Scope and Sequence

Grade 4 English Language Arts

Overview
The following Scope and Sequence document lays out the Grade 4 English Language
Arts content, standards, and duration for the eight units of the year.

Each separate English Language Arts course for Chicago Public Schools has its own
scope and sequence and is further organized into units. The components for each
course are as follows:

Course Information
● Course Title
● Course Grade Range (HS/ES), Grade Level (ES)
● Course Standards Alignment
● Course Learning Targets/Objectives
● Course Prerequisites
● Course Curriculum Map/Pacing Guide
● Course Text List

Unit Information (organized by each Unit)

● Unit Titles
● Unit Descriptions
● Unit Assessment
● Unit Standards
● Suggested Duration of Units
● Curriculum Map/Pacing Guide
Course Title: English Language Arts Grade 4
Course Standards Alignment
See CCSSI_ELA Standards.indd for the standards language.
The page where the standards are located is listed in the Domain column below.

Domain ELA Standards for Grade 4

Reading – Literature RL.4.1, RL.4.2, RL.4.3, RL.4.4, RL.4.5, RL.4.6, RL.4.7,

RL.4.9, RL.4.10

Reading – Informational RI.4.1, RI.4.2, RI.4.3, RI.4.4, RI.4.5, RI.4.6, RI.4.7, RI.4.8,
RI.4.9, RI.4.10

Reading – Foundational Skills RF.4.3, RF.4.3.a, RF.4.4

Writing W.4.1, W.4.1.a, W.4.1.b, W.4.1.c, W.4.1.d, W.4.2,

W.4.2.a, W.4.2.b, W.4.2.c, W.4.2.d, W.4.2.e, W.4.3,
W.4.3.a, W.4.3.b, W.4.3.c, W.4.3.d, W.4.3.e, W.4.4,
W.4.5, W.4.6, W.4.7, W.4.8, W.4.9, W.4.9.a, W.4.9.b

Speaking and Listening SL.4.1, SL.4.1.a, SL.4.1.b, SL.4.1.c, SL.4.1.d, SL.4.2,

SL.4.3, SL.4.4, SL.4.5

Language L.4.1, L.4.1.f, L.4.1.g, L.4.2, L.4.2.a, L.4.2.b, L.4.2.c,

L.4.2.d, L.4.3, L.4.3.a, L.4.3.b, L.4.4, L.4.4.a, L.4.4.c,
L.4.5, L.4.5.a, L.4.5.b, L.4.6

Course Learning Targets/Objectives:

● Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in a text; summarize
the text.
● Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on
specific details in the text.
● Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including
those that allude to significant characters found in mythology.
● Compare and contrast the point of view from which different stories are narrated,
including the difference between first- and third-person narrations.
● Compare and contrast the treatment of similar themes and topics and patterns
of events in stories, myths, and traditional literature from different cultures.
● Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
● Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons
and information.
● Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and
information clearly.
● Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective
technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
● Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization
are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
● Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, and editing.
● Conduct short research projects that build knowledge through investigation of
different aspects of a topic.
● Recall relevant information from experiences or gather relevant information from
print and digital sources; take notes and categorize information, and provide a
list of sources.
● Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection,
and research.
● Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners
on grade 4 topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own
clearly.
● Paraphrase portions of a text read aloud or information presented in diverse
media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.
● Identify the reasons and evidence a speaker provides to support particular
points.
● Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience in an organized
manner, using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main
ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.
● Add audio recordings and visual displays to presentations when appropriate to
enhance the development of main ideas or themes.
● Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and
usage when writing or speaking.
● Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization,
punctuation, and spelling when writing.
● Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading,
or listening.
 ● Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and
phrases based on grade 4 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of
strategies.
● Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and
nuances in word meanings.

Course Prerequisites (if required):

Course Curriculum Map/Pacing Guide

Each unit includes 2-3 days of flex time that can be used as needed. Particular
objectives or projects that may need additional time. Adjust as needed while delivering
the unit to tailor learning time to particular student and class needs. See the Curriculum
Map/Pacing Guide for more information.

Course Text List:

For a list of all the texts used in this course, please refer to the Grade 4 ELA Text Link.
Unit 1. Grade 4: Creating a Strong Community

Unit 1 Description:
In Unit 1, students begin to understand their role as part of a community and how people can
work together to strengthen communities. The two texts used in the unit, Thanks a Million and
Rosie Revere and the Raucous Riveters, connect to the essential question in a number of ways.
Thanks a Million is a book of poems with different speakers expressing thanks for different
things. In one poem, for example, a neighbor makes dinner for a girl when her mother is late.
The girl is thankful, but shy about sharing her feelings, so she leaves a surprise to thank her
neighbor. The poems all show the importance of helping others and sharing feelings of
gratitude, both ways people can create strong communities. In Rosie Revere and the Raucous
Riveters, the main character and her two friends use their talents and interests to help others.
They meet and develop a community (family) with an older group of women who were riveters
during World War II. Their motto about doing your part to help others directly ties to the
essential question, as does the idea of using talents and interests to help others. Throughout
the unit, students also learn to engage in effective discussions, read closely (listening to their
"inner reader voice"), and express themselves effectively through their writing.

In reading, students read and interact with two literary texts, Thanks a Million, by Nikki Grimes,
and Rosie Revere and the Raucous Riveters, by Andrea Beaty. These texts support the unit
essential question. Students will interact with several poems from Thanks a Million, practicing
engaging effectively in discussions, providing examples and details from the text to support
their ideas, determining the themes in poetry, and exploring figurative language, including
similes and metaphors. Students will participate in Interactive Read-Alouds with Rosie Revere,
focusing on vocabulary, use of language, and development of characters and themes. During
independent reading, students learn how to choose a Just Right Book, how to listen to their
inner reader voice, how to write their thoughts in a reading notebook, and how to engage
joyfully in reading books of their choosing. Students will also begin to conference with the
teacher regarding what they are reading and how they are thinking about what they are
reading.

In writing, students will engage in a writing workshop. Students will set up and use a writing
notebook, practice techniques for planning and developing their writing, and focus on the
personal narrative genre. Rosie Revere will be used as a mentor text, providing examples of
such narrative skills as establishing a situation, introducing and developing a narrator and
characters, and using description and sensory language to develop events. Students will begin
to conference with the teacher regarding what they are writing. In addition, students will have
ample opportunities to plan and share their writing in pairs, with the teacher, and with the class
as a whole (on a voluntary basis).
In word study, students are introduced to word sorting as a teaching activity to build word
knowledge and higher-order thinking skills. Explicit instruction is precise and bite-sized for
students to easily understand. Instruction is also systematic and spiraled, allowing skills to
build incrementally and boosting student retention and recall. The initial lessons begin with a
focus on known long vowel patterns (CVCe, CVVC) and then moves to other vowel patterns
(Diphthongs, Ambiguous Vowel Patterns) examining contrasts in both spelling and meaning
through closed word sorts, partner sorts, word hunts and writing sorts, using target words to
write sentences, completing word operations to generate new words with the target word
patterns, and a culminating review game of Jeopardy to identify and spell words based on
provided word meaning clues.

Unit Assessment:
The End-of-Unit Assessment includes selected and constructed response questions for
students to demonstrate their ability to determine the theme, to describe characters, to use
context clues to determine the meaning of unknown words, as well as the ability to write a
narrative. The reading end-of-unit assessment measures students’ ability to describe a
character in depth by drawing on specific details in the text. For the writing end-of-unit
assessment, students will have the opportunity to further edit, revise and publish their
narratives. The assessments allow students to utilize all of their learning by applying the skills
and strategies gained throughout the unit to analyze and explore the Essential Question: “How
do people work together to create a strong community?”

Unit 1 Standards Alignment:

RL.4.1, RL.4.2, RL.4.3, RL.4.4, RF.4.3, RF.4.3.a, W.4.3, W.4.3.a, W.4.3.b, W.4.3.c,
W.4.3.d, W.4.3.e, W.4.5, W.4.6, SL.4.1, L.4.2, L.4.2.a, L.4.2.d, L.4.4, L.4.4.a, L.4.5,
L.4.5.a

Unit 1 WIDA Standards

● Social and Instructional Language
● The Language of Language Arts

Suggested Duration of Unit 1:

21 days (2-3 flex days as needed)
Unit 2. Grade 4: Energy’s Impact

Unit 2 Description:
In this unit, students will explore the essential question, How does energy impact our
lives? Students will focus on reading and responding to informational texts, including a
website, a video, a book, an article, and a biography.

In reading, students will first gain some basic knowledge about energy and electricity by
reading and discussing "Energy Basics" and "Electricity Basics" from the U.S. Energy
Information Administration's website for kids. Students will practice identifying the main
idea and key details of the text, summarizing an informational text, and interpreting
information from charts and graphics. They will then read and discuss the book Food
Webs by Lisa Greathouse, exploring how energy is obtained through the food we eat.
Students will continue to practice identifying the main idea and key details of a text and
summarizing a text, and will also practice determining the meaning of words and
phrases using context and how to explain concepts in a text. From there, students will
read and discuss "Can Electricity Reach the Billion People Who Live Without It?," an
article that sums up research conducted on the topic, and the article "Chicago Commits
to 100 Percent Clean Energy," continuing to focus on main ideas and key details,
summarizing text, determining the meaning of words and phrases in a text, how to
interpret graphs and charts, and how to explain concepts in a text. Students will view
and discuss a video on Wind Power and read about Renewable Wind on the U.S. Energy
Information Administration's website for kids in preparation for reading an excerpt from
the book The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. Students will continue to focus on the skills
of identifying the main idea and key details, summarizing a text, interpreting information
from charts and graphs, explaining a concept in a text, and determining the meaning of
words and phrases in a text. In addition, students will practice explaining the meaning of
similes and metaphors, a skill learned during unit 1.

In writing, students will explore the genre of blog writing. Students will write several
blogs related to energy, including an introductory blog about what they've learned about
energy, an informational blog about one type of renewable energy source, an opinion
blog about which type of renewable energy would most benefit Chicago, and a blog in
which students answer the essential question. In addition, students will explore and
write using different types of sentences.
In word study, students continue to explore the pattern layer of spelling through word sorting.
This unit covers a variety of complex consonant patterns (e.g. -tch, -dge) By contrasting groups
of these consonants, students are able to make interesting discoveries about the spelling,
pattern, and meaning of words, particularly the relationship between consonants and vowels.
The patterns in this unit reinforce the concept that how words are spelled often depends on
other sounds next to them. This focus on cementing knowledge of word patterns in single-
syllable words supports students as they progress further into the year studying more complex
multisyllabic words. Each week, students complete different sorting procedures, word
operations, and close the unit with a review game to spell words based on their patterns and
meaning.

Unit Assessment:
The reading end-of-unit assessment measures students’ ability to determine the main
idea of a text, explain events based on specific information in the text, interpret
information, determine the meaning of unfamiliar words and refer to text details. For
the writing end-of-unit assessment, students will have the opportunity to further edit,
revise and publish their blog posts. The assessments allow students to utilize all of their
learning by applying the skills and strategies gained throughout the unit to analyze and
explore the Essential Question: “How does energy impact our lives?”

Unit 2 Standards Alignment:

RI.4.1, RI.4.2, RI.4.3, RI.4.4, RI.4.7, RF.4.3, RF.4.3.a, W.4.1, W.4.1.a, W.4.1.b, W.4.1.c,
W.4.1.d, W.4.2, W.4.2.a, W.4.2.b, W.4.2.c, W.4.2.d, W.4.2.e, W.4.5, W.4.8, SL.4.1, L.4.1,
L.4.1.f, L.4.1.g, L.4.2, L.4.2.b, L.4.2.d, L.4.5, L.4.5.a

Unit 2 WIDA Standards

● Social and Instructional Language
● The Language of Language Arts

Suggested Duration of Unit 2:

20 days (2-3 flex days as needed)
Unit 3. Grade 4: Illinois Strong

Unit 3 Description:
In Unit 3, students will explore the essential question: How do people from Illinois (past,
present, and future) contribute to improvements in society?. In this unit, students will study how
a variety of people from Illinois have contributed to improvements in society. They will also
consider how they might make improvements to society in the future. Students will also
become familiar with informational text structures and identify them within the texts read in
this unit.

In reading, the unit will begin with an exploration of history through the Duckster’s Illinois State
History article. This article will provide students with an overview of state history, particularly
the history of groups of people who have lived in the state. Next, students will discover the
contributions to improvements to society made by Abraham Lincoln in Who Was Abraham
Lincoln?. Students will look at two sections of this text: first, a time in Lincoln’s life when he
wanted to make changes but was unable, and second, how one of Lincoln’s most well known
improvements, the abolishment of slavery in the Civil War, happened differently than the
president had planned. In this text, and throughout the unit, students deepen their
understanding of the Essential Question by considering how people overcome challenges in
order to make improvements to society. Next, students will look at a figure less well known in
history in Sweet Dreams, Sarah. In this text, students will deepen their understanding of the
Essential Question by learning about how Sarah E. Goode, the first African-American woman to
secure a patent, overcame challenges to secure a patent to improve furniture. In Draw What
You See, students will learn about how an artist made changes to society and helped kids
express themselves through art. Using this text, students will deepen their understanding of
the Essential Question by exploring not only how an artist overcame struggles, but actively
used those struggles to fuel their passion to improve society. In A Song for Gwendolyn Brooks,
students will consider how artists and poets contribute to society. The next text, Stars of Hip-
Hop: Chance the Rapper, will allow students to explore a modern figure’s financial contributions
to causes, rather than direct impact on the work as in the other examples. Students will
continue the study of modern figures by watching a video focusing on the story of Carlos
Tortolero and the museum that he created. With the use of this digital media students will
consider the impact of art and museum design, and how this was designed to be impactful in
particular ways. Students will continue to examine the Essential Question by learning how one
person’s contributions can inspire others. Students will continue to examine the impact of art
in My Neighborhood: Pilsen | Hector Duarte, Muralist. Through this video and article, students
can consider how artists shape our thinking and influence policy. Next, Groundbreaking
Women in Politics: Tammy Duckworth will allow students to consider how people use difficult
periods in their own lives as inspiration to overcome and help others. The unit will end with
students examining how other children in their community have made improvements to
society. Students will read Back of the Yards Students Declare #MyHoodMyHeadline and Say It
Loud/ Dilo Fuerte and examine the impact of student authors and activists. Students can also
consider the improvements of student inventors by exploring the text A conversation with:
Chicago Student Invention Convention program manager Allison James and video “Kid
Inventors Aim to Solve Real World Problems.” Finally, students will read selected chapters from
the text, First Rule of Punk. In the excerpts, students will follow Malú as she learns about how
Mrs. Hidalgo made contributions to improvements in society when faced with a dress code
that she considered exclusionary. Malú is influenced by her ideas and, in turn, applies what she
learned in order to address the exclusion she and her friends face in the school talent show. By
exploring literature, students will be able to explore the feelings and inner-workings of the
character, and apply these ideas to their own future plans.

The following additional texts are also present throughout the arcs: Let’s Move: Gardening
Guide from the Obama Whitehouse Archive website, and Michelle Obama from the
biography.com website.

In writing, students will explore other figures in Illinois history. Students write two research
papers: one on a person from Illinois history and one on a person from present-day Illinois who
has made an impact on improvements to society. A list of possible people for research and
some starting resources are included in the unit, but teachers and students are also
encouraged to consider others outside of the recommendations in this unit. Through their own
writing and reading the writing of peers, students will learn more about how improvements in
society are made. Students will explore how a person’s background, passions, interests, and
life influences contribute to their improvements to society. Finally, students will consider their
learnings throughout the unit as well as Malú’s experience (from First Rule of Punk) to make a
short or long term goal for one way that they would like to contribute to improvements in
society. Students will leave the unit with an understanding that they can make contributions to
improvements in society by drawing on their interests, passions, and influences in their lives.
Students will understand that contributions to improvements in society can take many
different forms.

In word study, students continue to explore the pattern layer of spelling through word sorting.
This unit covers homophones and homographs, as well as adding suffixes -ing and -ed. By
contrasting words, students are able to make interesting discoveries about the spelling,
pattern, and meaning of words, particularly the relationship between syllable patterns. The
patterns in this unit reinforce the concept that how words are spelled are based on syllable
patterns and meaning. This unit builds students’ knowledge of single-syllable words to
multisyllabic words. Each week, students complete different sorting procedures, word
operations, and close the unit with a review game to spell words based on their patterns and
meaning.
Unit Assessment:
The reading end-of-unit assessment measures students’ ability to explain their ideas,
include relevant text details to support their ideas, and explain how an author supports
points in the text. For the writing end-of-unit assessment, students will have the
opportunity to further edit, revise and publish their informative texts. The assessments
allow students to utilize all of their learning by applying the skills and strategies gained
throughout the unit to analyze and explore the Essential Question: “How do people from
Illinois (past, present, and future) contribute to improvements in society?”

Unit 3 Standards Alignment:

RL.4.3, RL.4.4, RL.4.10, RI.4.1, RI.4.2, RI.4.3, RI.4.5, RI.4.6, RI.4.8, RI.4.9, RI.4.10, RF.4.3,
W.4.2, W.4.2.a, W.4.2.b, W.4.2.d, W.4.2.e, W.4.5, W4.7, W.4.8, SL.4.1, SL.4.1.a, SL.4.1.b,
SL.4.1.c, SL.4.2, SL.4.3, SL.4.4, SL.4.5, L.4.1, L.4.1.f, L.4.2, L.4.2.d, L.4.3, L.4.3.a, L.4.6

Unit 3 WIDA Standards

● Social and Instructional Language
● The Language of Language Arts

Suggested Duration of Unit 3:

20 days (2-3 flex days as needed)

Unit 4. Grade 4: Past, Present

Unit 4 Description:
In Unit 4, Students will explore the essential question, What themes and lessons from
literature can be applied to my community? Students will study the works of American
Author Lesa Cline-Ransome and consider how the theme of a literary text or the lessons
we can take from a biography can influence our response to a problem in our
community. Students will grapple with the idea that some of the problems that we face
currently may be related to the struggles that were faced by others in the past. Students
will also explore how we can apply lessons learned to problems that may seem different
on the surface, but could benefit from similar mindsets shown by people in history who
faced other problems.
In reading, students will be introduced to the unit by Lesa Cline-Ransome herself, in a
video episode of Past Present. In the video, Cline-Ransome explains how the past can
be made present by how we consider the meaning of the lessons learned in the past
that can be applicable to our lives today.

Students will also be introduced to roles and rules of a small group discussion, and
begin following routines that they will use to discuss texts and community issues
throughout the unit. The next two texts, Freedom's School and Light in the Darkness,
present a fictional telling of how slaves and former slaves responded to a lack of
education. In these texts, students will discuss the themes of perseverance and working
together to respond to challenges. Students will consider how these themes can be
applied to problems in their community, even though their problems may seem very
different from the problems faced by others, so long ago.

Next, students will learn about the life of Frederick Douglass, before he was freed, in
Words Set Me Free. This unique biography, told as a first-person narrative, allows the
reader to understand and empathize with Douglass's challenges and see how his
actions led to his freedom and that of others. Overground Railroad tells the fictional
story of a girl facing a challenge who applies the lessons learned from a biography of
Douglass to her life, and thus overcomes her fears about a significant change. Through
this story, students will see an example of the application of lessons from a text about
the past to a more modern problem, and will consider how they might apply some of
these lessons to their lives.

The next text, Before She Was Harriet, looks at the many lives led by the woman most
commonly remembered as Harriet Tubman. Students will learn more about Tubman's
life and how she responded to many different problems in her community, using
different methods, but similar mindsets each time. Upon completion of reading the first
set of Lesa Cline-Ransome’s historical texts, students will have the opportunity to reflect
in conversations and in writing, the themes and historical lessons they identified and
how they are applicable to their lives and community today.

The second half of the unit focuses on more modern figures in less distant history.
Throughout the following biographies the theme of overcoming challenges, many due to
racial and gender inequalities, are evident, although the challenges look slightly different
and the individuals respond in different ways. First, students will read about Katherine
Johnson, NASA Mathematician, in Counting the Stars. Students will consider how her
actions impacted events in her life. Students will also read Satchel Paige, an individual
who had a very different response to challenges he faced. Students will analyze and
discuss their varying responses to their challenges and the impacts of their actions.
Students will reflect upon how they may apply the lessons that they can learn from
these figures to challenges they face in their own lives and communities. Students will
continue this analysis with the texts Game Changers (the story of Venus and Serena
Williams), Benny Goodman & Teddy Wilson (which discusses their lives, music, and how
they became the first band to perform with black and white jazz players on the same
stage), and The Power of Her Pen (the story of the life of journalist Ethel Payne).
Throughout the exploration of these texts, students will compare and contrast the
responses of the subjects of the biographies to the challenges in their lives and
communities, and consider how they can apply their learnings to their own problems.
Students will consider how challenges they face may seem different on the surface, but
may have similar solutions.

Throughout the unit, students will discuss ideas from texts in small groups. The small
group discussion format will allow students an opportunity to refine their ideas about
the lessons they take from the texts, consider the input of others in their group, and
come away with a more nuanced understanding. Students will also practice their
speaking and listening skills such as following roles and rules of a discussion group,
posing questions to others, responding to ideas, and explaining their ideas in light of a
discussion.

In writing, students will utilize the writing process to develop literary analysis essays
that will explain the themes and lessons in the works of Lesa Cline-Ransome. Students
will begin with a study of the genre, looking at sample literary analysis essays and
rubrics to determine what makes a strong literary analysis, what the expectations are in
writing, and how the students can best convey their ideas and opinions using the
characteristics of the genre. Students will also understand how a literary analysis differs
from a summary. Next, students will analyze the theme of Freedom School in a literary
analysis. Over the first half of the unit, students will learn to analyze the theme, cite
evidence, develop the evidence into an essay, revise the essay with assistance, edit for
mechanics and conventions, and publish to share with others. Students will understand
the real-world relevance of literary analysis by sharing their essays with others in order
to share their opinions about a book and allow others to determine if it is a book that
they would like to read. In the next half of the unit, students will take their analysis to the
next step by writing an analysis that compares and contrasts two texts: Counting the
Stars and Satchel Paige. In this analysis, students will consider how the individuals
portrayed in these biographies respond to challenges. Students will analyze the texts,
cite evidence, and compare and contrast the texts. In this essay, students will further
develop their essay by focusing on strong introductory and closing paragraphs, citing
additional evidence, and deepening the analysis through comparison. Students will
revise their essays independently based on a developed understanding of the rubric,
preparing students to independently complete the literary analysis writing exam. In
addition to students honing their ability and skill set to write a literary analysis according
to an established rubric, they will also continue to deepen their understanding of the
essential question as they analyze the texts.

In word study, students continue to explore the pattern layer of spelling through word
sorting. This unit begins with a continuation of the study of common inflected endings (-
es, -s) from the previous unit, along with examining irregular past tense and plural
words. Students closely examine the spelling changes needed to form words with
inflected endings, including when words end in 'y.' The unit concludes with students
applying their knowledge of syllables to reading and writing compound words, carefully
considering how each word part impacts the meaning of the word. By closely examining
the spelling of words, students are able to make connections to word meaning and use
what they have learned examining one syllable words to apply to learning in
multisyllabic words. Each week, students complete different sorting procedures, word
operations, and close the unit with a review game to spell words based on their patterns
and meaning.

Unit Assessment:
The reading end-of-unit assessment measures students’ ability to summarize the
themes found in a text, explain events in a text, explain an existing problem and apply
themes from a text to a problem. For the writing end-of-unit assessment, students will
have the opportunity to further edit, revise and publish their literary essays. The
assessments allow students to utilize all of their learning by applying the skills and
strategies gained throughout the unit to analyze and explore the Essential Question:
“What themes and lessons from literature can be applied to my community?”

Unit 4 Standards Alignment:

RL.4.1, RL.4.2, RL.4.3, RL.4.9, RL.4.10, RI.4.1, RI.4.2, RI.4.3, RI.4.8, RI.4.9, RI.4.10, RF.4.3,
W.4.1, W.4.1.a, W.4.1.b, W.4.1.d, W.4.2, W.4.3.c, W.4.4, W.4.5, W.4.6, W.4.8, W.4.9,
W.4.9.a, W.4.9.b, SL.4.1, SL.4.1.a, SL.4.1.b, SL.4.1.c, SL.4.1.d, SL.4.3, L.4.1, L.4.1.f,
L.4.2, L.4.2.a, L.4.2.d, L.4.5, L.4.5.b

Unit 4 WIDA Standards

● Social and Instructional Language
● The Language of Language Arts
Suggested Duration of Unit 4:
20 days (2-3 flex days as needed)

Unit 5. Grade 4: Approaches to Conflict

Unit 5 Description:
In Unit 5, students explore the essential question: "What can I do to prevent and resolve
conflict?" Students will study texts in which the characters/subjects face a variety of
conflicts. Students will explore the different ways characters/subjects prevent and/or
respond to the conflicts they face, while considering how their perspective impacts their
choices and how their choices impact the events that occur. Students will also explore
how they can learn from these subjects and apply their noticings about how
characters/subjects interact with conflicts to conflicts in their own lives and
communities.

In reading, the unit and essential question will be introduced with the short film The
Bridge and the introduction (pp. 6-9) of the text Why Do We Fight? Conflict, War, and
Peace. The introduction of this text briefly explains what conflict is and why people get
into conflict (the source of the conflict). Students will first read and discuss the
introduction of the text to gain the necessary background information about what
conflict is and then will watch the short film to practice identifying a conflict. This short
film features various animals facing the same conflict. The animals approach the
conflict in different ways and the film ends with different results for each character.
These two texts will kick off the beginnings of a larger conversation around the
Essential Question that will extend throughout the unit. On day one, students will have
identified what a conflict is and start to think about the ways to approach conflict
(prevention/resolution).

The beginning part of the unit will have students focus on understanding what
perspective is and its relationship to conflict. This will allow students to think about the
essential question on a deeper level as they move forward with their investigation of the
question. Students will begin this work by reading another section of the text Why Do
We Fight? Conflict, War, and Peace. The section read on this day talks about perspective
and how it plays into conflict. The information from this section of the text will lay the
groundwork for being able to identify a person/character’s perspective and eventually
analyzing how that perspective can cause/prevent/impact a conflict. On the following
day, students will participate in readers theater using the text Voices in the Park. The
prior day’s understanding of perspective will be helpful for this because students will be
asked to step into the perspective of the character they are playing. They will work to
identify the conflict the character faces and the perspective of the character. Because
this text is less complex, students will be able to focus on the more complex skill of
determining the perspective of a character. Students will then watch the video
Perspective Taking which will allow them to continue to explore how one's perspective
is related to conflict and how awareness around it can impact conflict. Students will
also use this video as a source for note taking in the writing lesson. Next, students are
introduced to the text Heroes, which features a young character who is perceived as
“bad” because he is Japanese during WWII. He is bullied for this and only when his
father shows up dressed as a US soldier (a hero) does the perspective of the bullies’
change. Students have just learned to identify perspective and now this text will allow
them to analyze how perspective affects the conflict. Moving along in the unit, students
will use the understanding of perspective they've gained during these first lessons to
investigate ways to prevent and resolve conflict. The big takeaway of this portion of the
unit being the understanding that consideration of others' perspectives may make you
empathetic toward them and thus prevent or resolve a conflict.

In this next part of the unit, students focus on studying ways to prevent and resolve
conflict by looking at the various ways characters/subjects in literature do so. Students
will begin by studying conflict prevention. They will first be introduced to the article Be
an Agent of Change: Here’s how a Staten Island Middle School Is Working to Resolve
Student Conflict. In this article they will learn how students learn to solve problems
through the peer mediation process. This text will be used to help students begin
building a bank of conflict prevention strategies. The conflict prevention strategy
students will take away from this article is that by utilizing peer mediation, students
learn how to communicate with others, cultivate respect, and resolve conflicts. The next
text students will be introduced to is a book of poems called Dictionary for a Better
World. Three poems have been selected for use: “Dialogue”, “Empathy”, and “Xenial”.
These poems were selected because they have messages that can be used as conflict
prevention strategies. For example, if you have dialogue with people, if you are
empathetic toward people and if you are xenial, you can prevent conflicts. Students will
summarize all of the ways they have learned to prevent conflict before moving on to
learning about ways to resolve conflicts. To begin studying conflict resolution,To begin
studying conflict resolution, students will read an article called “Peace Path Empowers
Students to Resolve Conflicts” and watch a video called Schools Resolve Conflict By
Getting Kids To Talk Things Out. The article and video will allow students to start
identifying ways to resolve conflicts and to analyze the effects of resolving conflicts.
They will use these sources to practice integrating information from multiple sources.
Then, students will be introduced to the texts The Arabic Quilt: An Immigrant Story and
Mira and The Big Story. In both of these stories, students will identify how the character
resolves a problem, then will compare and contrast the approach each character took
and how it affected the events that follow. Finally, students will summarize the ways to
resolve conflicts that they have learned about. Overall, this portion of the unit allows
students' understanding of the essential question to deepen as they build a knowledge
base of ways to prevent and resolve conflict and consider how these methods can be
applied to preventing and resolving conflict in their everyday lives.

During the last part of the unit, students will have small group discussions to identify
what types of conflicts they come across in their lives and communities. Students will
then use the methods for preventing and resolving conflict that they have learned about
from all of the unit texts and apply them to a conflict they have identified as being
present in their lives and/or communities. They will come away from this unit
understanding that conflicts can be prevented and that even if a conflict already exists,
there are actions you can take to resolve that conflict.

The following additional texts are also present throughout the arcs: Gandhi: A March to
the Sea.

In writing, students will begin the unit by creating an infographic that teaches others
about how to prevent and resolve conflict. Students will begin by familiarizing
themselves with infographics, by analyzing the sample infographic What is an
Infographic?. This sample infographic highlights the characteristics of infographics.
Students will also get a chance to analyze the rubric they'll be graded with so that the
criteria for success is clear. They will be able to research the topic they will write their
infographics on as they learn about it during reading. Students will take notes as they
read, and organize and categorize those notes into subtopics to include in their
infographics. Students will revise their writing by adding in precise language and/or
domain specific vocabulary they have learned throughout the unit so far. They'll end this
part of the writing unit by editing for mechanics and conventions and publishing their
infographic to share with others. This first writing piece helps them build a knowledge
base and deep understanding of the topic before moving on to the next piece.

In the second half of the writing unit, students will focus on narrative writing. They will
write a choose-your-own-adventure story that allows their readers to choose 1 of 2
possible endings to how the character deals with conflict. This type of writing will allow
students to further explore how actions, choices, and the way we react to or prevent
conflict impacts the events that follow. Students will first plan their story arch on a
graphic organizer and will then start drafting. When they get to the conflict in their story,
they will write two endings based on the character's actions in regards to the conflict.
Revisions of this piece will include a focus on transitional words and phrases, and
sensory details. Students will end the unit by editing for mechanics and conventions
and publishing their choose-your-own-ending narrative to share with others.

In word study, students continue to explore spelling and syllable patterns through word
sorting. This unit begins with an examination of syllable junctures (VCCCV, VCCV, VCV,
VVCV, VV) and a continuation of the study of inflected endings (-ing, -ed) from the
previous unit. Each week, students complete different sorting procedures, word
operations, and close the unit with a review game to spell words based on their
patterns.

Unit Assessment:
In the end-of-unit assessment, students read a passage and complete a computer
based assessment. This assessment measures students’ ability to identify and analyze
conflict and conflict prevention/resolution methods, as well as their ability to refer to
text details when making an inference about a text. The assessment allows students to
utilize all of their learning by applying the skills and strategies gained throughout the
unit to analyze a text and explore the Essential Question: “How can I prevent and resolve
conflict?”

Unit 5 Standards Alignment:

RL.4.1, RL.4.2, RL.4.3, RL.4.9, RL.4.10, RI.4.1, RI.4.2, RI.4.3, RI.4.7, RI.4.8, RI.4.9, RI.4.10,
RF.4.3, RF.4.4, W.4.1, W.4.1.a, W.4.2, W.4.2.a, W.4.2.b, W.4.2.c, W.4.2.d, W.4.3, W.4.3.a,
W.4.3.b, W.4.3.c, W.4.3.e, W.4.4, W.4.8, SL.4.1, SL.4.1.a, SL.4.1.b, SL.4.2, SL.4.4, L.4.2,
L.4.2.a, L.4.2.b, L.4.2.d, L.4.3, L.4.3.b

Unit 5 WIDA Standards

● Social and Instructional Language
● The Language of Language Arts

Suggested Duration of Unit 5:

20 days (2-3 flex days as needed)
Unit 6. Grade 4: Nature’s Solutions

Unit 6 Description:
In Unit 6, students explore the essential question: How can we solve problems with
Earth's features and natural resources? They also learn to identify informational text
structures and understand how an author’s choice of text structure helps the reader to
comprehend the purpose of the text.

On the unit launch day, students will begin understanding and exploring the essential question
by viewing images of problems that can be fixed using Earth's features and natural resources.
Examples of the images students will view on this day include floods, food scarcity, soil
erosion, dead crops, and wildfires. During this first day, students will collaboratively identify
and name some of the problems they see in the images, ask questions about what earth's
features and natural resources are, and ask questions about how problems can be solved with
their use. Students also see examples of five common informational text structures.

In reading, the first text introduced is called Earth’s Geographical Features and it will be used
during lessons 2 and 3 and also later on in the unit as a reference. On the first day of use, this
text will be used to deepen students' understanding of the Essential Question by delving into
what Earth's features are. The Earth's features that will be most helpful later on in the unit
when solving problems will be prominently featured. On the second day using this text,
students will deepen their understanding of Earth's features and the Essential Question by
reviewing the Earth's features they learned about the previous day and then thinking about how
each of the Earth's features can be helpful to humans and/or help them solve problems. By
the end of this day, students will have a bank of information about what kind of problems
different features of Earth can solve to later reference.

The next text students will be introduced to is called Earth and its Natural Resource and will be
used during lessons 4 and 5 and also later on in the unit as a reference. During lesson 4, this
text will be used to deepen students' understanding of the Essential Question by delving into
what natural resources are. The natural resources that will be most helpful later in the unit
when solving problems will be prominently featured. On the second day of (lesson 5) using
this text, students will deepen their understanding of natural resources and the Essential
Question by reviewing the natural resources they learned about the previous day and then
thinking about how each of them can be helpful to humans and/or help them solve problems.
By the end of this day, students will have a bank of information about what kind of problems
different natural resources can solve to later reference. Students will also identify various text
structures used within these texts.
In the next arc of the reading unit, students will shift to learning about native communities, why
they settled where they settled and how they depended on Earth's features and natural
resources to solve problems and improve their lives.

This arc will begin with two texts: a physical map of Illinois and a map that shows where native
communities settled in Illinois. Students will first analyze each map individually and then view
them side by side to look for patterns. They will be able to see that native communities settled
in the same places where the natural resources in Illinois are found and infer why they may
have done so. These maps will help deepen understanding of the Essential Question because
students will begin to see the value of the features of Earth and natural resources.

Students will then be introduced to the text Black Elk’s Vision: A Lakota Story. Students have
just analyzed maps to notice that native communities settled near features of Earth and
natural resources and this text builds on the use of the maps by describing to students how a
particular native community depended on natural resources to survive and solve problems.
This text will give a concrete example that matches the patterns in the maps. It gives explicit
examples of how the Lakota nation used natural resources to solve problems such as housing
needs, food, etc. This text also discusses the effects of forced removal on native nations'
culture and lifestyle. This text deepens understanding of the Essential Question because it
shows how valuable Earth's features and natural resources can be to humans. More
specifically, it shows how they were vital to native communities and the loss of access to them
created problems for Native Americans. This text builds on the prior texts because while the
prior ones explained what natural features and resources are, this text emphasizes how native
communities depended on them and then were negatively affected by the loss of them.

In the final arc of the reading unit, students will focus on researching two problems (flooding
and food scarcity) and then ways to solve them using Earth's features and/or natural
resources. Students will be introduced to the text Washed Away by Floods. Initially, students
will read pages 1-17 to gain necessary background knowledge about what floods are and what
causes them. Through this, students will best be able to best carry out investigations about
how to solve flooding problems with Earth's features and/or natural resources. Students will
also identify various text structures used within this text. During lesson 11, students begin
researching what Earth's features and natural resources can be used to solve flooding
problems. Students will reference the first two texts, Earth’s Geographical Features and Earth
and its Natural Resource as needed while researching natural flood protection methods.

Students will next be introduced to the text Restoring Wetlands. This text will build on the
previous text because it provides students with an understanding of what wetlands are. This
text contributes to a deeper understanding of the Essential Question because it gives them the
necessary background information to be able to understand wetlands and later on apply them
as a natural solution to flooding problems. On the following day, students will read the article,
Wetlands: Protecting Life and Property from Flooding. This article builds on the previous text
because it explains how wetlands can stop flooding. It also gives clear, short examples of
cities that have solved flooding problems with the use of wetlands. There is an example of
how Chicago has done this as well. In the following lesson, students will use both Restoring
Wetlands and Wetlands: Protecting Life and Property from Flooding to integrate their knowledge
of flooding and wetlands and apply a natural solution to flooding problems. Students will then
be introduced to the article Can trees and woods reduce flooding? which will be used to provide
another natural solution to flooding problems. This will allow students to apply multiple
solutions using natural resources and/or the features of Earth to solve flooding problems.
Students will also identify various text structures used within these texts.

Lastly, students will begin to explore a second problem: food scarcity. They will be introduced
to the text Word of Mouth: The Food You Eat to help them understand what food scarcity is and
to build necessary background knowledge about this problem. This text will provide them with
the necessary understanding of food scarcity before they begin to consider what Earth’s
features or natural resources can be used to solve it. It will be paired with the text Chicago
Leads the Fight for Food Justice by Building Innovative Local Food Ecosystems to provide
information for students about a natural solution to food scarcity and how it can be solved
locally. This will spark further inquiry in students as they realize that food scarcity is both a
global and local problem and how it also impacts their home city. During lesson 19, students
will use the texts about food scarcity as well as the anchor texts to apply solutions to food
scarcity problems using Earth's features and/or natural resources.

The following additional texts are also present throughout the arcs: Urban Farming, by
Rebecca Rissman and the Merriam-Webster’s Learner’s Dictionary by Merriam-Webster.

In writing, students will write two speeches that express their opinion on which Earth's
features or natural resources can be used to solve a problem. Students will write two speeches
throughout the unit and choose one to publish and present. The unit will be launched with a
speech by teen climate activist Xiye Batista. The video of this speech will allow students to
see an example of a strong speech. On day 1, students will have the opportunity to analyze
what makes Xiye Batista's speech a strong speech. During lessons 2-4, students will gather
notes on Earth's features and natural resources to use in their speeches. Over the course of
those three days, they will take notes, add facts and details, and synthesize their thinking as
their knowledge of the topics grows. During lesson 6, students will prepare to draft their first
speech. They will focus on naming the problem they will talk about and how it can be solved
with an Earth's feature or natural resource (their claim statement). Students will also use their
notes to identify 2-3 reasons that support their claim statement. Next, students will write an
introduction to their speech by clearly stating their claim statement and reasons. During
lessons 8 and 9, students will work to find evidence that supports each of their reasons and
ultimately decide which facts are the most convincing and/or supportive of their reasons.
Students will complete their first speech during the lesson by writing an ending that restates
their claim statement and reasons and brings a sense of closure to their speech.

The second speech that students write will be on a second problem and provide a second
solution. Students can use the examples from reading (flooding or food scarcity) or can come
up with a separate problem/solution as an added challenge. During the development of the
second speech, students will be reminded of the skills they learned when writing the first
speech, and also shown new techniques to strengthen the speech. For example, when writing
an introduction for the second speech, students will be reminded that they have learned that a
strong introduction names the claim statement and reasons that will be discussed in this
speech and now also taught how to hook the attention of their audience. During lessons 13-
14, students will find evidence as before but are now also taught to unpack it using statements
such as "this shows..." to further elaborate. Students will also work on their author's craft skills
during the writing of this speech by paying attention to word choice and how certain words can
make their writing more convincing. After students complete their second speech, they will
choose which of their two speeches they would like to publish.

In word study, students begin their exploration of accented syllables. During Unit 5
students were introduced to syllable types and Unit 6 urges students to go deeper to
understand that accented syllables are the reason our language doesn’t sound robotic.
Specifically, students are introduced to the long vowel accented syllable spelling
patterns. Typically, in a two syllable word, if a word has a short vowel and a long vowel,
the long vowel is accented. Students engage in a variety of sorts depending on the
patterns including teacher-led, closed, open, writing, and partner, as well sentence
creation activities, word building, concentration games, and word hunts. Students are
assessed weekly using a writing sort and spelling check.

Unit Assessment:
Unit 6 culminates in a computer-based, end-of-unit assessment. After reading a
passage, students demonstrate their ability to identify the conflict and how it is resolved
in a story (RL.4.3) as well as reference details when drawing inferences from the text
(RL.4.1). For the writing portion of the end-of-unit assessment, students publish a
choose-your-own ending narrative (W.4.3). Their knowledge of language conventions is
evaluated for their ability to demonstrate command of the conventions of capitalization,
punctuation, and spelling (L.4.2), use of commas and quotation marks to mark direct
speech and quotations from a text (L.4.2.b), and use of punctuation for effect. (L.4.3.b).
Unit 6 Standards Alignment:
RL.4.1, RL.4.2, RL.4.3, RL.4.4, RI.4.1, RI.4.2, RI.4.3, RI.4.4, RI.4.5, RI.4.7, RI.4.9,
RI.4.10, RF.4.3, W.4.1, W.4.1.a, W.4.1.b, W.4.1.c, W.4.1.d, W.4.2, W.4.2.d, W.4.7,
SL.4.1, SL.4.2, SL.4.4, SL.4.5, L.4.1, L.4.2, L.4.2.b, L.4.2.d, L.4.3, L.4.3.a, L.4.3.b,
L.4.4, L.4.4.c

Unit 6 WIDA Standards

● Social and Instructional Language
● The Language of Language Arts

Suggested Duration of Unit 6:

20 days (2-3 flex days as needed)

Grade 4 Unit 7: Prejudices and Injustices

Unit 7 Description:
In Unit 7 of the Grade 4 English Language Arts curriculum, students will engage in a full unit
book club as they explore the essential question: How do prejudice and injustice impact
people’s lives?

Each book club will read and discuss a novel, as well as supplemental texts about topics
related to prejudices and injustices that impact people's lives. The teacher will model
interactions with the essential questions and with the unit’s reading and writing skills through
read alouds of similar texts. The unit centers on The First Rule of Punk by Cecilia C. Perez as
the the mentor text, and the following four books used in a book club format:

1. Class Act by Jerry Craft: This text features a black male protagonist who is subjected to
racial injustice and struggles to deal with the privilege his white peers experience.

2. Amina's Voice by Hena Khan: This text features a protagonist who deals with issues of racial
and religious prejudice. The text highlights both the challenges and joys of being a young
Pakistani-American female, eventually showing readers how Amina helps bring a diverse
community together to support each other.
3. The Pants Project by Cat Clarke: This text features a protagonist who is a transgender boy
and is forced to wear a skirt by his school and the school's uniform policy. This makes Liv
uncomfortable and eventually Liv goes on a mission to have the policy changed.

4. Show Me a Sign by Ann Clare LeZotte: This text features a female protagonist who is
disabled and is surrounded by people's negative assumptions about Deaf people.
Simultaneously, she is living in a community full of racial tensions. She becomes determined
to oppose prejudice by leading by example.

In reading, the unit will launch using the text This is Your Brain on Stereotypes (pp 1-8, 32 and
38). This introduction text is used to provide students with the necessary background
knowledge of the key unit terms prejudice and injustice. The selection of text also identifies
common prejudices, such as the ones students will explore throughout the unit. The
background knowledge this text provides will be used to build and strengthen students'
abilities to identify the prejudices and injustices that arise in their book club books and
supplemental texts and explore the impacts of these prejudices and injustices on people's
lives.

During the first arc of the unit, students will begin to examine the Essential Question by
focusing on getting to know the protagonist in their book club books. They will look closely at
the characters thoughts, words, and actions in order to get to know the character well. Over the
course of the first unit lessons, students will synthesize their thinking and grow their ideas
about their character. By taking the time to get to know their character well, students will be
able to identify who their character is, explain how their characters identify, and also describe
the things and experiences that their characters like and don't like. Having a deep
understanding of the character will be helpful moving into the next arc when students begin to
explore how prejudices and injustices impact the lives of the character. During this arc,
students will also be reading the supplemental texts “Man Up or Act Like a Lady, How Society
Dictates Gender” and “Boys and Girls Pick Up Harmful Stereotypes Very Young, Study Says,”
which will provide them with additional information and insight on the effects of gender
prejudice. Gender prejudice is present in the teacher's model text, The First Rule of Punk, and
may also be present in students' book club books. However, these supplemental texts are
meant to have students begin to realize the prejudices that influence the systemic systems in
society and ultimately impact people's lives. These texts will help develop an awareness of
prejudices and injustices in students which can then be applied to the other types of prejudices
they see come up in their own books as well.

During the second arc of the unit, students will begin to focus more specifically on the
prejudices and injustices that show up in their books. They will begin the work of this arc by
identifying the prejudice(s) and injustice(s) encountered by the characters in their book club
books. Next, students will move into analyzing the specific impacts of prejudice(s) and
injustice(s) on the lives of those character(s). Students will deeply analyze the impacts of the
prejudices and injustices on the lives of their characters by analyzing the impacts from a
variety of lenses (internal impacts, family impacts, community impacts, etc). During this arc
students will also read, the supplemental texts “Supporting Muslim Teens in Face of
Islamophobia — in Their Own Schools” and “Ponchos, Prejudice, and Spanish Shaming” which
will be used to allow students to continue to dive into the systemic systems that allow
prejudices and injustices to impact people's lives. These supplemental texts deal with religious
and racial prejudice. Racial prejudice is a type of prejudice that comes out in the teacher's
mentor text, The First Rule of Punk, and may also be present in students' book club books. The
supplemental texts will also be used to make connections between real-life events and the
events in their book club books, as well as be able to further analyze the impacts of each
instance of prejudice/injustice on people's lives.

During the third arc of the unit, students will focus on thinking about the lesson(s) or theme(s)
that can be learned from the experiences of those who deal with prejudices and injustices. In
doing so, students will walk away from the unit understanding both the gravity of the impacts
of prejudices and injustices on people's lives, and also that people are responding to prejudice
in a variety of ways. Through the analysis of their books theme(s) students will be able to see
how prejudice and injustice is addressed by their character. This will also lend itself to
students seeing, considering, and engaging with the joy characters experience because of their
differences. Students will discuss how differences can benefit both oneself as well as their
communities.

The following additional texts are also present throughout the arcs: Show Me a Sign by Ann
Clare LeZotte, Girls are being denied access to certain sports in PE simply because of their
gender by Hannah L. Spacey, Transgender teen suing Palatine school: I want to be 'treated just
like every other girl' by Angie Leventis Lourgos, Ahmed Mohamed's High School Says He's
Welcome Back, But Supports Teacher Who Reported Clock, by Nicole Pelletiere, and New
Mexican-American studies textbook being slammed as misleading, by Newsela.

In writing, students will write 2 letters to the editors of 2 different articles as they explore the
essential question: How do prejudice and injustice impact people’s lives? Each article will be
centered around an act of prejudice or injustice for students to analyze.

The writing unit will launch with a sample letter to an editor (The Racial Equity Gap) that
students will analyze in order to understand the structure of the writing they will do in this unit.
Concepts in the article that may be new or unfamiliar to students, will be supported with
context provided by the teacher in the lesson activities.
Students will write letters to the editors of each article that summarize one or more events that
demonstrate how prejudice and injustice impacted one or more people's lives. Students will
write a letter to the editor that includes a summary of the events in the article, identifies how
the events are prejudice and injustice, and give an opinion rooted in details from a variety of
texts. The first article students will base their letter on is “Transgender Teen Suing Palatine
school: I want to be 'treated just like every other girl', an article that deals with gender and anti-
trans prejudice.” In order to have enough evidence to be able to refute the article, students will
use the supplemental texts. The supplemental text with the title “Man Up Or Act Like A Lady,
How Society Dictates Gender” will allow students to grow their thinking about the prejudice act
in the article. Students will also have access to the supplemental article with the title “Boys and
Girls Pick Up Harmful Stereotypes Very Young,” which they read in a reading lesson. The
second article students will base their letter on is “Ahmed Mohamed's High School Says He's
Welcome Back, But Supports Teacher Who Reported Clock,” an article that deals with racial
and religious prejudice. In order to have enough evidence to refute the article, students will
use the supplemental text “Supporting Muslim Teens in Face of Islamophobia — in Their Own
Schools.” When writing both the letters to the editors of these articles, students will practice
using persuasive writing techniques such as word choice and providing evidence to support a
claim.

The teacher will simultaneously model writing a letter to an editor using the article “New
Mexican-American Studies Textbook Being Slammed as Misleading” and use the supplemental
text “Ponchos, Prejudice, and Spanish Shaming” to provide evidence to refute the article.

In word study, students will continue their exploration of accented syllables. This unit
focuses on ambiguous vowels in accented syllables. During week one, students explore
the patterns oy, oi, ou, and ow in accented syllables. During the second week, students
explore the patterns au, aw, al in accented syllables. The last two weeks are dedicated
to r-influenced vowels with a deep dive into the er, ear, ere, and eer spelling patterns for
week four. Students participate in various sorting activities, including partner-led sorts,
syllable sorts, and writing sorts. They also build words, play a matching game, and
create complex, correct sentences using words with the spelling patterns. The end-of-
unit assessment consists of a spelling assessment using learned words from spelling
patterns studied.

Unit Assessment:
In the reading end-of-unit assessment, students read a passage and complete a
computer based assessment. This assessment measures students’ ability to identify a
narrator’s point of view, describe the effect the narrator’s point of view has on a story,
describe how a character is impacted by a challenge, identify the effects of a
character’s actions, summarize a story, and to refer to text details when making an
inference about a text. For the writing end-of-unit assessment, students will have the
opportunity to further edit, revise and publish their speech and then deliver it in front of
their peers. The assessments allow students to utilize all of their learning by applying
the skills and strategies gained.

Unit 7 Standards Alignment:

RL.4.1, RL.4.2, RL.4.3, RL.4.6, RL.4.9, RL.4.10, RI.4.1, Rl.4.2, RI.4.1, RI.4.3, Rl.4.9, RI.4.10,
RF.4.3, W.4.1, W.4.1.a, W.4.1.b, W.4.1.c, W.4.1.d, W.4.2, W.4.2.b, W.4.2.d, W.4.5, W.4.8,
SL.4.1, SL.4.1.b, SL.4.1.c, SL.4.1.d, SL.4.4, L.4.2, L.4.2.b, L.4.2.c, L.4.2.d, L.4.4, L.4.4.c

Unit 7 WIDA Standards

● Social and Instructional Language
● The Language of Language Arts

Suggested Duration of Unit 7:

20 days (2-3 flex days as needed)

Grade 4 Unit 8: Lyrical Language

Unit 8 Description:
In Grade 4 Unit 8 students will explore the essential question: What makes something
lyrical?

In reading, students explore the different ways poets and songwriters use structure,
sounds, and words to make something lyrical and to contribute to meaning and
message. In writing, students incorporate the musical terms they've studied into their
own songs and poems. Students create anthologies of their work and then perform
poems or songs for their peers.

During the first arc of the reading unit, students focus on how the structure (stanzas,
verses, lines, chorus/hook, bridge, etc.) of a poem or song make something lyrical and
contribute to its meaning and message. In the beginning of this arc and to launch the
unit, students are introduced to the texts Sympathy by Paul Laurence Dunbar and
Beyond by Leon Bridges. Students use these texts to launch the unit by participating in a
collaborative discussion about what about the way the texts are organized helps make
them lyrical. Students will likely use their own social language to explain their answers
to the question this early on in the unit. However, as the unit continues, they will be able
to build up and refine the language they use when speaking about song and poetry
structure and how it contributes to meaning and message. During this arc students are
also introduced to the poem In this Place (An American Lyric) by Amanda Gorman and
the song Wonderful Everyday by Chance the Rapper to analyze repetition. Both texts are
strong examples of the use of repetition, and how repetition can help make something
lyrical. While analyzing these texts, students will notice how structural components are
repeated to emphasize a message. They will analyze structural aspects such as how
going back to a chorus, or a set of rhyming couplets helps convey that an author is
stressing an important idea and trying to make it more memorable. For example, the
poem In This Place, Amanda Gorman repeats the phrase "there is a poem in..." at the
beginning of each stanza to convey meaning about how poetry can be used as a form of
activism in different settings. In Wonderful Everyday, Chance also uses repetition to
convey meaning by emphasizing that "everyday" is an opportunity to connect with
people. Through these texts, students will have been able to think deeply about how the
structure of a song or poem helps make something lyrical and works to convey a
meaning or message.

During the second arc of the reading unit, students begin focusing on how the sound of
a poem or song makes it lyrical and contributes to the meaning or message. During this
arc, students investigate various musical terms and explore how they come out in both
poetry and music. The musical terms that students focus on during this arc are: meter
and rhythm, tempo and dynamics and pitch and inflection. During this arc students will
learn the meaning of each term, work to identify how each term is used in poetry and
music, and then analyze how the use of each term helps develop the meaning of
message in a piece of writing. Students begin this work with the poem It Couldn’t Be
Done by Edgar Guest and the song All We Got by Chance the Rapper. These texts are
used to model the musical terms meter and rhythm. These texts allow students to
analyze the use of meter and rhythm well since It Couldn’t Be Done uses common
measure and All We Got combines the use of shorter notes with faster words with the
contrasting use of longer notes with slower words. Next, students are introduced to the
poems Poet Breathe Now and Maxwell Street by Adam Gottlieb and the song All We Got
by Chance the Rapper. These texts are used to model the musical terms tempo and
dynamics. With the focus on tempo and dynamics these texts are presented as video
performances of the poems and songs so that students can listen to how tempo and
dynamics help make something lyrical and bring out meaning and message. In the
Adam Gottlieb poems, students will be able to see how the same speaker varies his
pitch, tempo, and dynamics in different performances. The Chance song All We Got
exemplifies variance in tempo by speeding up in some parts and slowing down in
others, and dynamic by using loud and soft sounds throughout the song. Lastly,
students use the two Adam Gottlieb poems and a new song, Glory by John Legend and
Common to explore the use of pitch. These texts are also presented as video
performances to facilitate students' analysis of how pitch and inflection help make
something lyrical and help develop meaning and message in writing.

During the third arc of the reading unit, students shift their focus to how words make
something lyrical and contribute to the meaning and message. In this arc, students
revisit the poem Sympathy by Paul Laurence Dunbar and are introduced to the song
Glory by John Legend and Common. Both the poem Sympathy and the song Glory use
words to convey tone and emotion by using descriptive and emotive words that bring
the poem to life. An analysis of the use of tone will allow students to notice how a piece
of writing makes someone feel and provide opportunities for students to explore how it
contributes to the meaning and message a piece conveys. Students will also use these
texts to explore how word choice is used. While analyzing word choice students may
come across instances of word order, connotation, language choices and figurative
language that work to convey a meaning and message in a piece of writing. At this point
in the unit, students have been exposed to a variety of musical terms and how they are
used in both poetry and lyrics to make something lyrical. At the very end of this arc,
students will meet to again discuss the EQ and practice synthesizing all the terms
they've learned through an analysis of the performance and lyrics of the song
BaBopByeYa by Janelle Monae. In this analysis students will look for structure, sound
and word choice/tone. The song includes sharp changes in dynamics and tempo. Some
of the lyrics are in Spanish while others are in English and have clear shifts in pitch. The
song is full of imagery, similes, metaphors, and personification which help to convey its
tone. Students will be able to analyze the message and story of the song, the frustration
and choices that come with a forbidden love.

In writing, students write multiple songs and/or poems to create an anthology of their
work. The writing unit begins with students analyzing parts of the poem Sympathy by
Paul Laurence Dunbar and the song Beyond by Leon Bridges in order to give them a
sense of the type of writing they will be doing during the unit. Following this, students
take time to generate lists that will help inspire them to choose the topics of their
poems and/or lyrics. These lists include feelings, emotions, special people, places, or
things, big questions students have about the world, and issues and debates that are
important to students. Once students have sufficient ideas for topics they begin drafting
poems and lyrics. As they learn about the different ways to make something lyrical in
reading, they practice incorporating those techniques into their own writing each day.
The musical terms that students will focus on incorporating are meter and rhythm,
tempo and dynamics, pitch and inflection, repetition, and tone and word choice.
Students use mentor texts to help them bring the musical terms to make their own
poems and songs lyrical and to contribute to the meaning and message they want to
convey. At the end of the unit, students publish anthologies of their work and perform a
song or poem in front of their peers.

Unit Assessment:
Unit 8 culminates with a project-based, end-of-unit assessment. For the writing portion
of the end-of-unit assessment, students publish anthologies of their work. Students will
also present their published work and be assessed on their speaking and listening skills.
Their knowledge of language is also evaluated for their ability to use precise word
choice and punctuation for effect. In word study, students will learn upper and lower
case cursive letters. Each day is dedicated to a specific sequence of letters and the unit
culminates in one of their works from their anthology presented in cursive.

Unit 8 Standards Alignment:

RL.4.1, RL.4.2, RL.4.3, RL.4.5, RL.4.7, RL.4.10, RI.4.1, RI.4.2, RI.4.3, RI.4.10, W.4.1,
W.4.1.a, W.4.1.b, W.4.4, W.4.5, W.4.8, W.4.9, W.4.9.a, SL.4.1, SL.4.1.c, SL.4.1.d, L.4.2,
L.4.2.d, L.4.3, L.4.3.a, L.4.3.b

Unit 8 WIDA Standards

● Social and Instructional Language
● The Language of Language Arts

Suggested Duration of Unit 8:

20 days (2-3 flex days as needed)