English Language Arts Grade 4 [2011]

• Balancing Three Branches at Once
  This page contains 4 EDSITEment lessons in which students use primary source documents to investigate of how the three branches of the American government can check each other.
• Black Beauty author Anna Sewell was born in 1820
  In Black Beauty, Anna Sewell tackled one of the contemporary issues of her time, the cruel treatment of horses, many of them abused by their owners. Her work made readers aware of the need for laws to protect animals from harsh and abusive treatment. After exploring the cruelty to animals in Sewell's novel, extend the discussion to current events.
• Heroes Around Us
  Students will explore the distinction between a hero and an idol. Based on collaboratively established criteria for heroism and characteristics of heroes, students will select, read about, and report on a hero. Students will identify how their hero matches their criteria and characteristics. (This is a unit for grades 6-8, but could be simplified for grade 4.)
• I Do Solemnly Swear: Presidential Inaugurations
  Presidential inaugurations have been solemn ceremonies and uninhibited celebrations. They are carefully scripted and they are unpredictable. They reflect tradition and they reflect the moment. This unit, consisting of five lesson plans, will help your students reflect on what the Presidential inauguration has become and what it has been, while they meet a host of memorable historical figures and uncover a sense of America's past through archival materials.
• Integrating Literacy Into the Study of the Earth's Surface
  Science trade books are an invaluable tool for supporting science learning with literacy. This lesson introduces third through fifth grade students to the bodies of water on the Earth's surface, including ponds, lakes, streams, rivers, and oceans.
• Not 'Indians,' Many Tribes
  In this unit, students will heighten their awareness of Native American diversity as they learn about three vastly different Native groups in a game-like activity using archival documents such as vintage photographs, traditional stories, photos of artifacts, and recipes. One factor influencing Native American diversity is environment. Help your students study the interaction between environment and culture.
• On the Home Front
  This page contains 4 EDSITEment lessons in which students investigate how non-combatants contributed to the war effort during World War II and are then invited to reflect on how young people can contribute to the solution of contemporary national problems. Students will also investigate how posters were used to encourage home front efforts during World War II.
• Peace Poems and Picasso Doves
  This lesson, from ReadWriteThink, supports third-grade students as they apply think-aloud strategies to reading, as well as to the composition of artwork and poetry. Activities include collaborative as well as individual work. Technology tools are integrated as students research symbols of peace and as they prewrite, compose, and publish their poetry.
• Remember the Ladies: The First Ladies
  Through the lessons in this unit, students will explore the ways in which First Ladies were able to shape the world while dealing with the expectations placed on them as women and as partners of powerful men. Students will answer the following questions: What does a First Lady do? Who have some of our First Ladies been? How have they helped shape the social history of our country?
• Research Building Blocks: "Organize This!"
  Research skills can help students find answers for themselves. In this mini lesson, students organize the information they have compiled through the research process by using sentence strips.
• Research Building Blocks: Skim, Scan, and Scroll
  Research skills can help students find answers for themselves. This lesson teaches students the skill of "Skim, Scan, and Scroll," which is taken from a research - skills unit and is one step of successfully completing a written research report.
• Science writer Seymour Simon was born in 1931
  Have your students select and explore a scientific topic in detail using Seymour Simon's nonfiction science books. Students then use what they learn to write original poetry on the topic.
• Strategic Reading and Writing: Summarizing Antislavery Biographies
  In this lesson, students practice writing effective summaries using biographies.
• Traces: Historic Archaeology
  In this unit, students will recover and analyze artifacts from sites in use from the settlement period to the second half of the19th century. They will look for similarities and differences among the artifacts and the lives they reveal. In conclusion, students will look at today's artifacts of the future and consider how we will be viewed.
• What Makes a Hero?
  In this unit from EDSITEment, students will explore heroes and the traits that make them heroic. Students begin by thinking about their own heroes and list the character traits their heroes possess. Students then explore kid heroes, adults' heroes, local heroes, and heroes from history, before completing one of several suggested culminating activities.