Grade 4 · secular · Common Core-aligned
This is a year of teaching a fourth-grader to back up what they say about a story or article with actual lines from the text, not vibes. They learn to figure out what a story is really about underneath the plot, to shrink a long article into a true short version instead of a retell, to notice when a chart is technically true but misleading, and to write three kinds of paragraphs — opinion, informative, narrative — that stay on topic. By the end they should be able to look at a mixed bag of reading and writing tasks and figure out on their own what kind of thinking each one wants.
The whole year, in plain English. Tap any unit to see every skill inside, nothing is hidden.
This unit teaches your child to build a conclusion from a specific quoted sentence, not from a feeling or from outside knowledge. Last year they could find a sentence someone else pointed them to; this year they pick their own evidence and explain how it supports their claim.
Students distinguish an inference supported by a quoted sentence from a claim with no textual support.
Students quote the exact sentence from a short passage that supports a given inference.
Students generate their own inference from an unstated clue and identify supporting text.
Students explain in one sentence how their quoted evidence connects to their claim.
Students compare two different, text-supported inferences drawn from the same sentence.
Students identify the meaning of an unfamiliar word using context clues in a sentence.
Students judge whether a classmate's quoted evidence actually supports the stated claim.
Students construct a claim-and-evidence response to an inference question in a brand-new, unpracticed passage genre.
This unit teaches theme as an idea about life — different from the topic (what it's about in a few words) and different from the plot (what happened). Kids learn that what a character chooses to do, not what a narrator says, is the real evidence for theme.
Given a story's topic stated in 3 words or fewer, state whether a candidate sentence is a topic or a theme statement.
Identify a character's choice in a fable that reveals what the character values.
Write a theme statement, as a full sentence about life, for a fable with an explicitly stated moral.
Write a theme statement for a realistic story with no explicitly stated moral, using two character choices as evidence.
Compare two different, defensible theme statements written by classmates for the same story, judging whether each is supported by quoted evidence.
Select the two strongest quoted pieces of evidence, from four candidates, to support a given theme statement.
Write a paragraph stating a theme for a complete short story not read in class, supported by two pieces of quoted evidence.
Two skills here: writing a true summary instead of a retell, and telling firsthand from secondhand accounts to reason about what a source could actually know. The unit ends by mixing both skills together on new texts, since real life doesn't label which skill a task wants.
Sort a list of details from a short text into 'needed for main idea' and 'not needed' with at least 5 of 6 correct.
Write a summary of a text under 100 words, in 25 words or fewer, that states the main idea and omits minor details.
Explain why a retell and a summary of the same text differ, citing what each includes or omits.
Classify a short account of an event as firsthand or secondhand based on the teller's position.
Explain one specific difference in what a firsthand account and a secondhand account of the same event could know, citing text.
Identify how a nonfiction writer's point of view (firsthand or secondhand) shapes the details included in their account.
Given a new, unfamiliar informational text about a real historical event, decide whether the task calls for summarizing or for judging source type, and complete it.
Compare two true accounts of the same real event that disagree in a detail, and infer a reason for the disagreement based on each writer's position.
This unit treats structure — stanza and line, scene and dialogue, paragraph and narration — as a real choice an author makes, not decoration. Kids compare the same event told as a poem and as prose and figure out what each version reveals or leaves out.
Identify the stanza and line structure of a given poem by marking where each stanza begins and ends.
Identify scene breaks and dialogue tags in a short play script.
Explain how a stage direction adds information that dialogue alone does not provide.
Compare what a reader learns from a poem versus a prose account of the same event, using a two-column evidence chart.
Determine a theme statement for a poem and for a prose story, distinguishing theme from topic in each.
Generate a claim about one way structure changed what a reader could know, supported by evidence from both a poem and a prose text.
Infer why an author chose drama rather than poem or prose to tell a specific unfamiliar event, with no prior example of that event in any genre.
Classify a short unfamiliar text excerpt as poem, drama, or prose based on structural features alone.
This unit teaches reading charts, diagrams, and timelines as real sources of information, not decorations next to the text. The turn in this unit is that a chart can be entirely true and still give a misleading impression through its axis, scale, or missing labels.
Student identifies the title, axis labels, and key of a given bar chart.
Student sorts a mixed set of visuals into chart, diagram, or timeline by naming the one feature that identifies each type.
Student states one fact shown by a diagram's labels that is not stated in the paragraph next to it.
Student orders events from a timeline and states which two events happened closest together in time, using spacing as evidence.
Student writes a one-sentence summary naming the overall pattern shown by a bar chart, not a list of its numbers.
Student answers a question about a stated fact by choosing correctly between a paired text and chart, citing which source held the answer.
Student explains why a chart with a broken (non-zero) axis can make a real difference look bigger than it is, even though every number on it is true.
Student decides which of two differently-designed but factually true charts about the same unfamiliar data gives a more honest impression, and justifies the choice in writing.
Student integrates a stated fact from an informational text with a stated fact from its paired chart to answer a question that requires both.
Two on-demand paragraphs this unit: an opinion paragraph with two reasons, and an informative paragraph with three grouped facts. Both have to cite a source and stay on topic. This is where the reading skills from earlier units become the raw material for writing.
Given a topic sentence, tell whether it states an opinion (a claim someone could disagree with) or a fact.
Sort a set of reasons into 'good reason' (points to evidence) and 'strong feeling' (states emotion only), explaining the difference for at least one pair.
Write an opinion paragraph that states a claim and defends it with two reasons, each supported by a quote or fact from a provided source.
Sort a list of facts about one topic into two or three groups by what they have in common.
Write an informative paragraph with an introduction, three grouped facts, and a conclusion, staying on the stated topic throughout.
Identify a sentence in a draft paragraph that does not belong because it drifts off topic.
Distinguish a fact stated directly by a primary source from a fact reported secondhand about that source, when gathering research for an informative paragraph.
Correct run-on and fragment sentences in a peer or self-drafted paragraph using a taught combining or splitting rule.
Given a new short source text on an unfamiliar topic, plan and draft an opinion or informative paragraph without a class model of that exact topic.
Four craft moves, taught one at a time with a full worked example before independent practice: putting events in order, writing dialogue that matters, adding sensory description, and planning toward an implied theme rather than bolting one on at the end.
Given a jumbled set of 5-6 event cards from a shared story, arrange them into a logical sequence.
Punctuate a set of unpunctuated dialogue lines with correct quotation marks, commas, and capitalization, using the exact rules and examples modeled in class.
Write dialogue for a given scene that reveals what a character wants, choosing lines that would change if deleted.
Select transitional words that match the amount of time actually passing between two given events.
Add one sensory description detail to a bare sentence that helps a reader picture the setting.
Plan a story event where a character's choice matches a theme the student states beforehand.
Draft a 5-8 paragraph narrative combining sequence, dialogue, description, and transitions around one clear event.
State in one sentence the theme a finished, unfamiliar short narrative (not one the class wrote) implies.
Revise one paragraph of a draft by replacing at least one flat sentence with a dialogue line or sensory detail.
No new content here — this unit mixes everything from Units 1 through 7 so your child learns to choose the right tool, not just execute whichever one they were told to use. Expect a dip in performance during the mixed practice days; that's the mixing working, not a sign anything broke.
Given an unlabeled question about a text, name whether it requires inference, theme, or summary.
Cite text evidence to answer an inference question in a mixed passage set.
Name the three writing modes (opinion, informative, narrative) and one required feature of each, from memory.
State a theme for a story and support it with two pieces of textual evidence.
Write a summary of an informational text that includes a chart, using only the main idea and key details.
Given an unlabeled prompt, decide whether it asks for opinion, informative, or narrative writing.
Draft a short opinion, informative, or narrative piece matching the mode a prompt requires.
Compare a firsthand and secondhand account of the same event and judge which is more reliable for a specific question.
Explain why a chosen reading strategy or writing mode fits a given prompt, citing the specific clue in the prompt.
From the parent guide
This is a year of teaching a fourth-grader to back up what they say about a story or article with actual lines from the text, not vibes. They learn to figure out what a story is really about underneath the plot, to shrink a long article into a true short version instead of a retell, to notice when a chart is technically true but misleading, and to write three kinds of paragraphs — opinion, informative, narrative — that stay on topic. By the end they should be able to look at a mixed bag of reading and writing tasks and figure out on their own what kind of thinking each one wants.
Unit 1 · what to expect
This unit teaches your child to build a conclusion from a specific quoted sentence, not from a feeling or from outside knowledge. Last year they could find a sentence someone else pointed them to; this year they pick their own evidence and explain how it supports their claim.
The full guide covers all 8 units: where kids get stuck, what to say, and how to tell it's working. Included with the course.
Ready when you are
Free for 30 days · then $29/mo or $290/yr for the whole family · Cancel anytime, no questions asked.
Start your family's account