Literacy concepts assessed in Fourth Grade include:

Reading Literature and Informational texts

Students demonstrate the ability to think about reading by

• Referring to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
• Determining a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text; determining the main idea of a text and explaining how it is supported by key details; summarizing the text.
• Describing in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text; explaining events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text, including what happened and why, based on specific information in the text.
• Comparing and contrasting the point of view from which different stories are narrated, including the difference between first- and third-person narrations; comparing and contrasting a firsthand and secondhand account, including those by or about Minnesota American Indians, of the same event or topic; describing the differences in focus and the information provided.
• Comparing and contrasting the treatment of similar themes and topics and patterns of events in stories, myths, and traditional literature from different cultures, including American Indians; integrating information from two texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably.

Reading Foundational

Students demonstrate the mechanical skills of reading by

• Knowing and applying grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
• Reading with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension; accurately reading grade-level text with purpose and understanding, using appropriate rate and expression.

Writing

Students compose ideas in the following genres

• Opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information.
• Informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.
• Narratives and other creative texts to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.

Speak, Listen, Language

Students can

• Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners on grade 4 topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.
• Identify the reasons and evidence a speaker provides to support particular points.
• Report on a topic or text and avoid plagiarism by identifying sources, 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.
• Demonstrate command of grade-appropriate conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
• Demonstrate command of grade-appropriate conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation and spelling when writing.
• Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on fourth grade reading and content.