What Your Child Will Learn in Fourth Grade

Greetings Fourth Grade Parents! What will lessons look like in the classroom? In Harford County Public Schools (HCPS), we are Teachers are encouraged to create engaging and committed to ensuring that every child graduates interactive lessons, integrating technology when having received an outstanding education. We know appropriate. Our teachers provide the best environment that you as parents are integral to this process and for learning so that our children grow as learners but also want you to know the role that the Maryland College gain the content and skills necessary to become and Career-Ready Standards (MCCRS) serve in the productive members of our workforce and society. implementation of our curriculum. How do the MCCRS affect all content areas? How do the MCCRS relate to the Common Core The MCCRS clearly define benchmarks for learning in State Standards? reading, writing, and mathematics. The literacy In school year 2013-2014, Maryland implemented the MCCRS in all schools across the state. expectations for English language arts are clearly Maryland’s new standards are based on the Common outlined, but just as importantly, so are the expectations Core State Standards (CCSS), a set of consistent, for literacy in all content areas. For students to be high-quality academic goals in English language arts college and career ready, they must be proficient in and mathematics, adopted by Maryland and more reading and writing complex informational and technical than 40 other states. The MCCRS define the texts. This means that instruction in EVERY classroom knowledge and skills all students should master by focuses on both the critical content as well as the reading the end of each grade level in order to graduate from and writing skills necessary to demonstrate a high school fully prepared to enter college and the comprehensive understanding of that discipline. workforce.

What is the connection between the MCCRS and How can you support your child at home? the HCPS curriculum? As you review this brochure, think about ways you can The MCCRS guide HCPS instructional leaders to support your child’s learning at home. We need your develop and refine curriculum so that teachers help as we implement our curriculum and hold students consistently create lessons that give our students the to the highest standards of academic performance. most essential knowledge and skills they need to Through a strong partnership with you, we will ensure progress academically. that your child is fully prepared for success in school, work, and life.

2014-15 A Sample of What Your Child Will Learn

ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS MATHEMATICS

Reading Algebra, Patterns, and Functions • Refer to examples in a text in order to explain • State the rule for a given pattern. what is directly stated and to draw inferences. • Express numeric relationships using <, >, and =. • Determine the theme and summarize the text. • Complete a function table when given the rule. • Compare and contrast the point of view from which different stories are narrated. Number Relationships and Operations • Describe the overall structure (e.g., sequential, • Name and write numbers to 1,000,000. cause/effect, problem/solution) of a text. • Determine common factors for numbers. • Explain how an author uses reasons and • Add and subtract decimals through hundredths. evidence to support particular points in a text. • Multiply four-digit by one-digit numbers. • Integrate information from two texts on the same • Divide four-digit numbers by one-digit with topic in order to write or speak about the subject. remainders.

Writing Geometry • Write opinion pieces on topics or texts • Describe characteristics of shapes including supporting a point of view with reasons and congruency, similarity, and symmetry. information. Introduce the topic or text clearly, • Label angles. provide reasons that are supported by facts and • Distinguish between similar and congruent figures. details, and provide a concluding statement. • Identify radius, diameter, and chord of a circle. • Write informative texts to examine a topic. Use facts, definitions, concrete details, and Measurement quotations. Provide a concluding statement or • Compare temperatures and tell time to one minute. section. • Solve problems with area, perimeter, and volume.

• Write narratives to develop real or imagined Data Analysis and Probability experiences or events using descriptive details, • Observe patterns, make predictions, and apply basic clear event sequences, and dialogue as probability concepts to problem-solving situations. necessary. • Determine outcomes using tree diagrams. Speaking and Listening • State probability as a fraction.

• Paraphrase portions of a text read aloud or Mathematical Practices information presented in diverse media and • Make sense of and persevere in solving problems. formats. • Reason abstractly and quantitatively. • Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount • Construct viable arguments and critique the an experience in an organized manner using reasoning of others. appropriate facts and relevant/descriptive details. • Model with mathematics, use appropriate tools Language strategically, and attend to precision. • Produce complete sentences, recognizing and • Look for and make use of structure as well as correcting inappropriate fragments and run-ons. express regularity in repeated reasoning. • Use commas and quotation marks to mark direct speech and quotations from a text.

Fourth Grade – Page 2 2014-15 A Sample of What Your Child Will Learn

SCIENCE SOCIAL STUDIES

Construct Knowledge History • Recognize and explain how physical • Analyze the chronology and significance of key weathering and erosion cause changes to historical events leading to early settlement in Earth's surface. Maryland. • Cite and describe the processes that cause rapid • Compare Native American societies in Maryland or slow changes in Earth's surface. before and after European colonization. • Explain how rock is formed from combinations • Explain the political, cultural, economic, and social of different minerals and that smaller rocks changes in Maryland during the early 1800s. come from the breakage and weathering of bedrock (solid rock underlying soil Geography components) and larger rocks; soil is made • Use geographic tools to locate places and describe partly from weathered rock, partly from plant the human and physical characteristics of those remains-and also contains many living places. organisms. • Describe similarities and differences of regions by • Recognize and explain that fossils provide using geographic characteristics. evidence about the plants and animals that lived • Describe and analyze population growth, migration, long ago and about the nature of the and settlement patterns in Maryland and regions of environment at that time. the United States.

Apply Evidence and Reasoning Economics • Explain ways that individuals and groups of • Explain how limited economic resources are used organisms interact with each other and their to produce goods and services to satisfy economic environment. wants in Maryland. • Provide evidence to support the fact that matter • Explain how technological changes have affected has observable and measurable properties. production and consumption in Maryland. • Provide evidence to illustrate that when a new • Describe regional economic specialization in material is made by combining two or more Maryland and the ways people live and work. materials, its properties are different from the • Describe the types of economic systems in original materials. Maryland. • Examine the progression from a barter system to a Understand and Use Technology money economy in Colonial America. • Gather and question data from many different forms of scientific investigations which include Political Science reviewing appropriate print resources, • Trace how the political structure in early Maryland observing what things are like or what is developed and changed over time. happening somewhere, collecting specimens • Analyze the documents, and democratic ideas that for analysis, and doing experiments. developed in the Maryland Colony. • Develop designs and analyze the products. • Analyze the role of Maryland government • Investigate a variety of mechanical systems and regarding public policy and issues. analyze the relationship among the parts. • Defend the importance of civic participation as a citizen of Maryland.

Fourth Grade – Page 3 2014-15 A Sample of What Your Child Will Learn UNIFIED ARTS Art Physical Education

• Use established criteria, including the art elements and • Explain the importance of self-evaluation on principles of design taught in Grade 4, to analyze and skill development. critique artworks that convey specific effects. • Match health-related fitness components to • Investigate the origins of selected techniques, processes, activities that develop each component. • Accurately dribble and pass a ball while and materials used in the visual arts. moving. • Create artwork that explores the art elements and • Demonstrate locomotor movements with principles of design taught in Grade 4 to communicate changes in speed and direction. ideas about relationships. • Demonstrate safe practices during activities.

Media A Message from the Superintendent: • Use call numbers, arrangement of sections, and online catalog searches to locate resources in the media center. In fourth grade, the expectations for your child’s • Safely and appropriately navigate a variety of print and academic learning continue to grow. Look for online resources. your child to have more reading assignments • Evaluate and select resources in order to meet an based on real-life events, such as biographies, information need while using appropriate strategies to articles, and historical stories. Know what non- locate, gather, organize, and present information in an fiction books are grade-level appropriate and make sure your child has access to such books. ethical manner. Ask your child to provide evidence in every day Music discussions and disagreements. Encourage writing at home and even write together • Respond to sounds through listening, performing, providing evidence and details to support your reading formal symbols, forms, and movements. thinking. Continue to expose your child to real- • Explore the relationship of music to dance, theater, the world math by asking questions about time or visual arts, and other disciplines. having your child help you count the change at • Participate in activities representing various cultures, the grocery store check-out counter. Remember holidays and historical events, and explores the roles of to save some energy for the regular end-of-day music in the lives of people. homework check. • Create and perform music through improvisation and composition. Barbara Canavan

• Evaluate musical compositions using established criteria,

including music vocabulary.

The Harford County Public School System does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, national origin, religion, physical or mental disability, age, gender, marital status, or sexual orientation in matters affecting employment or in providing access to programs. For more information, contact the Office of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment of the Harford County Public School System at 102 South Hickory Avenue, Bel Air, MD 21014 or call 410-838-7300. www.hcps.org

Third Grade – Page 4 2014-15