LOWER DAUPHIN SCHOOL DISTRICT
Language Arts Curriculum Maps – Grade 4
Topic: Reading Informational Text
Key Learning: Students read, understand and respond to informational text – with emphasis on
comprehension, making connections among ideas and between texts, and textual evidence.
Unit Essential Questions:
1. How do I read, understand and respond to informational text?
2. How do I make connections among ideas and between texts?
3. How do I use textual evidence effectively?
1 Informational
Concept:
Concept:
Preview, Predict and Set Purpose
Key Ideas and Details
CC 1.2.4.E, CC 1.2.4.L
CC 1.2.4.A, CC 1.2.4.B, CC 1.2.4.C
Lesson Essential Questions:
Main Idea
Lesson Essential Question:
What is an effective text preview in informational text?

How can I use text features (title, table of
contents, headings, subheadings, graphs,
charts, tables, glossary, illustrations,
photographs) to help me gather key details?

How does determining the text structure help me
gather key details?

How do I use a preview to determine my
purpose for reading?
How do I monitor and modify my predictions as I read?
2
Informational
How do I determine the main idea of a text and explain
how it is supported by key details?
How do I summarize a nonfiction text?
Text Analysis
Lesson Essential Questions:
How do I reference details and examples in the text to
support what the text says explicitly?
How do I use details and examples from the text when
making inferences?
How can I explain events, procedures, ideas or concepts
(including what happened and why) using text evidence?
Vocabulary:
Vocabulary:
subheading
Summarize, reference, Types of texts - historical text,
scientific text, technical text
2/6/2016
Page 1
LOWER DAUPHIN SCHOOL DISTRICT
Language Arts Curriculum Maps – Grade 4
Concept:
3
Informational
Concept:
4 Informational
CC 1.2.4.D, CC 1.2.4.E, CC 1.2.4.F
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
CC 1.2.4.G, 1.2.4.H, 1.2.4.I
Point of View:
Lesson Essential Question:
Diverse Media
Lesson Essential Question:
How do I compare and contrast an event or topic told
from two different points of view?
How can various presentations of information in a text or
digital source helps me gain understanding?
Text Structure
Lesson Essential Question:
Evaluating Arguments
Lesson Essential Question:
How do I use text structure to interpret information (e.g.,
chronology, comparison, cause/effect, problem/solution)?
How do I explain the reasons and evidence the author
uses to support particular points in the text?
Vocabulary
Lesson Essential Questions:
Analysis Across Texts
Lesson Essential Question:
How do I determine and clarify the meaning of words and
and phrases, including figurative language, as they are
used in grade level text?
How do I integrate information of two texts on the same
topic to demonstrate understanding?
Craft and Structure
How do I use context as a clue to the meaning of a word
or a phrase, including content-specific words and
phrases?
How do I demonstrate understanding of words by relating
them to their antonyms and synonyms?
Vocabulary:
Vocabulary:
Firsthand account, second hand account, chronology
Types of context clues – definitions, examples,
restatements
Integrate information; interpret presentations,
Text features – headings, graphics, charts, timelines,
diagrams
Digital source features – links, bookmarks, sidebars,
video links, locations, titles, headings, key terms
Figurative language – simile and metaphor

idiom - an expression whose meaning can't be derived
simply by hearing it (Ex- kick the bucket)

adage - short, popular saying that expresses a truth or
insight (Ex - a word to the wise is sufficient)
 proverb - piece of practical wisdom expressed in homely,
concrete terms (Ex - a closed mouth catches no flies)
Concept:
5 Informational
Vocabulary Acquisition and Use
CC 1.2.4.J, CC 1.2.4.K
Lesson Essential Questions:


How do I acquire new vocabulary (grade appropriate academic, conversational and general academic, domain
specific, including those that signal precise actions, emotions, or states of being and that are basic to a particular
topic)?
How do I accurately use new vocabulary (grade appropriate academic, conversational and general academic,
domain specific, including those that signal precise actions, emotions, or states of being and that are basic to a
particular topic?

What tools and strategies can I use to determine or clarify the meaning of a word I don’t know?
Vocabulary:
Domain specific, conversational, stages of being
2/6/2016
Page 2
LOWER DAUPHIN SCHOOL DISTRICT
Language Arts Curriculum Maps – Grade 4
Topic: Reading Literature
Key Learning: Students read and respond to works of literature – with emphasis on comprehension,
making connections among ideas and between texts, and textual evidence.
Unit Essential Questions:
1. How do I read, understand and respond to literature?
2. How do I make connections among ideas and between texts?
3. How do I use textual evidence effectively?
Concept:
1 Literature
Concept:
2
Literature
Preview, Predict and Set Purpose
Key Ideas and Details
CC 1.3.4.D, CC 1.3.4.K
CC 1.3.4.A, CC 1.3.4.B, CC 1.3.4.C
Lesson Essential Questions:
What is an effective text preview in literature?
Theme
Lesson Essential Questions:

How do I use key details from a story to determine and
explain the theme?


How can I use text features (title, author, illustrator,
cover, illustrations/photographs, captions, table of
contents, chapter titles) to make predictions about
literary elements?
How does identifying the genre of the story help me
understand what I read?
How do I use a preview to determine my purpose for
reading?
How do I monitor and modify my predictions as I read?
How do I summarize a literary text (including fables,
folktales, myths)?
Text Analysis
Lesson Essential Questions:
How do I use details and examples from the text when
explaining what the text says explicitly?
How do I use details and examples from the text when
making inferences?
Literary Elements
Lesson Essential Question:
How do I use specific details from the text to describe in
depth the characters, setting and events?
Vocabulary:
Vocabulary:
Modify
Key details, theme, key details, explicitly, in depth, story
includes poems or dramas
2/6/2016
Page 3
LOWER DAUPHIN SCHOOL DISTRICT
Language Arts Curriculum Maps – Grade 4
Concept:
3 Literature
Concept:
4 Literature
Craft and Structure
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
CC 1.3.4.D, 1.3.4.E, 1.3.4.F
CC 1.3.4.G, CC 1.3.4.H
Point of View
Lesson Essential Question:
Sources of Information
Lesson Essential Question:
How can I compare and contrast an event or topic told
from two different points of view?
How can I make connections between a written and oral
or visual presentation of a text?
Text Structure
Lesson Essential Question:
Text Analysis
Lesson Essential Question:
How do I explain the major differences between poems,
drama, and prose using the structural elements?
How can I compare and contrast literature with similar
themes, topics or patterns of events?
Vocabulary
Lesson Essential Questions:
How does the author’s word choice support the theme in
stories, poems or drama?
How do I use context as a clue to the meaning of a word
or a phrase, including content-specific words and phrases
and literary allusions (reference to a character from
literature such as Herculean effort)?
How can I determine the meaning of figurative language
in a text?
How do I demonstrate understanding of words by relating
them to their antonyms and synonyms?
Vocabulary:
Vocabulary:
Drama, poem, prose, chapter, scene, stanza, firstperson, third-person
Types of context clues – definitions, examples,
restatements
Figurative language – simile and metaphor

idiom - an expression whose meaning can't be derived
simply by hearing it (Ex- kick the bucket)

adage - short, popular saying that expresses a truth or
insight (Ex - a word to the wise is sufficient)
 proverb - piece of practical wisdom expressed in homely,
concrete terms (Ex - a closed mouth catches no flies)
Concept:
5 Literature
Vocabulary Acquisition and Use
CC 1.3.4.I, CC 1.3.4.J
Lesson Essential Questions:
How do I build new vocabulary including content-specific words and phrases?
How do I use new vocabulary in daily conversation and writing?
How do I acquire and use words and phrases that signal precise actions, emotions, or states of being?
How do I use context clues to understand the meaning of a word or phrase?
What tools and strategies can I use to determine or clarify the meaning of a word I don’t know?
Vocabulary:
Content-specific, precise actions, emotions, state of being
2/6/2016
Page 4