English Language Arts Gr 4 B

Students read from a variety of texts, including an abridged version of Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson and informational texts about science and history topics. Students have the opportunity to independently read a longer book that they select themselves. Writing instruction centers on a comprehensive writing process and focuses on writing increasingly complex sentences, composing coherent paragraphs, and writing for a variety of purposes. Students develop a variety of writings including a cause-and-effect essay, an opinion essay, and a short story. Morphology lessons address reading and understanding words with common prefixes, suffixes, and Greek and Latin roots. Morphology instruction also addresses the meaning of various prefixes, suffixes, and roots. Grammar lessons address various speech and language-usage conventions (such as capitalization and punctuation). These specific grammar skills are then reinforced and applied in all writing exercises.Spelling lessons include weekly word lists that focus on content words and words with morphological patterns taught in each unit. The spelling exercises provide students with opportunities to practice applying knowledge of letter–sound correspondences learned in earlier grades.