Reading
Throughout the year, fourth graders learn reading skills and literary concepts focused on a variety of genres. Units include fiction, non-fiction, poetry, historical fiction, and Greek mythology. Using the workshop style, students learn focused reading skills based on a model text and then apply skills to a text of their choice at their appropriate reading level. Fourth grade uses a variety of reading partners, book clubs, and reader’s theater to engage students in the love of reading.
Textbook: Lucy Calkins Units of Study for Teaching Reading
Novels: Use a variety of novels based on students’ Fountas & Pinnell instructional reading level. For example, Ramona and Her Father by Beverly Cleary and Riding Freedom by Pam Munoz Ryan.
Writing
Focus: Students practice the five steps to writing through a variety of genres. Fourth grade focuses on organization and purpose of writing. In the fall, we write a long realistic fiction story. We also use figurative language to write a variety of different types of poems. Students then gather research on a country of the world and write an informational essay to report their research. To end the year, students research an organization that makes the world a better place and write a persuasive essay to support this organization. Students also write an organized paragraph analyzing literature.
Textbook: Reading and Writing Workshop Units of Study
Spelling
In fourth grade, we focus on homophones, homonyms, spelling patterns, high frequency Core Words, using research-based instructional model.
Textbook: Sitton Spelling
