Texas 4th Grade ELA Standards in Writing

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4.1 The student will demonstrate an ability to compose a variety of written texts with a clear, central idea; coherent organization; sufficient development; and effective use of language and conventions.

• 4.1.15 Students use elements of the writing process (planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing) to compose text.
  • 4.1.15.B develop drafts by categorizing ideas and organizing them into paragraphs;
  • 4.1.15.C revise drafts for coherence, organization, use of simple and compound sentences, and audience;
  • 4.1.15.D edit drafts for grammar, mechanics, and spelling [using a teacher-developed rubric].
• 4.1.17 Students write about their own experiences.
  • 4.1.17.A write about important personal experiences.
• 4.1.18 Students write expository [and procedural or work-related] texts to communicate ideas and information to specific audiences for specific purposes.
  • 4.1.18.A create brief compositions that
    • 4.1.18.A.i establish a central idea in a topic sentence;
    • 4.1.18.A.ii include supporting sentences with simple facts, details, and explanations; and
    • 4.1.18.A.iii contain a concluding statement.

4.2 The student will demonstrate an ability to revise a variety of written texts.

• 4.2.15 Students use elements of the writing process (planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing) to compose text.
  • 4.2.15.C revise drafts for coherence, organization, use of simple and compound sentences, and audience.
• 4.2.18 Students write expository [and procedural or work-related] texts to communicate ideas and information to specific audiences for specific purposes.
  • 4.2.18.A create brief compositions that
    • 4.2.18.A.i establish a central idea in a topic sentence;
    • 4.2.18.A.ii include supporting sentences with simple facts, details, and explanations;
    • 4.2.18.A.iii contain a concluding statement.

4.3 The student will demonstrate an ability to edit a variety of texts.

• 4.3.15 Students use elements of the writing process (planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing) to compose text.
  • 4.3.15.D edit drafts for grammar, mechanics, and spelling [using a teacher-developed rubric].
• 4.3.20 Students understand the function of and use the conventions of academic language when speaking and writing. Students continue to apply earlier standards with greater complexity.
  • 4.3.20.A use and understand the function of the following parts of speech in the context of reading, writing, and speaking:
    • 4.3.20.A.i verbs (irregular verbs);
    • 4.3.20.A.ii nouns (singular/plural, common/proper);
    • 4.3.20.A.iii adjectives (e.g., descriptive, including purpose: sleeping bag, frying pan) and their comparative and superlative forms (e.g., fast, faster, fastest);
    • 4.3.20.A.iv adverbs (e.g., frequency: usually, sometimes; intensity: almost, a lot);
    • 4.3.20.A.v prepositions and prepositional phrases to convey location, time, direction, or to provide details;
    • 4.3.20.A.vi reflexive pronouns (e.g., myself, ourselves);
    • 4.3.20.A.vii correlative conjunctions (e.g., either/or, neither/nor);
    • 4.3.20.A.viii use time-order transition words and transitions that indicate a conclusion;
  • 4.3.20.B use the complete subject and the complete predicate in a sentence;
  • 4.3.20.C use complete simple and compound sentences with correct subject-verb agreement.
• 4.3.21 Students write legibly and use appropriate capitalization and punctuation conventions in their compositions.
  • 4.3.21.B use capitalization for
    • 4.3.21.B.i historical events and documents;
    • 4.3.21.B.ii titles of books, stories, and essays;
    • 4.3.21.B.iii languages, races, and nationalities;
  • 4.3.21.C recognize and use punctuation marks including
    • 4.3.21.C.i commas in compound sentences;
    • 4.3.21.C.ii quotation marks.
• 4.3.22 Students spell correctly.
  • 4.3.22.A spell words with more advanced orthographic patterns rules:
    • 4.3.22.A.i plural rules (e.g., words ending in f as in leaf, leaves; adding -es);
    • 4.3.22.A.ii irregular plurals (e.g., man/men, foot/feet, child/children);
    • 4.3.22.A.iii double consonants in middle of words;
    • 4.3.22.A.iv other ways to spell sh (e.g., -sion, -tion, -cian);
    • 4.3.22.A.v silent letters (e.g., knee, wring);
  • 4.3.22.B spell base words and roots with affixes (e.g., -ion, -ment, -ly, dis-, pre-);
  • 4.3.22.C spell commonly used homophones (e.g., there, they’re, their; two, too, to);
  • 4.3.22.D use spelling patterns and rules [and print and electronic resources] to determine and check correct spellings.