School Improvement in Maryland

Using the VSC: Reading/ELA, Grade 4

Print:

Writing:

Reading/ELA:

Writing

Standard 4.0 Writing

Students will compose in a variety of modes by developing content, employing specific forms, and selecting language appropriate for a particular audience and purpose.

Topic

A. Writing

Indicator

  • 1. Compose texts using the prewriting and drafting strategies of effective writers and speakers
Objectives
  1. Generate and select topics using techniques such as graphic organizers, journal writing, free writing, listing, webbing, and discussion of prior experiences
  2. Plan and organize ideas for writing by using an appropriate organizational structure such as chronological or sequential order, comparison and contrast, cause and effect
    • Complete an idea by providing topic, support and concluding sentences

Indicator

  • 2. Compose oral, written, and visual presentations that express personal ideas, inform, and persuade
Objectives
  1. Compose to express personal ideas to develop fluency using a variety of forms suited to topic, audience, and purpose
  2. Describe in prose and poetry by using purposeful imagery and sensory details with active verbs and colorful adjectives
  3. Compose to inform using a structure with a clear beginning, middle, and end and a selection of major points, examples, and facts to support a main idea
  4. Compose to persuade using significant reasons and relevant support
    • Agree or disagree with an idea and generate convincing reasons with relevant support
    • Consider effective forms and word choice
  5. Use writing-to-learn strategies such as diagrams, flow charts, freewriting, learning logs, and "think-aloud's on paper" to connect ideas and thinking about lesson content
  6. Manage time and process when writing for a given purpose

Indicator

  • 3. Compose texts using the revising and editing strategies of effective writers and speakers
Objectives
  1. Revise texts for clarity, completeness, and effectiveness
    • Eliminate words and ideas that do not support the main idea
    • Clarify meaning by adding modifiers and sensory words within a sentence
    • Clarify meaning by rearranging sentences within a text for a clear beginning, middle, and end
    • Provide sentence variety and length by combining sentences and correcting rambling sentences
  2. Use suitable traditional and electronic resources to edit final copies of text for correctness in language usage and conventions such as capitalization, punctuation, and spelling
    • Self edit
    • Peer edit
    • Dictionary
    • Thesaurus
    • Spell checker
    • Language handbook
  3. Prepare the final product for presentation to an audience

Indicator

  • 4. Identify how language choices in writing and speaking affect thoughts and feelings
Objectives
  1. Select words appropriate for audience, situation, or purpose
  2. Describe how listeners might respond differently to similar words such as nightmare/dream, loud/deafening, cute/gorgeous
  3. Consider the effect of word choices on the audience

Indicator

  • 5. Assess the effectiveness of choice of details, organizational pattern, word choice, and use of figurative language in the student's own composing
Objectives
  1. Assess the effectiveness of word choice in student's own composing
    • Language suitable for a given purpose
    • Words/phrases that extend meaning
  2. Explain how specific words/phrases used by the writer affects reader response
  3. Examine and use spatial transitions such as "near," "far," "on the left," and "in the distance"

Indicator

  • 6. Explain how textual changes in a work clarify meaning, address a particular audience, or fulfill a purpose
Objectives
  1. Revise own text for word choice
  2. Explain how revisions in word choice affect meaning

Indicator

  • 7. Locate, retrieve, and use information from various sources to accomplish a purpose
Objectives
  1. Identify and use sources of information on a topic
  2. Use various information retrieval sources (traditional and/or electronic) to obtain information on a topic
  3. Use note taking, organizational strategies, and simple documentation of information to record and organize information
    • Participate in teacher-directed note-taking and organization of information
  4. Use information to fulfill a given purpose
  5. Credit sources when paraphrasing and quoting to avoid plagiarism

Indicators/objectives that include assessment limits are assessed on MSA *New Standards identifies the need for students to process 1 million words per year to maintain academic progress.

11/15/07