Learning Through Literacy
Learning Through Literacy > Grade 4

Grade 4 – Learning through Literacy

Learning Through Literacy for Grade 4 invites students to deepen their understanding of curriculum content by reading, talking, and writing about meaningful topics drawn from across Ontario curricula.

Through carefully designed units, students engage with mentor texts that build background knowledge while strengthening comprehension, vocabulary, and language structures. Literacy learning is intentionally woven into subject areas such as Science, Health and Physical Education, and Social Studies, supporting cross-curricular connections and authentic learning.

General Resources

These one-page TIDE-L organizers can be used during the organizing step of the Releasing Writers POWeR Cycle. Educators may choose an organizer based on their class’s needs and provide additional scaffolding as required. If there are alternative TIDE-L organizers you would like to use, you are encouraged to do so. The format of the organizer itself is less important than maintaining a consistent TIDE-L structure – choose one that works for your students and use it consistently.

This is what is included:

  1. Important Evidence/Detailed Examination terminology with icons.
  2. Important Evidence/Detailed Examination terminology, no icons.
  3. Ideas/Details with icons.
  4. Ideas/Details, no icons.
  5. Ideas/Details, with icons, and printing lines to support legibility.

The syntax templates can be used during the Syntax Focus of each unit. They include sentence expansion and combining templates, as well as templates for more complex expansion activities involving independent and adverbial clauses.

The templates are editable and designed to be used in future lessons with new content. Adapt them as needed to suit your learners.

General Resources

Structured Writing in Grade 4

Structured writing is a core component of Learning Through Literacy in Grade 4, guiding students through a clear and supportive writing cycle that positions writing as a tool for learning and meaning-making. Using carefully selected mentor texts, students examine how authors introduce topics, organize related ideas, and explain information using precise language and appropriate text structures, then apply these features in their own writing.

Throughout the cycle, students are supported in generating ideas, organizing information, and composing clear, coherent responses through exemplars, explicit vocabulary instruction, and guided practice. By applying content learning through writing, students strengthen comprehension, deepen understanding, and develop transferable writing skills that support success across the curriculum.

Grade 4 Units