Texas State Standards for Language Arts: Grade 4

TX.110.15. English Language Arts and Reading, Grade 4, Beginning with School Year 2009-2010

(4.1) Reading/Fluency. Students read grade-level text with fluency and comprehension. Students are expected to read aloud grade-level stories with fluency (rate, accuracy, expression, appropriate phrasing) and comprehension.

(4.2) Reading/Vocabulary Development. Students understand new vocabulary and use it when reading and writing. Students are expected to:

4.2 (A) Determine the meaning of grade-level academic English words derived from Latin, Greek, or other linguistic roots and affixes;

4.2 (B) Use the context of the sentence (e.g., in-sentence example or definition) to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words or multiple meaning words;

4.2 (C) Complete analogies using knowledge of antonyms and synonyms (e.g., boy:girl as male:____ or girl:woman as boy:_____ );

4.2 (D) Identify the meaning of common idioms; and

4.2 (E) Use a dictionary or glossary to determine the meanings, syllabication, and pronunciation of unknown words.

(4.3) Reading/Comprehension of Literary Text/Theme and Genre. Students analyze, make inferences and draw conclusions about theme and genre in different cultural, historical, and contemporary contexts and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding. Students are expected to:

4.3 (A) Summarize and explain the lesson or message of a work of fiction as its theme; and

4.3 (B) Compare and contrast the adventures or exploits of characters (e.g., the trickster) in traditional and classical literature.

(4.4) Reading/Comprehension of Literary Text/Poetry. Students understand, make inferences and draw conclusions about the structure and elements of poetry and provide evidence from text to support their understanding. Students are expected to explain how the structural elements of poetry (e.g., rhyme, meter, stanzas, line breaks) relate to form (e.g., lyrical poetry, free verse).

(4.5) Reading/Comprehension of Literary Text/Drama. Students understand, make inferences and draw conclusions about the structure and elements of drama and provide evidence from text to support their understanding. Students are expected to describe the structural elements particular to dramatic literature.

(4.6) Reading/Comprehension of Literary Text/Fiction. Students understand, make inferences and draw conclusions about the structure and elements of fiction and provide evidence from text to support their understanding. Students are expected to:

4.6 (A) Sequence and summarize the plot's main events and explain their influence on future events;

4.6 (B) Describe the interaction of characters including their relationships and the changes they undergo; and

4.6 (C) Identify whether the narrator or speaker of a story is first or third person.

(4.7) Reading/Comprehension of Literary Text/Literary Nonfiction. Students understand, make inferences and draw conclusions about the varied structural patterns and features of literary nonfiction and provide evidence from text to support their understanding. Students are expected to identify similarities and differences between the events and characters' experiences in a fictional work and the actual events and experiences described in an author's biography or autobiography.

(4.8) Reading/Comprehension of Literary Text/Sensory Language. Students understand, make inferences and draw conclusions about how an author's sensory language creates imagery in literary text and provide evidence from text to support their understanding. Students are expected to identify the author's use of similes and metaphors to produce imagery.

(4.9) Reading/Comprehension of Text/Independent Reading. Students read independently for sustained periods of time and produce evidence of their reading. Students are expected to read independently for a sustained period of time and paraphrase what the reading was about, maintaining meaning and logical order (e.g., generate a reading log or journal; participate in book talks).

(4.10) Reading/Comprehension of Informational Text/Culture and History. Students analyze, make inferences and draw conclusions about the author's purpose in cultural, historical, and contemporary contexts and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding. Students are expected to explain the difference between a stated and an implied purpose for an expository text.

(4.11) Reading/Comprehension of Informational Text/Expository Text. Students analyze, make inferences and draw conclusions about expository text and provide evidence from text to support their understanding. Students are expected to:

4.11 (A) Summarize the main idea and supporting details in text in ways that maintain meaning;

4.11 (B) Distinguish fact from opinion in a text and explain how to verify what is a fact;

4.11 (C) Describe explicit and implicit relationships among ideas in texts organized by cause-and-effect, sequence, or comparison; and

4.11 (D) Use multiple text features (e.g., guide words, topic and concluding sentences) to gain an overview of the contents of text and to locate information.

(4.12) Reading/Comprehension of Informational Text/Persuasive Text. Students analyze, make inferences and draw conclusions about persuasive text and provide evidence from text to support their analysis. Students are expected to explain how an author uses language to present information to influence what the reader thinks or does.

(4.13) Reading/Comprehension of Informational Text/Procedural Texts. Students understand how to glean and use information in procedural texts and documents. Students are expected to:

4.13 (A) Determine the sequence of activities needed to carry out a procedure (e.g., following a recipe); and

4.13 (B) Explain factual information presented graphically (e.g., charts, diagrams, graphs, illustrations).

(4.14) Reading/Media Literacy. Students use comprehension skills to analyze how words, images, graphics, and sounds work together in various forms to impact meaning. Students continue to apply earlier standards with greater depth in increasingly more complex texts. Students are expected to:

4.14 (A) Explain the positive and negative impacts of advertisement techniques used in various genres of media to impact consumer behavior;

4.14 (B) Explain how various design techniques used in media influence the message (e.g., pacing, close-ups, sound effects); and

4.14 (C) Compare various written conventions used for digital media (e.g. language in an informal e-mail vs. language in a web-based news article).

(4.15) Writing/Writing Process. Students use elements of the writing process (planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing) to compose text. Students are expected to:

4.15 (A) Plan a first draft by selecting a genre appropriate for conveying the intended meaning to an audience and generating ideas through a range of strategies (e.g., brainstorming, graphic organizers, logs, journals);

4.15 (B) Develop drafts by categorizing ideas and organizing them into paragraphs;

4.15 (C) Revise drafts for coherence, organization, use of simple and compound sentences, and audience;

4.15 (D) Edit drafts for grammar, mechanics, and spelling using a teacher-developed rubric; and

4.15 (E) Revise final draft in response to feedback from peers and teacher and publish written work for a specific audience.

(4.16) Writing/Literary Texts. Students write literary texts to express their ideas and feelings about real or imagined people, events, and ideas. Students are expected to:

4.16 (A) Write imaginative stories that build the plot to a climax and contain details about the characters and setting; and

4.16 (B) Write poems that convey sensory details using the conventions of poetry (e.g., rhyme, meter, patterns of verse).

(4.17) Writing. Students write about their own experiences. Students are expected to write about important personal experiences.

(4.18) Writing/Expository and Procedural Texts. Students write expository and procedural or work-related texts to communicate ideas and information to specific audiences for specific purposes. Students are expected to:

4.18 (A) Create brief compositions that:

4.18 (A) (i) Establish a central idea in a topic sentence;

4.18 (A) (ii) Include supporting sentences with simple facts, details, and explanations; and

4.18 (A) (iii) Contain a concluding statement;

4.18 (B) Write letters whose language is tailored to the audience and purpose (e.g., a thank you note to a friend) and that use appropriate conventions (e.g., date, salutation, closing); and

4.18 (C) Write responses to literary or expository texts and provide evidence from the text to demonstrate understanding.

(4.19) Writing/Persuasive Texts. Students write persuasive texts to influence the attitudes or actions of a specific audience on specific issues. Students are expected to write persuasive essays for appropriate audiences that establish a position and use supporting details.

(4.20) Oral and Written Conventions/Conventions. Students understand the function of and use the conventions of academic language when speaking and writing. Students continue to apply earlier standards with greater complexity. Students are expected to:

4.20 (A) Use and understand the function of the following parts of speech in the context of reading, writing, and speaking:

4.20 (A) (i) Verbs (irregular verbs);

4.20 (A) (ii) Nouns (singular/plural, common/proper);

4.20 (A) (iii) Adjectives (e.g., descriptive, including purpose: sleeping bag, frying pan) and their comparative and superlative forms (e.g., fast, faster, fastest);

4.20 (A) (iv) Adverbs (e.g., frequency: usually, sometimes; intensity: almost, a lot);

4.20 (A) (v) Prepositions and prepositional phrases to convey location, time, direction, or to provide details;

4.20 (A) (vi) Reflexive pronouns (e.g., myself, ourselves);

4.20 (A) (vii) Correlative conjunctions (e.g., either/or, neither/nor); and

4.20 (A) (viii) Use time order transition words and transitions that indicate a conclusion;

4.20 (B) Use the complete subject and the complete predicate in a sentence; and

4.20 (C) Use complete simple and compound sentences with correct subject-verb agreement.

(4.21) Oral and Written Conventions/Handwriting, Capitalization, and Punctuation. Students write legibly and use appropriate capitalization and punctuation conventions in their compositions. Students are expected to:

4.21 (A) Write legibly by selecting cursive script or manuscript printing as appropriate;

4.21 (B) Use capitalization for:

4.21 (B) (i) Historical events and documents;

4.21 (B) (ii) Titles of books, stories, and essays; and

4.21 (B) (iii) Languages, races, and nationalities; and

4.21 (C) Recognize and use punctuation marks including:

4.21 (C) (i) Commas in compound sentences; and

4.21 (C) (ii) Quotation marks.

(4.22) Oral and Written Conventions/Spelling. Students spell correctly. Students are expected to:

4.22 (A) Spell words with more advanced orthographic patterns and rules:

4.22 (A) (i) Plural rules (e.g., words ending in f as in leaf, leaves; adding -es);

4.22 (A) (ii) Irregular plurals (e.g., man/men, foot/feet, child/children);

4.22 (A) (iii) Double consonants in middle of words;

4.22 (A) (iv) Other ways to spell sh (e.g., -sion, -tion, -cian); and

4.22 (A) (v) Silent letters (e.g., knee, wring);

4.22 (B) Spell base words and roots with affixes (e.g., -ion, -ment, -ly, dis-, pre-);

4.22 (C) Spell commonly used homophones (e.g., there, they're, their; two, too, to); and

4.22 (D) Use spelling patterns and rules and print and electronic resources to determine and check correct spellings.

(4.23) Research/Research Plan. Students ask open-ended research questions and develop a plan for answering them. Students are expected to:

4.23 (A) Generate research topics from personal interests or by brainstorming with others, narrow to one topic, and formulate open-ended questions about the major research topic; and

4.23 (B) Generate a research plan for gathering relevant information (e.g., surveys, interviews, encyclopedias) about the major research question.

(4.24) Research/Gathering Sources. Students determine, locate, and explore the full range of relevant sources addressing a research question and systematically record the information they gather. Students are expected to:

4.24 (A) Follow the research plan to collect information from multiple sources of information both oral and written, including:

4.24 (A) (i) Student-initiated surveys, on-site inspections, and interviews;

4.24 (A) (ii) Data from experts, reference texts, and online searches; and

4.24 (A) (iii) Visual sources of information (e.g., maps, timelines, graphs) where appropriate;

4.24 (B) Use skimming and scanning techniques to identify data by looking at text features (e.g., bold print, italics);

4.24 (C) Take simple notes and sort evidence into provided categories or an organizer;

4.24 (D) Identify the author, title, publisher, and publication year of sources; and

4.24 (E) Differentiate between paraphrasing and plagiarism and identify the importance of citing valid and reliable sources.

(4.25) Research/Synthesizing Information. Students clarify research questions and evaluate and synthesize collected information. Students are expected to improve the focus of research as a result of consulting expert sources (e.g., reference librarians and local experts on the topic).

(4.26) Research/Organizing and Presenting Ideas. Students organize and present their ideas and information according to the purpose of the research and their audience. Students are expected to draw conclusions through a brief written explanation and create a works-cited page from notes, including the author, title, publisher, and publication year for each source used.

(4.27) Listening and Speaking/Listening. Students use comprehension skills to listen attentively to others in formal and informal settings. Students continue to apply earlier standards with greater complexity. Students are expected to:

4.27 (A) Listen attentively to speakers, ask relevant questions, and make pertinent comments; and

4.27 (B) Follow, restate, and give oral instructions that involve a series of related sequences of action.

(4.28) Listening and Speaking/Speaking. Students speak clearly and to the point, using the conventions of language. Students continue to apply earlier standards with greater complexity. Students are expected to express an opinion supported by accurate information, employing eye contact, speaking rate, volume, and enunciation, and the conventions of language to communicate ideas effectively.

(4.29) Listening and Speaking/Teamwork. Students work productively with others in teams. Students continue to apply earlier standards with greater complexity. Students are expected to participate in teacher- and student-led discussions by posing and answering questions with appropriate detail and by providing suggestions that build upon the ideas of others.

TX.128.15. Spanish Language Arts and Reading, Grade 4, Beginning with School Year 2009-2010

4.21 (D) Identify and read abbreviations (e.g., Sr., Atte.).

4.22 (D) (i) Greek roots (e.g., tele-, foto-, grafo-, metro-);

4.22 (D) (ii) Latin roots (e.g., spec, scrib, rupt, port, dict);

4.22 (D) (iii) Greek suffixes (e.g., -ologia, -fobia, -ismo, -ista); and

4.22 (D) (iv) Latin derived suffixes (e.g., -able, -ible, -ancia);

4.22 (E) Differentiate the meaning or function of a word based on the diacritical accent (e.g., de, de; tu, tu);

4.22 (F) Mark accents appropriately when conjugating verbs in simple and imperfect past, perfect, conditional, and future tenses (e.g., corrio, jugo, tenia, gustaria, vendra); and

4.22 (G) Use spelling patterns, rules, and print and electronic resources to determine and check correct spellings.