English Language Arts Grade 4 [2011]

• Character Detectives: Gathering Evidence
  In this video lesson, students examine characters' speech, actions, thoughts, and feelings. (4 minutes)
• Characters in Because of Winn-Dixie: Making Lists of Ten
  Students will discuss characters and characterization in a text; work in cooperative groups; use a bookmark to document their findings while reading; identify and analyze the listing technique presented in Because of Winn-Dixie; create a list of ten things about a character.
• Demonstrating Comprehension Through Journal Writing
  Students will Listen to a story and respond in writing; learn and use several comprehension strategies including self-questioning, retelling, predicting, summarizing, and assuming the role of a character to respond to questions in journal format; share journal responses orally to stimulate discussion, express opinions, and deepen their understanding of the story.
• Diamante Poems
  A diamante poem is a poem in the shape of a diamond. It doesn't have to rhyme but each line uses specific types of words like adjectives or -ing words. You and the computer can make a diamante poem together.
• Exploring Ancient World Cultures
  Includes information about Egypt, Greece, Rome, China, India, the Near East, Early Islam, and Europe including a chronology, essays, images, internet links, and electronic texts for each.
• Gathering Evidence
  This Teaching Channel video helps students examine characters' speech, actions, thoughts, and feelings. (4 minutes)
• History in Quilts
  Throughout history, women and sometimes men have used the art of quilting for many diverse purposes: to keep warm, to decorate their homes, to express their political views, to remember a loved one. Heighten your students' awareness of how quilts have reflected and continue to reflect the lives of the people who create them, and of how quilts record the cultural history of a particular place and time. This theme of History in Quilts contains two separate lessons that can stand alone or be taught in conjunction with one another.
• I Hear the Locomotives
  In this lesson, found on the EDSITEment website, students analyze archival material in order to make connections between the arrival of the railroads and many of the changes that occurred subsequently in the United States and its territories. They learn how the development of the Transcontinental Railroad brought about an increase in hide hunting and so the demise of the Native American tribes dependent on the buffalo herds, and they examine documents relating to other economic and social upheavals brought about by this revolution in travel. From this introductory page teachers can access archival materials needed to complete the lesson.
• Shape Poems
  A shape poem is a poem about an object or thing. It is written in the shape of the object. Make a poem in the shape of a star, a leaf, heart, fish or other shape.
• 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.
• Telling a Story Through Dance
  In this lesson plan students learn that dancing is one way to tell a story.