4th grade humanities
Writing: This week, learners will wrap up the pre-writing process for their original stories, and prepare to write their narrative drafts next week. Learners will deepen their knowledge of story structure by closely examining the structure of short films and stories, and apply this understanding to expand the outlines of their original stories. Learners will also be introduced to the concept of theme, brainstorm a list of themes, and play a movement game where they will come up with different themes and need remember the movement associated with each theme. Learners will incorporate theme into their original stories by reflecting on the purpose of their story, and what they want to teach the reader. They will return to their story structure outlines and add additional details to clearly convey the theme(s) of their stories.
Learners will also review the narrative writing rubric and practice scoring sample narrative writing pieces to become familiar with specific expectations for their writing and understand how their narrative writing with be graded. The rubric is posted under "Useful Information". Reading: Learners will utilize their understanding of narrative writing elements and story structure to compare and contrast legends, myths, and/or folktales. Learners will consider how the characters, settings, problem, and plot/main ideas are similar or different in each story, and complete a T-chart graphic organizer. We will also continue reading Morning Girl as a class. Learners will respond to comprehension questions through verbal discussion while we are reading, and answer one comprehension question in writing at the end of each chapter. Social Studies: This week, learners will play Jeopardy! Learners will utilize their notes on Native Americans to help their team answer questions about tribes that lived in the four different regions of what is now California.
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Writing: This week, 4th grade learners will be continuing our narrative writing unit by diving into dialogue and story structure! We will be utilizing a variety of learning styles to bring together the parts of a story. This will include further development of characters and setting, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution. We will begin with activities and assignments that focus on developing each of these essential aspects to a narrative writing piece. Then, learners will set to work on building their own unique story.
We will also be continuing our class read, Morning Girl, by Michael Dorris. Learners will apply their background knowledge of Native Americans in California to deepen their understanding of the historical and cultural context of the story. This will be read aloud in class to build student fluency with both reading and speaking. Students will also work on conveying emotion through their spoken word and how to become better orators in front of their peers. Writing: This week, learners will put their understanding of Writer's Workshop into practice as we begin our narrative writing unit. This unit will break down the structural elements of narrative writing, starting with setting, character traits, and dialogue this week. Leaners will use the five senses to describe various settings through adjectives and illustrations to more deeply reflect on all the components that make up the setting in a story. Learners will also utilize descriptive language to begin developing characters in preparation for writing their own original story. Learners will reflect on their character's appearance, challenges/problems, accomplishments, likes and dislikes, and background. Learners will then work in partners to practice using dialogue by writing a conversation between their characters.
This week, we will also begin our class read, Morning Girl, by Michael Dorris. This will be read in conjunction with our social studies unit on California Indians. Learners will engage in discussion while we read, and respond to comprehension questions in their writer's notebooks. Social Studies: Learners will develop their knowledge of Native American tribes in the four main regions of California: Northern Coastal, Southern Coastal, Central Valley and Mountains, and Desert. Learners will work in small groups to read an informational text on one of the regions, and create a poster highlighting important information. Learners will then display their posters for a gallery walk, where learners will visit posters from all four regions and take notes. This week, learners will be introduced to the structure of Writer's Workshop, discuss what Writer's Workshop should look, sound, and feel like, and collaboratively develop a set of class agreements specifically for Writer's Workshop. Learners will also create "heart maps" to reflect on what people, places, and things have important roles in their lives. Learners can refer to these maps throughout the year to inspire their writing.
We will begin our first social studies unit this week: California Indians. In partners, learners will read informational passages and respond to questions to begin building background knowledge about the first Californians for our class read Morning Girl by Michael Dorris, which will be begin reading this week. Learners will also have a brief introduction to our first writing unit: narrative writing. As a class, we will read aloud The Rough-Face Girl by Rafe Martin, and discuss the basic narrative elements in the book, including plot, characters and setting. |
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May 2018
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