Standard #: LAFS.4.RL.1.3 (Archived Standard)


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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).


General Information

Subject Area: English Language Arts
Grade: 4
Strand: Reading Standards for Literature
Date Adopted or Revised: 12/10
Date of Last Rating: 02/14
Status: State Board Approved - Archived
Assessed: Yes

Test Item Specifications

    Item Type(s): This benchmark may be assessed using: TM , EBSR , MS , ST item(s)
    N/A

    Assessment Limits :
    Items may ask the student to use explicit and implicit details from the text to describe in depth a character, setting, or event. The items may require the student to draw inferences from the text. Items should not focus on pure comprehension of details. Rather, the items should focus on how the details describe a character, setting, or event in depth.
    Text Types :
    The items assessing this standard may be used with one or more grade-appropriate literary texts. Texts may vary in complexity.
    Response Mechanisms :
    The Enhanced Item Descriptions section on page 3 provides a list of Response Mechanisms that may be used to assess this standard (excluding the Editing Task Choice item type). The Sample Response Mechanisms may include, but are not limited to, the examples below.
    Task Demand and Sample Response Mechanisms :
    Task Demand

    Interpret details from the text to make a statement about a character, setting, or event.

    Sample Response Mechanisms

    Selectable Text 

    • Requires the student to select a description of a character, setting, or event and to select a detail or details from the text to support that description. 
    EBSR 
    • Requires the student to select a description of a character, setting, or event and then select a detail or details from the text to support that description. 
    Multiselect 
    • Requires the student to select multiple details from the text that support an inference about a character, setting, or event. 
    Table Match 
    • Requires the student to complete a table by matching descriptions of a character, setting, or event with supporting details from the text.


Related Courses

Course Number1111 Course Title222
7713010: Music: K-5 (Specifically in versions: 2013 - 2015, 2015 - 2019 (course terminated))
5010010: English for Speakers of Other Languages-Elementary (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2022 (course terminated))
5010020: Basic Skills in Reading-K-2 (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2021, 2021 and beyond (current))
5010030: Functional Basic Skills in Communications-Elementary (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2022, 2022 and beyond (current))
5010045: Language Arts - Grade Four (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2022, 2022 and beyond (current))
7710015: Access Language Arts - Grade 4 (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2018, 2018 - 2022, 2022 and beyond (current))
5010240: Theatre – Intermediate 2 (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2020 (course terminated))
5013100: Music - Intermediate 2 (Specifically in versions: 2014 - 2015, 2015 - 2022, 2022 and beyond (current))
7713040: Access Music Grade 4 (Specifically in versions: 2018 - 2023, 2023 and beyond (current))
5004240: Theatre Intermediate 2 (Specifically in versions: 2020 - 2022, 2022 and beyond (current))


Related Resources

Lesson Plans

Name Description
Jackson Whole Wyoming

This lesson helps students understand how increasing what they know about disabilities can improve their attitudes and relationships with other students. Jackson Whole Wyoming tells the story of how Tyler explores his own feelings about students who are different and the real meaning of friendship with a boy named Jackson, who has Asperger syndrome. This lesson addresses the following language arts skills: referring to details and examples in text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when making inferences; describing in depth a character, setting, or event in a story, drawing on details from the text; and writing opinion pieces in response to a text-based question, supporting a point of view with reasons and information.

Close Reading: Phineas L. MacGuire Gets Slimed

This is a close reading lesson on Chapter 1 of Phineas L. MacGuire Gets Slimed by Frances O'Roark Dowell. It includes graphic organizers, a writing prompt, and a rubric. Students will use context clues to discover the meaning of unknown words, answer text-dependent questions, complete a character analysis, and write an opinion piece.

Number the Stars: A Lesson about Setting

This close reading lesson will take students on a journey through a brief historical fiction account of the Holocaust, Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. In the targeted passage the students will determine if and how the setting changes. The students will have opportunities to respond to and discuss several thought-provoking, open-ended questions about the setting. The students will also be given the opportunity to reflect and discuss ideas about the events of the historical account.

What's the Theme in The Well?

This lesson uses the text, The Well written by Mildred Taylor. In this reading lesson, students will analyze the story elements as textual evidence to support the text’s theme. This lesson is to be used before a complete read of the text.

If Animals Could Talk: Writing Fables

In this lesson, students will analyze and discuss the characteristics and story lines of two different fables, "The Owl and The Grasshopper" and "The Town Mouse and The Country Mouse," and then write a fable of their own.

Examining How the Setting Impacts the Plot of a Story

In this lesson, students will explain how the setting impacts the plot of a story. The teacher modeling and guided practice phases feature the story The Three Brothers: A German Folktale by Carolyn Croll. In the independent practice, students will read the passage "A New Home," which is provided with the lesson, and identify the setting and explain how the details of the time and place affect the plot. This lesson is part one of a two part unit on setting; the other lesson has been attached as a related resource.

Using Setting to Make Predictions about Characters

This is the second of two lessons in a unit on setting. The lesson features "Forest Ghosts" from Even More Short and Shivery retold by Robert D. San Souci to make predictions about characters. The first lesson in the unit has been attached as a related resource.

Plot: Climax of a Story

This is the first of three lessons in a fourth grade unit on plot. Students will identify and describe the climax in a story. They will also examine elements of plot including rising actions, the problem, falling actions, and the resolution. The texts Stone Soup by Jon J. Muth and Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt by Deborah Hopkinson are used in this lesson. In the independent practice, students get to choose a story of their own. The other lessons in the unit have been attached as related resources.

Aesop's Fable "The Lost Wig"

This lesson on Aesop's Fable "The Lost Wig" will provide students the opportunity to share and discuss their ideas of the fable’s theme. Students will work together in cooperative pairs to determine the theme "The Lost Wig." They will also have the opportunity to add on to the ending of "The Lost Wig" to enhance the theme.

Close Reading of Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis

In this lesson, students will work with their teacher and classmates to practice a close reading of the book Bud,Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis. All of the supplemental resources needed in order to execute this lesson are included. Students will encounter multiple reading opportunities and be asked to analyze text, identify story elements, examine characters' actions and motivations, and finally, make inferences after closely reading the text.

Reading of the Folk Tale "The Sly Fox and The Little Red Hen"

This lesson will provide an in-depth look at the folk tale, "The Sly Fox and The Little Red Hen." By the completion of the lesson, students will have described the different character perspectives. They will also have written a new version of the folk tale based on the things they learned about the characters and that puts a twist on the original version.

Character Super Sleuths

Fourth grade students will be challenged to become super sleuths, or investigators, to describe characters in depth, in terms of stated and implied character traits. They will use "investigative strategies" to explore characters, first as a group and then independently. The culminating activity will be an oral presentation to present the results of their "character sleuthing".

The Heart of a Lion

In this lesson, the students delve into the world of understanding characters and how to develop them in their narrative writing. Students will develop a deeper understanding of characters as the class reviews character traits as well as the development of the main character throughout the story. In the final assessment, students will develop their own characters from picture form to written form to build understanding and deeper meaning of characters. Students will create a storyboard that allows for five to six pictures of a main character with an accompanying storyline that is organized with a clear beginning, middle, and end. They will additionally use digital writing tools to plan a narrative piece.

Kidnapped in Key West This lesson is focused on the text Kidnapped in Key West. It integrates Florida history into this historical fiction piece that is rich with complex characters, events and mystery that will captivate every reader. The opportunities for in-depth inquiry both through conversation and writing are limitless. Through writing the students will develop and enhance their writing and language skills.
Cinderella, Cinderella This lesson will help students review the story elements of fairy tales, using the original version of Cinderella. In subsequent lessons they will be using this information to compare and contrast different multicultural versions of Cinderella.
Cause and Effect Relationships in Historical Fiction

In this lesson, students will identify multiple causes and effects in a work of historical fiction. The lesson features the text Pink and Say by Patricia Polacco.

Examining the Qualities of Historical Fiction in the Text Meet Addy: An American Girl

In this resource, students will identify and describe evidence in a text showing that it is historical fiction. In guided and independent practice activities students will use the text Meet Addy: An American Girl, by Connie Porter.

Exploring the Relationship Between the Protagonist and Antagonist

This is the third of three lessons in a fourth grade unit on characters. Students will identify and describe how the relationship between the protagonist and antagonist affects the plot. The teacher modeling and guided practice uses the story Hansel and Gretel retold by Rika Lesser. The other lessons in this unit are attached as related CPALMS resources.

Identifying and Describing the Antagonist of a Story

This is the second lesson in a fourth grade unit on characters. Students will identify and describe the antagonist in a story using text evidence. The lesson uses Hansel and Gretel retold by Rika Lesser in the teacher modeling and guided practice. The other lessons in this unit have been attached as related CPALMS resources.

Identifying and Describing the Protagonist in a Story

This is the first lesson in a fourth grade unit on characters. Students will identify and describe the protagonist in a story using text evidence. The lesson uses Hansel and Gretel retold by Rika Lesser in the teacher modeling and guided practice. The other lessons in this unit have been attached as related CPALMS resources.

Student Center Activities

Name Description
Comprehension: Character Connections

In this activity, students will identify similarities and differences between characters. As an extension activity, students will compare the perspectives of two characters. Graphic organizers are provided for character analysis and comparisons.

Comprehension: Character Consideration

In this activity, students will describe characters using a graphic organizer.

Comprehension: Check-A-Trait

In this activity, students will identify similarities and differences between characters' traits (as determined by actions, thoughts, and feelings).

Comprehension: Story Pieces

In this activity, students will answer questions related to story elements (characters, setting, plot, theme) and record their answers on a graphic organizer.

Teaching Idea

Name Description
Comics in the Classroom as an Introduction to Narrative Structure

In this lesson, students will use a comic-strip format for pre-writing to reinforce plot structure and create their own personal narratives. Students will learn to differentiate between random or background events and events that are significant to the plot of the story. Handouts and a virtual manipulative are included in this lesson.

Unit/Lesson Sequence

Name Description
Inferring How and Why Characters Change

Because so many stories contain lessons that the main character learns and grows from, it is important for students to not only recognize these transformations but also understand how the story's events affected the characters. This lesson uses a think-aloud procedure to model how to infer character traits and recognize a character's growth across a text. Students also consider the underlying reasons of why the character changed, supporting their ideas and inferences with evidence from the text.

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