Fourth Grade Standards:
SS4H5 Students explain westward expansion of American between 1801 and 1861.
SS4H7 Students examine the main ideas of the abolitionist and suffrage movements.
SS4CG5 Students name positive character traits of key historical figures and government leaders (honesty, patriotism, courage, trustworthiness).
VA4MC.1 Students engage in the creative process to generate and visualize ideas.
VA4MC.2 Students formulates personal responses to visual imagery.
VA4MC.3 Students select and use subject matter, symbols, and/or ideas to communicate meaning.
VA4PR.1 Creates artworks based on personal experience and selected themes.
VA4PR.2 Students understand and apply media, techniques, and processes of two-dimensional art processes (drawing, painting, printmaking, mixed-media) using tools and materials in a safe and appropriate manner to develop skills.
VA4C.1 Student applies information from other disciplines to enhance the understanding and production of artworks.
VA4C.2 Students develop life skills through the study and production of art.
ELA4R1 Students demonstrate comprehension and shows evidence of a warranted and responsible explanation of a variety of literary and informational texts.
ELA4R3 Students understand and acquire new vocabulary and use it correctly in reading and writing.
ELA4R3 Students read aloud, accurately (in the range of 95%), familiar material in a variety of genres, in a way that makes meaning clear to listeners.
ELA4W1 Students produce writing that establishes an appropriate organizational structure, sets a context and engages the reader, maintains a coherent focus throughout, and signals a satisfying closure.
ELA4W2 Students demonstrate competence in a variety of genres.
ELA4W4 Students consistently use a writing process to develop, revise, and evaluate writing.
EAL4LSV1 Students participate in student-to-teacher, student-to-student, and group verbal interactions.
Lesson Plan:
One of the most famous authors in children’s literature during the Victorian era was Beatrix Potter in England. In order to mimic the style of this classic author in Peter Rabbit, the students will design, write, and illustrate a children’s novel of their own.
Students will first draw one portrait of their pet or imagined pet, and then write three or more facts about the character that will tell the readers about the character, as an introduction. (Example: Barabbas the Gecko eats worms for breakfast and does not drink coffee, although he likes its smell.) With the picture in front of them, the students will construct a narrative in which there is a moral or lesson that they convey. (For emphasis on literature, the students may incorporate such elements as the narrative curve, etc.) For an extra challenge, the teacher may choose to have the students set the story in the Victorian era, and imitate the English countryside pictured in Beatrix Potter’s books. For a slant on history, the teacher can set the scene in the westward expansion ideology of the 1800s, as well. In addition, the teacher may choose to add points for each artifact the students picture or mention in their books.
The students should then divide the narrative into five or more sections for which they can draw an illustration of the animal acting out that part of the novel. In order to make the assignment more practical, the teacher may choose to have a competition in which all the students read their books aloud and then vote on the most creative or effective book. Another opportunity to practically apply the students’ hard work is to have them volunteer to read them aloud to a younger class of students in the school.
