4th Grade · Reading · RI.4.2, RL.4.1, RL.4.2

Paragraphs & Passages Lesson Plan for 4th Grade

A ready-to-teach paragraphs & passages lesson for 4th Grade, built around main idea and theme, cause and effect, inference, similes, summarizing, and using evidence from the text to answer. Print the plan, print the practice pages, and you are set.

Approximately 47 minutes

Learning objective

Read a nonfiction passage and explain its main idea with key details
Summarize a text and explain cause and effect or sequence
Explain a simile or a word in context using evidence from the text

Materials

The Great Barrier Reef (Nonfiction Passage)
The Mystery in the Attic (Fiction Passage)
How Earthquakes Happen (Nonfiction Passage)
The Science Fair Disaster (Fiction Passage)
The Life of Harriet Tubman (Nonfiction Passage)
A Letter from Grandma (Fiction Passage)
Pencils, and whiteboard space for the modeled examples

Lesson steps

1. Build the background (5 min)
Bring the real tool: a ruler, a clock, coins, a tally chart. Ask what paragraphs & passages is used for before what it is called.
2. Read aloud and think aloud (I do) (10 min)
Model paragraphs & passages with the actual object, reading it aloud twice. Deliberately misread it once so students learn that checking is part of the method.
3. Guided practice (we do) (12 min)
Read a second passage together. This time students find the evidence and you record it. Push every answer back to the text with "what words told you that?"
4. Independent practice (you do) (15 min)
Hand out "The Great Barrier Reef (Nonfiction Passage)". Students read and answer on their own. Circulate and ask individuals to point to the line in the text that supports their answer.
5. Share and close (5 min)
Two or three students share an answer and the evidence behind it. Restate paragraphs & passages one final time in the students' own words, not yours.

Check for understanding

Ask each student to point to the evidence in the text for one of their answers. A student who has the right answer but cannot find the line has not yet learned paragraphs & passages.

Differentiation

Extra support. Students who stall: pull them into a small group and rebuild paragraphs & passages with concrete materials or a simpler text before asking for the written work again. Do not send the page home as homework, it will just rehearse the misunderstanding.

Extension. Students who finish early: ask them to write their own paragraphs & passages problem for a partner to solve, then check the partner's work. Creating a problem is harder than solving one and it surfaces whether they really understand paragraphs & passages.

Skills covered in this lesson

Nonfiction passages · Fiction passages

Questions teachers ask about teaching paragraphs & passages

What is on each 4th grade passage sheet?

Every sheet has two pages. Page one is a passage of about 200 to 260 words. Page two has five questions, three multiple choice and two short answers. The questions often name a skill in the header, such as main idea, inference or theme, and ask students to point to a detail that proves their answer.

What reading skills do these 4th grade passages practice?

Main idea and details, summarizing, cause and effect, sequence and comparing in the nonfiction sheets. Theme, character feelings, inference and similes in the fiction sheets. Each sheet also has a question on what a word or phrase means in context, which lines up with the Common Core standards RI.4.1, RI.4.2, RL.4.1 and RL.4.2.

How do I use passage worksheets in a reading routine?

Have students read the passage once for the gist, then again with a pencil to underline clues. Then answer the questions and check against the key. Use a nonfiction passage one day and a story the next, so students practice both text types.

Do the passages have answer keys?

Yes. All 40 sheets include a one page answer key with the correct choices and sample written answers. The key keeps the same header and instructions as the student page so it is easy to match.