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.
• 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.
• It Came From Greek Mythology
  This page contains 6 EDSITEment lessons based around teaching Greek mythology. Students will study basic plots of three Greek myths and discuss three types of themes in Greek myths. They will also explore contemporary uses of terms from Greek mythology and analyze artistic and literary works based on or inspired by Greek myths.
• Music from Across America
  In this unit, students listen to a variety of popular, traditional and ethnic American music, from the evocative sounds of Native American drumming to the lively sounds of zydeco music from Louisiana. To develop their listening skills, students use worksheets to record their impressions about the music they hear. In addition to learning about musical instruments and the geographic and cultural context of music, children are encouraged to think about and express their personal responses to music.
• 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.
• Shape Poems: Writing Extraordinary Poems About Ordinary Objects
  Students will recognize the characteristics and format of a shape poem; compile a list of content area terms and sensory images (collaboratively as a class and also independently) that relate to a shape or object, as part of the process of brainstorming a word bank for their shape poem; apply spelling knowledge and strategies when brainstorming words for the word bank and writing and revising their shape poem.
• Slave Narratives: Constructing U.S. History Through Analyzing Primary Sources
  In these activities, students research narratives from the Federal Writers' Project and describe the lives of former African slaves in the U.S. - both before and after emancipation.
• Teaching Language Skills Using the Phone Book
  This lesson from ReadWriteThink uses a phone book to address literacy skills. Through multiple activities built around the everyday text, students will not only learn how the book is arranged, but what the contents are and also how it is used. In the process, students will be using their research and organizational skills to build their own class phone book.
• 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.
• We Must Not Be Enemies: Lincoln's First Inaugural
  This unit, consisting of six separate lessons, will help your students understand the historical context and significance of Lincoln's inaugural address through archival documents such as campaign posters, sheet music, vintage photographs and documents. Students will be able to answer the following questions: How did Lincoln's first inaugural address reflect the events that preceded it? How well did it presage events to follow? How did subsequent actions by Lincoln reflect the responsibilities enumerated in the Presidential Oath of Office?
• 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.
• Writing Poetry Like Pros
  This set of 4 lesson plans from EDSITEment utilizes poetry to serve as the inspiration for some terrific writing. Using poems available through EDSITEment resources, educators can make poetry an exciting teaching and learning tool in the classroom.