Fourth Grade Reading Curriculum:

Unit 1:  Studying and Sharing Our Thinking

As the first reading unit of the school year,  students learn about what deep independent reading looks like as well as how to use tools to document and share thinking. Students choose books and pay attention to their thinking. They will be using reading notebooks and having powerful conversations to jot and discuss their ideas, connections, thoughts and information as they read. The most important part of this unit is to help students understand that reading is a process of thinking and that they can study what and how they think as they read.

Unit 2: Synthesizing Main Ideas Across Texts 

This is a nonfiction reading unit but it is the first of two nonfiction reading units so this allows us to focus on the skill of synthesizing in depth. Other reading skills will be taught in the second nonfiction reading unit. Students will have sets of texts that include books, articles, and websites so they can think across texts that are all about the same topic.  Students choose topics they care about and want to learn more about.  

Unit 3: Thinking Deeply About Characters

Students will deepen their understanding of characters. They will learn how to think right now and over time about characters, as well as refine their thinking to form bigger ideas. In fourth grade they will look at character relationships and make sure they consider secondary characters and not just the main character. Reading notebooks will be a tool students use daily when recording their thinking and collecting examples from the text to support it. 

Unit 4: Interpreting Themes in Books and In Our Lives (Book Clubs)

Students will be grouped in book clubs. A book club is when a small group of students (typically 3-5) read the same text, prepare to discuss a part of it, and then meet for club discussions. They will meet several times and pursue a line of thinking or a big idea. Daily responses and discussions will be student facilitated and teacher monitored.

Test Taking Strategies (mini unit) 

Unit 5: Considering Multiple Perspectives (Book Clubs)

In this unit students revisit nonfiction reading and conduct research on a topic, building on the unit they already did this year. Students can choose a topic of interest that has multiple perspectives or  can choose issues that connect to your content area topics. The unit begins with teaching students that all nonfiction presents one person or group’s perspective and is never neutral. Students will   learn to understand  perspectives in nonfiction texts.