4th grade English Language Arts
14 units matched to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). Kids see this subject as “Reading & Writing”.
Focus areas
- Foundational language skills: roots such as auto, graph and meter, homophones and spelling rules
- Comprehension, response and genres: tall tales, myths, plays, plot structure and summaries
- Author's purpose and craft, and composition: figurative language, point of view and anecdote, and editing sentences
- Inquiry and research: asking questions, finding sources and sharing what you learn
Units
Unit 1
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.
TEKS student expectation: 4.6(G); 4.7(D) · key ideas, details and summaries
Unit 2
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.
TEKS student expectation: 4.9(D); 4.10(C) · headings, glossaries, maps and indexes
Unit 3
Figurative Language
Spotting similes, metaphors, personification, onomatopoeia and alliteration (plus hyperbole at the stretch level), and explaining what figurative phrases really mean.
TEKS student expectation: 4.9(B); 4.10(D) · similes, metaphors and idioms
Unit 4
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.
TEKS student expectation: 4.10(E) · first- and third-person narration
Unit 5
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.
TEKS student expectation: 4.11(D) · pronouns, adverbs and other parts of speech
Unit 6
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.
TEKS student expectation: 4.11(D) · compound sentences, fragments and run-ons
Unit 7
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.
TEKS student expectation: 4.2(A); 4.3(C) · prefixes, suffixes and roots such as auto, graph and meter
Unit 8
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.
TEKS student expectation: 4.2(B); 4.3(D) · homophones and homographs
Unit 9
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.
TEKS student expectation: 4.11(B); 4.12(B) · topic sentences, details and transitions
Unit 10
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.
TEKS student expectation: 4.11(D) · relative pronouns and verb forms
Unit 11
Media and Sources
Children practice naming the target audience and purpose of a message, spotting techniques like close-ups and “hurry” words, telling facts from opinions, searching with keywords and judging whether a source is reliable.
TEKS student expectation: 4.9(F); 4.13(C) · searching, judging sources and reading the purpose of media messages
Unit 12
Spelling Rules
Children practice US spelling rules for adding endings (doubling, dropping e, changing y to i), plurals and common tricky words.
TEKS student expectation: 4.2(B) · spelling with rules for endings, plurals and common words
Unit 13
Firsthand or Secondhand?
Children practice telling firsthand accounts (diaries, letters, interviews) from secondhand ones (textbooks, reports, biographies) and what each kind shows best.
TEKS student expectation: 4.13(D); 4.7(B) · comparing firsthand and secondhand accounts of the same event
Unit 14
Tall Tales, Myths & Plays
Your child tells tall tales, myths and legends apart, reads the parts of a play (character tags, acts, scenes, stage directions) and explains why writers use anecdotes.
TEKS student expectation: 4.9(A); 4.9(C); 4.10(G) · tall tales, myths, legends, the structure of plays, and anecdotes
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