VT After School Advantage ELA for 4th Graders

Grade 4

This series is designed for 4th-grade students who may benefit from the added challenge of accelerated instruction of Common Core 4th grade and 5th grade English Language Arts skills that will form the essential foundation for success in the next grade and beyond.

The fall semester will emphasize fluency and a deep understanding of the 4th grade ELA skills that will form the essential foundation for reading and writing success in 5th grade and beyond. Classes will focus on determining a theme of a story, drama, or poem, describing characters, settings, or events, and describing the overall structure of a text.

October: Accelerated 4th Grade Reading: Determine a Theme of a Story, Drama, or Poem

This month, students will expand their understanding of stories and describe the theme within a story. Using literature-based texts, students will infer what theme (lesson or message) can be learned from the story and how it could be applied to their own lives. Students will use key details to infer this information.

November: Accelerated 4th Grade Reading: Describe in Depth a Character, Setting, or Event in a Story or Drama

This month, students will dive deeper into their knowledge of characters and events. In previous years, students have focused on identifying characters and events. In 4th grade, students explore how characters respond to events differently and focus on their traits, motivations, and feelings. The characters’ responses can be compared and contrasted as the events and challenges in the story unfold. Students will focus on how the character responses contribute to the series of events in the story.

December: Accelerated 4th Grade Reading: Describe the Overall Structure in a Text

This month. Students will describe the text structure (e.g., chronology, comparison, cause/effect, problem/solution) used in a whole text or part of a text. They may also describe the text structure of specific events, concepts, or information.

January: Accelerated 4th Grade ELA Review

Coming off a holiday break, students will spend this month reviewing and sharpening the most important skills in 4th grade ELA: determining a theme of a story, drama, or poem, describing characters, settings, or events, and describing the overall structure of a text. This will set them up for success in their scholastic second semester, plus lay the foundation for the advanced preview of 5th grade ELA to come during the next few months of Afterschool Advantage classes.

The winter/spring semester will give students a preview of the most important skills they’ll encounter in 5th grade while solidifying their comfort and fluency with the 4th-grade skills that future grades will build upon. Students will focus on quoting accurately from a text, determining two or more main ideas within a text, describing how a narrator's or speaker's point of view influences how events are described, and comparing and contrasting two or more characters, settings, or events in a story.

February: 5th Grade Reading & Writing Preview: Quote Accurately from a Text

This month, students will quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text. This skill can be used to answer reading questions, and writing prompts. Building a strong foundation of text-based answers helps students prepare for research projects and essays later in their academic careers.

March: 5th Grade Reading Preview: Determine Two or More Main Ideas of a Text

This month, students will dive deeper into their knowledge of main ideas and begin looking at multiple main ideas. Students will find that within one single text, there are multiple main ideas. Using key details to support their responses, students will scour informational text by looking at the main ideas and summarizing what they’ve read.

April: 5th Grade Reading Preview: Describe How a Narrator's or Speaker's Point of View Influences How Events are Described

This month, students will go beyond just identifying who the narrator or speaker is and explore how the speaker or narrator’s point of view has influenced how events are described. Depending on who is telling the story, the viewpoints may reveal different information about what is taking place.

May: 5th Grade Reading Preview: Compare and Contrast Two or More Characters, Settings, or Events in a Story or Drama

This month, students will select multiple events, settings, or characters within a story and compare/contrast them. Students will find similarities and differences and use specific text details to support their responses and ideas. Students can make inferences about the text based on what they learn about the characters, events, and settings.