Grade 4 English Language Arts
12 units matched to the Newfoundland and Labrador Curriculum. Kids see this subject as “Reading & Writing”.
Learning focus
- Speaking and listening: explore and reflect. Students will speak and listen to explore, extend, clarify, and reflect on their thoughts, ideas, feelings, and experiences.
- Speaking and listening: communicate. Students will be able to communicate information and ideas effectively and clearly, and to respond personally and critically.
- Speaking and listening: interact with respect. Students will be able to interact with sensitivity and respect, considering the situation, audience, and purpose.
- Reading and viewing: select and read. Students will be able to select, read, and view with understanding a range of literature, information, media, and visual texts.
- Reading and viewing: interpret and combine information. Students will be able to interpret, select, and combine information using a variety of strategies, resources, and technologies.
- Reading and viewing: respond personally. Students will be able to respond personally to a range of texts.
- Reading and viewing: respond critically. Students will be able to respond critically to a range of texts, applying their understanding of language, form, and genre.
- Writing and representing: explore and reflect. Students will be able to use writing and other ways of representing to explore, clarify, and reflect on their thoughts, feelings, experiences, and learning; and to use their imagination.
- Writing and representing: create texts. Students will be able to create texts collaboratively and independently, using a variety of forms for a range of audiences and purposes.
- Writing and representing: strategies. Students will be able to use a range of strategies to develop effective writing and other ways of representing and to enhance their clarity, precision, and effectiveness.
Units
Unit 1
Reading Detectives
Reading short original stories and articles, then finding the main idea and key details, making inferences from clues, working out word meanings and choosing the best summary.
Curriculum outcome: Reading and viewing: respond personally (by Grade 6) · using reading strategies to understand a text
Unit 2
Text Features
Using the parts of a nonfiction book to find information: reading a table of contents and index, knowing what glossaries, captions, labels and timelines are for, and choosing headings.
Curriculum outcome: Reading and viewing: respond critically (by Grade 6) · using text features to find and understand information
Unit 3
Figurative Language
Spotting similes, metaphors, personification, onomatopoeia and alliteration (plus hyperbole at the stretch level), and explaining what figurative phrases really mean.
Curriculum outcome: Writing and representing: create texts (by Grade 6) · similes, metaphors and other figurative language
Unit 4
Point of View
Telling first-person stories (I, me, we) from third-person stories (he, she, they), finding pronoun clues, and noticing when dialogue uses “I” in a third-person story.
Curriculum outcome: Reading and viewing: respond critically (by Grade 6) · who is telling the story and how it changes the story
Unit 5
Parts of Speech
Naming the job each word does in a sentence, with a focus on Grade 4's pronouns, adverbs, prepositions and conjunctions. Easier levels stick to nouns, verbs, adjectives and pronouns.
Curriculum outcome: Writing and representing: strategies (by Grade 6) · nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs
Unit 6
Super Sentences
Joining sentences with and, but, or and so; spotting and fixing fragments and run-ons; and choosing verbs that agree with the subject and match the tense.
Curriculum outcome: Writing and representing: strategies (by Grade 6) · writing complete and interesting sentences
Unit 7
Punctuation Power
Writing possessives (the dog's bone, the girls' bikes, the children's toys), placing commas in dates, places and lists, and punctuating dialogue with quotation marks.
Curriculum outcome: Writing and representing: strategies (by Grade 6) · capitals, commas and quotation marks
Unit 8
Word Builders
Using word parts to work out meanings: prefixes like re- and mis-, suffixes like -able and -ment, finding the base word, and (at the stretch level) roots such as port and tele.
Curriculum outcome: Reading and viewing: select and read (by Grade 6) · prefixes, suffixes and root words
Unit 9
Sound-Alikes
Choosing between words that sound alike (there/their/they're, to/too/two, its/it's) and using context to tell which meaning of a word like “bark” or “bow” is meant.
Curriculum outcome: Writing and representing: strategies (by Grade 6) · homophones and commonly confused words
Unit 10
Paragraph Power
Choosing topic and concluding sentences, finding the sentence that doesn't belong, using transition words, identifying cause and effect, and putting sentences in order.
Curriculum outcome: Writing and representing: create texts (by Grade 6) · writing a paragraph with a main idea and details
Unit 11
Listen, Speak & Read Aloud
Good listening and speaking habits (taking turns, asking questions, speaking clearly) and reading aloud with pauses at punctuation, stress on key words and a voice that rises or falls with the meaning.
Curriculum outcome: Speaking and listening: communicate (by Grade 6) · listening, speaking and reading aloud
Unit 12
Sharing Information Fairly
How to find trusted sources, put ideas in your own words, give credit, ask permission before sharing, keep personal information private and save work safely, on paper or on a device.
Curriculum outcome: Speaking and listening: explore and reflect (by Grade 6) · sharing information fairly and clearly in different subjects
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