Grade 4: The Life of Environments
Rating: 
Common Core Standards
Reading: Informational Text
RI.4.1 Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
RI.4.2 Determine the main idea of a text and explain how it is supported by key details; summarize the text.
RI.4.4 Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words or phrases in a text relevant to a grade 4 topic or subject area.
Reading: Foundational Skills
RF.4.3.A Use combined knowledge of all letter-sound correspondences, syllabication patterns, and morphology (e.g., roots and affixes) to read accurately unfamiliar multisyllabic words in context and out of context.
RF.4.4 Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
Writing
W.4.1 Introduce a topic or text clearly, state an opinion, and create an organizational structure in which related ideas are grouped to support the writer's purpose.
W.4.2.D Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic.
W.4.4 Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1-3 above.)
W.4.7 Conduct short research projects that build knowledge through investigation of different aspects of a topic.
W.4.8 Recall relevant information from experiences or gather relevant information from print and digital sources; take notes and categorize information, and provide a list of sources.
W.4.10 Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.
Speaking and Listening Standards
SL.4.1.A Come to discussions prepared, having read or studied required material; explicitly draw on that preparation and other information known about the topic to explore ideas under discussion.
SL.4.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 4 topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.
SL.4.3 Identify the reasons and evidence a speaker provides to support particular points.
Language
L.4.1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
L.4.6 Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, including those that signal precise actions, emotions, or states of being (e.g., quizzed, whined, stammered) and that are basic to a particular topic (e.g.,wildlife, conservation, and endangered when discussing animal preservation).
CCSS-Mathematics Standards
Content Standards
Measurement & Data
4.MD.A.2 Use the four operations to solve word problems involving distances, intervals of time, liquid volumes, masses of objects, and money, including problems involving simple fractions or decimals, and problems that require expressing measurements given in a larger unit in terms of a smaller unit. Represent measurement quantities using diagrams such as number line diagrams that feature a measurement scale.
MD.A.3 Apply the area and perimeter formulas for rectangles in real world and mathematical problems. For example, find the width of a rectangular room given the area of the flooring and the length, by viewing the area formula as a multiplication equation with an unknown factor.
Number & Operations – Fractions
4.NF.A.1 Explain why a fraction a/b is equivalent to a fraction (n × a)/(n × b) by using visual fraction models, with attention to how the number and size of the parts differ even though the two fractions themselves are the same size. Use this principle to recognize and generate equivalent fractions.
Practice Standards
MP4 Model with mathematics.
MP7 Look for and make use of structure.
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
Performance Expectations
4-LS1-1 Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.
4-LSI-2 Use a model to describe that animals receive different types of information through their senses, process the information in their brain, and respond to the information in different ways.
4-PS3-2 Make observations to provide evidence that energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric currents.
4-PS4-2 Develop a model to describe that light reflecting from objects and entering the eye allows objects to be seen.
Description of Unit
This Grade 4 unit titled “The Life of Environments” developed by Mind My Education, is comprised of eight instructional steps—seven explorative sections and one summative assessment project. The unit is estimated to take approximately 11 hours of integrated Science, English Language Arts/Literacy, and Mathematics instruction. This unit is designed to address the concept that organisms sense the environment in order to live. Throughout unit activities, students discuss prior knowledge, record observations in scientific notebooks; develop models, create and monitor experiments; read texts closely; use text and math skills; work in collaborative groups to investigate, draw conclusions, and write viable arguments as they synthesize their understandings. In the authentic summative assessment, students apply the skills they’ve developed in creating models and developing arguments to construct and write a viable argument to solve a problem, supporting their reasoning with evidence that they have collected.
Cautions
Connecticut teachers should be cautioned that teacher notes and preparation materials require familiarity to be used effectively. Additional modifications and/or accommodations may be necessary during instruction and assessment for students with disabilities and English language learners in order to achieve the rigor intended. While there are assessment guidelines, there are no aligned rubrics that provide guidance for interpreting individual student performance along the three dimensions to support teachers in planning instruction and providing ongoing feedback to students, about the targeted standards—both CCSS and NGSS.
Rationale for Selection
This unit is a good example of how to integrate math, speaking and listening, and writing standards with the construct of three dimensional learning. The seven task components that make up the unit blend content, practices, and concepts from both the Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards; they showcase how students can apply skills and content from one set of standards in the context of the other set of standards. This cross-disciplinary approach allows students to engage with content material in practical and novel contexts to create a proposal to solve and environmental issue. Lesson activities build scientific knowledge and vocabulary about a topic, as well as help students to develop the interpretation, explanation, synthesis, writing and presentation skills needed for College and Career Readiness. The unit demonstrates how to integrate core ideas from multiple science domains.