Standard: 4.W.1b – Provide reasons that are supported by facts and details.
Grade level: Grade 4
Subject: English Language Arts
Domain: Writing
Teacher Overview
This standard focuses on helping students learn to support their reasons with concrete facts and details. This skill is crucial in developing strong, persuasive writing that can effectively communicate ideas and arguments. It builds on earlier skills of forming complete sentences and paragraphs, and sets the stage for more advanced writing tasks. Before tackling this standard, students should be comfortable with basic sentence and paragraph structure, and understand the difference between opinions and facts.
After mastering this standard, students will be able to construct more complex arguments and integrate multiple sources of information to support their points, preparing them for advanced writing tasks.
Common Misconception 1
One common misconception is that students might think any statement or opinion can serve as a reason. This is incorrect because reasons need to be supported by factual evidence to be persuasive.
Intervention 1
Use graphic organizers that help students differentiate between opinions and facts. Provide examples and non-examples of reasons supported by facts.
Common Misconception 2
Another common misconception is that repeating the same reason in different words is sufficient support. This is incorrect because effective arguments require multiple distinct pieces of evidence.
Intervention 2
Encourage students to use research and fact-checking activities to find multiple distinct pieces of evidence for each reason. Teach them to evaluate the strength of their evidence.
Prerequisite Knowledge
Students should have a basic understanding of how to write a complete sentence and paragraph. They should also be familiar with the concept of a ‘reason’ and have some experience in identifying facts and details in texts.
Subsequent Knowledge
After mastering this standard, students will be able to construct more complex arguments in their writing, integrating multiple sources of information to support their points. They will also develop skills in evaluating the strength of evidence and organizing their writing more effectively.
Instructional Activities
- Have students write a persuasive essay on a topic of their choice, ensuring they support each reason with facts and details.
- Create a class debate where students must provide factual evidence to support their arguments.
- Assign a research project where students must gather facts to support a given thesis statement.
- Use graphic organizers to help students plan their writing and ensure each reason is supported by facts.
