English Language Arts — Grade 4

Jazzy sentences

This is an interesting activity to help students jazz up or make their sentences more interesting by adding adjectives, adverbs, more vibrant verbs, and descriptive nouns.

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

By Helen Potts.

"I Spy": Using adjectives and descriptive phrases

Students will review definitions for adjectives, learn and practice sensory adjectives and imagery, and use adjectives and descriptive phrases in writing a paragraph and/or story.

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

By Elizabeth Hutchens.

Great endings

Sometimes authors end their stories with a memory, a feeling, a wish, or a hope. Other times they end the story by referring back to the language of the beginning. In this lesson, students will examine the characteristics of good endings by reading good endings of narrative picture books. They will then practice writing good endings for their own narratives.

Format: lesson plan (grade 2–4 English Language Arts)

By DPI Writing Strategies.

Great beginnings

Good beginnings hook readers and make them want to continue reading. Students will learn the features of good beginnings by reading the beginnings of several narrative picturebooks, and then writing good beginnings for their own narratives.

Format: lesson plan (grade 4 English Language Arts)

By DPI Writing Strategies.

First draft/final draft

Students will compare paragraphs with and without elaboration and descriptive details. They will learn how to revise their own writing by adding descriptive details such as adjectives, adverbs, concrete nouns, and precise verbs.

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

By DPI Writing Strategies.

Exciting narrative endings

This lesson emphasizes the importance of a strong ending for a narrative essay and teaches students specific items to include in their endings.

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

By Ann Jolly.

Discovering just the right word

Precise word choice helps show the reader a story and not just tell a story. The purpose of this series of lessons is to help students improve their writing style by strengthening word choice at the word and sentence level by adding adverbs, precise verbs, and specific nouns.

Format: lesson plan (grade 4 English Language Arts)

By DPI Writing Strategies.

Chronology: The time of my life

In Intrigue of the Past, page 1.6

In their study of chronology the students will use personal timelines and an activity sheet to demonstrate the importance of intact information to achieve accuracy, and compare and contrast their timelines with the chronological information contained in a stratified archaeological site.

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

Bubble gum rubric scoring

This lesson is intended to help children more clearly understand rubrics and how the State of North Carolina grades the writing test.

Format: lesson plan (grade 4 English Language Arts)

By Becky Donatelli.

Awesome action words

Good writers use precise verbs to make stories interesting and vivid. In this lesson, students will learn to replace boring, redundant, generic verbs with more precise “Awesome Action Words.”

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

By DPI Writing Strategies.

Appositive action

Appositives are descriptive phrases, set off by commas, that modify a noun or noun phrase. Using appositives helps writers create sentences that are smoother and less choppy. In this lesson, students will learn to combine 2 or more descriptive sentences and action sentences into one sentence with an appositive phrase.

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

By DPI Writing Strategies.

Adding emotions to your story

One way to make stories even better is to show emotions, and not just tell them. In this lesson, students will use actions, gestures, and facial expressions to act out emotions.

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

By DPI Writing Strategies.

Action chains

Students learn to elaborate on an event in a narrative by expanding their sentences into action chains. Expanding single actions into an action chain provides the reader with a more detailed picture of an event in a narrative.

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

By DPI Writing Strategies.

Resources on the web

When I was young in... A literature to language experience

In this ReadWriteThink lesson, appropriate for English language learners, students read Cynthia Rylant's When I Was Young in the Mountains and learn about past tense through a writing activity. Prior to teaching this lesson,... (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

Using writing and role-play to engage the reluctant writer

In this lesson from ReadWriteThink, students explore the different characters in the story The Three Little Javalinas and then select one of the characters to write a letter to the author in role. Writing in role allows students to understand... (Learn more)

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

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Using word storms to explore vocabulary and encourage critical thinking

Students are introduced to the concept of working dogs in this lesson that focuses on reading multiple texts, developing reading strategies, and learning the writing process. After introducing the concept of working dogs to students, the teacher challenges... (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

Powerful writing: Description in creating monster trading cards

In this lesson, students explore descriptive writing by producing original monster trading cards. Students create imaginative names for monsters, while also stressing the use of vivid details in their description of their creations. Trading cards must include... (Learn more)

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

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Peer review: Narrative

Student response to a peer's draft during response groups is often vague and ineffective. This ReadWriteThink lesson describes the PQP technique (Praise-Question-Polish) which requires group members to take a turn reading their drafts aloud as the other... (Learn more)

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

Provided by: ReadWriteThink