4th Grade - English Language Arts

Avon Lake City Schools 

Curriculum Framework

4th Grade ELA

Course Overview:

Students in 4th grade are provided an environment rich in reading and writing opportunities to help them develop the skills and strategies to use in any educational setting.  The focus in English Language Arts (ELA) at the 4th grade level is to support our students as they independently apply their foundational skills in order to read for meaning, read to learn new concepts, write using text evidence to support responses and opinions, and communicate effectively.  Most of the reading and writing skills are being applied independently with scaffolding from the teacher. Students are provided opportunities to read from a broad range of topics and cultures in a variety of genres including literature and informational texts.  Writing is incorporated in the ELA process as teachers model the writing process and support students to gather and organize information to formulate their own writing. 

Textbook (Title and Publishing Company): 

Core Knowledge Language Arts, Amplify

Online/Supplemental Materials:

             Readworks

Assessments: 

Ohio State Test

NWEA MAP Growth

mCLASS

Curriculum & Benchmark Assessments 

Content/Topics/Learning Goals

Subject to Pacing and Schedules

1st Quarter- 

Unit 1: Personal Narratives

Anchor Text: Personal Narratives

  • Identify features of personal narrative genre

  • Identify literary devices in Personal Narratives including similes and metaphors, dialogue, transition words, sensory details, and point of view

  • Demonstrate understanding of cause and effect

  • Develop proficiency with cursive handwriting


Unit 2: Empires in the Middle Ages

Anchor Text: Empires in the Middle Ages

  • Demonstrate understanding of key vocabulary

  • Write an informative paragraph using details from the text

  • Determine importance through note taking

  • Write an opinion piece with evidence to support that opinion

  • Utilize paraphrasing to create an explanatory paragraph

*Unit 2 has two parts. The beginning of Unit 2 will begin in the first quarter and part 2 will continue into the second quarter.

2nd Quarter- 

Unit 3: Poetry

Anchor Text: Poetry Journal

  • Read text with the purpose of identifying details and evidence

  • Explore imaginative possibilities of figurative language

  • Identify and develop an understanding of poetic devices including rhyme, repetition, alliteration, meter, and tone

  • Explore and identify extended metaphors in text

  • Write original poems with colorful language and

  • poetic devices


Unit 4: Eureka! Student Inventor

Anchor Text: Eureka! Files

  • Read complex literary and informational text, find

  • evidence, and use it appropriately

  • Write in opinion, informational, and narrative

  • modes and adjust style for task and audience

  • Develop proficiency in research, observation, communication, and persuasion

  • Demonstrate understanding of key vocabulary

3rd Quarter- 

Unit 5: Geology

Anchor Text: The Changing Earth

  • Ability to reference bolded words in the glossary not directly addressed in lessons

  • Demonstrate understanding of key vocabulary

  • Examine and explain similes

  • Draft an informational pamphlet, write a wiki entry,and create a descriptive paragraph

  • Utilize literary devices including alliteration, personification, and simile


Unit 6: Contemporary Fiction: The House on Mango Street

Anchor Text: Writer’s Journal with excerpts from The House on Mango Street

  • Reading for details, dialogue, and action

  • Inferring character and theme in a text

  • Development of Core and Literary Vocabulary

  • Develop strength in writing narrative prose

  • Demonstrate proficiency in writing an opinion piece backed by clear evidence

  • Demonstrate success with literary devices including detailed descriptions, use of theme, and contrasting character perceptions.

4th Quarter -  

Unit 7: American Revolution 

Anchor Text: The Road to Independence

  • Write a five-paragraph compare and contrast essay

  • Demonstrate understanding of key vocabulary

  • Develop proficiency of subject-verb agreement with both regular and irregular verbs

  • Deepen knowledge and understanding of prefixes and suffixes when added to root words

Unit 8: Treasure Island

Anchor Text: Treasure Island

  • Identify and properly use modal auxiliary verbs, relative pronouns, and coordinating conjunctions

  • Demonstrate understanding of key vocabulary

  • Trace development of character, setting, plot, and literary devices in a longer work of fiction

  • Develop an adventure story using an introduction, problem or conflict, rising action, turning point or climax, and a resolution

Last Updated:

September, 2023