RF.4.4: Read with Accuracy, Fluency and Expression
Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.4.4 · Cluster: Fluency.
The Official Wording
Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
Common Core State Standards, Grade 4, Reading: Foundational Skills · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026
What RF.4.4 Means in Plain English
Fourth graders read for a reason they can name, then read grade-level stories and poems aloud with few errors, a natural pace and expression, smoother on each reread. When a word sounds wrong, like wind read as a breeze in “wind the clock,” they reread and fix it.
In 3rd grade (RF.3.4) students worked on the same three goals with easier text, including poems with line breaks. Fourth grade keeps the goals and raises the text. In 5th grade (RF.5.4), the last fluency standard, students do it all with grade 5 stories and poems.
RF.4.4 I Can Statements
- I can say why I am reading before I start.
- I can read a passage aloud smoothly with expression that fits.
- I can reread and fix a word that doesn’t make sense.
RF.4.4 Worked Example
One paragraph read three times, with the thinking behind each read, including a self-correction on a word spelled one way and said two ways.
Read this paragraph aloud to a partner: Every Sunday night, Grandpa let Rudy wind the tall clock in the hall. Tonight the wind was rattling the windows, and the lights flickered twice. “Seven turns, not eight,” Grandpa warned. “Wind it too tight and it sulks for a week.” Rudy counted under his breath, slow and careful, until the pendulum began to swing.
- Before I read aloud, I read it silently and set my purpose: find out whether Rudy gets the clock going.Purpose: does the clock start?
- First read aloud, slow enough to get every word. I say wind like the breeze outside. Wind the clock like a breeze? That doesn’t make sense, so I go back.wind as a breeze? No. wind, rhymes with find, means turn. Reread the sentence.
- The next sentence has the other wind, the one rattling the windows. The spelling is the same, so I check each sentence instead of guessing.the wind was rattling = breeze · Wind it too tight = turn
- Second read, at a steadier pace. Grandpa is warning Rudy, so his lines sound firm, and the clock that sulks is a small joke, so my voice lightens there.“Seven turns, NOT eight.” … “it sulks for a week.”
- Third read: my partner marks misses and listens for phrasing. Then I answer my purpose question: the pendulum began to swing, so the clock started.Read 1: two misses, a stop at wind. Read 3: no misses, phrased, Grandpa sounds firm.
Check it: Ask the reader why Rudy counted so carefully. If they say Grandpa warned that winding too tight would make the clock sulk, the fluency is serving understanding.
Common Mistakes with RF.4.4
Reading without a purpose
Reads every word correctly but can’t say whether the clock started
Try this: Set a purpose question before the first read and ask it again after the last, so students listen to what they are reading.
Guessing a word the same way twice
Reads both winds as the breeze
Try this: Teach students to check a word that can be said two ways against its own sentence each time, never against the last one.
Dialogue read in the narrator’s voice
“Seven turns, not eight” read as flat as the rest
Try this: Have students find the speaker tag first, like Grandpa warned, and let that verb decide how the line should sound before they read it.
Where RF.4.4 Fits
Practice RF.4.4
Quick Check
- How should wind be said in “wind the tall clock,” and how do you know?
- What is Grandpa’s warning, and how should it sound?
- What tells you Rudy got the clock going?