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Grade 4

• Strand 1

  • 4.1.A
  • 4.1.B
  • 4.1.C
  • 4.1.D

• Strand 2

  • 4.2.A
  • 4.2.A.i
  • 4.2.A.ii
  • 4.2.A.iii
  • 4.2.A.iv
  • 4.2.A.v
  • 4.2.A.vi
  • 4.2.B
  • 4.2.B.i
  • 4.2.B.ii
  • 4.2.B.iii
  • 4.2.B.iv
  • 4.2.B.v
  • 4.2.B.vi
  • 4.2.C

• Strand 3

  • 4.3.A
  • 4.3.B
  • 4.3.C
  • 4.3.D

• Strand 4

  • 4.4

• Strand 5

  • 4.5

• Strand 6

  • 4.6.A
  • 4.6.B
  • 4.6.C
  • 4.6.D
  • 4.6.E
  • 4.6.F
  • 4.6.G
  • 4.6.H
  • 4.6.I

• Strand 7

  • 4.7.A
  • 4.7.B
  • 4.7.C
  • 4.7.D
  • 4.7.E
  • 4.7.F
  • 4.7.G

• Strand 8

  • 4.8.A
  • 4.8.B
  • 4.8.C
  • 4.8.D

• Strand 9

  • 4.9.A
  • 4.9.B
  • 4.9.C
  • 4.9.D
  • 4.9.D.i
  • 4.9.D.ii
  • 4.9.D.iii
  • 4.9.E
  • 4.9.E.i
  • 4.9.E.ii
  • 4.9.E.iii
  • 4.9.F

• Strand 10

  • 4.10.A
  • 4.10.B
  • 4.10.C
  • 4.10.D
  • 4.10.E
  • 4.10.F
  • 4.10.G

• Strand 11

  • 4.11.A
  • 4.11.B
  • 4.11.B.i
  • 4.11.B.ii
  • 4.11.C
  • 4.11.D
  • 4.11.D.i
  • 4.11.D.ii
  • 4.11.D.iii
  • 4.11.D.iv
  • 4.11.D.v
  • 4.11.D.vi
  • 4.11.D.vii
  • 4.11.D.viii
  • 4.11.D.ix
  • 4.11.D.x
  • 4.11.D.xi
  • 4.11.E

• Strand 12

  • 4.12.A
  • 4.12.B
  • 4.12.C
  • 4.12.D

• Strand 13

  • 4.13.A
  • 4.13.B
  • 4.13.C
  • 4.13.D
  • 4.13.E
  • 4.13.F
  • 4.13.G
  • 4.13.H

TEKS ELA Standard: 4.12.C

compose argumentative texts, including opinion essays, using genre characteristics and craft

Order and Chaos: Recipe or Instinct?

Two cooks make the same dinner. One follows the recipe to the exact gram. The other just throws things in by feel. Whose food turns out better — the ordered cook or the chaotic cook?

Order and Chaos: The Perfect Heartbeat

A heartbeat sounds steady, but a perfectly regular one is a warning sign — healthy hearts speed up and slow down a little. Is a healthy heart ordered or chaotic?

Order and Chaos: The Shuffle

Shuffling follows exact steps to make cards random. Are you creating chaos, or doing something very orderly?

Order and Chaos: No Traffic Lights

One town runs its intersections with signals. Another has no lights at all — drivers just work it out. Which town’s traffic is more orderly?

Order and Chaos: The Snowflake

A snowflake always has six sides, yet no two have ever matched. Is a snowflake order, or chaos?

Systems: Grandpa’s Axe

Grandpa’s axe broke, so he put on a new head. Years later the handle cracked, so he replaced that too. Now no original piece is left. Is it still the same axe, or a new one?

Systems: The Thermostat

A thermostat fights to keep a room the same — open a window and it just cranks the heat to undo you. In a system that pushes back like that, can you ever really change just one thing?

Systems: Watch vs. Forest

A watch stops dead if one tiny gear breaks. A forest can lose a whole species and barely notice. Which is the better-built system — the one where every part matters, or the one where no part is essential?

Systems: The Traffic Jam

Picture a jam where no one crashed and no one even stopped on purpose — everyone crawls for an hour, then it clears for no reason. Did anyone actually cause this traffic jam?

Systems: Pull One Thread

A sweater is really one long thread looped a thousand times. Pull the right loose end and the whole thing unravels in seconds. So is a system like that strong or fragile?

Change: The Caterpillar’s Bargain

To become a butterfly, a caterpillar doesn’t just sprout wings — inside the cocoon it dissolves into liquid first, almost nothing left, then rebuilds. Would you trade everything you are now to become something far greater?

Change: The Sealed Jar

You love a flower so much you seal it in a jar to keep it exactly as it is, forever. A month later it’s brown and crumbling. Did sealing it stop the change, or just hide it?

Change: The Tree’s Scar

A nail got hammered into a young tree. The tree didn’t push it out — it grew around it, sealing the nail inside a knot of new wood. Was that change the tree healing, or the tree getting damaged?

Change: One Domino

You nudge one domino. It tips the next, which tips two more, which tip four, until a thousand have fallen. Did you cause one change, or a thousand?

Change: Canyon vs. Earthquake

It took a river six million years to carve the Grand Canyon. An earthquake can drop a cliff into the sea in ten seconds. Which one changed the land more — the slow river or the fast quake?

Earth’s Layers: Who Contributes The Most?

Earth’s layers will disagree about which one contributes the most to the planet’s success.

Holiday Shuffle – Day vs Date

Wouldn’t some holidays be better on a certain day of the week? Should Thanksgiving have a set date?

Discussing An Important Decision from History

How would people with two different perspectives discuss a decision from history?

Chess Variant: Monster Chess

What if you had really weak chess pieces, but you could always move twice?

Charge of the Light Brigade – Chess Variant

What if one side played with THREE QUEENS and the other had SEVEN KNIGHTS!? What if?

Horde Chess Variant

What if one player had, say, 32 pawns?

Propaganda and Logical Fallacies

Let’s see how propaganda techniques can make even something great seem bad.

Teaching Criticism

For Teachers

Ask students to go beyond “I don’t like it” and form critical opinions based on a set of criteria. Students can produce written arguments or turn their opinion into oral presentations.