Grade 4

In Grade 4, we move toward a more formalized learning approach. Children continue to learn by doing, but they practice the skills needed to record, share and generalize from what they have learned. We emphasize the development of skills needed to become independent, lifelong learners. Producing quality work, while employing study habits and organizational skills, a thorough mastery of basic skills, and the respect and understandings needed to function in a pluralistic society are the main goals of the curriculum. Teachers strive to stimulate every child's interest, curiosity and desire to create, to promote a true love of learning, and to encourage a willingness to take risks.

We plan for children as individuals, helping each child to reach their own potential. Recognizing that our children come from many different schools and learning environments, we assess their learning needs regularly so that we can provide learning experiences at an appropriate level.

Throughout the grades, we emphasize teamwork, cooperative learning, problem solving and an increasing responsibility for directing one's own actions and learning. Our purpose is to help children to become independent, creative thinkers, while fostering concern and commitment to the group as a whole.

Language arts

Reading

Developing a lifelong love of reading is at the heart of our reading instruction. The distinction between reading fiction and nonfiction is a major emphasis in Grade 4. Students examine more complex texts and build ideas grounded in evidence from the text. When reading fiction, children engage in discussion of literature, connecting what they read to real life experiences and other texts, which leads to a deeper understanding of the structure of text. Class discussions focus on helping students to interpret content, explore thematic ideas, and form opinions about meaning. Students learn to identify and use the features of nonfiction text in order to summarize, develop research questions, and find information.

We utilize the Readers Workshop model, which blends whole-group mini-lessons, small needs-based groups, and individual conferring to guide students through a variety of comprehension strategies. Throughout the year, we discuss and model the thinking strategies that all proficient readers use as they read:

Determining what is important: identifying themes and diminishing focus on less important ideas or pieces of information
Drawing inferences: combining background knowledge and textual information to draw conclusions and interpret facts
Using prior knowledge: building on previous knowledge and experiences to aid in comprehension of the text
Asking questions: wondering and inquiring about the book before, during and after reading
Monitoring comprehension and meaning: using an inner voice to think about whether or not the text makes sense
Envisioning: implementing the five senses to build images in the mind that enhance the experience of reading.

Our multi-genre approach includes reading novels, biographies, nonfiction and poetry, and studying their specific elements. For example, as children read novels, they study character, setting, plot, themes, and writing styles and purposes. Teachers select those materials that are most appropriate to the interest level and reading ability of the class, including selections that coordinate Grade 4 social studies units.

In a collaborative program with the Lower School Library, children continue to develop their inquiry and research skills. They learn to obtain information from a variety of texts, diagrams and pictures, and to use various parts of a book in order to locate information quickly—index, glossary, chapter and section headings, and computer catalogs and bibliographies. They learn how to read effectively by surveying the materials, forming questions to guide their reading, reading carefully, taking efficient notes, and reviewing what they have read.

Writing

The writing program in the Lower School is based on the Writer’s Workshop approach, which is centered on research supporting the idea that children learn to write more readily when their writing is purposeful and directed toward a real audience. Teachers begin with a mini lesson to give children a powerful model for the genre being practiced. Beginning with brainstorming and planning, children learn specific craft and revision techniques so that they are able to share their ideas effectively with one another. Following the conference, the children proofread and edit their own work, and ultimately publish selected texts. Teachers work with individuals and small groups, discussing genre, teaching skill lessons, helping with the editing process and asking questions to provide feedback. Teachers use a variety of literature as well as student work as examples for practice.

In Grade 4, children are taught various genres of writing such as:

Narrative: The Arc of the Story
Informational: Reimagining London
Opinion: Personal Essay
Informational: Bringing History to Life
Opinion: Persuasive Essay

Spelling

The spelling program focuses on learning syllables and affixes, along with derivational endings. Teachers augment the program with words drawn from subject area units and students' reading and writing. Students are held accountable for proofreading their daily work.

Mathematics

The lower school math program is based on the Common Core Mathematics Standards, which call for students to develop conceptual understanding and skill proficiency in number, operations, measurement and geometry through engaging problems and activities. Students are presented lessons that will provide learning experiences toward meeting grade-level math standards and problems to solve independently and in small groups. Throughout the year, parents receive information about the mathematical content studied in each unit.

Problem solving

From time to time, children are asked to carry out an investigation or solve a complex problem that will require sustained work over a period of time. The problem may have more than one correct answer or have one answer but more than one way to solve the problem. A good problem is accessible to all and allows those with special interest to go further. This allows students to practice problem-solving strategies learned in class and provides opportunities to communicate their thinking.

Grade-level math standards can be referenced for more detail but instruction time focuses on these four critical areas:

Operations and algebraic thinking

Uses the four operations with whole numbers to solve problems
Gains familiarity with factors and multiples
Generates and analyzes patterns

Number and operations in base ten

Generalizes place value understandings for multi-digit whole numbers
Uses place value understandings and properties of operations to perform multi-digit arithmetic
Fluently adds or subtracts multi-digit whole numbers using standard algorithm
Multiplies any whole number up to four digits by any one-digit number and any two two-digit numbers
Finds whole-number quotients and remainders with up to four-digit dividends and one-digit divisors using various strategies

Measurement and data

Solves problems involving measurement and conversion of measurements from a larger unit to a smaller unit
Represents and interprets data
Understands the concept and measurement of angles

Geometry

Draws and classifies angles
Classifies shapes by attributes of their lines (parallel, perpendicular) and angles
Recognizes line of symmetry in 2-D figures

Social studies

Over the course of the year, Grade 4 students investigate the concept of power. They start off by thinking about power in their home lives, classrooms and the wider community. They learn that power is everywhere, about different types of power and choose one type and an individual to research. Building on their knowledge of power, students apply that to the historical context of The British Empire. They learn what motivated Britain to expand its reach in the 1600s and what factors allowed the empire to grow and dominate. Students analyze what effect the empire had on the people in their colonies and learn how and why colonies eventually gained independence and the power of self-government. To close the year, students connect everything they've learned about power to their own lives, identify their own power and make a plan to make a positive change.

Science

Grade 4 students receive three lessons each eight-day cycle, taught by the lower school science specialist. The pedagogy, materials and lessons are based on the Next Generation Science Standards and center on students creating their understanding from investigations of phenomena. Our science program uses an integrated approach connecting concepts through practices and cross-cutting themes such as patterns, systems, and cause and effect. The Grade 4 curriculum has an emphasis on energy, information transfer, the changing surface of the Earth and life structures and senses. Woven throughout these units are opportunities for inquiry and authentic discovery. Building upon curiosity and a natural tendency towards exploration and experimentation, Grade 4 students begin to devise test situations and plan investigations to prove or disprove their claims.

In the first semester, students make observations and collect quantitative data on the characteristics of energy transfer and research renewable and nonrenewable energy resources. Students apply their understanding in an integrated project generating solutions to making cities more inclusive and sustainable. Following a design process to create a programmable model, students test and revise their build to operate effectively. In the next unit, students investigate the manner in which high tech devices such as computers and cell phones, receive and decode information and convert it through digitized forms.

In the second semester, the students extend their understanding of earth sciences through identifying patterns in the changing surface of the Earth and using data to provide evidence for the effects of weathering. Students generate and compare multiple solutions to reducing the impacts of natural Earth processes on humans. The focus then moves to life sciences where students construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support growth, survival and reproduction. Through the development of models, students describe ways in which animals receive different types of information through their senses, process the information in their brain, and respond to the information in different ways.

Breadcrumbs