English Language Arts — Grade 4

Visualizations: Black poet, Langston Hughes

Third grade or fourth grade students will have an opportunity to read and appreciate selected poetry of the African-American poet, Langston Hughes.

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–4 English Language Arts and Information Skills)

By Floanna Long.

Strategy lesson: KWL

This lesson activates students' prior knowledge about famous North Carolinians and helps them organize thoughts and questions before they read biographies.

Format: lesson plan (grade 4 English Language Arts and Information Skills)

By Alisa McAlister, Sherry French, and Harnetha Hudgins.

Storytelling with Cherokee folktales

This is a two day lesson pertaining to telling Cherokee folktales. This lesson can be modified and used with any folktale.

Format: lesson plan (grade 4 English Language Arts)

By Ricky Hamilton.

Storytellers in the Mountains of North Carolina

Students will study five famous North Carolina storytellers: Jackie Torrence, Ray Hicks, Donald Davis, David Holt, and Sheila Kay Adams. They will research how their stories were collected and how they developed their storytelling styles that distinguish them from other tellers.

Format: lesson plan (grade 4 English Language Arts and Social Studies)

By Martha Hayes.

Slipsliding poetry

Students will work with a partner to write an original piece of poetry to express information learned about the rain forest and an animal that lives in that habitat. Students will share their poems by creating a multimedia slide show.

Format: lesson plan (grade 4 English Language Arts and Science)

By Angela Hodges.

Operation beach teach

This lesson is the introduction to an integrated marine science unit which culminates in an early fall trip to Hammocks Beach State Park. (See attachment: Pre-Activity). The unit is designed to hook students into science and provide joyful learning experiences across the curriculum.

Format: lesson plan (grade 4 Visual Arts Education, English Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies)

By Melissa Tukey.

Observing connections: Art, poetry and the environment (Lesson 1)

Students will explore the poem of Pat Lowery Collins, “I Am An Artist” and create their own poem from what they see and experience. They will then illustrate their poems with a visual design. This is the first lesson in a series of three in which students are creating art based on their observations: Observing Connections —Art, Poetry, and the Environment (Lesson 1); Observing Connections—Changing Landscapes (Lesson 2); Observing Connections—North Carolina Pottery and Face Jugs (Lesson 3)

Format: lesson plan (grade 4–5 Visual Arts Education and English Language Arts)

By Lisa Mitchell.

North Carolina Cherokee Indians: The Trail of Tears

In this two week unit, students will study the Cherokee by participating in literature circles, learning about Native American story telling, writing a letter to Andrew Jackson to protest against the Creek War, and more.

Format: lesson plan (grade 4–5 English Language Arts and Social Studies)

By Gina Golden.

North Carolina American Indian stories

In this lesson students will select and read stories from some of the North Carolina American Indian tribes. They will compare and contrast two stories of their choice and complete a Venn diagram. Students will use the information on the Venn diagram to write three paragraphs. After reading several American Indian tales or legends, students will then create their own legend using the narrative writing process.

Format: lesson plan (grade 4 English Language Arts and Social Studies)

By Janice Gardner.

A million fish... Serving up exaggeration

Students will become familiar with the term "exaggeration" and how it can be used in stories to catch the reader's attention. Students will create narrative stories of their own using exaggeration.

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–4 English Language Arts)

By Jennie McGuire.

Lumbee learning

In Teaching about North Carolina American Indians, page 3.2

Introduction Education for the Lumbee tribe has always been important. After Reconstruction ended and the state of North Carolina began its journey to educate its people, no provisions were made for American Indians. Segregated schools provided education...

Format: lesson plan (grade 4 and 8 English Language Arts and Second Languages)

By Gazelia Carter.

Kid-created biographies

In this lesson plan, the students will create biographies on the people they know best-- their teachers! The students will use various skills to collect information, organize details, publish the biographies and present the information.

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–4 Computer/Technology Skills, English Language Arts, and Information Skills)

By Gregg Farr, Lynn Beatty, and Tricia Freeze.

Introducing simple machines: A machine walk

This is an integrated lesson exploring simple machines. The poetry response part of this lesson serves to spark the students' interest as well as allow the teacher to identify students' prior knowledge of machine concepts and vocabulary. The machine walk gives a baseline assessment of students' understanding. The majority of students originally focus on complex machines; this will be evident by the types of machines they identify on their list.

Format: lesson plan (grade 4 English Language Arts)

By Terri Fannin.

The five themes of me

Students will demonstrate their understanding of the five themes of geography through literature-based integrated activities to spotlight how they are represented in each. They will also work on language/writing skills and computer competencies while enjoying a little art along the way!

Format: lesson plan (grade 4 English Language Arts and Social Studies)

By Catherine Hazelton.

Connecting folktales and culture in North Carolina and beyond

Students will explore connections to North Carolina culture as they engage in reading and analyzing three folktales of North Carolina Literary Festival author, William Hooks. After comparing these stories to other versions of the traditional tales, students will become authors and storytellers themselves as they rewrite a tale from a new cultural point of view. Opportunities are also included to extend this study to world cultures and folktales.

Format: lesson plan (grade 4 English Language Arts and Social Studies)

By Jeanne Munoz.

Bubba: A Cinderella story

This lesson focuses on the whimsical interpretation of the Cinderella story. Students explore the story Bubba, the Cowboy Prince, through rich text and interpretations of the story.

Format: lesson plan (grade 4 English Language Arts and English Language Development)

By Jennifer Fessler and Karen Wright.

The big, bad, red wolf: Fact and fantasy

This lesson will explore the myths and legends surrounding wolves. We will also investigate factual information about the endangered red wolf.

Format: lesson plan (grade 4 English Language Arts and Science)

By steven sather.

Resources on the web

Writing Poetry Like Pros

This set of four 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. ... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–5 English Language Arts)

Provided by: EDSITEment

Writing and assessing an autobiographical incident

In this lesson from ReadWriteThink, students will build upon their knowledge of biographies to write their own autobiographical incident. Students will be given a rubric and shown several examples. They will then complete the writing process and share their... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–5 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

What makes poetry? Exploring line breaks

In this lesson, students read several poems and experiment with line breaks and how they affect rhythm, sound, meaning, appearance, and can substitute for punctuation in poetry. After students brainstorm and discuss characteristics of poetry, they look... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–5 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink