By the end of 4th grade, students are expected to be within the Refining level of development. At the Refining level, students will be able to:
Reading

• Read and comprehend a variety of grade level literature and informational texts.

• Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.

• Recognize and apply grade level phonics and word analysis skills to construct meaning, self-monitor and decode words.

• Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text.

• Determine the main idea or theme of a text and explain how it is supported by details from the text.

• Identify the structure, text features, and purpose of narrative and informational texts.

• Analyze text features and story elements to construct meaning.

• Locate and interpret information from a variety of sources.

• Make connections and inferences using details and examples in a text.

• Compare and contrast using evidence from a variety of texts.

Writing

• Write organized narratives with relevant details .

• Write organized informational pieces with supporting details.

• Write organized opinion pieces using supporting evidence.

• Write constructed responses across subject areas.

• Use conventions to edit (grammar, mechanics, spelling).

• Consistently apply spelling patterns.

• Plan, evaluate, and revise writing.

• Use technology to produce and publish writing with support

Speaking & Listening

• Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions.

• Respond to multiple text types by reflecting, making connections, taking a position, pointing out evidence, contributing relevant details and sharing understanding.

• Incorporates media to enhance the development of main ideas or themes.

• Communicates effectively in multiple social contexts.

Language

• Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar, sentence structure and spelling.
• Acquire and use accurately grade appropriate vocabulary and phrases.
• Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships and vocabulary

The Mathematical Strands are the end of year goals for 4th grade children. Although it is understood that children develop at different rates, the goal is that students will be able to demonstrate competency in these areas: 

Operations and Algebraic Thinking 

• Demonstrate problem solving skills using the four operations with whole numbers. 

• Write and solve equations and/or number stories using a variable. 

• Determine factor pairs of whole numbers through 100. 

• Recognize and determine multiples of whole numbers 0 – 10. 

• Determine whether a given whole number from 1 – 100 is prime or composite. 

• Generate and analyze patterns. 

Number and Operation in Base Ten 

• Read, write, and compare multi-digit whole numbers. 

• Fluently add and subtract multi-digit whole numbers using the standard algorithm. 

• Multiply multi-digit numbers. 

• Divide multi-digit numbers. 

Number and Operations – Fractions 

• Recognize and generate equivalent fractions. 

• Compare two fractions with different numerators and denominators. 

• Add and subtract fractions to solve word problems. 

• Add and subtract mixed numbers with like denominators. 

• Use a visual model and/or equations to multiply a fraction by a whole number to solve a problem. 

• Decompose a fraction into a sum of fractions with the same denominators in more than one way. 

• Add two fractions with respective denominators 10 and 100. 

• Use decimal notation for fractions with denominators 10 or 100. 

• Compare two decimals up to the hundredths place value. 

Measurement and Data 

• Convert one unit to another (metric and U.S. customary). 

• Use the four operations to solve word problems involving measurement. 

• Apply the area and perimeter formulas for rectangles in real world and mathematical problems. 

• Make a line plot to display a data set of measurements in fractions of a unit (1/2, 1/4, 1/8). Use the line plot data to solve problems involving addition and subtraction of fractions. 

• Recognize angles as geometric shapes that are formed wherever two rays share a common endpoint. 

• Understand concepts of angle measurements. 

• Measure angles in whole-number degrees using a protractor. 

• Solve addition and subtraction problems to find unknown angles on a diagram in real world and mathematical problems. 

Geometry 

• Draw points, lines, line segments, rays, angles (right, acute, obtuse) and perpendicular and parallel lines. 

• Classify two – dimensional figures based on the presence or absence of parallel or perpendicular lines.

 • Recognize right triangles as a category, and identify right triangles. 

• Recognize and draw lines of symmetry of a given figure.

Students will learn about the following science strands:

Energy and Waves

• Obtain information to determine how energy moves from place to place.
• Determine the relationship between energy and forces.
• Examine the properties of waves.

Structure, Function, and Information Processing

• Develop a model to describe that light reflecting from objects and entering the eye allows objects to be seen.
• Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.
• Use a model to describe that animals receive different types of information through their senses, process the information in their brain, and respond to the information in different ways.

Earth’s Systems: Processes that Shape the Earth

• Identify evidence from patterns in rock formations and fossils in rock layers to support an explanation for changes in a landscape over time.
• Make observations and/or measurements to provide evidence of the effects of weathering or the rate of erosion by water, ice, wind, or vegetation.
• Analyze and interpret data from maps to describe patterns of Earth’s features.
• Generate and compare multiple solutions to reduce the impacts of natural Earth processes on humans.

In each of the following areas, students will:

History

• Use examples from Michigan history from statehood to the present as case studies for learning about the United States.
• Use historical thinking to understand the past.

Geography

• Draw on their knowledge of the 5 Themes of Geography to create understandings within the context of the United States.
• Assess the effects of human activities on the physical environment of the United States

Civics

• Explore the reasons rights have limits and the relationship between rights and responsibilities.
• Explain the responsibilities of citizenship and how citizens can work  together to promote the values and principles of American Democracy.
• Identify situations in which Core Democratic values are involved.
• Describe the structure of government in the United States and how it functions to serve citizens.

Economics

• Describe characteristics of a market economy.
• Participate in a market simulation which includes interaction between households and businesses.
• Explain how changes in the United States economy impacts levels of employment.
• Describe how global competition affects the national economy

Public Discourse/Decision Making/Citizen Involvement

•  Identify public policy issues facing citizens in the United States.
• Use graphic data and other sources to analyze information about a public policy issue in the United States and justify the position with a reasoned argument.
• Participate in projects to help or inform others.