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Kentucky Standards

Kentucky 4th Grade ELA Standards

All 33 Kentucky English language arts standards for 4th grade, each explained in plain English. The official wording is in Kentucky Department of Education's document, linked at the end of this page.

33 standards

Reading Foundational Skills

2 standards
RF.4.3
Use everything known about letter sounds, syllable patterns and word parts to read and spell unfamiliar long words, like unbelievable.
RF.4.4
Read grade-level prose and poetry with purpose and understanding, rereading aloud to build smooth expression and using context to catch and fix errors.

Reading Standards for Literature

9 standards
RL.4.1
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.
Common Core RL.4.1
RL.4.2
Analyze how a story, poem or play develops its theme, citing details from the text that state or suggest it.
RL.4.3
Look closely at what a character thinks, says and does, plus the setting and events, using specific details to analyze how they interact through a story or play.
RL.4.4
Work out the meaning of words and phrases in a text, including metaphors and similes like a heart of gold, and explain how they shape meaning.
RL.4.5
Analyze how an author builds a story, poem or play, and how each part adds to the whole.
RL.4.6
Compare first-person and third-person narrators, telling how each way of narrating is alike and different and how it affects the reader.
RL.4.7
Connect the text of a story or play to a visual or spoken version, comparing what readers imagine with what they see and hear.
RL.4.9
Find how myths, folktales and other stories from different cultures share or differ in theme, topic and plot pattern, like the hero's journey.
RL.4.10
Read rich grade-level stories, plays and poems independently, using background knowledge and strategies like visualizing to understand and analyze them.

Reading Standards for Informational Text

10 standards
RI.4.1
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.
Common Core RL.4.1
RI.4.2
Analyze how a nonfiction text develops its central ideas, citing details that state or suggest them.
RI.4.3
Explain the people, events, steps or ideas in a history, science or technical text, including what happened and why, using specific details.
RI.4.4
Figure out academic and subject words in a grade-level text, like evaporate or colony, and explain how they shape the meaning.
RI.4.5
Describe how an author organizes events, ideas or information in all or part of a text, like time order, comparison or cause and effect.
RI.4.6
Tell how an eyewitness account and a secondhand report of the same event or topic are alike and different, like a diary versus a textbook.
RI.4.7
Interpret information from charts, timelines, videos or other formats and explain how it helps in understanding the text it appears in.
RI.4.8
Explain how the reasons and evidence in a text back up the author's particular claims, like data supporting a call to recycle.
RI.4.9
Pull together facts from several texts on one topic or theme into a fuller picture, like three sources on the Underground Railroad.
RI.4.10
Read rich grade-level nonfiction independently, using background knowledge and strategies like questioning the author to understand and analyze it.

Composition

7 standards
C.4.1
On paper or digitally, write an opinion on a topic or text with a clear opening, grouped ideas, reasons backed by facts, transitions and a closing, revising as needed.
C.4.2
On paper or digitally, explain a topic in clear paragraphs and sections with facts, definitions, quotes and examples, precise words, linking words and a closing.
C.4.3
On paper or digitally, write a real or made-up story that introduces a narrator or characters, uses dialogue, sensory details and transitions, and ends naturally.
C.4.4
With some adult help, use digital tools to create and publish work and to collaborate with others, like sharing feedback on a draft online.
C.4.5
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.
Common Core W.4.7
C.4.6
Sum up relevant information from experiences or gather it from print and digital sources, take notes, sort it into categories, and list the sources used.
C.4.7
Write often, over weeks-long projects and quick single sessions, for a range of tasks, purposes and readers.

Language

5 standards
L.4.1
Use who and where clauses, verbs like is running and must, ordered adjectives, prepositional phrases, and fix fragments, run-ons and mix-ups like their and there.
L.4.2
Follow capitalization rules, punctuate dialogue and quotations, put a comma before words like but that join two sentences, and check spelling in references.
L.4.3
Notice the difference between formal and casual English, like Good morning, Mrs. Lee versus Hey, and choose which fits the moment.
Common Core L.2.3
L.4.4
Unlock unknown and multiple-meaning words with context, word parts and print or online dictionaries, and use precise academic and topic words, like trudge or erosion.
L.4.5
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.
Common Core L.3.5

The official Kentucky documents

The plain-English lines on this page are EMStudio's own explanations of Kentucky's standards, not the official wording, which Kentucky Department of Education publishes in the documents above. Codes and strand names identify each standard.