STANDARD 3: Language Arts Literacy

Language Arts Literacy

Mission: Learning to read, write, speak, listen, and view critically, strategically and creatively enables students to discover personal and shared meaning throughout their lives.

Standard 3.1 Reading

All students will understand and apply the knowledge of sounds, letters, and words in written English to become independent and fluent readers and will read a variety of materials and texts with fluency and comprehension.

Big Idea: The ability to read a variety of texts requires independence, comprehension, and fluency.
3.1 A. Concepts About Print
Essential Questions	Enduring Understandings
- How does understanding a text’s structure help me better understand its meaning?	- Understanding of a text’s features, structures, and characteristics facilitate the reader’s ability to make meaning of the text.
Cumulative Progress Indicators	Comments and Examples
By the end of Grade 4:
1. Identify differences of various print formats, including newspapers, magazines, books, and reference resources.
2. Recognize purposes and uses for print conventions such as paragraphs, end-sentence punctuation, and bold print
3. Identify and locate features that support text meaning (e.g., maps, charts, illustrations).	Instructional/Assessment Focus: • Use text features to comprehend print formats • Use globes, maps, and Internet sources to clarify reading of text Sample Assessment Item: ASSESS using reading passage Rocket Balloon compiled by Laura Buller and Ron Taylor http://www.nj.gov/education/assessment/es/sample/NJ-LAL_sample.pdf, Page 42-44 Question 12 What is the purpose of the thumbtack? A. to find the center of the paper * B. to hold the string in the center C. to fasten the cone to the balloon D. to poke a hole in the paper
3.1 B. Phonological Awareness
By the end of Grade 4:
No additional indicators at this grade level
3.1 C. Decoding and Word Recognition
Essential Questions	Enduring Understandings
- How do I figure out a word I do not know?	- Readers use language structure and context clues to identify the intended meaning of words and phrases as they are used in text.
Cumulative Progress Indicators	Comments and Examples
By the end of Grade 4:
1. Use letter-sound correspondence and structural analysis (e.g., roots, affixes) to decode words.
2. Know and use common word families to decode unfamiliar words.
3. Recognize compound words, contractions, and common abbreviations.
3.1 D. Fluency
Essential Questions	Enduring Understandings
- How does fluency affect comprehension?	- Fluent readers group words quickly to help them gain meaning from what they read
Cumulative Progress Indicators	Comments and Examples
By the end of Grade 4:
1. Use appropriate rhythm, flow, meter, and pronunciation in demonstrating understanding of punctuation marks.
2. Read at different speeds using scanning, skimming, or careful reading as appropriate.
3.1 E. Reading Strategies (before, during, and after reading)
Essential Questions	Enduring Understandings
-What do readers do when they do not understand everything in a text?	- Good readers employ strategies to help them understand text. Strategic readers can develop, select, and apply strategies to enhance their comprehension.
Cumulative Progress Indicators	Comments and Examples
By the end of Grade 4:
1. Use knowledge of word meaning, language structure, and sound-symbol relationships to check understanding when reading.
2. Identify specific words or passages causing comprehension difficulties and seek clarification.	Instructional/Assessment Focus: • Strategic reading—knowing when, why, and how to use reading strategies • Explicit reading strategy instruction Suggested Instructional/Assessment Strategy: • Students learn the INSERT (Interactive Notation to Effective Reading and Thinking) technique, which assists them to monitor their thinking and comprehension using a coding system by reading passages from selected social studies, science or other content area materials. (*Source- ReadWriteThink.org) http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=230
3. Select useful visual organizers before, during, and after reading to organize information (e.g., Venn diagrams).
3.1 F. Vocabulary and Concept Development
Essential Questions	Enduring Understandings
-What do readers do when they do not understand everything in a text?	- Words powerfully affect meaning
Cumulative Progress Indicators	Comments and Examples
By the end of Grade 4:
1. Infer word meanings from learned roots, prefixes, and suffixes.	Suggested Instructional/Assessment Strategies: • Use information from prefixes and suffixes to define new words • Students use a prefix and suffix chart to translate the scientific names of a number of species of sharks. Then, students draw an image of the shark based upon their translations. (*Source Monterey Bay Aquarium) http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/lc/ teachers_place/activity_fish_mystery.asp
2. Infer specific word meanings in the context of reading passages.	Instructional/Assessment Focus: • Understanding the meaning of words through an understanding of the passage’s context, purpose, and audience Sample Assessment Item: ASSESS using reading passage Helen Cordero and the Storyteller, http://www.tea.state.tx.us/student. assessment/taks/booklets/reading/g4e.pdf ,Page 21 Question 2 When Cordero begins forming the storyteller’s face, she tries to portray her grandfather’s. Like her grandfather’s face, the storyteller’s face is always kind. His mouth is open as if telling a story or singing a song. His eyes are closed as he remembers. The Pueblo people call this “thinking in the backward way.” In paragraph 5, the word portray means — A please B forget about C grow * D show
3. Identify and correctly use antonyms, synonyms, homophones, and homographs.
4. Use a grade-appropriate dictionary (independently) to define unknown words.
3.1 G. Comprehension Skills and Response to Text
Essential Questions	Enduring Understandings
- How do readers construct meaning from text?	- Good readers compare, infer, synthesize, and make connections (text to text, text to world, text to self) to make text personally relevant and useful.
Cumulative Progress Indicators	Comments and Examples
By the end of Grade 4:
1. Discuss underlying themes across cultures in various texts.	Suggested Instructional/Assessment Strategies: • Identify common threads or repeated ideas across cultures • In a Social Studies/Visual and Performing Arts unit, students compare and contrast three, culturally distinct variations of the Cinderella folktale: Rhodopis, the Egyptian version; Yeh-Shen, the Chinese version; and The Hidden One, the Native American story through: • Dramatization • Venn diagrams • International chat room Students then discuss the basic components of fairy tales in other countries and their cultural perspectives about storytelling traditions. (*Source- ArtsEdge) http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/content/2304/
2. Distinguish cause and effect, fact and opinion, main idea and supporting details in nonfiction texts (e.g., science, social studies).	Instructional/Assessment Focus: • Text structures used on organizing nonfiction text Sample Assessment Item: ASSESS using reading passage Voyager’s Amazing Journey by Steve Osborn http://www.doe.massdu/mcas/search/viewread ingselection.asp?ReadingSelectionid=290 Which of the following facts does the map of Voyager’s flight best show? * A. The flight was mostly over water. B. The flight took nine days to complete. C. The flight began at Edwards Air Force Base. D. The flight ran into a typhoon in the Pacific Ocean.
3. Cite evidence from text to support conclusions.	Instructional/Assessment Focus: • Support conclusions by referencing the text when making inferences and generalizations Sample Assessment Item: ASSESS using reading passage from Jane on Her Own by Ursula K. LeGuin http://www.doe.mass.edu/mcas/search/viewreadingselection asp?readingSelectionid=293 Based on the chapter, explain why Jane decides to go on an adventure. Support your answer with important details from the chapter.
4. Understand author’s opinions and how they address culture, ethnicity, gender, and historical periods.	Instructional/Assessment Focus: • Analyze the impact of an author’s attitude and beliefs • Discuss time periods and social climate during which pieces are written to highlight societal issues that influenced the author’s perspective
5. Follow simple multiple-steps in written instructions	Suggested Instructional/Assessment Strategy: • In a Career Education and Consumer, Family, and Life Skills unit, students role-play as new employees in a pet shop, offering advice to customers, answering questions, and creating a handbook, from a fish’s perspective, of instructions for new fish owners. (*Source- Education World) http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/02/lp275-01.shtml
6. Recognize an author’s point of view.	Suggested Instructional/Assessment Strategies: • Guided reading • In a Geography unit, students read articles from online newspapers on modes of transportation and communication for moving people, products, and ideas. Then, during class discussions, they describe each article's source, purpose, and viewpoint. (*Source-National Geographic Xpeditions) http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/ lessons/18/g68/pointsnews.html
7. Identify and summarize central ideas in informational texts.	Suggested Instructional/Assessment Strategy: • Students read, gather, and summarize, information about inventions developed by Alexander Graham Bell, George Washington Carver, and Stephanie Kwolek. They examine how the inventions directly impact their own lives and how their inventions changed and shaped America's past and influenced the future of technology. As a class activity, they create and present a multimedia presentation. (*Source- ReadWriteThink.org) http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=957
8. Recognize differences among forms of literature, including poetry, drama, fiction, and nonfiction.	Instructional/Assessment Focus: • Literary Forms
9. Recognize literary elements in stories, including setting, characters, plot, and mood.	Instructional/Assessment Focus: •Elements of narrative text Sample Assessment Item: ASSESS using writing project (multimedia presentation) Students review the elements of narrative text and key components of a book report. They are then given an opportunity to identify and share these concepts by creating a multimedia presentation, including a script and drawing for five screens, on a fiction book they have chosen to read. (*Source- ReadWriteThink.org) http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=138
10. Identify some literary devices in stories.	Sample Assessment Item: ASSESS using rubric for acceptance speech Students select several books to read from a list of books known for their figurative language. They compile a list of examples of literary devices for nomination in the “Academy Awards of Figurative Language Ceremony.” They then vote on best examples and write an acceptance speech. (*Source- ReadWriteThink.org) http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=115
11. Identify the structures in poetry.
12. Identify the structures in drama
13. Read regularly in materials appropriate for their independent reading level.
H. Inquiry and Research
Essential Questions	Enduring Understandings
- Why conduct research?	- Researchers gather and critique information from different sources for specific purposes.
Cumulative Progress Indicators	Comments and Examples
By the end of Grade 4:
1. Use library classification systems, print or electronic, to locate information.
2. Investigate a favorite author and produce evidence of research.
3. Read independently and research topics using a variety of materials to satisfy personal, academic, and social needs, and produce evidence of reading.

Standard 3.2 Writing

All students will write in clear, concise, organized language that varies in content and form for different audiences and purposes.

Big Idea: Writing is the process of communicating in print for a variety of audiences and purposes.
3.2 A. Writing as a Process (prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, postwriting)
Essential Questions	Enduring Understandings
- How do good writers express themselves? How does process shape the writer’s product?	- Good writers develop and refine their ideas for thinking, learning, communicating, and aesthetic expression.
Cumulative Progress Indicators	Comments and Examples
By the end of Grade 4:
1. Generate possible ideas for writing through talking, recalling experiences, hearing stories, reading, discussing models of writing, asking questions, and brainstorming.
2. Develop an awareness of form, structure, and author’s voice in various genres.
3. Use strategies such as reflecting on personal experiences, reading, doing interviews or research, and using graphic organizers to generate and organize ideas for writing.
4. Draft writing in a selected genre with supporting structure according to the intended message, audience, and purpose for writing.	Suggested Instructional/Assessment Strategies: • Study of writers: what they write about and how • Explicit writing process instruction Sample Assessment Item: One morning you wake up and go down to breakfast. This is what you see on the table. You are surprised. Then... ...when you look out the window, this is what you see. Write a story called "The Very Unusual Day" about what happens until you go to bed again (*Source-NAEP Questions) http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/ITMRLS/startsearch.asp
5. Revise drafts by rereading for meaning, narrowing the focus, elaborating, reworking organization, openings, and closings, and improving word choice and consistency of voice.
6. Review own writing with others to understand the reader’s perspective and to consider ideas for revision.
7. Review and edit work for spelling, mechanics, clarity, and fluency.
8. Use a variety of reference materials to revise work, such as a dictionary, thesaurus, or internet/software resources.
9. Use computer writing applications during most of the writing process.
10. Understand and apply elements of grade-appropriate rubrics to improve and evaluate writing.
11. Reflect on one’s writing, noting strengths and areas needing improvement.
3.2 B. Writing as a Product (resulting in a formal product or publication)
Essential Questions	Enduring Understandings
- How do writers develop a well written product?	- Good writers use a repertoire of strategies that enables them to vary form and style, in order to write for different purposes, audiences, and contexts.
Cumulative Progress Indicators	Comments and Examples
By the end of Grade 4:
1. Create narrative pieces, such as memoir or personal narrative, which contain description and relate ideas, observations, or recollections of an event or experience.	Suggested Instructional/Assessment Strategies: • Recognizing a literary genre: memoir • Class Discussion • Journal Writing Sample Assessment Item: ASSESS through journal writing. Students are encouraged to reflect upon the significance of remembered events and craft responses of their thoughts and feelings. (*Source-Education Oasis) http://www.educationoasis.com/curriculum/LP/LA/memoir_stuff_life.htm
2. Write informational reports across the curriculum that frame an issue or topic, include facts and details, and draw from more than one source of information.
3. Craft writing to elevate its quality by adding detail, changing the order of ideas, strengthening openings and closings, and using dialogue.	Instructional/Assessment Focus: • Content and organization Sample Assessment Item: ASSESS through writing prompt. One morning a child looks out the window and discovers that a huge castle has appeared overnight. The child rushes outside to the castle and hears strange sounds coming from it. Someone is living in the castle! The castle door creaks open. The child goes in. Write a story about who the child meets and what happens inside the castle. (*Source-NAEP Questions) http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/ITMRLS/startsearch.asp
4. Build knowledge of the characteristics and structures of a variety of genres.
5. Sharpen focus and improve coherence by considering the relevancy of included details, and adding, deleting, and rearranging appropriately.
6. Write sentences of varying lengths and complexity, using specific nouns, verbs, and descriptive words	Suggested Instructional/Assessment Strategies: • Anchoring of new words to students’ backgrounds and experiences • Writing assignments that require the use of new words • Attention to words that authors choose and how those words illuminate the story or the information being shared Sample Assessment Item: ASSESS through writing prompt. We all have favorite objects that we care about and would not want to give up. Think of one object that is important or valuable to you. For example, it could be a book, a piece of clothing, a game, or any object you care about. Write about your favorite object. Be sure to describe the object and explain why it is valuable or important to you. Write sentences of varying lengths and complexity, using descriptive words. (*Source-NAEP Questions) http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/ITMRLS/startsearch.asp
7. Recognize the difference between complete sentences and sentence fragments and examine the uses of each in real-world writing.
8. Improve the clarity of writing by rearranging words, sentences, and paragraphs.
9. Examine real-world writing to expand knowledge of sentences, paragraphs, usage, and authors’ writing styles.
10. Provide logical sequence and support the purpose of writing by refining organizational structure and developing transitions between ideas.	Suggested Instructional/Assessment Strategies: • Teacher read alouds chosen for their use of transitions and organizational structure • Study of electronic and print media Sample Assessment Item: ASSESS through performance task. In small groups, students work together as part of a team to create board games. The board games can follow any design the students choose. The game must provide detailed instructions on how to play. (*Source- ReadWriteThink.org) http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=123
11. Engage the reader from beginning to end with an interesting opening, logical sequence, and satisfying conclusion.	Suggested Instructional/Assessment Strategies: • Prolific independent reading • Teacher read alouds • Poetry that tells a sequential story • Interactive word walls Sample Assessment Item: ASSESS using poem The Horn I Scorn by Jill Esbaum.—http://www.nj.gov/education/assessment/es/sample/NJ-LAL_sample.pdf, Pages 33-34 In “The Horn I Scorn,” the poet Jill Esbaum writes about a problem that comes from having to share. At one time or another, most of us have to share something with someone else. Write a composition about the difficulties of having to share something you value. In your composition, be sure to: • Describe what it is you have to share. • Discuss the problems that come from having to share it. • Explain how you solved the problems.
3.2 C. Mechanics, Spelling, and Handwriting
Essential Questions	Enduring Understandings
- How do rules of language affect communication?	- Rules, conventions of language, help readers understand what is being communicated.
Cumulative Progress Indicators	Comments and Examples
By the end of Grade 4:
1. Use Standard English conventions that are appropriate to the grade level, such as sentence structure, grammar and usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling, and handwriting.	Suggested Instructional/Assessment Strategies: • Student review of exemplar essays • Student editing of sample essays • Demonstration of understanding through student writing and explicit instruction when needed
2. Use increasingly complex sentence structure and syntax to express ideas.
3. Use grade appropriate knowledge of English grammar and usage to craft writing, such as subject/verb agreement, pronoun usage and agreement, and appropriate verb tenses.
4. Use punctuation correctly in sentences, such as ending punctuation, commas, and quotation marks in dialogue.
5. Use capital letters correctly in sentences, for proper nouns, and in titles.
6. Study examples of narrative and expository writing to develop understanding of the reasons for and use of paragraphs and indentation.
7. Indent in own writing to show the beginning of a paragraph.
8. Spell grade-appropriate words correctly with particular attention to frequently used words, contractions, and homophones.