Ms. Arcenas' Class Develops their Critical Reading and Writing Skills

Inspire. Challenge. Succeed. 

Every Student... Every Heart... Every Mind... Wow Grade 4! I am inspired by the connections you are making in reading and writing! You are applying what you know about the opinion boxes and bullets writing structure to the information you are reading in your science text about human impact on the environment. You have become experts at identifying specific text structures when determining the importance of the information you are reading. Parabéns!

Which type of pollution is the most harmful to the environment? Air, water or soil pollution? 

Grade 4 uses cause and effect text structure to provide evidence that supports their reason and claim.

Grade 4 Pushes Their Thinking Further!

Take a look at the following examples of student work... 

Example 1: Ana Claudia and Sarah collaborate to write a response that describes which type of pollution is the most harmful to the environment.

Consider the following questions:

• In what ways is Ana Claudia and Sarah's writing similar to the opinion boxes and bullets writing structure? Provide examples.
• Could you identify specific writing tools they have used to elaborate their reasons and evidence?
• What connections could you make to their sentence starters?

Example 2: Grade 4 collaborates in reading partnerships, applying what they know about the thinking routine, CSI (color-symbol-image), to make strong connections to factors that affect ecosystems. 

Ana Claudia and Sarah

Arthur and Jiho

Gabi and Valentina Lima

Grant and Emiliano

Consider the following questions:

• In what ways do the different CSI's show a cause and effect relationship? Provide evidence.
• Could you identify specific writing tools that were used to elaborate the explanations?
• What connections could you make to the different sentence starters?

RACE to be Critical Readers and Writers!

Ms. DeHartchuck collaborates with Grade 4 in reading and writing... Special guest teacher, Ms. DeHartchuck, teaches us to be critical readers and writers in order to synthesize, provide examples and infer about information from nonfiction texts. 

Grade 4, practice identifying specific question types before responding to questions about informational texts. Use RACE to ensure your answers are clear, specific and efficient:

Ms. DeHartchuck introduces the Question and Answer Relationship (QAR)

In the Book Question Types

In My Head Question Types

When writing your response, use RACE!

Students identify the question type

Students look closely at the text to respond using RACE

Coding Nonfiction Texts

Grade 4 uses their expository and narrative lenses to code nonfiction texts... Grade 4, review the following anchor chart from our book club pack for informational reading. Be sure to use the same strategy when you read different nonfiction texts!

Use the anchor chart to practice coding the different texts below. Provide evidence to support which text is written using an expository lens and which text is written using a narrative lens. How do you know?

From the text, "Journey into the Rainforest" by Tim Knight

From the text, "Exploring Brazil with the Five Themes of Geography" by Jane Holiday

One School. One Community. One Graded.

Grade 4 is TEAMWORK! Grade 4 was inspired, challenged and found success during our field trip to the Parque Estadual da Serra do Mar! We learned to appreciate and respect the biodiversity of the Mata Atlântica, as well as the value of collaboration and teamwork in order to achieve a goal!

Grade 4 is STEAM! Grade 4, we will be finishing our fourth STEAM challenge... The Catapult Challenge! Get ready to launch your machines during our next STEAM session. 

Review the information on our STEAM presentation and ask yourself the following questions:

• In what ways could I connect STEAM to The Eagle Way?
• Can I identify specific actions that helped us build our classroom community?
• In what ways could my participation in STEAM help me grow as a learner?

Vacation Reading! Remember Grade 4, you can read loads of books on TumbleBooks, look up countries you are visiting on Culturegrams, and World Book, or even look up information in BrainPop for some educational viewing, in addition to reading your just right books. Use Destiny Discover to access the online library resources! Review the library information on our latest curriculum update for further details!

Complete your holiday challenge! Challenge your family to join you and have fun supporting each other in your reading! You can read in as many languages as you wish, just be sure to add the books and minutes to your log on Biblionasium!

While you read... Use the reading strategies bookmark to help make sense of the words and understand the text more clearly and deeply! Copy this image and create your own reading strategies bookmark to use when you read over the holiday!