ELA

This year in reading your child will explore literacy and language through the EL Reading Program. They will be exposed to multiple types of complex literature and expected to spend time looking closely at each genre. Students will be assessed using EL Assessments, teacher observations and other teacher- created assessments throughout the year. Some of the key concepts taught throughout the 4th grade reading curriculum are: main idea, supporting details, cause and effect, author’s purpose, predictions, connections, questions, researching, inferring, generalizing, text feature purposes, nonfiction text structure, character analysis and other comprehension strategies.  Our goal for our students this year is to be able to read a multitude of genres and be able to find confidence in their understanding of complex literature. 

Below you will find our Modules and a summary of the topics we will be exploring. 

First Quarter: Module 1: Poetry, Poets and Becoming Writers

Students will read, analyze, and write poetry. Robert Frost and Valerie Worth are two of the famous poets that students look closely at what inspired them to create their work. 

Feature Text- Love That Dog by Sharon Creech

• Unit 1: Reading and Analyzing Poetry: Love That Dog and Famous Poems

• Unit 2: Writing to Inform: What Inspires Writers to Write Poetry?

• Unit 3: Writing to Entertain: Poetry

Second Quarter: Module 2: Researching to Build Knowledge and Teach Others, Animal Defense Mechanisms

Students explore animal defense mechanisms. They build proficiency in writing an informative piece, examining the defense mechanisms of one specific animal about which they build expertise. Students also build proficiency in writing a narrative piece about this animal. 

Featured Text: Animal Behavior, Animal Defenses by Christina Wilsdon

• Unit 1: Building Background Knowledge: Animal Defenses and the Research Process 

• Unit 2: Using Writing to Inform

• Unit 3: Using Writing to Entertain 

Third Quarter: Module 3: The American Revolution Perspectives

How does one’s perspective influence his or her opinion? In module three, students consider the answer to this question through the lens of the American Revolution.

Featured Text: Divided Loyalties: The Barton Family During the American Revolution by Gare Thompson and Barbara Kiwak

• Unit 1: Building Background Knowledge

• Unit 2: Perspectives in Literature

• Unit 3: Using Writing to Share an Opinion

Fourth Quarter: Module 4- Responding to Inequality: Ratifying the 19th Amendment

Literature and informational texts are used to introduce students to gender and racial inequality issues in the United States in the first half of the 20th century, and to recognize how the process of ratifying the 19th Amendment can teach us about how people were responding to gender and racial inequality at that time.

Featured Text: The Hope Chest by Karen Schwabach

• Unit 1: Building Background, Reading about and Analyzing Events

• Unit 2: Analyzing Characters and How Their Actions Contribute to Theme

• Unit 3: Call to Action, How can we make a difference?