How to learn Grade 4: English language arts
Nevada academic standards: English language arts, Grade 4
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1. Language Standards
- Discussing and Questioning New Words: Ask and answer questions about unknown words in texts; discuss word meanings and link new vocabulary to words already known
- Domain Vocabulary Across Subject Areas: Acquire and use accurately academic and domain-specific vocabulary relevant to grade-level topics, including words that signal precise meaning in informational texts across subject areas
- Advanced Figurative Language: Understand and interpret figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meaning — including allusion, irony, pun, oxymoron, and extended metaphor — and distinguish between connotation and denotation when analysing or choosing words
- Using New Vocabulary: Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, being read to, and responding to texts in own speech and writing
- Bullet Point Punctuation: Punctuate bullet points consistently to list information clearly, applying conventions for capitalisation, end punctuation, and parallel structure across items
- Standard English: Know and understand the differences between spoken and written language — including differences in formality, register, grammar, and vocabulary — and between Standard English and other varieties of English, using Standard English confidently in writing and speech
2. Speaking and Listening Standards
- Adapting Speech to Context: Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, using formal English when appropriate to task and situation while adjusting tone, vocabulary, and style for different audiences
- Multimedia Presentations: Include multimedia components and visual displays in presentations when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or themes
- Reporting & Recounting: Report on a topic or recount an experience with organised facts and descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace
- Identifying Reasons Behind a Speaker's Points: Identify the reasons and evidence a speaker provides to support particular points, evaluating whether the reasoning is logical and the evidence is relevant
- Paraphrasing What You Hear: Paraphrase portions of a text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, capturing the key ideas accurately in one's own words
- Group discussions: Participate actively in collaborative conversations staying on topic; continue a conversation through multiple exchanges; maintain attention in discussions
3. Writing Standards
- Writing for an audience: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organisation are appropriate to the task, purpose, and audience, maintaining a consistent style and structure throughout
- Literary Evidence in Writing: Draw evidence from literary texts to support analysis, reflection, and research in writing, applying grade-level reading standards to literature
- Evidence-Based Writing: Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research in writing, applying grade-level reading standards to non-fiction
- Short Research Projects: Conduct short research projects that build knowledge about a topic, gather information from print and digital sources, and take brief organised notes
- Research & Note-Taking: Gather relevant information from print and digital sources, summarise or paraphrase information in notes and finished work, and provide a basic bibliography or list of sources
- Sharing and Publishing Your Writing: Read own writing aloud clearly enough to be heard by peers and the teacher; use digital tools to produce and publish writing
- Revising and editing (age 7+): Evaluate and edit writing by assessing effectiveness, proposing changes to grammar and vocabulary for consistency, and proof-reading for spelling, grammar and punctuation errors at Y3-4 level
- Narrative Writing: Write narratives with developed settings, characters and plot, using dialogue and description to develop experiences and show character responses to situations
- Basic Informational Writing: Compose informative or explanatory texts that introduce a topic, use facts and definitions to develop points, and provide a concluding statement or section
- Developed Informational and Explanatory Writing: Write informative and explanatory texts that examine a topic and convey ideas clearly — organising information logically with headings and formatting, developing the topic with relevant facts, definitions, details, and quotations, and using precise vocabulary
- Structured Opinion Writing: Compose opinion pieces that introduce a topic, state a clear point of view, provide organised reasons linked with connecting words, and include a concluding statement or section
4. Reading Standards: Foundational Skills
- Reading with Expression and Accuracy: Read aloud with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression (prosody), re-reading familiar texts to build fluency and confidence, and using context to self-correct
5. Reading Standards for Informational Text
- Interpreting visual information in texts: Interpret information presented visually, orally, or quantitatively in informational texts (e.g., charts, graphs, diagrams, timelines, animations) and explain how it contributes to understanding the text
- Combining information from texts: Integrate information from two texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably, combining and comparing what each source contributes
- How authors support their points: Explain how an author of an informational text uses reasons and evidence to support particular points, evaluating whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient
- Supporting ideas with evidence: Explain how an author uses reasons and evidence to support particular points in a text, identifying which reasons and evidence support which specific points
- Firsthand and Secondhand Accounts: Compare and contrast a firsthand account (autobiography, diary, letter) with a secondhand account (biography, textbook, news report) of the same event or topic, identifying differences in focus and information provided
- Structure of information texts: Describe the overall structure of an informational text (chronology, comparison, cause/effect, problem/solution) and explain how the author's chosen structure helps convey information and ideas
- Comparing Structure in Information Texts: Compare and contrast the overall structure of events, ideas, concepts, or information in two or more informational texts, identifying patterns such as chronology, comparison, cause/effect, or problem/solution
- Explaining Events & Ideas: Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in an informational text, including what happened and why, by citing specific textual evidence about causes, effects, and steps in a process
- Summarising Non-Fiction Main Ideas: Determine two or more main ideas of an informational text and explain how they are supported by key details, then summarise the text without personal opinions
- Main Topic & Key Details: Identify the main topic of a multi-paragraph informational text, determine the focus of specific paragraphs, and explain how key details support the main idea
6. Reading Standards for Literature
- Themes Across Cultures and Traditions: Compare and contrast the treatment of similar themes, topics, and story patterns (e.g., good vs evil, quest narratives, trickster tales) in stories, myths, and traditional literature from different cultures
- Text & Media Connections: Make connections between the text of a story or drama and a visual or oral presentation of the text, identifying where each version reflects specific descriptions and directions from the text
- Narrator's Point of View: Compare and contrast the point of view from which different stories are narrated, including distinguishing between first-person and third-person narration and explaining how the narrator's perspective shapes the reader's understanding
- Poems, Drama & Prose: Explain major differences between poems, drama, and prose, identifying structural elements unique to each form: verse, rhythm, and meter in poetry; cast of characters, dialogue, and stage directions in drama; chapters and paragraphs in prose
- Cultural Allusions and Word Meaning: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as used in literary texts, including understanding references to mythology and cultural allusions (e.g., Herculean, Achilles' heel)
- In-Depth Character and Setting Analysis: Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details from the text such as a character's thoughts, words, actions, and interactions
- Finding Theme and Summarising: Determine the theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, and provide an objective summary that captures the key events without personal opinions