Descriptions of the Standards Grades 3–4

Below are descriptions for all the tested English Language Arts standards and an activity that you can do with your child to address each standard.

Information and Understanding

This standard focuses on understanding and remembering important facts in such different kinds of writing as newspaper articles and short stories. Students should be able to follow the important ideas and events while they read. They should be able to understand how one event leads to another. Students should also be able to collect facts and information from different kinds of writing and to explain that information.

As you read together, help your child locate important information in a text by playing a game of "pop quiz." Occasionally stop the reading and ask your child a quick detail question that can be answered by finding the right information in the text. For example, ask a question about the setting or about another piece of factual information from the text. Have your child point to the evidence as he or she answers the question.

Literary Response and Expression

This standard focuses on responding to different kinds of writing. Students should read, watch, and listen to plays, poems, and stories, and should be able to connect their own lives to what they see and hear. Students should also understand how a person's background, society, and history influence different pieces of writing.

Set a monthly date with your child for library visits. During each visit, look for a different type of book and explore together the features of each type. Help your child discover the elements that make each type of book interesting and unique. One week you might explore a piece of fiction, another week you might pursue biographies. Continue with this tradition and move into everything from poems to autobiographies to nonfiction on topics that particularly interest your child. Ask the librarian for suggestions of different types of books to read.

Critical Analysis

This standard focuses on reading and thinking about different kinds of writing. Students should be able to ask questions, form opinions, and make decisions about what they read. They should be able to express their opinions in response to different ideas, experiences, and issues. Students should also be able to think and write about issues from different points of view.

As you read together, stop in the course of your reading and ask your child what he thinks will happen next. Encourage your child to support his ideas with evidence drawn from what you have already read. Once you have finished reading, talk about how the action or the events of the story unfolded. Do certain kinds of events always happen in the same way? Highlight how some kinds of events can cause other events, and describe the idea of cause and effect.

Social Interaction

This standard focuses on communicating with different types of people. Students should be able to speak and write in standard English. They should also be able to communicate effectively with many different groups of people, and to read and listen to what other people say in order to understand what they believe.

As you gather for a meal, talk about events of the day. Ask your child to share his experiences and to summarize the experiences of other family members or friends. Point out the language that helps us to understand what other people have experienced or felt. Sharing stories from the day can help your child communicate with a familiar and comfortable group. This builds a foundation for sharing ideas with many groups of people.