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4th Grade  Project 8 weeks

Golden State Industry Innovators

Kelly K
Updated
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.2
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.1
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.6
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.4.1
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.W.6
+ 11 more
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Purpose

Students investigate how California’s geography and natural resources shape major industries, then use research to explain and argue which industries have had the greatest past, present, and future impact on the state. Over eight weeks, they read informational texts, gather notes in graphic organizers, interview California industry experts, and create a formal essay, speech, Google Slides, and a newspaper-style publication for a real audience. The work builds skill in informative and opinion writing, collaboration, discussion, and technology-based publishing while helping students identify multiple perspectives on how industries influence communities. The learning experience culminates in a formal California taskforce meeting where students present claims, answer audience questions, and communicate their thinking clearly and confidently.

Learning goals

Students will research how California’s geography and natural resources shaped major industries over time, then explain their findings in clear informative writing and formal speeches. They will analyze multiple perspectives from texts, online sources, and industry experts, using note-taking, graphic organizers, summarizing, and inference to develop a five-paragraph essay and Google Slides presentation. Students will strengthen opinion and explanatory writing by distinguishing fact from opinion and crafting claims about which California industries are most influential now and in the future. They will collaborate to create newspaper-style products, ask thoughtful questions during partner and expert discussions, and present at a formal taskforce meeting with clear pacing, relevant evidence, and audience awareness.

Standards
  • [Common Core] CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.2 - Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.
  • [Common Core] CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.1 - Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information
  • [Common Core] CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.6 - With some guidance and support from adults, use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of one page in a single sitting.
  • [Common Core] CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.4.1 - Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 4 topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.
  • [Common Core] CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.W.6 - Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others.
  • [Common Core] CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.4.4 - Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience in an organized manner, using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.
  • [Common Core] CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.7 - Conduct short research projects that build knowledge through investigation of different aspects of a topic.
  • [Computer Science Teachers Association] 1B-IC-18 - Discuss computing technologies that have changed the world, and express how those technologies influence, and are influenced by, cultural practices.
  • [Common Core] CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.W.2 - Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
  • [Common Core] CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.10 - Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.
Competencies
  • Critical Thinking & Problem Solving - Students consider a variety of innovative approaches to address and understand complex questions that are authentic and important to their communities.
  • Content Expertise - Students develop key competencies, skills, and dispositions with ample opportunities to apply knowledge and engage in work that matters to them.
  • Effective Communication - Students practice listening to understand, communicating with empathy, and share their learning through exhibiting, presenting and reflecting on their work.
  • Collaboration - Students co-design projects with peers, exercise shared-decision making, strengthen relational agency, resolve conflict, and assume leadership roles.
  • Self Directed Learning - Students use teacher and peer feedback and self-reflection to monitor and direct their own learning while building self knowledge both in and out of the classroom.
  • Academic Mindset - Students establish a sense of place, identity, and belonging to increase self-efficacy while engaging in critical reflection and action.

Products

Students will create research notes, graphic organizers, and a collaborative California industry newspaper with articles that distinguish fact from opinion and summarize multiple perspectives on agriculture and other major industries. Each student will also produce a typed 5-paragraph essay explaining the past, present, and future of a California powerhouse industry, supported by evidence from reading, research, and interviews with industry experts. In teams, students will design Google Slides and write formal taskforce speeches that argue which industries are most shaped by California’s geography and natural resources. The culminating products are the polished essay, presentation slides, and oral speech delivered at a formal California taskforce meeting with audience questions.

Launch

Open with a simulated California Task Force emergency meeting: students receive a “state briefing” showing maps, photos, and short news clips about agriculture, technology, tourism, and shipping, then hear the challenge to recommend which industries California should invest in for the future. In teams, they rotate through artifact stations with water maps, crop images, port data, and tech company snapshots, using a simple note-catcher to infer how geography and natural resources shape each industry. Students generate interview questions for visiting California industry experts and record an initial opinion about which industry is the strongest powerhouse and why. Close with a brief public share-out so the class can name patterns, perspectives, and possible topics for their essays, speeches, Google Slides, and newspaper pieces.

Exhibition

Host a formal California Industry Task Force meeting where students present speeches and Google Slides that argue which industries became powerhouses because of the state’s geography and natural resources. Invite California industry experts, families, and other classes to serve as the audience, ask questions at a press-conference-style Q&A, and respond to students’ claims and evidence. Display students’ five-paragraph essays and class-created newspapers around the room or in a digital gallery so guests can read how each team explained the past, present, and future of a California industry. End with audience feedback forms and student reflection on how their research, writing, and presentation shaped their final recommendations.