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Common Core ELA4th GradeReading: Literature

RL.4.10: Read Grade 4 to 5 Literature

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.10 · Cluster: Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity.

All 43 4th Grade ELA Standards

The Official Wording

By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poetry, in the grades 4-5 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

Common Core State Standards, Grade 4, Reading: Literature · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RL.4.10 Means in Plain English

Fourth graders spend the year working up to stories, plays and poems at the grades 4 to 5 level, with support on the hardest. A poem that never names its situation, or a chapter that jumps back in time, is the kind of text they learn to follow.

In 3rd grade (RL.3.10) students read at the top of the grades 2 to 3 band on their own. Fourth grade moves up a band, with help again at its top. In 5th grade (RL.5.10) students read the top of the grades 4 to 5 band independently.

RL.4.10 I Can Statements

  • I can read stories, plays and poems at my grade level.
  • I can work out what is happening when a text doesn’t say it.
  • I can use a reread or a question to get unstuck.

RL.4.10 Worked Example

A short poem read cold. It never says where the speaker is or what the speaker is doing, so a reader has to put the situation together.

Read the Story
At the pharmacy counter the man in the white coat / talks fast, and Grandma squeezes my hand.I turn his English into her Tagalog, / her Tagalog back into his English, / back and forth like a ball over a net.Twice a day. With food. Not with the orange pills. / I say each rule slowly, twice, / so she can carry it home.On the bus she calls me her little bridge. / I don’t tell her my knees are still shaking.
A short passage written for this page.
Question: What is the speaker doing at the pharmacy, and how does the speaker feel about it? Use details from the poem.
Not Yet“The speaker is at the store with Grandma, and they are playing catch.”It reads the simile literally. “Like a ball over a net” compares the speaker’s talking to a game, and nobody is playing catch. The answer also skips the feelings.
Meets the Standard“The speaker is translating for Grandma, who doesn’t understand the pharmacist’s English. The speaker turns his words ‘into her Tagalog’ and repeats each medicine rule ‘slowly, twice, so she can carry it home.’ The speaker is proud to help, since Grandma calls the speaker ‘her little bridge,’ but scared too: ‘my knees are still shaking.’”It puts together a situation the poem never states outright, reads the simile as a comparison, and finds both feelings: the pride and the nerves underneath it.
Question Stems to Use
Where is the speaker, and who else is there?What job is the speaker doing? Which lines tell you?What is being compared in “like a ball over a net”?What does Grandma call the speaker, and why?Which line shows a feeling the speaker keeps hidden?

Common Mistakes with RL.4.10

Reading figurative lines literally

“They are playing catch at the pharmacy.”

Try this: Stop at each like or as and ask what two things are being compared and what they have in common in this poem.

Waiting for the poem to say it

“It doesn’t say what they’re doing.”

Try this: Have students collect clues line by line, who is there and what happens, then name the situation those clues add up to.

Too much help, too early

The teacher explains the poem before anyone reads it

Try this: Let students read the text cold first, then give support only where they stall, like a reread of one stanza or a single question.

Where RL.4.10 Fits

Comes BeforeRL.3.10Read grades 2 to 3 literature independently and proficiently by the end of the year.
AlongsideRF.4.4Read grade-level prose and poetry accurately and fluently enough to understand it.RI.4.10Read grades 4 to 5 history, science and technical texts, with help at the top of the band.
Comes NextRL.5.10Read grades 4 to 5 literature independently, including the top of the band.

Practice RL.4.10

Quick Check

  1. Which two languages does the speaker switch between?
  2. What does the speaker repeat slowly, twice, and why?
  3. What feeling does the speaker hide from Grandma?

RL.4.10: Other Names

RL.4.10CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.10

Common Core State Standards © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved. Official wording from the Common Core State Standards PDFs at corestandards.org, last checked October 14, 2026. The explanation, I can statements, example, mistakes and practice on this page are EMStudio’s own, written beside the official wording. They are not part of the standard.