Arizona Standards
Arizona 4th Grade ELA Standards
All 44 Arizona English language arts standards for 4th grade, each explained in plain English. The official wording is in Arizona Department of Education's document, linked at the end of this page.
44 standards
Reading Standards for Literature
9 standards4.RL.1
Back up what you say about a story with its own details and examples, both for what the story states plainly and for what it only hints at.
4.RL.2
Work out the theme of a story, play or poem, such as kindness is repaid, from the details in it, then retell the whole in a short summary.
4.RL.3
Describe a character, setting or event in a story or play in depth, using specific details such as what the character thinks, says and does.
4.RL.4
Work out what words, phrases and figures of speech mean in stories, poems, myths and folktales from many cultures, including allusions like Herculean.
4.RL.5
Explain how poems, plays and prose are each put together and how they differ, like verses in a poem versus stage directions in a play.
4.RL.6
Compare the points of view from which different stories are told, including an I narrator telling his own story versus a narrator outside it.
4.RL.7
Connect a story or play to a film, audio or stage version of it, pointing out where each version follows the text’s descriptions and stage directions.
4.RL.9
Compare how stories, myths and folktales from different cultures handle a similar theme, like good versus evil, or a pattern of events, like a quest.
4.RL.10
By year's end, read and understand fourth-grade stories, plays and poems with skill and without help.
Reading Standards for Informational Text
10 standards4.RI.1
Back up what you say about a story with its own details and examples, both for what the story states plainly and for what it only hints at.
4.RI.2
Say in one sentence what an informational text is about, explain which key details support that idea, and summarize the text in your own words.
4.RI.3
Explain what happened and why in a history, science or how-to text, such as the steps of an experiment, using the specific facts the text gives.
4.RI.4
Work out the meaning of school words like compare and subject words like habitat in a text on a grade 4 topic.
4.RI.5
Describe how a nonfiction text or section is organized, such as by time order, comparison, cause and effect, or problem and solution.
4.RI.6
Compare a firsthand account, like a diary entry, with a secondhand account, like a textbook page, of the same event, noting what each focuses on and tells.
4.RI.7
Make sense of charts, graphs, timelines, spoken parts or web features, and explain how they help a reader understand the text around them.
4.RI.8
Explain how an author backs up each point in an informational text with reasons and evidence, such as a fact or a statistic.
4.RI.9
Put together facts from two texts on the same topic, such as two articles on volcanoes, so you can write or speak about it with real knowledge.
4.RI.10
By the end of fourth grade, read and understand grade-level history, science and technical texts skillfully and on their own.
Reading Standards: Foundational Skills
2 standards4.RF.3
Read unfamiliar long words, in and out of sentences, using letter sounds, the six syllable patterns, and roots and affixes like re- and -tion.
4.RF.4
Read 1st-grade books aloud smoothly and accurately with expression, understand them, and reread when a word or sentence does not make sense.
Writing Standards
10 standards4.W.1
Write an opinion piece that introduces the topic, states the opinion, gives reasons backed by facts, links them with phrases like for instance, and closes.
4.W.2
Write an informative piece that introduces a topic, groups related facts and definitions, links them with words like also, and closes with a final sentence.
4.W.3
Write a story, real or made up, that sets the scene, introduces the characters, uses dialogue and time words like later, and ends with a sense of closure.
4.W.4
Write clearly, shaping and organizing the piece for its task, purpose and reader, like a how-to for younger students versus a book review for the class.
4.W.5
With feedback from peers and adults, plan, revise and edit their writing, using fourth-grade grammar and punctuation skills to polish it.
4.W.6
With some adult help, use computers and the internet to publish writing and work with others, and type well enough to finish a writing task.
4.W.7
Do a short research project that looks into different sides of a topic, such as a state’s history, land and people, to build knowledge about it.
4.W.8
Pull useful facts from their own experiences or from books and websites, take and sort notes, and list the sources they used.
4.W.9
Use evidence from stories and informational texts in writing, like details that show a character in depth or the reasons an author gives for a point.
4.W.10
Write regularly, from a report built over several days to a journal entry finished in one class, for different subjects, purposes and readers.
Writing Standards: Foundational Skills
1 standard4.WF.1
Read and write cursive capitals and lowercase letters, and write out ideas neatly and fluently with even spacing and paragraph indents.
Speaking and Listening Standards
6 standards4.SL.1
Come to discussions on grade 4 topics having read the material, follow the rules and your role, ask and answer follow-up questions, and review the key ideas at the end.
4.SL.2
Restate in your own words part of a text read aloud or information from a video, a chart or a speaker.
4.SL.3
Pick out the reasons and evidence a speaker gives to support each point, such as the facts behind a classmate’s case for a longer recess.
4.SL.4
Report on a topic or book, tell a story or recount an experience in an organized way, with facts and vivid details, speaking clearly at a pace listeners can follow.
4.SL.5
Add an audio recording or a visual display, such as a poster or slide, to a presentation when it helps develop the main ideas.
4.SL.6
Tell when to speak formally, like giving a presentation, versus casually, like in a small group, and use formal English when the situation calls for it.
Language Standards
6 standards4.L.1
Print many letters, use everyday nouns, verbs and little words like in and on, make plurals like dogs and wishes, ask with who and where, and speak in full sentences.
4.L.2
Capitalize the first word of a sentence and the word I, name the period and question mark, and spell simple words the way they sound, like kat for cat.
4.L.3
Notice the difference between formal and casual English, like Good morning, Mrs. Lee versus Hey, and choose which fits the moment.
4.L.4
Work out an unknown word on a grade 4 topic from context clues, from Greek and Latin roots like graph in telegraph, or by checking a dictionary or thesaurus.
4.L.5
Explain a nonliteral phrase like take steps, name someone who is friendly to link a word to real life, and rank knew, believed and suspected by how sure they are.
4.L.6
Learn and correctly use fourth-grade academic and subject words, including precise verbs like stammered and topic words like conservation.
The official Arizona documents
- Arizona English Language Arts Standards: Fourth Grade · adopted December 2016 · since 2018-19
The plain-English lines on this page are EMStudio's own explanations of Arizona's standards, not the official wording, which Arizona Department of Education publishes in the documents above. Codes and strand names identify each standard.