Your Child's Communication: Fourth Grade

[en Español]

By the end of fourth grade, your child should be able to do the following tasks in each area.

Listening

  • Listen to and understand information.
  • Form opinions based on what they hear.
  • Listen for specific reasons, such as to learn, enjoy, or convince.

Speaking

  • Use words correctly in conversation.
  • Use language for many reasons, like asking questions, arguing, and joking.
  • Understand some figurative language. This is language that uses words in new or different ways. For example, "This classroom is a zoo!"
  • Take part in group discussions.
  • Give correct directions to others.
  • Summarize ideas in their own words.
  • Organize information so it is clear.
  • Give clear speeches.

Reading

  • Read for specific reasons.
  • Read grade-level books smoothly and with few mistakes.
  • Use what they know to understand new material.
  • Follow written directions.
  • Take brief notes.
  • Link what they learn in one subject to other subjects.
  • Learn meanings of new words by looking at word origins, synonyms, and other meanings.
  • Use reference materials, like a dictionary.
  • Talk about the author's reason for writing a story and about the writing style.
  • Read and understand different types of writing, like fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.
  • Make inferences from texts. This means that they guess what a writer means when it is not stated clearly. They use clues in the story and what they know from their life to guess.
  • Talk about what they read in their own words, called paraphrasing.

Writing

  • Write stories and explanations. Write many paragraphs about the same topic.
  • Develop a plan for writing that includes a beginning, a middle, and an end.
  • Organize writing around a main idea.
  • Edit final copies for grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

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