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 6: Readers Get to Know Characters
Topic 2: Partners Pretend They Are Characters to Learn Even More
Students pay close attention to characters and setting to create mental images. They begin partner work to act out stories with one being the narrator and one being the character. Students learn to pay close attention to the pictures to imagine what is being said if not dialogue is given.
Topic 2: Readers Perform Books with Partners to Become Experts
As students are preparing to perform their books, they look closely at the pictures and words to know what the characters are doing and saying really well. They also practice performing in different ways, possibly changing the feelings of the characters.
Topic 3: Giving the Gift of Reading
Students end this unit by performing or retelling stories they know well using precision word and actions of the characters.
Writer's Workshop
Unit 6: Persuasive Writing of All Kinds
Topic 2: Writing Letters to Make a Change
Students think about who can help them fix the problems they have identified and start writing letters. They are encouraged to imagine that the person is there and they are talking to them, suggesting solutions they see to the problems in the school or community. As students continue drafting letters, they reread to make sure their ideas are clear.
Topic 3: Persuasive Writing Projects
You and your students will take part in a whole-class pursuit, possibly around a more global cause such as protecting the planet. Students might use poster boards to display this array of new writing, designing a collage of signs, letters, lists, how-to books, and so on to share their thoughts, ideas, and solutions for the problems they are tackling.
Foundational Skills
Print Awareness: Identify quotation marks, commas, and hyphens; Identify dashes to pause; Identify first letter capitalization and end punctuation.
Phonological Awareness: Phoneme Isolation; Phoneme Blending; Phoneme Deletion; Phoneme Categorization
Phonics: silent letters (wr, kn, gn), /o/(aw, au, al, augh), long /e/ (y, ey)
Fluency: Read orally to build fluency; Read text with appropriate rate and expression
Language: Identify and read words with inflectional endings; Suffixes -ful, -less, -y; Consonant -le
Reader's Workshop
Unit 7: Authors We Love
Topic 1: Becoming and Author Expert
Students being to conduct research about favorite authors. Students can read biographies about the author, conduct research, gather information from book jackets, etc. They then spend time in their book clubs reading and rereading books by the author they are studying, paying close attention to story elements as they read.
Topic 2: Readers Show They Are Fans
Readers get to know their authors better by reading even more books written by him/her and studying the texts closely. They compare and contrast characters, look for patterns in problems and themes, and notice craft moves often used by the author. Readers end this unit dressing up like their favorite author and retelling a favorite book to their classmates.
Writer's Workshop
Unit 6: Independent Writing Projects Across Genres
Topic 2: Lifting the Quality of Writing
Students will continue to draft pieces using all they have learned this year about characteristics of the genre they chose for their piece and things to include. Students work with partners to get feedback and use tools to make revisions to help improve their writing.
Topic 3: Use Mentor Texts as Personal Writing Teachers
Students will look to mentor texts in search of parts or craft moves that resonate with them. They will study those parts closely to understand what the author has done to achieve a particular effect - speech bubbles, sound words, zoomed in pictures, etc. - and then attempt to use those techniques in their own writing.
Topic 4: Preparing for Publication
Students will work alone and with partners to edit and revise their pieces. They will make sure the piece is clear for their reader to understand. Students will pay close attention to spelling, capitalization and punctuation.
Foundational Skills
Phonological Awareness: Phoneme Substitution; Phoneme Addition; Blend and Segment multisyllabic words syllable by syllable.
Phonics: Possessive Nouns; Prefixes un-, re-, dis-; Suffixes -ful, -less
Fluency: Build Automaticity; Read texts with appropriate rate, accuracy, and expression
Language: Add prefixes and suffixes and determine word meaning; Understand possessive nouns show ownership
Reader's Workshop
Unit 7: Mystery Book Clubs
Topic 2: Reading Across Mysteries
Students continue to read carefully, putting themselves in the detective's shoes, continuing to gather clues in order to solve the mystery before they are told who did it. They should be paying close attention to the main characters, their sidekicks, and the setting they visit. As students move into their second mystery of their series, they think about predictable patterns of how authors embed clues, ways mysteries tend to go, and ways their books are the same and different. Readers also practice making inferences to make sense of the clues they are collecting.
Topic 3: Mystery Readers Learn Lesson From Books
Readers pay close attention to the decisions characters make and any big, emotional reactions. This begins the work of looking at motivations behind their actions and reactions. Students dig deeper into studying motives once they know who the culprit is to determine why they did it.
Writer's Workshop
Unit 7: Writing Fictional Stories With Meaning & Significance
Topic 2: Pull Readers to the Edges of Their Seats
As students continue to draft their realistic fiction stories, they work to build tension or create suspense in their stories. Students learn strategies to do this like putting small problems or bumps in the road for the main character and they start to drop hints about what will happen for the readers. Students also try craft moves they see in mentor texts such as adding speech or thought bubbles, using sound words, adding more action, etc.
Topic 3: Accumulate Lessons Along the Way
As students wrap up their stories, they can add lessons learned by the character. They might use phrases for these lessons such as "From that day on..." or "After that..." Students will then continue to revise, edit, and prepare their work for publication.
Each reading and writing unit has both a pre and post assessment.
Reading
The new Option B post-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. Students most likely finished Topic 1: Researching a Topic, in April. In Topic 2: A Second Cycle of Research, students will start to research a second animal, transferring what they learned in Topic 1 to this second round of research. In Topic 3: Synthesizing, Comparing, and Contrasting, students will apply their learning from the first two topics to their real-world project.
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. Students most likely finished Topic 1: Writing in the Footsteps of the Classics in April. In Topic 2: Follow the Path: Adapting Fairy Tales with Independence, students will write their second adaptation, choosing any fairy tale they wish. In Topic 3: Blazing Trails: Writing Original Fairy Tales, students will write original fairy tales, applying all they've learned from the first two topics.
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. Students most likely finished Topic 1: Tackling Complex Texts in April. In Topic 2: Interpreting Complex Texts, students focus on ideas rather than just tracking the plot. Students explore symbolism, subplots, and minor characters. In Topic 3: The Intersection of Historical Fiction and History, students study nonfiction sources from the time period they have been reading about as they finish their books and continue to work on interpretation.
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. Students have most likely finished Topic 1: Writing about Reading in April. In Topic 2 Raising the Quality of Literary Essays: students continue to work on their essay, digging deeper into their interpretation. In Topic 3: Writing Compare-and-Contrast Essays, students write compare and contrast essays, exploring approaches to the same theme or issue in two or more texts.
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. Students have likely finished Topic 1: Constructing and Navigating Other Worlds in April. In Topic 2: More than Dwarves: Metaphors, Life Lessons, Quests and Thematic Patterns, students will begin to think metaphorically rather than simply following the plot. In Topic 3: When Fact and Fantasy Collide, students do some research to things referenced in their books, such as mythological figures or animal behaviors. In Topic 4: Literary Traditions: Connecting Fantasy to Other Genres, students focus on critical analysis of their books, considering how they portrayed cultures or characters (sometimes as stereotypes).
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. Students most likely finished Topic 1: Generating Ideas About Our Lives and Finding Depth in the Moments We Choose in April. In Topic 2: Structuring, Drafting, and Revising a Memoir, students get to work on their memoirs, focusing on "being their own writing teacher" through using mentor texts. In Topic 3: A Second Memoir, students transfer what they have learned to a second piece with more independence.
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