Fourth Grade
"By fourth grade, the facts start talking to each other. Students begin to notice why things are the way they are, and we welcome more complex questions with open arms."
Ilene Drobny
Fourth Grade Teacher
-
By fourth grade, the facts my students have gathered over the years begin to talk to each other, and my classroom is where those connections come alive. This is the year students start asking not just what is true but why, and I welcome those first real questions with open arms. We read to analyze as well as to enjoy, drawing out themes and evidence and learning to support an idea with what the text actually says. Our writing grows into multi-paragraph work with a clear structure and a point of view, and our math moves into fractions, longer reasoning, and problems that reward careful thinking. I design our units to cross subjects on purpose, so a question raised in history might resurface in science or in what we are reading, and my students begin to see knowledge as one connected whole rather than a set of separate boxes. My job is to feed their growing appetite for reasons while keeping the room a place where it is safe to wonder out loud.
-
Reading
Students in fourth grade read a variety of texts including biographies, fiction, informational texts, myths, legends, short stories, and poems. The program includes reading from across the curriculum, with an emphasis on California history. Students take their analytic skills to a higher level in fourth grade through research in informational books, articles, and websites, and by using literature to explore theme and character. Fourth graders assess firsthand and secondhand accounts of real events and analyze the information to draw conclusions in collaboration with other students.
Writing
Written work in fourth grade focuses on developing skills to create multi-paragraph compositions using supporting facts, research, reflection, collaboration, and revision. Compositions include compare-and-contrast, persuasive, and opinion essays, as well as creative writing. Students also compose poetry and develop their understanding and use of figurative language.
Students build vocabulary through the texts we read and additional vocabulary activities. I emphasize technical writing, including grammar usage, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling. Students also learn basic typing skills.
I integrate discussions, group work, and oral presentations into all curricular activities. I also emphasize collaboration and exploration of ideas.
-
My students learn to compute with very large and very small numbers, positive and negative numbers, decimals, fractions, and percents. Students study the relative magnitude of numbers; they perform calculations and solve problems involving addition, subtraction, simple multiplication, and division of fractions and decimals. Students also analyze algebraic equations using variables in simple expressions, compute the value of an expression for specific values of the variable, and interpret the results. Geometry concepts include learning to describe, draw, and classify the properties of, and relationships between, plane and solid figures. Students also compute the volumes and areas of simple objects, and they understand and apply standard and metric measurements. Using critical reasoning, models, and justification of solutions is essential for all students throughout all areas of mathematics. Collaboration, discussion, and synthesis of mathematics concepts are threaded through the curriculum.
-
My social studies program includes developing map skills and learning about California’s varied geography and its impact on the state’s growth. We study the history of California, from the first peoples who arrived from Asia and the many tribal nations they became, to the impact of European colonization. Students examine the growth of California and the contributions of many cultures, particularly Latinx, Chinese, and Japanese communities, to our state. Students explore the historical reasons for migration and learn to look at these issues in the context of current events.