Book Buffet Project Information
2017-2018 Book Buffet Projects!
Cinderella Multicultural Presentations- Books and 3D pictures
READING HOMEWORK expectations
Students need to read every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night for 15 to 30 minutes per night. Students will then write a short summary about what they have read in their agendas. Students are practicing writing summaries in order to focus on plot and story details or other Common Core State Standards skills we will be focusing on in class. Students are also practicing responding to the text in meaningful ways. Many of the students in class are very good at comprehending the text orally, but struggle writing down what they have read on paper. Please initial the student's reading homework every night to confirm they have read OR initial their agenda next to reading homework. Once a student has completed a whole book they can fill out a slot in their reading log. If you have time, read over the students summaries in order to help the students create clearer explanations throughout the year. Make sure the students have the TITLE of the book, how many PAGES were read, the DATE and SIGNATURE in their agendas.
Your Next Read Web Resource
Here is a Website you can go to and type in a favorite book and it will link you up with other books you would like. It is called Your Next Read. Go there by clicking HERE.
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ELA INTRODUCTION
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ELA Unit 1- CHARACTER TRAITS, SETTING, PLOT
Out first English Language Arts (ELA) unit focuses on the Fiction Genres of literature. Students will focus on internal and external character traits and how the personality of a character helps impact a story. Students learn the difference between major characters and minor characters, and they will determine if a character is the antagonist (villian) or protagonist ("good guy") of a story. Students will also learn about the different types of setting in a story including time, place, weather and social conditions. The last focus of this unit is different types of conflict in a narrative including conflicts with others, society, nature or self. Students will be introduced to story elements and plot of a story. Major standards covered- RL.4.3 Using specific details in a story to help describe a character, setting and events of a story.
Elements of A Story (ELA Unit 1)
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Character Traits
ELA Unit 2- PLOT ELEMENTS, THEMES, PLAYS
In this unit students will be introduced to the main elements of plot including Exposition (introduction), Conflict (Problem for character), Rising Action (Events leading up to climax), Climax (The turning point of the plot), Falling Action (Tying up lose ends for the characters) and Resolution (Ending of the narrative). Students will be watching short pixar films in order to practice mapping out the plot of these stories and then transferring that knowledge to short pieces of written literature. Students will learn theme which is the central message of a story. Students will learn the most common themes in literature and will practice trying to infer the theme of stories. Plays are introduced in this unit. Students learn the main elements of a drama. Students will read a play Ranita (an adaptation on the Frog Prince). Students will create puppets and act out the play which will be recorded and posted below. Standards Covered- RL.4.2 Students can summarize a piece of fiction in their own words using elements of plot.RL.4.1 Students can explain a story by using details in the text. RL.4.2 Students can determine the theme of a story, drama, or poem. RL.4.5 Students can refer to elements of plays or dramas.
Elements of a Plot (ELA Unit 1 & 2)
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Theme (ELA Unit 2)
Plays & Drama (Unit 2)- Our Ranita Play
Our Class Play!
ELA Unit 3- BIOGRAPHY, AUTOBIOGRAPHY, SOURCES AND TEXT FEATURES
Students will be reading nonfiction books for this unit. They will begin the unit with narrative nonfiction, which include biographies and autobiographies. As a whole class students will focus on the biography of Martin Luther King and the autobiography of his sister. Students will learn the different between first-hand and second-hand accounts of a historical event. Students will then progress into nonfiction texts that are historical or scientific. Students will learn about the various text features that are part of non-fiction text including titles, bold text, subheadings, bullet points, illustrations, labels etc. Students will use their understanding of a biography format as well as text features to put together a project about a famous person. Students will receive a chapter book biography to read for their second trimester project. More information and resources for the Biography Project are available on the SOCIAL STUDIES page. Standards covered in this unit- RI.4.1 Students can refer to a piece of nonfiction texts. RI4.3 Students can explain events in historical text. RI.4.6 Students can compare firsthand and secondhand accounts. RI.4.7 Students can interpret information from charts, graphs, diagrams, timelines and other features of nonfiction.
Introduction videos about Civil Rights- (Unit 3)
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Nonfiction Text Features (Unit 3)
ELA UNIT 4- MAIN IDEA & DETAILS, CONTEXT CLUES
Students will read both fiction and nonfiction text in order to determine the main idea and details of the text. Students will be studying ants in this unit and will read a variety of texts about ants and ant adaptations in the wild. Students will compare two texts for a common main idea and they will annotate the text to determine how the writing is organized. Students will compare two different texts on the same topic. Students will start to use context clues to infer from the text. RI.4.3 Students can figure out main idea in nonfiction.
Main Idea & Details
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ELA Unit 5- INFORMATIONAL TEXT STRUCTURE AND POETRY STRUCTURES
This unit once again focuses mainly on nonfiction text. Students will be looking at the different forms and structures of nonfiction including description, problem & solution, cause & effect, order & sequence, and compare & contrast. Students will learn about the different text structures and practice reading short stories in groups to determine text structure. Students will determine the various text structures of nonfiction articles and map out the different text structures using details from the text with graphic organizers. Students will also learn the different formats and structures of poetry. Students will learn about idioms, similes, hyperbole, alliteration, metaphors, and onomatopoeia. Students will identify these types of literacy devices in literature. Standards covered- RI.4.5 Students will describe various forms of nonfiction text structures. RI.4.4 Students will understand the meanings of words and phrases in nonfiction texts. RL.4.5 Students can refer to specific elements of poems.
Informational Text Structures (Unit 5)
We have learned about the 5 main textual structures of informational text- Description, Cause & Effect, Problem & Solution, Compare & Contrast, and Sequence.
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Figurative Language in Poetry (Unit 5)
We have learned about Idioms, Similes, Hyperbole, Alliteration, Metaphors, Personification, and Onomatopoeia
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ELA UNIT 6- POINT OF VIEW AND FACT & OPINION
In this unit students will learn about the different types of Point of View in a narrative story. Students will learn the difference between first person, second person, and third person point of view. Students will learn that there are different types of third person point of view including limited and omniscient. Students will determine the difference between a fact and opinion and sometimes when an author is writing in a first person point of view they sometimes use opinion instead of fact. Students will also learn about the reasons why author's write a story, to either persuade, inform or entertain the audience. Standards covered- RL.4.6 Students can compare and contrast stories with different points of view. RL.4.6 students can tell the difference between first and third person narrators. RI.4.6 Students can compare and contrast firsthand and secondhand accounts.
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ELA UNIT 7 - RESEARCH
ELA Unit 7 is combined with unit 10 below.
ELA UNIT 8- TEXT & MEDIA COMPARISONS, COMPARING 2 TEXTS
In this unit students will be reading chapter books that were turned into movies. Students will be comparing the books to the clips from the movie. Students will look at digital media and writing in order to see how the literature translates to the screen. For the chapter books students will be broken up into teams and will read the same book in a small group. Students will answer the discussion questions that were completed for homework. Students will compare and contrast the book and movie. They will then create a movie trailer for their books on the ipad using images from the digital version of the books. In this unit students will also be comparing historical, scientific and technical text. Standards covered- RI.4.3 Students can explain events, procedures, ideas or concepts in historical, scientific or technical text. RI.4.9 Students can use information from 2 different texts on the same topic to write or speak knolwedgeable
Book Vs. Movie Clips
Movie Clips
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Student Calendars and Book Questions
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Our Movie Vs. Book Trailers made by students
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ELA UNIT 9- TRADITIONAL LITERATURE (FAIRY TALES & GREEK MYTH)
Students will be looking at traditional literature for this unit. Traditional literature is any literature that was told orally and passed down through generations. Students will learn about different genres of traditional literature, but they will focus on fairy tales and greek mythology. Each student will read a Cinderella story from a different country. Students will present their stories to each other in class, comparing the similarities and differences between the most known version by Perrault and the story from other cultures. Students will also read a chapter book that is a "twisted tale" that contains allusions to traditional fairy tale stories throughout history. Students will focus on Greek Mythology stories and use that understanding of Greek Mythology to identify allusions to Greek Mythology in other writing or in businesses, logos, movies etc. Standards Covered- RL.4.9 Compare and contrast similar themes and events in stories, myths and traditional literature from different cultures.
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Land of Stories
Jack: The True Story of Jack
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Half Upon a Time
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Greek Mythology
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Our classroom allusions to Greek Mythology on Instragram:
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ELA UNIT 7 & 10- RESEARCH PRESENTATIONS
Students will compile research from different sources in order to create a unique research paper. Students will take the information from their research papers and use it to create a visual presentation that includes pictures and video on the Prezi presentation platform. Students will create presentation with an introduction, 3 details and a conclusion. Standards covered- W.4.7, 4.8, 4.9 and 4.10. Students will use research to help with their writing.