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Common Core ELA4th GradeWriting

W.4.5: Plan, Revise and Edit with Help

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.5 · Cluster: Production and Distribution of Writing.

All 43 4th Grade ELA Standards

The Official Wording

With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, and editing. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1-3 up to and including grade 4 here.)

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

What W.4.5 Means in Plain English

Fourth graders improve a draft in steps: plan it, get a reader’s response from a partner or the teacher, revise so the piece answers that reader, then edit. Editing checks the grade 4 rules, like there and their, run-on sentences and a comma before but in a compound sentence.

Third grade (W.3.5) runs the same steps, with editing held to the grade 3 Language standards. Fourth grade raises editing to the grade 4 rules. Fifth grade (W.5.5) adds rewriting and trying a new approach when revising is not enough.

W.4.5 I Can Statements

  • I can make a plan before I start my draft.
  • I can revise my draft to answer a reader’s questions.
  • I can edit for grade 4 grammar, punctuation and spelling.

W.4.5 Worked Example

The weak text is the first draft; the strong one is the same student’s revision after one note from the teacher.

Prompt

Revise your paragraph on how your cardboard periscope works. Teacher’s note: “I can’t tell how the light gets from the top of the tube to your eye. Name the mirrors and say where they go. Then edit for there and their, and for run-ons.”

Not YetMy periscope lets you see over things it is made from a milk carton. Light goes in the top and comes out the bottom and their is a picture. Its really cool.This is the draft before revision. The mirrors, the whole reason a periscope works, never appear, the first sentence is a run-on, “their” should be “there,” and “Its” is missing its apostrophe.
Meets the StandardMy periscope lets me see over a wall without poking my head up. I made it from a milk carton with a mirror taped inside each end. The top mirror is tilted, so light from whatever I am looking at hits it and bounces straight down the tube. At the bottom, there is a second mirror that bounces the light out the hole and into my eye. Their slants have to match, but once they do, I can read a sign that is higher than my head.Both parts of the note are answered: the two mirrors are named, placed and followed in the order the light travels. Editing split the run-on, changed “their” to “there,” and the new compound sentence gets a comma before “but.”
Moves to Use
Turn each part of the teacher’s note into one change.Follow the process in order, the way the light travels.Revise for meaning first, then edit.Edit with a checklist: run-ons, there and their, commas in compound sentences.

Common Mistakes with W.4.5

Answering only the easy part of the note

The spelling gets fixed, but the missing mirrors are still missing

Try this: Have students number each part of the note and check it off only when a sentence in the draft answers it.

Skipping the plan

A draft that wanders from the milk carton to the mirrors to submarines and back

Try this: Require a quick numbered plan, one line per sentence idea, before drafting, and confer on the plan before the draft.

An edit with no checklist

“I read it over and it looks fine,” with the run-on still in place

Try this: Give a short checklist of the grade 4 rules taught so far, and have students read once for each rule.

Where W.4.5 Fits

Comes BeforeW.3.5Plan, revise and edit with help, with editing held to the grade 3 Language standards.
AlongsideL.4.1Grade 4 grammar, including run-ons and frequently confused words like there and their.L.4.2Capitalization, punctuation and spelling, including the comma before and, but or so in a compound sentence.
Comes NextW.5.5The same steps plus rewriting or trying a new approach, with editing raised to the grade 5 standards.

Practice W.4.5

Quick Check

  1. What did the teacher’s note ask the writer to add?
  2. Find the run-on in the first draft and say how the revision fixes it.
  3. How is “there” used in the revision, and how is “their”?

W.4.5: Other Names

W.4.5CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.5

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.