Fourth Grade Curriculum
English-Language Arts
READING
Word Analysis, Fluency, and Systematic Vocabulary Development
Students:
- Understand the basic features of reading.
- Select letter patterns and know how to translate them into spoken language by using phonics, syllabication, and word parts.
- Apply this knowledge to achieve fluent oral and silent reading.
Reading Comprehension
Students:
- Read and understand grade-level-appropriate material.
- Draw upon a variety of comprehension strategies as needed (e.g., generating and responding to essential questions, making predictions, comparing information from several sources).
- In addition to their regular school reading, read one-half million words annually, including a good representation of grade-level-appropriate narrative and expository text (e.g., classic and contemporary literature, magazines, newspapers, online information).
Literary Response and Analysis
Students:
- Read and respond to a wide variety of significant works of children’s literature.
- Distinguish between the structural features of the text and the literary terms or elements (e.g., theme, plot, setting, characters).
WRITING
Writing Strategies
Students:
- Write clear, coherent sentences and paragraphs that develop a central idea.
- Show they consider the audience and purpose.
- Progress through the stages of the writing process (e.g., pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing successive versions).
Writing Applications
Students:
- Write compositions that describe and explain familiar objects, events, and experiences.
- Demonstrate a command of standard American English and the drafting, research, and organizational strategies outlined in the writing standards.
Written and Oral English Language Conventions
- Students write and speak with a command of Standard English conventions appropriate to fourth grade.
LISTENING AND SPEAKING
Listening and Speaking
Students:
- Listen critically and respond appropriately to oral communication.
- Speak in a manner that guides the listener to understand important ideas by using proper phrasing, pitch, and modulation.
Speaking Applications
Students:
- Deliver brief recitations and oral presentations about familiar experiences of interests that are organized around a coherent thesis statement.
- Demonstrate a command of standard American English and the organizational and delivery strategies outlined in Listening and Speaking standards.
Mathematics
By the end of grade four, students understand large numbers and addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of whole numbers. They describe and compare simple fractions and decimals. They understand the properties of, and the relationships between, plane geometric figures. They collect, represent, and analyze data to answer questions.
NUMBER SENSE
Students:
- Understand the place value of whole numbers and decimals to two decimal places and how whole numbers and decimals relate to simple fractions, and use the concepts of negative numbers.
- Extend their use and understanding of whole numbers to the addition and subtraction of simple decimals.
- Solve problems involving addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of whole numbers and understand the relationships among the operations.
- Know how to factor small whole numbers.
ALGEBRA AND FUNCTIONS
Students:
- Understand perimeter and area.
- Use two-dimensional coordinate grids to represent points and graph lines and simple figures.
- Demonstrate an understanding of plane and solid geometric objects and use this knowledge to show relationships and solve problems.
STATISTICS, DATA ANALYSIS AND PROBABILITY
Students:
- Organize, represent, and interpret numerical and categorical data and clearly communicate their findings.
- Make predictions for simple probability situations.
MATHEMATICAL REASONING
Students:
- Make decisions about how to approach problems.
- Use strategies, skills, and concepts in finding solutions.
- Move beyond a particular problem by generalizing to other situations.
History-Social Science
THE STORY OF CALIFORNIA
Students learn the story of California , unique in American history in terms of its vast and varied geography, its many waves of immigration beginning with pre-Columbian societies, its continuous diversity, economic energy, and rapid growth. In addition to the specific treatment of milestones in California history, students examine the state in the context of the rest of the nation, with an emphasis on the U.S.Constitution and the relationship between state and federal government.
Students:
- Demonstrate an understanding of the physical and human geographic features that define places and regions in California .
- Describe the social, political, cultural and economic life and interactions among people of California from the pre-Columbian societies to the Spanish mission and Mexican rancho periods.
- Explain the economic, social, and political life of California from the establishment of the Bear Flag Republic through the Mexican-American War, the Gold Rush and California statehood.
- Explain how California became an agricultural and industrial power, tracing the transformation of the California economy and its political and cultural development since the 1850’s.
- Understand the structures, functions, and powers of the local, state, and federal governments as described in the U.S. Constitution.
Science
PHYSICAL SCIENCES
- Students understand that electricity and magnetism are related effects that have many useful applications in every day life.
LIFE SCIENCES
- Students understand that all organisms need energy and matter to live and grow.
- Living organisms depend on one another and on their environment for survival.
EARTH SCIENCES
- Students understand that the properties of rocks and minerals reflect the process that formed them.
- Waves, wind, water, and ice shape and reshape Earth’s land surface.
INVESTIGATION AND EXPERIMENTATION
- Students understand that scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations.
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