United States · Common Core State Standards
4th Grade English Language Arts
This curriculum develops critical reading and writing skills through a balance of literary analysis and informational inquiry. Students explore complex texts to build deep comprehension while honing their ability to craft persuasive, narrative, and expository compositions.
The Power of Story: Narrative Craft and Structure
Students analyze how authors build characters and plot through specific details and dialogue. This unit focuses on the mechanics of storytelling and the development of original narrative writing.
Examine how characters change in response to challenges and plot developments in a story.
Explore the structural elements of a story including rising action, climax, and resolution.
Students apply narrative techniques to write their own stories with clear sequences and sensory details.
Informing the World: Research and Expository Writing
Students dive into informational texts to identify main ideas and supporting details. They learn to synthesize information from multiple sources to create clear reports.
Analyze how authors organize facts using structures like cause and effect or chronological order.
Learn to combine information from two different texts on the same topic to write or speak knowledgeably.
Students write informative texts that group related information and use precise domain-specific vocabulary.
The Art of Persuasion: Opinion and Argument
This unit teaches students how to form strong opinions and support them with logical reasoning and evidence. Focus is placed on audience awareness and persuasive language.
Identify the difference between fact and opinion while learning to link ideas with reasons.
Examine how advertisements and speeches use emotional appeal and word choice to influence people.
Students prepare and deliver a persuasive presentation using clear speech and visual aids.
Language Mechanics and Word Wealth
A deep dive into the building blocks of English, focusing on grammar, figurative language, and vocabulary acquisition through context and roots.
Explore similes, metaphors, idioms, and adages to understand non-literal meanings.
Mastering the use of relative pronouns, progressive verb tenses, and prepositional phrases.
Using Greek and Latin roots, affixes, and surrounding text to determine the meaning of unknown words.
Collaborative Conversations and Inquiry
Students practice the social and intellectual skills required for collaborative discussion and shared research projects.
Learn the rules of engagement for productive academic conversations and building on others' ideas.
Summarize information presented in diverse media formats and explain how it contributes to a topic.
Work collaboratively to investigate a topic and present findings through a shared digital or physical medium.