Fourth Grade English Language Arts is taught to common core standards, covering literature, foundational skills, writing, speaking, and listening. Students practice reading for fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary. They will learn to look for the theme, describe characters and settings, draw inferences from the text, and compare the point of view of different characters. There is a strong focus on grammar, which includes subject-verb agreement, using complete sentences and avoiding run-on sentences and fragments, and correctly using commonly confused words. There are also weekly writing assignments with students practicing opinion writing, storytelling, poetry, dialogue, using a dictionary and more. 

I have a master of arts degree in American history, and bachelor of arts degrees in political science, English, and communications with a journalism emphasis. I am lead teacher at The Foster Woods Folk School, which focuses on humanities education within an ecosocial justice framework aimed at celebrating and improving our connections as a global community of humans and non-humans living on Planet Earth. In this role, I work with learners of all ages with a primary focus of working with learners in grades three through 12. I was the director of a social justice center for three years during which time I routinely taught about and facilitated conversations about historical and current political events for both teen and adults participants. Before that, I was a newspaper editor and reporter for 15 years. I have been teaching history, social studies, and English Language Arts classes for several years. 

숙제 제공
There is daily homework to be completed outside of class time. Homework includes reading and writing assignments, as well as worksheets and other learning projects. 
수업 외 주당 2 - 4 시간
제공되는 평가
Weekly homework is assessed as follows for learners seeking a letter grade and letter of completion: 
15 Percent: Reading Quiz
15 Percent: Spelling Word Project
15 Percent: Grammar Quiz
15 Percent: Grammar Worksheet/Project
15 Percent: Class Participation 
25 Percent: Writing Assignment

Letters of completion with final grade will be issued to students who complete the course with a C (70 Percent) or greater. 
제공되는 성적
All student workbooks are graded throughout the course. 

Students will need either a paper or digital copy of Lynne Kelly's 𝑺𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒆.

I will provide PDF readers for materials covered in Units 2-4. 

For the Unit 2 reader, I have adapted some of the traditional literature we will be reading to be appropriate for a fourth-grade audience. Sources from which traditional literature will be taken or that I have used in adaptations include: 
“The Pot of Wisdom: Ananse stories” by Adwoa Badoe
“A Listening Wind: Native Literature from the Southeast” edited by Marcia Haag
“Sky Loom: Native American Myth, Story, and Song” edited by Brian Swann
Grimm’s Complete Fairytales
“The Annotated Hans Christian Andersen” edited by Maria Tatar
"African-American Folktales for Young Readers," edited by Judy Dockrey Young and Richard Alan Young
"The Handy Mythology Answer Book," by David A. Leeming
"Thirty-Three Multicultural Tales to Tell," by Pleasant DeSpain 
"Unikkaaqtuat: An Introduction to Inuit Myths and Legends," edited by Neil Christopher
"Old Indian Legends," by Zitkala-Sa
"Year Full Of Stories," by Angela McAllister

Content in the Unit 4 history reader was compiled by me. Among the many sources I consulted in compiling the information are: 
PBS Learning Media
BlackPast.org
World History Encyclopedia 
World Atlas 
National Geographic
Smithsonian Magazine 
"Dynasties of China," by Core Knowledge 
"Early Islamic Civilizations and African Kingdoms," by Core Knowledge 
 "Aksum and Nubia: Warfare, Commerce, and Political Fictions in Ancient Northeast Africa" by George Hatke
"A Military History of China," by David A. Graff

Content in the Unit 4 social studies reader was compiled by me. Among the many sources I consulted in compiling the information are: 
ushistory.org
UXL Civics, 1st Edition 
"United States Studies," MI Open Book Project 

Reading assignments for the news article and biography sections will be drawn from NewsELA articles.