Fourth Grade Writing Standards
Writing
1.0 Writing Strategies
Students write clear, coherent sentences and paragraphs that develop a central
idea. Their writing shows they consider the audience and purpose. Students
progress through the stages of the writing process (e.g., prewriting, drafting,
revising, editing successive versions).
Organization and Focus
1.1 Select a focus, an organizational structure, and a point of view based upon
purpose, audience, length, and format requirements.
1.2 Create multiple-paragraph compositions:
a. Provide an introductory paragraph.
b. Establish and support a central idea with a topic sentence at or near the
beginning of the first paragraph.
c. Include supporting paragraphs with simple facts, details, and explanations.
d. Conclude with a paragraph that summarizes the points.
e. Use correct indention.
1.3 Use traditional structures for conveying information (e.g., chronological
order, cause and effect, similarity and difference, and posing and answering a
question).
Penmanship
1.4 Write fluidly and legibly in cursive or joined italic.
Research and Technology
1.5 Quote or paraphrase information sources, citing them appropriately.
1.6 Locate information in reference texts by using organizational features
(e.g., prefaces, appendixes).
1.7 Use various reference materials (e.g., dictionary, thesaurus, card catalog,
encyclopedia, online information) as an aid to writing.
1.8 Understand the organization of almanacs, newspapers, and periodicals and how
to use those print materials.
1.9 Demonstrate basic keyboarding skills and familiarity with computer
terminology (e.g., cursor, software, memory, disk drive, hard drive).
Evaluation and Revision
1.10 Edit and revise selected drafts to improve coherence and progression by
adding, deleting, consolidating, and rearranging text.
2.0 Writing Applications (Genres and Their Characteristics)
Students write compositions that describe and explain familiar objects, events,
and experiences. Student writing demonstrates a command of standard American
English and the drafting, research, and organizational strategies outlined in
Writing Standard 1.0.
Using the writing strategies of grade four outlined in Writing Standard 1.0,
students:
2.1 Write narratives:
a. Relate ideas, observations, or recollections of an event or experience.
b. Provide a context to enable the reader to imagine the world of the event or
experience.
c. Use concrete sensory details.
d. Provide insight into why the selected event or experience is memorable.
2.2 Write responses to literature:
a. Demonstrate an understanding of the literary work.
b. Support judgments through references to both the text and prior knowledge.
2.3 Write information reports:
a. Frame a central question about an issue or situation.
b. Include facts and details for focus.
c. Draw from more than one source of information (e.g., speakers, books,
newspapers, other media sources).
2.4 Write summaries that contain the main ideas of the reading selection and the
most significant details.
Written and Oral
English Language Conventions
The standards for written and oral English language conventions have been placed
between those for writing and for listening and speaking because these
conventions are essential to both sets of skills.
1.0 Written and Oral English Language Conventions
Students write and speak with a command of standard English conventions
appropriate to this grade level.
Sentence Structure
1.1 Use simple and compound sentences in writing and speaking.
1.2 Combine short, related sentences with appositives, participial phrases,
adjectives, ad-verbs, and prepositional phrases.
Grammar
1.3 Identify and use regular and irregular verbs, adverbs, prepositions, and
coordinating conjunctions in writing and speaking.
Punctuation
1.4 Use parentheses, commas in direct quotations, and apostrophes in the
possessive case of nouns and in contractions.
1.5 Use underlining, quotation marks, or italics to identify titles of
documents.
Capitalization
1.6 Capitalize names of magazines, newspapers, works of art, musical
compositions, organizations, and the first word in quotations when appropriate.
Spelling
1.7 Spell correctly roots, inflections, suffixes and prefixes, and syllable
constructions.