4th Grade English Language Arts
Pacing Guide & Standards
4th Grade Year at a Glance (Pacing Guide)-for use in 2015-2016-This is the outline of the year for 4th grade ELA. Teachers are expected to follow these units and stick to the pacing as closely as possible. Students should be assessed for mastery on all priority standards.
4th Grade Missouri Learning Standards
4th Grade Missouri Learning Standards
- Standards Website
- 4th Grade Standards Placemat-All 4th grade standards on one ledger size piece of paper.
Writing Workshop
Writing Workshop Units of Study: Use your Lucy Calkins Units of Study for Writing Kit to teach writers workshop.
Writing Assessment: Students should be assessed in writing workshop using the on-demand writing prompts included in your Writing Kit (they are in the Writing Pathways book). All students should be pre-assessed at the beginning of the year on all three strands of writing (Narrative, Informational, Opinion/Argument), and then post-assessed at the end of each writing unit using the on-demand prompt that matches the unit that was taught. Teachers should also conduct informal assessment of students writing through conferencing and keep an ongoing record of these conferences.
Writing Workshop Resources:
- Unit 1: Narrative Writing-The Arc of Story: Writing Realistic Fiction
- Unit 2: Opinion Writing-Boxes and Bullets: Personal and Persuasive Essays
- Unit 3: Informational Writing-Bringing History to Life
- Unit 4: Narrative Writing-The Literary Essay
Writing Assessment: Students should be assessed in writing workshop using the on-demand writing prompts included in your Writing Kit (they are in the Writing Pathways book). All students should be pre-assessed at the beginning of the year on all three strands of writing (Narrative, Informational, Opinion/Argument), and then post-assessed at the end of each writing unit using the on-demand prompt that matches the unit that was taught. Teachers should also conduct informal assessment of students writing through conferencing and keep an ongoing record of these conferences.
Writing Workshop Resources:
- Units of Study for Writing CDs- Because many of the district computers do not have CD drives, we have placed the contents of the CDs that were included in the writing kits here for use by those that have writing kits.
- Videos of Reading and Writing Workshop in Action
Reading Workshop
Reading Workshop Units of Study: Use the units below for reading workshop, beginning in 2015-2016. These units are based of of the 4th Grade Curricular Calendar for Reading Workshop each unit below breaks apart the units included in this book to provide support and guidance in teaching the units.
Reading Assessments:
Reading Resources:
- Unit 1: Building A Reading Life
- Unit 2: Following Characters Into Meaning
- Unit 3: Nonfiction Reading: Using Text Structures to Comprehend Expository, Narrative, and Hybrid Nonfiction
- Unit 4: Informational Reading: Reading, Research, and Writing in the Content Areas
- Unit 5: Nonfiction Research Projects: Teaching Students to Navigate Complex Nonfiction Text Sets Using Critical Analytical Lenses
- Unit 6: Historical Fiction: Tackling Complex Texts
- Unit 7: Interpretation Texts Sets
- Unit 8: Social Issues Book Clubs
Reading Assessments:
- STAR Reading-Should be used at each benchmark period. It can be used more frequently for progress monitoring of students scoring below grade level.
- Running Record Assessments: Students should be assessed using running records at least by the end of the 2014-2015 school year so that this information can be sent to their teacher for the fall.
Reading Resources:
- Every building has a leveled library. Pull from this often!
- Videos of Reading and Writing Workshop in Action
Word Work
Sight Words:
- Sight Words-Sight word lists and assessments for students in K-2. Students in 3rd grade and above who have not yet mastered all the sight words, should work through the sight word lists until they have achieved mastery.
Additional Components of Balanced Literacy
Interactive Read Aloud-This is a time when the teacher reads a piece of quality writing aloud to the whole class and stops at planned points to think aloud (model comprehension work for students) or to ask questions that elicit student response. Students learn to think deeply about text, to listen to others, and to grow their own ideas. The teacher models metacognitive reading strategies, provides opportunities for students to practice the strategy and invites students to participate in a grand (whole class) conversation about the text following the read aloud. During the interactive read aloud, students should engage in accountable talk. Accountable talk is when, at points during the read aloud, students turn and talk to a partner to discuss their thoughts and ideas about the text. Questions posed for turn and talk should be open ended and thought provoking.
- Purpose: To get kids ready for books clubs in Grades 2-6; Gets kids to think and talk deeply about text; Gives us a toolbox of texts to use with conferring later
- Schedule: 10-15 min/day