← All Standards

Grade 4

• Composition

  • C.4.1
  • C.4.1.a
  • C.4.1.b
  • C.4.1.c
  • C.4.1.d
  • C.4.1.e
  • C.4.1.f
  • C.4.2
  • C.4.2.a
  • C.4.2.b
  • C.4.2.c
  • C.4.2.d
  • C.4.2.e
  • C.4.2.f
  • C.4.2.g
  • C.4.2.h
  • C.4.3
  • C.4.3.a
  • C.4.3.b
  • C.4.3.c
  • C.4.3.e
  • C.4.3.f
  • C.4.3.g
  • C.4.4
  • C.4.5
  • C.4.6
  • C.4.7

• Language

  • L.4.1
  • L.4.1.b
  • L.4.1.c
  • L.4.1.e
  • L.4.1.f
  • L.4.1.g
  • L.4.2
  • L.4.2.c
  • L.4.3
  • L.4.3.a
  • L.4.3.b
  • L.4.3.c
  • L.4.4
  • L.4.4.a
  • L.4.4.b
  • L.4.4.c
  • L.4.4.d
  • L.4.5
  • L.4.5.a
  • L.4.5.b
  • L.4.5.c

• Reading: Foundational Skills

  • RF.4.3
  • RF.4.3.a
  • RF.4.4.a
  • RF.4.4.c

• Reading: Informational

  • RI.4.1
  • RI.4.2
  • RI.4.3
  • RI.4.4
  • RI.4.5
  • RI.4.6
  • RI.4.7
  • RI.4.8
  • RI.4.9
  • RI.4.10

• Reading: Literature

  • RL.4.1
  • RL.4.2
  • RL.4.3
  • RL.4.4
  • RL.4.5
  • RL.4.6
  • RL.4.7
  • RL.4.9
  • RL.4.10

KAS ELA Standard: RL.4.3

Describe in depth a character’s thoughts, words and/or actions, the setting or event(s) in a story or drama, drawing on specific details to analyze their interaction over the course of the text.

Summarize In Haiku

Can your students fit a whole story into seventeen syllables? In a haiku, every word has to fight for its spot.

Comparing Characters

Your young students will compare how two characters have changed in a story.

A Character’s Challenges and Changes

Your 1st and 2nd graders will analyze how a character responded to a challenge.

Characters’ Faults Can Also Be Strengths

Strength and weakness are often two sides of the same coin. Students will explore how a character’s flaw can be a benefit.

Comparing Characters’ Bedrooms

What item’s in a character’s bedroom would reflect their deepest desires? And what if they toured a similar character’s room?

A Character’s Playlist

What playlist of songs best goes with a character’s change over time?

Think Like A Historian

Here’s how effects be causes and causes can be effects!

Analyze Characters Using Philosophy

What is the Brick Pig’s philosophy? How would he apply it to the characters in Harry Potter?

Writing Sample: The Jungle Book (Bagheera)

A passage from The Jungle Book to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.

Characters Dressed as Other Characters for Halloween

What if one character dressed up as another for Halloween? Would the Cat in the Hat pick Captain Jack Sparrow, because they’re both chaotic yet good-natured people? Would Elsa dress up as The Ice King since they are both lonely?

Virtue or Vice?

Aristotle noted that positive traits and negative traits are often the same thing, but just in different amounts. The right amount is a virtue, but too much or too little and it’s a vice.

Writing Sample: The Wind in the Willows

A passage from The Wind in the Willows to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.

Writing Sample: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

A passage from “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.

Writing Sample: Anne of Green Gables

An intriguing passage from Anne of Green Gables to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.

Do Narrators Have Too Much Power?

Imagine being a character in a story. Are you worried that your story’s narrator may inaccurately describe you? What if they reveal something you wanted to be kept secret? Do narrators have too much power!?

Student Introductions With Depth and Frames

Want to introduce the tools of Depth and Complexity and learn more about your students and introduce the Frame graphic organizer? Have I got the activity for you!

More Specific than “Smart”

When students are told that they’re “smart”, what does this word actually mean to them? (Psst. It isn’t what we intended.)

Content Imperatives: Convergence

Add complexity by considering how multiple factors 🔄 Converge within one topic.

Analyze Character Change with Depth and Complexity

Your students will use Depth and Complexity to note how a character’s main trait changes across a story.

Introduce Symbolism with Pixel Art

Create a pixelated icon that represents the essence of a character!

Characters’ Talents and Multiple Intelligences

How do characters from novels line up with Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences?

Literary Technique: Juxtaposition

Put a grumpy character next to a joyful one and they make each other stand out even more. Opposites are powerful!

Motivation and Moral Development

Can someone do the right thing, but for the wrong reason?

Romeo and Juliet Summary

Romeo and Juliet in just about five minutes.

“Much Ado About Nothing” Summary

Shakespeare’s Much Ado summarized in just five minutes!

Hamlet Summary

It’s Hamlet in just about five minutes!

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Nothing could possibly go wrong with a love potion on the loose!

Better Stories Part 5: Plot Structure

Ever read a student’s story that was just event after event after event and then a very sudden ending? They lack an understanding of a plot’s structure. With the help of Finding Nemo, I break down how to set up a well-structured plot.

Better Stories Part 2: Types of Conflict

If your students’ stories are packed with endless ninja fights or arguments between frenemies, it’s time to expose them to a wider range of conflicts.

Better Stories Part 3: Literary Themes

A typical student narrative includes plot and characters but lacks a larger idea to hold it all together. This is where a lesson on themes comes in…

Better Stories Part 4: Character Archetypes

Are students’ characters a bit flat? Archetypes give them a strong foundation on which to build their own characters as well as a tool to analyze existing stories.