Our Grade 4 Literacy Program builds strong, independent readers by combining explicit instruction in foundational reading skills with critical thinking, comprehension strategies, and rich content knowledge. Rooted in the Science of Reading, our approach integrates word recognition (phonics, morphology, and decoding) with language comprehension (vocabulary, background knowledge, sentence structure, and text analysis) to ensure that all students can access and understand complex texts across genres. Throughout the year, students will strengthen their ability to decode multisyllabic words, use morphology (prefixes, suffixes, and roots) to determine meaning, and apply vocabulary strategies like using context clues and understanding figurative language. They’ll learn to monitor their comprehension, ask questions, and make inferences to deepen their understanding.
Additionally, students learn to craft purposeful and engaging writing across multiple genres, while also developing a deep understanding of the structure of language, text organization, and the connection between reading and writing. Rooted in the Science of Reading, our writing instruction helps students build background knowledge, academic vocabulary, and sentence-level fluency while also learning to apply phonics and morphology for accurate spelling and edit for grammar and punctuation. Throughout the year, students are taught explicit strategies for planning, drafting, revising, and editing their writing. They learn to reread their own work for meaning, expand ideas with elaboration strategies, and use text evidence to support their claims. Mentor texts are woven throughout every unit, providing models for structure, style, and craft.
The year is organized into five engaging units:
Unit 1: Exploring Poetry
In this unit, students explore the lives of extraordinary young women who challenged the status quo to make the world a better place. Through the lens of diverse poetic structures and complex grammatical devices, students will analyze how poets convey biography and theme. They will compare historical figures, infer character traits from descriptive language, and ultimately use these poetic techniques to write their own appreciation, acrostic, and limerick poems.
Unit 2: Finding Fortune
In this unit, students dig deeply into how families shape a person's identity, values, and beliefs and how relationships with others can change a person's identity through positive and negative factors that influence. Students will notice details to analyze how they support deeper understanding of characters, begin to use summarization as a strategy to track the plot of a longer text, and work on sharing their ideas through discourse, focusing on how to provide evidence and examples to justify a particular idea or point. In writing, students continue to build their writing fluency by writing daily in response to the text, learn to brainstorm, and write literary analysis/opinion paragraphs, focusing on how to write topic sentences that state an opinion and then how to determine evidence and reasons that support the opinion.
Unit 3: Reading the Earth, Writing about Earth's Processes
In this unit, students explore the wonders of our planet by reading a variety of nonfiction texts focused on Earth’s processes. As they deepen their understanding of expository texts, students practice identifying key ideas and text structures that help explain the natural world. Drawing inspiration from their reading, students craft stories as well as informative essays where they express understandings about Earth-related issues. By engaging in both reading and writing, students develop the skills to analyze information, reflect on their perspectives, and convincingly share their ideas with others.
Unit 4: Interpreting Perspectives
In this unit, students explore Greek mythology by reading classic myths such as "Pandora," "Arachne," and "Echo and Narcissus." They compare different versions of each myth, analyzing how genre and point of view influence the story and its interpretation. Students practice identifying central themes and examining how authors develop these themes in shorter texts. Throughout the unit, students enhance their literary analysis and opinion writing skills while also rewriting myths from new perspectives to deepen their understanding.
Unit 5: Believing in Yourself
In this unit, students read The Wild Book to explore the challenges of living with a learning disability and how it shapes self-perception. Through the story set in early 20th-century Cuba, students build empathy, appreciate diverse abilities, and recognize the strengths everyone brings. They analyze how the author uses verse, imagery, and character development to convey powerful themes of perseverance, identity, and acceptance. In addition to reading, students deepen their understanding through a variety of writing projects and collaborative discussions, strengthening both their literary and social-emotional skills.
Throughout the year, students are supported in building fluency, reading with expression, and monitoring for meaning. They learn to think critically, question texts, and collaborate with peers, developing strong habits of mind that will serve them as lifelong readers.
Additionally, students develop as independent writers, capable of applying their knowledge of syntax, sentence structure, and word choice to express ideas clearly. They learn to plan, draft, revise, edit, and publish, building the stamina and confidence of a writer ready for upper-grade challenges.
Grade 4 Mathematics further solidifies and builds upon the foundation of mathematical thinking and understanding that has been cultivated in prior grades. In a balanced instructional program, the students develop as problem solvers, practicing computational skills and procedures as well as constructing understanding of concepts. Fourth grade students perform multi-digit arithmetic. They use large whole numbers to fluently add and subtract and develop fluency with multiplication and division. They develop an understanding of fraction equivalence, begin operations with fractions, and classify geometric shapes based on properties. Learning experiences are designed to cultivate curiosity, promote purposeful collaboration, and introduce the language and mindsets of mathematicians. The Mathematical Practice Standards apply throughout each unit and, together with the content standards, prescribe that students experience mathematics as a coherent, useful, and logical subject that makes use of their ability to make sense of problem situations.
Use the four operations with whole numbers to solve problems.
Gain familiarity with factors and multiples.
Generate and analyze patterns.
Generalize place value understanding for multi-digit whole numbers.
Use place value understanding and properties of operations to perform multi-digit arithmetic.
Extend understanding of fraction equivalence and ordering.
Build fractions from unit fractions by applying and extending previous understandings of operations on whole numbers.
Understand decimal notation for fractions, and compare decimal fractions.
Solve problems involving measurement and conversion of measurements from a larger unit to a smaller unit.
Represent and interpret data.
Geometric measurement: understand concepts of angle and measure angles.
Draw and identify lines and angles, and classify shapes by properties of their lines and angles.
Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
Model with mathematics.
Use appropriate tools strategically.
Attend to precision.
Look for and make use of structure.
Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.
Inquiry units are designed to offer students authentic experiences where they generate questions and tackle complex issues, as individuals and teams. Social Studies based units are aligned to the American Education Reaches Out (AERO) standards, and they build understanding of concepts across the domains of the discipline - civics, economics, geography, and history. Science phenomena-based units are aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), integrating the core disciplinary ideas, cross-cutting concepts, and practices of the discipline.
In Grade 4 Inquiry, students dig deeply into the concept of perspective. They consider the impact of geography, and how the characteristics of a place influence culture and identity. Students will further investigate how circumstances can influence an individual’s perceptions and reactions to the world. From a scientific perspective, students will observe processes that shape the Earth and generate solutions for reducing the impact of Earth’s natural processes on humans. Finally, students will examine conflict, inquiring into why people in different times and places view the world differently. Through scientific inquiry, students will apply knowledge and understanding to develop models and construct explanations regarding the transfer of energy and the impact of waves.
In all units, active questioning drives learning and concepts help us to organize our ideas. Through concept-based inquiry, students develop transferable understanding around core ideas and practice the skills of the disciplines, including:
Develop Questions and Plan Inquiries
Evaluate the Credibility of the Sources and Relevance of the Information to the Inquiry
Construct Coherent, Reasoned Arguments and Explanations
Communicate Conclusions From an Inquiry
Take Informed Action for the Common Good
Asking Questions and Defining Problems
Developing and Using Models
Planning and Carrying out Investigations
Analyzing and Interpreting Data
Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking
Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions
Engaging in Argument from Evidence
Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information