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Missouri Standards

Missouri 4th Grade ELA Standards

All 27 Missouri English language arts standards for 4th grade, each explained in plain English. The official wording is in Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's document, linked at the end of this page.

27 standards

Reading

11 standards
4.R.1.A
Draw conclusions and make inferences, backing each one with what the text states outright and what it suggests, and fix up understanding when it slips.
4.R.1.B
Work out meanings from Greek and Latin roots, affixes, and context, complete analogies, explain idioms like spill the beans, and check a dictionary for meaning and sound.
4.R.1.C
Compare ideas across stories and nonfiction, and explain how a book mirrors the culture and time period it comes from.
4.R.1.D
Read fourth grade books on their own for longer stretches and different purposes, and show evidence of their reading, like a response log.
4.R.2.A
Summarize a plot and find its theme, describe how characters and their relationships change, compare their roles, and tell first-person from third-person narrators.
4.R.2.B
Explain how poems are built, using parts like lines, stanzas, meter, and rhyme scheme.
4.R.2.C
Analyze how a character in a play or film changes from start to finish, and explain parts of a script like stage directions, acts, and scenes.
4.R.3.A
Use several text features to preview and find facts, describe the order of steps or events, and explain facts shown in charts, graphs, and diagrams.
4.R.3.B
Compare a story with the author's real life, analyze persuasive texts and the author's purpose using evidence, and explain word choices meant to sway readers.
4.R.3.C
Tell fact from opinion and how to check a fact, explain stated and implied links between ideas, name the author's purpose, and compare firsthand and secondhand accounts.
4.R.4.A
Explain how ad techniques help or harm shoppers, how design shapes a message, compare online writing customs, and how web page layout helps readers.

Reading Foundations

2 standards
4.RF.3.A
Read unfamiliar long words by using letter sounds, syllable patterns, roots, prefixes, and suffixes, including key words from science and social studies.
4.RF.4.A
Read fourth grade texts fluently, at a good rate, with accuracy and phrasing, using context to self-correct and rereading as needed.

Writing

8 standards
4.W.1.A
Plan by choosing a genre that suits the purpose and readers, asking questions about the topic, gathering background, and using a prewriting method.
4.W.1.B
Draft several paragraphs with a clear introduction, body, and conclusion, a topic sentence near the start, varied and compound sentences, and a reader in mind.
4.W.1.C
With help, revise for main idea, order, focus, facts from several sources, word choice, sentences, transitions, and voice, then edit for conventions.
4.W.1.D
With help, use technology and the internet to publish writing, and type at least one page, ideally in one sitting.
4.W.2.A
Write an opinion essay with an introduction, a position backed by facts, cited authors, transitions from opinion to reasons, and body and concluding paragraphs.
4.W.2.B
Write an informational essay that opens with a topic sentence, builds body paragraphs from sources with facts and quotes, uses transitions, and closes with a conclusion.
4.W.2.C
Write a real or imagined story or poem with a narrator or characters, dialogue, motives, and description, and events that unfold naturally with varied transitions.
4.W.3.A
Research a question they write by finding varied sources, turning charts into notes, checking accuracy, paraphrasing to avoid plagiarism, and citing sources properly.

Language

2 standards
4.L.1.A
Speak and write with progressive verbs like was running, adjectives in the right order, prepositions, and conjunctions, and fix fragments and run-on sentences.
4.L.1.B
Write neatly, punctuate dialogue among characters, add commas before and or but in compound sentences, capitalize proper adjectives, and spell suffix words like hoping.

Speaking/Listening

4 standards
4.SL.1.A
Help set and explain listening rules, ask follow-up questions, add to and link with others' comments, and restate multi-step directions before doing them.
4.SL.2.A
Help write the class's active listening rules and follow them, like keeping eyes on the speaker and not interrupting.
4.SL.3.A
Listen to classmates before adding to a discussion, and share opinions about books read aloud or alone, linking them to what others think.
4.SL.4.A
Paraphrase a text or video, then give a formal presentation with media, descriptive details in order, expression, and language suited to the audience.

The official Missouri documents

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