Grade 4 English Language Arts
16 units matched to the Alberta Curriculum. Kids see this subject as “Reading & Writing”.
Organizing ideas
- Listening and speaking build relationships and understanding.
- Reading aloud with emphasis, pausing, phrasing and intonation shows that you understand the text.
- Reading strategies help readers understand fiction and non-fiction texts.
- Texts have a purpose, a form and a structure, and these shape how they share ideas and information.
- Writing shares information and personal expression, and concise writing uses grammar, spelling and punctuation well.
- Information is accessed, shared and stored ethically, on paper or on a device.
Units
Unit 1
Listen, Speak & Read Aloud
Good listening and speaking habits (taking turns, asking questions, speaking clearly) and reading aloud with pauses at punctuation, stress on key words and a voice that rises or falls with the meaning.
Learning outcome: Demonstrate listening and speaking that build relationships and understanding; Demonstrate appropriate emphasis on words, pausing, phrasing, and intonation that reflect comprehension of text. · listening, speaking in a group, and reading aloud with pauses and expression
Unit 2
Reading Detectives
Reading short original stories and articles, then finding the main idea and key details, making inferences from clues, working out word meanings and choosing the best summary.
Learning outcome: Examine and apply strategies that support text comprehension. · using strategies to understand and make inferences about a text
Unit 3
Text Features
Using the parts of a nonfiction book to find information: reading a table of contents and index, knowing what glossaries, captions, labels and timelines are for, and choosing headings.
Learning outcome: Identify the purpose, form, and structure of a variety of texts and how they can communicate ideas and information. · text features that help readers find information
Unit 4
Clues in Texts
Understanding hyperlinks, bold and italic type, labels and captions, telling who is narrating, spotting personification, and tracing causes and effects.
Learning outcome: Identify the purpose, form, and structure of a variety of texts and how they can communicate ideas and information. · headings, captions, diagrams and other text features
Unit 5
Figurative Language
Spotting similes, metaphors, personification, onomatopoeia and alliteration (plus hyperbole at the stretch level), and explaining what figurative phrases really mean.
Learning outcome: Identify the purpose, form, and structure of a variety of texts and how they can communicate ideas and information. · similes, metaphors and other figurative language
Unit 6
Point of View
Telling first-person stories (I, me, we) from third-person stories (he, she, they), finding pronoun clues, and noticing when dialogue uses “I” in a third-person story.
Learning outcome: Identify the purpose, form, and structure of a variety of texts and how they can communicate ideas and information. · who is telling the story and how that shapes the text
Unit 7
Parts of Speech
Naming the job each word does in a sentence, with a focus on Grade 4's pronouns, adverbs, prepositions and conjunctions. Easier levels stick to nouns, verbs, adjectives and pronouns.
Learning outcome: Examine and apply grammar, spelling, and punctuation to develop concise written communication. · nouns, verbs, adjectives and other parts of speech
Unit 8
Grammar Gears
Choosing who, which, that and whose, using have, has and had with the right verb form, telling questions from commands, and using my, your, their, this and these.
Learning outcome: Examine and apply grammar, spelling, and punctuation to develop concise written communication. · grammar that makes writing clear
Unit 9
Super Sentences
Joining sentences with and, but, or and so; spotting and fixing fragments and run-ons; and choosing verbs that agree with the subject and match the tense.
Learning outcome: Examine and apply grammar, spelling, and punctuation to develop concise written communication. · writing clear, complete and varied sentences
Unit 10
Sentence Builders
Spotting independent and dependent clauses and prepositional phrases, joining ideas into compound and complex sentences, and fixing run-ons and fragments.
Learning outcome: Examine and apply grammar, spelling, and punctuation to develop concise written communication. · building and combining sentences
Unit 11
Punctuation Power
Writing possessives (the dog's bone, the girls' bikes, the children's toys), placing commas in dates, places and lists, and punctuating dialogue with quotation marks.
Learning outcome: Examine and apply grammar, spelling, and punctuation to develop concise written communication. · punctuation that clarifies writing
Unit 12
Punctuation Power
Capitalizing words like Canadian and French, using commas when talking to someone by name, and putting quotation marks around the titles of poems, songs and chapters.
Learning outcome: Examine and apply grammar, spelling, and punctuation to develop concise written communication. · commas, quotation marks and other punctuation
Unit 13
Word Builders
Using word parts to work out meanings: prefixes like re- and mis-, suffixes like -able and -ment, finding the base word, and (at the stretch level) roots such as port and tele.
Learning outcome: Examine and apply grammar, spelling, and punctuation to develop concise written communication. · spelling and building words with prefixes, suffixes and roots
Unit 14
Sound-Alikes
Choosing between words that sound alike (there/their/they're, to/too/two, its/it's) and using context to tell which meaning of a word like “bark” or “bow” is meant.
Learning outcome: Examine and apply grammar, spelling, and punctuation to develop concise written communication. · spelling homophones and other tricky words
Unit 15
Paragraph Power
Choosing topic and concluding sentences, finding the sentence that doesn't belong, using transition words, identifying cause and effect, and putting sentences in order.
Learning outcome: Create a variety of written texts to share information and develop personal expression. · writing paragraphs that share information
Unit 16
Sharing Information Fairly
How to find trusted sources, put ideas in your own words, give credit, ask permission before sharing, keep personal information private and save work safely, on paper or on a device.
Learning outcome: Access, share, and store information ethically in a variety of digital or non-digital forms. · using trusted sources, giving credit, keeping personal information private and saving work
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