Choose and Narrow a Research Question

Pick the planner that matches the writing your child has to do for school or at home. Have your child fill it with short phrases, then write one paragraph per section. Review the plan together before drafting.

Choose and narrow a research question with a topic web, three questions and two places to look. To narrow a question is to make it small enough for one report. The directions on the page read: Read the model. Then, write your topic in the center and 4 ideas around it. Then, write a wide, a narrower and a narrow question. Then, write your final question and 2 places to look for answers. Then, use your plan to write your draft on lined paper.

Yes, both. We made it for 4th Grade writing process, and the page works the same whether it lands on a kitchen table or a center rotation. At home, most families go through it together and talk the answers out loud, and that talking is where most of the learning happens with prewriting. In class it runs well as independent work while you pull a small group. Print one copy or thirty, whichever the day needs.

Fourth grade pieces run several paragraphs, and a plan keeps each paragraph on one idea. With a plan, drafting is mostly turning boxes into sentences. CCSS W.4.5 asks for planning with guidance from adults and peers.

Start with a big topic and ask what your child really wants to know about it. A question like how do bees make honey is easier to research than bees. The research question page uses a topic web, three questions and two places to look.

A formal outline lists main ideas with Roman numerals and the details under each with capital letters. The outline page has children fill main ideas II to IV with lettered details. Each main idea becomes one body paragraph.

The note taking page, which uses two short sources, and the essay graphic organizer have a key. The nine planners have no key, since every child plans their own piece. Check that each box is filled and that reasons have evidence.

CCSS W.4.5 asks 4th graders to plan, revise and edit with guidance from adults and peers. In practice that means planning a whole essay before drafting, revising for a strong opening and closing, and editing for the grammar rules in L.4.1 and L.4.2. These sheets give each of those jobs its own page.

Match the planner to the kind of writing. The plot diagram fits a story, the Venn diagram fits compare and contrast, the timeline fits a biography and the formal outline fits an informative essay. The opinion essay, persuasive letter and book review planners all ask for reasons with evidence.

Word choice is where 4th grade drafts improve most. Each of the twelve pages takes one tool, such as vivid verbs, precise nouns, adverbs, exact words for colors and sizes, or slow motion details, so a child can practice it on its own before using it in a draft.

25 of the 38 sheets have an answer key, including every revising and editing page. The 13 planners have no key, since each child plans their own piece. For those, check that each box is filled and fits the topic.