English Language Arts — Grade 4

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)

By Alisa McAlister, Sherry French, and Harnetha Hudgins.

Sweet Potato Fun

These activities allow students to gain knowledge of the North Carolina state vegetable and have fun while doing it! Activities include describing, analyzing and comparing facts about sweet potatoes, creative writing and dramatization, taste testing and completing an online scavenger hunt.

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

By Amy Luna and Kathy Beck.

"Write On!!!" --"Hooking the Reader"

Students will recognize new and innovative ways to write a narrative by discovering various ways to "hook" the reader with catchy beginnings and using figurative language and writing components to write an interesting story.

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

By Tina Duckwall.

Lesson plans on the web

All about our town: Using brochures to teach informational writing

In this lesson, students create brochures that explore their towns and the landmarks, symbols, and people that make them unique places to live. (Learn more)

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

Provider: IRA/NCTE

Buzz! Whiz! Bang! Using comic books to teach onomatopoeia

This lesson uses comic strips to introduce students to onomatopoeia, words that imitate the natural sound associated with an action or an object. (Learn more)

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

Provider: IRA/NCTE

Composing cinquain poems with basic parts of speech

Students learn to compose original cinquain poems in this lesson that follows a unit on parts of speech. (Learn more)

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

Provider: IRA/NCTE

Dancing minds and shouting smiles: Teaching personification through poetry

In this lesson, students learn about personification by reading and discussing poems by Emily Dickinson, William Blake, and Langston Hughes. (Learn more)

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

Provider: IRA/NCTE

Dear Librarian: Writing a persuasive letter

Inspired by the actions in Beverly Cleary’s book Emily’s Runaway Imagination, in this lesson plan, students write to their school librarian, requesting that a specific text be added to the library collection. (Learn more)

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

Provider: IRA/NCTE

Exploring world cultures through folk tales

This lesson helps foster an atmosphere of inquiry and appreciation for other cultures as students learn about and read various folk tales from around the world. (Learn more)

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

Provider: IRA/NCTE

Guided comprehension: Evaluating using the meeting of the minds technique

Students learn how to evaluate information using the meeting of the minds technique, a strategy that teaches them to act out the opposing views of two or more characters in an oral debate or interview format. (Learn more)

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

Provider: IRA/NCTE

Integrating literacy into the study of the Earth's surface

In this lesson that incorporates trade books, read-alouds, and dialogue journals, students are introduced to the bodies of water on the Earth's surface, including ponds, streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans. (Learn more)

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

Provider: IRA/NCTE

Our classroom: Writing an owner's manual

This lesson helps to establish a sense of community with students collaboratively writing an “owner’s manual” that describes expectations and guidelines for the classroom. (Learn more)

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

Provider: IRA/NCTE

Poetry from prose

In this lesson, students and teacher pick a descriptive passage from a piece of prose and select words and phrases from the prose to create a found poem. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 3 English Language Arts)

Provider: IRA/NCTE

A race with grace: Sports poetry in motion

In this lesson, students explore the grace and beauty of motion in sports by examining examples from their own experiences and from popular media, writing in reflective journals, viewing and interpreting media, conducting Internet research, taking digital photographs, and creating original poems. (Learn more)

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

Provider: IRA/NCTE

Voting! What's it all about?

Students explore the difference between fact and opinion in the context of the history of voting, voting as a civil right, and current elections. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 4–5 English Language Arts and Computer Technology Skills)

Provider: IRA/NCTE

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

In this lesson, students identify the characteristics of mystery writing in class discussions, outline a mystery story using a graphic organizer, write and revise a mystery story on their own, and edit each other's work. (Learn more)

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

Provider: IRA/NCTE

Who's got mail? Using literature to promote authentic letter writing

This brief activity uses literature and shared writing to teach letter-writing format and promote authentic letter writing. (Learn more)

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

Provider: IRA/NCTE