Foundational Skills
Print Awareness: Identify words in a sentence; Recognize sentences are made up of words separated by spaces; Recognize print directionality and the return sweep
Phonological Awareness: Phoneme Isolation; Phoneme Addition; Blend Onset/Rime
Phonics: /x/ (final), /z/, long /a/ (a_e), long /o/ (o_e)
Fluency: Read a poem with accuracy; Read text with appropriate rate and expression
Language: Ask and answer questions about unfamiliar words; Relate words to their opposites
Reader's Workshop
Unit 5: Readers Are Resourceful!
Topic 3: Readers Retell and Talk About Adventures
Students will check their understanding of their fiction stories by retelling key events using the pictures or the Five Finger Retell strategy. To check understanding of nonfiction texts, students should be able to identify the main topic of the text and share facts they learned related to the topic. Students will also work in partnerships to ask and answer questions to monitor and check comprehension.
Topic 4: Readers Reread to Make Their Reading Sound Great
Students will learn that strong readers reread to build fluency and to read with more expression. They will also learn that strong readers reread for different purposes such as clearing up confusing parts to better understand the text and paying close attention to details and information they hadn't previously noticed.
Unit 6: Readers Get to Know Characters
Topic 1: Readers Have Strategies for Getting to Know a Character
Students will learn that they can get to know a character - their thoughts, feelings, and actions - by paying close attention to the pictures and the words on the page. They will learn that readers sometimes have to use clues to figure out things about characters that are not expressly told.
Writer's Workshop
Unit 5: Writing All About Books
Topic 3: Revising to Add Text Features
Students will begin experimenting with using text features to add more information to their All About Books. Students can use familiar mentor texts to look for text features such as bold words to highlight topic specific vocabulary, captions to tell more about a picture, as well as using labels and diagrams. Students will also learn to add their own voice to their informational books by giving their readers suggestions and warnings about the topic.
Topic 4: Publishing
Students will reread their book one final time making revisions as they go. They will then edit, focusing on one convention at a time (capitalization, punctuation, spelling) using their Editor's Checklist.
Unit 6: Persuasive Writing of All Kinds
Topic 1: Exploring Opinion Writing - Making Our School Better
Students will look at the world around them in new ways- seeing not just what is, but what could be. They will learn to reflect on the troubles they see around the classroom and school and think, “What could make things better?” and to then do all kinds of writing (lists, petitions, or posters) to help make a change. Students should learn that their persuasive pieces should include lots of reasons to encourage their readers to take action.
Foundational Skills
Print Awareness: Identify and explain end punctuation; Recognize first words in sentences should be capitalized; Demonstrate understanding of directionality and the return sweep.
Phonological Awareness: Phoneme Categorization; Phoneme Isolation; Phoneme Blending; Substitute sounds in blends;
Phonics: /ou/, /oi/, long and short /oo/
Fluency: Read orally to build fluency; Read with appropriate rate, accuracy and expression - pausing for commas and end punctuation.
Language: Identify and read words with suffix -ly; Identify and analyze descriptive words and phrases.
Reader's Workshop
Unit 6: Reading Across Genres to Learn About a Topic
Topic 1: Making Sense of All Kinds of Texts
Students will explore a subject by engaging with nonfiction, fiction, and poetry. They begin by reading informational texts to build foundational knowledge, asking questions as they read and stopping to tell what they learned and what they think.
Topic 2: Reading and Learning About a Topic Through Language
Readers will use not only the words on the page, but the text features in the book as well, to help them understand and learn more about their topics. They will practice using topic-specific vocabulary to discuss their books with partners, making sure they use context clues to help understand what the words mean.
Topic 3: Learning Information by Comparing and Contrasting
Readers will then expand their understanding through stories and poems that present the topic in different ways. Through discussions and comparisons, students learn to synthesize information across genres, recognizing how each adds to their learning.
Topic 4: Thinking Critically About Books
Students will reflect on how different genres contributed to their understanding of the topic, formulate their own opinions about the topic, and prepare to teach others about their topic. Through discussions, presentations, or creative projects, students communicate their new learning, reinforcing comprehension.
Writer's Workshop
Unit 5: From Scenes to Series
Topic 3: Becoming More Powerful at Realistic Fiction
Students will learn call on their own experiences to imagine tiny details they can include in a story to let their readers know their story is realistic fiction. They should be encouraged to show, not tell, and will begin to think about the structure of their stories as they write chapters with a clear beginning, middle, and end.
Topic 4: Getting Ready to Publish
Students will work hard to showcase their work, making it both beautiful and colorful by adding important details to the illustrations, by creating a “meet the author” page to introduce themselves to their readers, and by editing and revising in meaningful ways to make their work publication-ready.
Unit 6: Independent Writing Projects Across Genres
Topic 1: Getting Started With Writing Projects
Students will select the type of writing that they want to study. They will start this unit recalling everything they know about a genre of writing and the writing process to help guide them to generate ideas and planning their piece.
Foundational Skills
Phonological Awareness: Phoneme Substitution; Phoneme Addition; Blend and Segment
Phonics: Suffixes -y and -ly, Schwa, Silent Letters /n/ (gn, kn), /r/ (wr), /m/ (mb, mn)
Fluency: Build Automaticity; Read texts with appropriate rate, accuracy, and expression
Language: Suffixes -y (adjectives) and -ly (adverbs); Add prefixes and suffixes
Reader's Workshop
Unit 6: Fairy Tales and Fables
Topic 3: Discovering Predictable Roles That Characters Play
Students will be on the lookout for character types (i.e. heroes, villains, royalty, magical creatures, etc.) and the roles they traditionally play in fairy tales and fables to help make predictions. Students will also examine more modern fairy tales and characters and their roots in traditional tales. Students will also compare and contrast different versions of the same story focusing on repeated themes and varying viewpoints.
Topic 4: Compare and Contrast Lessons That Stories Convey
Students will end this unit uncovering the lessons found in fairy tales and fables and thinking of how these lessons can help them in their own lives, understanding that they might not always agree with the lesson in the story. Students will once again compare and contrast two fairy tales or fables, this time focusing on two texts with similar lessons or themes.
Unit 7: Mystery Book Clubs
Topic 1: Mystery Readers Read for Clues
Students begin this unit learning about elements of mysteries and terms used to discuss mystery books. They will learn that readers of mysteries read like detectives, always paying close attention to details and noticing things that seem suspicious or out of place. Students will begin their first mystery book club, taking note of clues and generating lists of suspects. Students will also learn work to recognize the story arc of this type of narrative writing as they read and solve their mysteries.
Writer's Workshop
Unit 6: Poetry - Big Thoughts in Small Packages
Topic 3: Trying on Structures for Size
Students will learn about the various structures poets use to share their pieces. This bend will NOT focus on forms such as limericks and haiku, but rather more natural structures that we often find in poetry. They’ll study and play with common structures like conversation poems, list poems, story poems, and mask poems. Students will choose structures that convey the mood or feeling of what they are trying to share with their reader. They will end this unit by choosing several poems to revise, edit, and publish.
Unit 7: Writing Fictional Stories With Meaning & Significance
Topic 1: Writing Short Fiction Books
Students will begin this unit by studying different realistic fiction mentor texts that "edge-of-your-seat moments" which leave the reader wondering what will happen next. Students will draw on small moments, experiences, and feelings that they have to help generate ideas for their fiction books. They will practice telling stories across their fingers and across pages as they begin drafting. Students will also work with partners to ask and answer questions to draw out more details.
Each reading and writing unit has both a pre and post assessment.
Reading
The new Option B pre-assessments for Unit 4 are now available. Option B takes the questions from an all long-answer format to formats used in NWEA and MAP testing. Option B also allows for an electronic function that self-grades and gives students immediate feedback. You can find the Option B pre- and post-tests:
- On Schoology in Coaches Corner→in the grade level folder→in the ELA folder→in the Reading Units of Study folder→in the Unit 4 folder.
The original pre and post-tests are also an option. Our curriculum teams have revised the TCRWP (spirals) pre and post assessments to match our Missouri Priority Standards. Do not use the pre- and post-assessments on Heinemann. You can find our revised assessments in two places:
- On Schoology in Coaches Corner→in the grade level folder→in the ELA folder→in the Reading Units of Study folder→in the Unit 4 folder.
- Linked in the curriculum by unit
Writing
On-Demands and student materials can be found on Schoology in Coaches Corner→in the grade level folder→in the ELA folder→in the Writing Units of Study folder.
MO LEAP Blocks is a resource from the state that also has assessments created for ELA
Reader's Workshop
Unit 4: Research Clubs: Elephants, Penguins and Frogs, Oh My! In this quarter-long unit, students will be reading informational text to learn about animals, eventually applying what they have learned about animals to a real-world project such as the challenge to design a better zoo. In Topic 1: Researching a Topic, students will work in clubs to study an animal. They will learn to ask and answer important questions as they research.
The priority standards in this Informational Reading unit focus on:
- Reading, inferring, and drawing conclusions using nonfiction texts to:
- Distinguish the point of view of the author
- Describe relationships among events, ideas, concepts, and cause and effect in a text
- Explain the relationship between problems and solutions
- Compare and contrast the most important points and key details in texts on the same topic
- Distinguish the literal and nonliteral meanings of words and phrases in context
Writer's Workshop
Unit 4: Once Upon a Time. This quarter-long unit focuses on writing fairy tales. Students will write two fairy tale adaptations in this unit and end with an original fairy tale. In Topic 1: Writing in the Footsteps of the Classics students will choose to adapt either Little Red Riding Hood or The Three Billy Goats Gruff. Students will study the storyline and qualities of fairy tale writing as they plan and write their adaptations.
The priority standards in this Narrative Writing unit focus on:
- Writing narrative texts that
- Establish a setting and introduce characters
- Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue and descriptions
- Establish and organize a sequence to establish a beginning/middle/end
- Use transition words to signal event order
- Use specific words that are related to the topic and audience
3rd Grade Word and Language Study
Word and Language Study Scope and Sequence
Word and Language Study Standards and Resources
Word and Language Study Daily/Weekly Routines
Reader's Workshop
Unit 4: Historical Fiction Book Clubs. This quarter-long unit builds on fourth grade readers' fiction reading abilities analyzing characters, determining themes, inferring, and comparing and contrasting. Reading stories set in historical time periods adds to the complexity. In Topic 1: Tackling Complex Texts, readers in their book clubs learn to keep track of multiple plotlines, many characters, and shifts in time and place.
The priority standards in this Literature Reading unit focus on:
Reading, inferring, analyzing, and drawing conclusions to:
- Describe the interaction of characters, including relationships and how they change
- Compare and contrast the point of view from which stories are narrated, including whether the narrator is in the first or third person
- Summarize and sequence the events/plot and explain how past events impact future events
- Identify the theme and provide supporting text evidence
Writer's Workshop
Unit 4: Literary Essay. In this quarter-long opinion writing unit, students develop and defend their ideas about stories, analyzing the author's craft to support their ideas. Students start by writing about one text and end the unit comparing and contrasting two pieces of literature. In Topic 1: Writing about Reading, students write opinions about characters, using the boxes-and-bullets opinion essay structure they learned in Unit 2.
The priority standards in this Opinion Writing unit focus on:
- Writing opinion texts that:
- Introduce a topic in an introductory paragraph
- State an opinion and provide reasons supported by facts and details
- Use specific, relevant, and accurate words that are suited to the topic, audience, and purpose
- Contain information using the student’s original language except when using direct quotations from a source
- Reference the name of the author(s) or the name of the source
- Use transitions to connect opinion and reason
- Organize the supporting details/reasons into introductory, supporting, and concluding paragraphs
4th Grade Word and Language Study
Don't forget about the Word and Language Study documents available to use for planning and instruction. These are linked here and also in Schoology in Coaches Corner→in the 4th grade folder→in the Curriculum Planning Documents folder→in the ELA Documents folder.
Word and Language Study Scope and Sequence
Word and Language Study Standards and Resources
Word and Language Study Daily/Weekly Routines
Reader's Workshop
Unit 4: Fantasy Book Clubs: The Magic of Themes and Symbols. In this quarter-long unit students work in clubs to read fantasy novels and further develop higher level thinking skills to study how authors develop characters and themes over time. Students will learn about fantasy as a literary tradition and study how the thinking developed through reading fantasy novels applies to other genre. In Topic 1: Constructing and Navigating Other Worlds, students will start to learn ways that fantasy novels become more complicated and the work they can do to meet those challenges.
The priority standards in this Literature unit are:
Read, inferring, analyzing, and drawing conclusions in fiction
- By referencing textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as through inference
- Compare and contrast the roles and functions of characters in various plots, their relationships, and their conflicts
- Explain the theme or moral lesson, conflict, and resolution
- Describe how a narrator's or speaker's point of view influences others
- Explain the meaning of common idioms, adages, similes, metaphors, and hyperbole
Writer's Workshop
Unit 4: Shaping Texts: From Essay and Narrative to Memoir. In this quarter-long narrative writing unit, students bring together the learning from personal essays to the art of a memoir, melding the learning students have done with narrative and opinion writing. In Topic 1: Generating Ideas About Our Lives and Finding Depth in the Moments We Choose, students look for big ideas in memoir mentor texts. Students then work on writing lots, cycling through the writing process with independence as they choose topics and ideas from their lived experience.
The priority standards in this Narrative Writing unit focus on:
Writing narrative texts that
- Establish a setting, topic, narrator, and characters
- Use narrative techniques such as dialogue, motivation, and descriptions
- Organize a sequence that unfolds naturally to establish a beginning/middle/end
- Use a variety of transitions to manage the sequence of events
- Use specific, relevant, and accurate words that are suited to the topic, audience, and purpose
5th Grade Word and Language Study
Don't forget about the Word and Language Study documents available to use for planning and instruction. These are linked here and also in Schoology in Coaches Corner→in the 5th grade folder→in the Curriculum Planning Documents folder→in the ELA Documents folder.
Word and Language Study Scope and Sequence
Word and Language Study Standards and Resources
Word and Language Study Daily/Weekly Routines