Having text-dependent questions ready for reading instruction can make a teacher’s planning time go much quicker – which literally every teacher needs and wants! Does your school or district use McGraw Hill’s Reading Wonders reading series? If so, this 4th Grade Wonders Unit 1 reading resource of text-dependent questions is already planned for you!
Week 1 & 2: Text-Dependent Questions & Graphic Organizers – Describe a Character
Unit 1 begins with two fun fairy tales focused on characters in “The Dragon Problem” and “The Princess and the Pizza”. These two stories align with R.L.4.3: Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character’s thoughts, words, or actions).
For these two stories, the text-dependent questions are focused on the character’s thoughts, words, or actions. Students are required to use text evidence to support their answers. Hopefully, your 4th graders learned how to cite text evidence in 3rd grade, but if they need a refresher – you can get a really helpful reference sheet for them in my post Teach Students How to Cite Text Evidence with Sentence Starters.
Also included is a sequence graphic organizer for both texts that helps students follow the plot and how the characters thoughts, words, and actions affect it.
Week 3: Text-Dependent Questions & Graphic Organizers – Text Structure – Compare & Contrast
A focus on analyzing the text structure of informational text and how it helps the reader understand what the author wants them to know begins in week 3. The standards is: R.I.4.5: Describe the overall structure (e.g., chronology, comparison, cause/effect, problem/solution) of events, ideas, concepts, or information in a text or part of a text.
The text in this week is “A World of Change” and “Earthquakes”, with a focus on comparing and contrasting details in a graphic organizer.
Within this text are several text structures and the questions reflect that, so your students will get valuable practice identifying all of those.
Week 4: Text-Dependent Questions & Graphic Organizers – Text Structure – Cause & Effect
Text structure is continued in week 4, but is focused on cause & effect text structure to explain Force and Motion.
Week 5: Text-Dependent Questions & Graphic Organizers – Main Idea & Key Details
The week 5 focus is all about the main idea and key details in two engaging informational texts about businesses giving back to the community and kids who start businesses that help people. The standard for 4th grade includes the ability to summarize the main idea and key details, so there is space for that on the graphic organizer page.
Text-Dependent Questions for Language Standards
Each week also includes text-dependent questions for language standards as well: Week 1 – Synonyms; Week 2 – Idioms; Week 3 – Multiple Meaning Words; Week 4 – Context Clues; and Week 5 – Greek and Latin Roots
Compare and Contrast Texts
Students will be able to compare the main Anthology text and the final Comparison text each week. They will use the graphic organizer to find details to compare and contrast, then write a summary to explain. Great opportunity for additional writing practice, using titles correctly, and transitional words and phrases!
Week 6: Research and Review
Research and review are the main focus of week 6. I’ve included note-taking pages and a place to organize those notes. The generic format can be used with any research subject chosen. These pages can be copied as much as you need for your students!
All of this is available in a digital version too! Just assign to your students and let them go!
If you are teaching 4th-grade language arts AND use McGraw Hill’s Reading Wonders series, you need this packet of text-dependent questions! It will make your planning for reading instruction much quicker and you will know your students are getting really good reading response activities!
The best part of this resource is….answer keys for all of it!
By using this “Wonders 4th-Grade Unit 1 Text-Dependent Questions That Are Planned for You“, you can save so much precious time planning for reading instruction. Use that time for all the other important tasks you need to accomplish each week!
>>> Want to try this resource first? Grab thisUnit 1, Week 4 lesson packetand try it out!
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