
- Learning about the causes of the Revolution
- Studying key events and figures
- Understanding important documents
- Exploring the aftermath and formation of a new nation
- Spelling list 4 will come home
- Formal Assessment will come home at the end of the Unit
- Reading and analyzing a classic adventure novel
- Developing vocabulary use through context
- Exploring themes of friendship and betrayal
- Understanding plot development and character growth
- Writing: BONUS! Writing a fictional personal narrative
Note: This summary provides a general overview of the CKLA program for 4th grade. The actual content may vary slightly depending on specific implementations or updates to the curriculum.