Waterford Public Schools

Language Arts Curriculum

 

Grade 4

 

IMPLEMENTATION

 

1.      Teachers should plan language arts instruction that is comprehensive and that supports the diverse learning needs of all students.  A minimum of at least ten (10) hours per week should be allocated for language arts instruction and should include the following components:

*      Read Aloud

*      Teacher modeling and mini-lessons

*      Whole class and small group reading instruction

*      Flexible guided reading that will meet the reading needs of all the students

*      Literacy discussion groups

*      Independent reading and writing

*      Phonics instruction, spelling, word study, grammar, writing mechanics and handwriting

*      Writer’s workshop which includes planning, writing a first draft, revision, conferencing, editing and publishing

 

 

 

1.       A minimum of five (5) book-length titles should be used for instruction focusing on in a variety of genres and give accompanying assessments.  Some suggested genres and their titles are:

GENRE

SUGGESTED TITLES

Historical fiction

Snow Treasure

Riding Freedom

A Lion to Guard Us

The Secret Soldier

Farmer Boy

The Whipping Boy

The Cabin Faced West

War Comes to Willy Freeman

Realistic Fiction

There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom

The Kid in the Red Jacket

Dear Mr. Henshaw

The Missing ‘Gator of Gumbo Limbo

Non-Fiction

Connecticut

If You Lived in Colonial Times

If You Sailed on the Mayflower

Titles of other Colonial Books

Folklore, Legends, and Heroes

Stone Fox

Titles of Native American Legends

Sees Behind Trees

Five Native American Short Stories

Multi-cultural

Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes

Humor

Owls in the Family

Biography

The Defenders

Poetry

 

 

Laughateria

Random House Poetry

Where the Sidewalk Ends

 

2.       Teachers will supplement reading instruction during guided reading with shorter works including:

*      Poetry

*      Short stories

*      Newspaper / magazine articles

*      On-line resources

 

3.        Nonfiction will be taught in the form of articles from Time For Kids, Sports Illustrated For Kids, Smithsonian for Kids, and other news oriented children’s magazines, as well as science and social studies textbook material / articles.

 

4.       Teachers will teach a variety of writing forms including:

*      Narrative*

*      Descriptive

*      Drama

*      Letter writing*

*      Expository*

*      Poetry*

*      Memoirs

*      Literary response*

*      A variety of journal writing*

 

*required for this grade level

 

Teachers will emphasize process writing in their instruction

     (prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing).

 

5.       Teachers are responsible for implementing the grammar, spelling, and vocabulary, regardless of what materials are used.

 

6.       Teachers will provide many opportunities for students to share their writing to enhance speaking and listening skills.

 

7.       Teachers will encourage students to publish their pieces using a writing program (Microsoft Word, Appleworks, etc.) and insert photographs / pictures / charts, etc. from the internet into their pieces.

 

8.       Teachers will give at least two narrative writing prompts and two expository writing prompts.

 

 

 

STRAND 1

 

READING AND RESPONDING

 

Estimated Time Range:

Throughout the School Year

 

ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS

 

The student will understand that:

1.

A literary, informational, and persuasive text can be responded to in an individual, literal, critical, and evaluative way.

 

SAMPLE ASSESSMENTS

Your client is Book Review Weekly.  They have asked you to write a psychic book review for their publication next week./ You need to convince the readers that this book would be a good choice.  Your performance needs to be based only by looking at the cover of the book, and reading the title.  A successful review would include a paragraph for each:  description of the main character(s), setting, problem, solution, and your opinion.

 

Bradley, the main character from There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom , is known throughout his school as a bully.  You need to use an opinion / proof to convince your classmates that he also has a sensitive side, as well.  A successful result will be an opinion/proof chart that incorporates at least three details from the text to support the opinion that Bradley has a sensitive side.

 

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

1.

What is the main idea (nonfiction) or theme (fiction) of the piece?

2.

Can you identify the important characters, setting, problems, events, relationships and details within a piece of work?

3.

What parts of the selection would you have changed?

4.

What kind of predictions can you make (from this picture, paragarph, etc.)  How has your original prediction changed?

5.

What strategies do “good readers” use to comprehend text?

6.

In what ways is this selection different from that of _____________?

 

 

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

 

The student will be able to:

1.

Uses structural awareness / structural analysis

a.     superlatives and comparisons

b.     possessive plural nouns

c.     contractions

2.

Demonstrate fluency and accurate word identification:

a.  apply known decoding skills (context clues, picture clues, structural analysis)

b.  monitor comprehension while reading in context and self correcting errors

c.  reading with increasing fluency and expression

d.  reading voluntarily for interest and own purpose

e.  reading aloud with accuracy any text appropriately designed for the skill of the reader

 

3.

Demonstrate comprehension by:

a.     Uses prior knowledge and experiences by activating existing background knowledge,  building background knowledge, and

using illustrations and text features to help store important new information

b.      Determines what is important in text

recognizing cause and effect, identifying main ideas or themes and su