This is one of the most difficult yet important one on the report card. A huge part of fourth grade literacy revolves around thinking about what students read and then talking or writing about their opinions and analyses. That step is hard enough for most students. Yet by the end of fourth grade, students must also be able to back up their opinions with evidence from the text.
For example, a fourth grader read an expository nonfiction book about lightning. After thinking over a chapter, he ventured this opinion: "It would be safer to stay in a car than hide under a bridge in a lightning storm." The next step is citing the text: Why do you think so? "I think it would be safer to stay in a car because the book says that lightning follows the easiest path to the ground. So the lightning would hit the car and travel down to the ground without touching me."
The best way to practice this skill at home goes a step beyond inferring, evaluating or expanding thinking. After reading a text, ask your child to retell or summarize what they read. Then ask the first important question: What do you think about that? Then ask the second important question: Why do you think so? or How do you know? These questions provide the very core of how we teach literacy in fourth grade.