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North Carolina Standards

North Carolina 4th Grade ELA Standards

All 39 North Carolina English language arts standards for 4th grade, each explained in plain English. The official wording is in North Carolina Department of Public Instruction's document, linked at the end of this page.

39 standards

Reading Foundational Skills

3 standards
RF.4.2
Write readable pages in neat cursive, like a journal entry or a final draft others can easily read.
RF.4.4
Say the main sound of each consonant, know the long and short sounds of a, e, i, o and u, and read common sight words like the, of and you.
Common Core RF.K.3
RF.4.5
Read 1st-grade books aloud smoothly and accurately with expression, understand them, and reread when a word or sentence does not make sense.
Common Core RF.1.4

Reading 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
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.
Common Core RL.4.2
RL.4.3
Describe in detail a character, setting or event from a story or play, using specific clues like a character’s words, thoughts or actions.
RL.4.4
Work out what words and phrases mean in a text, including word choices that change meaning or tone, like crept compared with stomped.
RL.4.5
Explain how poems, plays and prose differ, using terms like verse, rhythm, meter, cast of characters, dialogue and stage directions when discussing them.
RL.4.6
Compare the points of view from which different stories are told, including an I narrator telling his own story versus a narrator outside it.
Common Core RL.4.6
RL.4.7
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.
Common Core RL.4.7
RL.4.9
Compare and contrast how stories, myths and folk tales from different cultures handle similar themes, topics and plot patterns, like good versus evil or a hero’s quest.
RL.4.10
By year’s end, read stories, plays and poems in the 4th to 5th grade range well and independently for long stretches, connecting them to their own lives.

Reading Informational

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
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.
Common Core RI.4.2
RI.4.3
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.
Common Core RI.4.3
RI.4.4
Work out the meaning of school words like compare and subject words like habitat in a text on a grade 4 topic.
Common Core RI.4.4
RI.4.5
Describe how a nonfiction text or section is organized, like by time order, comparison, cause and effect or problem and solution.
RI.4.6
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.
Common Core RI.4.6
RI.4.7
Make sense of charts, diagrams, timelines, audio and numbers and explain how they help a reader understand the text around them.
RI.4.8
Explain how an author backs up each point in an informational text with reasons and evidence, such as a fact or a statistic.
Common Core RI.4.8
RI.4.9
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.
Common Core RI.4.9
RI.4.10
By the end of the year, read nonfiction in the 4th to 5th grade range well and on their own for long periods, linking it to what they already know.

Writing

6 standards
W.4.1
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.
Common Core W.4.1
W.4.2
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.
Common Core W.3.2
W.4.3
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.
Common Core W.3.3
W.4.4
With some adult help, use technology to write, publish and work with others, typing and formatting with solid word processing skills, like a shared class document.
W.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
W.4.6
Pull facts from memory, books and websites, take notes, sort them into categories, and list where they came from.
Common Core W.4.8

Speaking and Listening

5 standards
SL.4.1
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.
Common Core SL.4.1
SL.4.2
Restate in your own words part of a text read aloud or information from a video, a chart or a speaker.
Common Core SL.4.2
SL.4.3
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.
Common Core SL.4.3
SL.4.4
Give an organized report, story or account of an experience with facts and details that support the main idea, and shift between formal and casual speech as needed.
SL.4.5
Add an audio recording or a visual display, such as a poster or slide, to a presentation when it helps develop the main ideas.
Common Core SL.4.5

Language

6 standards
L.4.1
Use fourth grade grammar, like tenses such as was swimming, words like must and whose, a big old house, and fixing fragments and run-on sentences.
L.4.2
Use commas before and, but or so in compound sentences, mark speech and quotations correctly, capitalize titles and spell fourth grade words correctly.
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
Work out unknown and multiple-meaning words in fourth grade texts using context, roots and affixes like tele- and -graph, related words and a dictionary.
L.4.5
Explain simple similes and metaphors in context, like as quiet as a mouse, and common idioms, adages and proverbs, like break the ice.
L.4.6
Learn and correctly use fourth grade school and subject words, including precise words for actions and feelings like whined or snarled and key topic words like habitat.

The official North Carolina documents

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