English Language Arts — Grade 4

Weaving picture books into narrative writing

Children's picture books are the perfect medium for mini-lessons in narrative writing. Teachers provide books which demonstrate the qualities the students need to develop in their own writing.

Format: lesson plan (grade 4 English Language Arts)

By Jan Caldwell.

Walking in the woods with Owl Moon

This is an integrated project using the book Owl Moon by Jane Yolen. Students will use the story to write a personal narrative, understand the elements of a story, and practice answering open-ended questions.

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

By Birty Lightner.

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 and Social Studies)

By Ricky Hamilton.

Saving the environment through picture books

This lesson looks at environmental issues and man's relationship to the environment over time using main ideas and supporting details. The content comes from two picture books: Brother Eagle, Sister Sky and A River Ran Wild.

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

By Libba Sager.

Pigs and wolf on a map!

The students will construct a Double Bubble Map to compare and contrast two versions of a familiar fairytale.

Format: lesson plan (grade 1–4 English Language Arts)

By Cherry Randall.

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.

Description as mind control: Using details to help readers visualize your story

Good writers help their readers visualize their stories by including vivid details. Students will listen to passages from Gary Paulsen's novel Hatchet, draw one of the images from the passage, and identify which details Paulsen uses to create these images.

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

By DPI Writing Strategies.

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 3–5 English Language Arts and Social Studies)

By Jeanne Munoz.

Cloudy with a chance of... what?

Students will enjoy reading about a town where no one ever goes hungry because the sky provides food while learning about weather, healthy and unhealthy foods, and creating a database.

Format: lesson plan (grade 2–4 English Language Arts, Healthful Living, and Science)

By BJ Larson and Paula Sharpe.

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 ABC books to enhance reading comprehension

After reading a piece of literature, students explore the text, searching for literary elements such as characters, setting, figures of speech, and themes. They use the alphabet to organize their findings and publish their work in ABC books, using the Alphabet... (Learn more)

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

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

What's in a mystery? Exploring and identifying mystery elements

This lesson teaches students about plot structure, character, and setting through an exploration of mystery books. Prior to reading a mystery book to the class, the teacher engages students in a brainstorming activity about the characteristics of the mystery... (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

Using picture books to teach setting development in writing workshop

In this lesson from ReadWriteThink, students examine the craft of developing the setting of a story through focused experiences with picture books. Students carefully analyze setting portrayal using the text and illustrations as cues, and tools including... (Learn more)

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

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Using picture books to teach plot development and conflict resolution

In this lesson, students examine story books as an introduction to plot and conflict. After students have a working definition of conflict in literature, they identify the conflict in several children’s books. Then, as a class, students present the conflict... (Learn more)

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

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Using picture books to teach characterization in writing workshop

The teacher introduces this activity with a mini-lesson on how to revise a piece of writing. Through the careful analysis of character portrayal and the use of online tools such as the ReadWriteThink Story Map, students work in collaborative groups to identify... (Learn more)

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

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Rudyard Kipling's "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi": Mixing words and pictures

In this EDSITEment lesson, the second of a two-part curriculum unit on Rudyard Kipling's story “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi,” students demonstrate comprehension of plot events and character motivations, describe the author's purpose and evaluate the techniques... (Learn more)

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

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Rudyard Kipling's "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi": Mixing fact and fiction

In this EDSITEment lesson, the first of a two-part curriculum unit on Rudyard Kipling, students identify key events in Kipling's life and describe their effect on his story “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” (part of The Jungle Book). Students... (Learn more)

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

Provided by: EDSITEment

Question and answer books—From genre study to report writing

Students explore question and answer books in this lesson to determine how the format and content of this genre is different from narrative texts. After the teacher finishes a read-aloud of two question and answer books that are different in content, students... (Learn more)

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

Provided by: ReadWriteThink