Your fourth grader and writing

Step by step, fourth graders acquire the skills required to write well.

Fourth graders use writing in almost all of the subjects they study — they'll use their writing skills to tackle research papers, poems, word problems, essays, book reviews, and other academic tasks.

Students should start to refine specific writing skills, learning how to respond to prompts, use details, and master age-appropriate vocabulary words. Kids also need time to practice the conventions of writing, which include punctuation marks, paragraph structure, and verb tenses. Children rely on these conventions as their writing abilities improve.

Fourth graders will learn about the following styles of writing:

• Descriptive writing, which creates a clear and vivid picture of a person, place, or thing
• Expository nonfiction writing, which explains an event or idea using facts and examples
• Narrative writing, which describes an experience in a personal voice
• Persuasive writing, which encourages readers to accept the writer’s beliefs or opinions

The writing process

Fourth graders continue to learn the lessons about writing they began in earlier grades, with a special focus on a writing process that includes prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. Students should recognize that writing is more than just putting words down on paper. Instead of seeing just an end product, kids should see writing as an act of communication that involves a lengthy process.

Wendy Miller, a former North Carolina Teacher of the Year, stresses the importance of that process. “Writing using a process leads to more thoughtful and accomplished work,” says Miller.

Fourth grade teachers should cover these steps:

• Prewriting: Part of the first stage of the writing process, prewriting activities can include drawing, free-writing, brainstorming, or even using a “graphic organizer” like a Venn diagram to compare two ideas. During this stage, the writer should be working to envision a target reader or audience. The writer should feel confident that the writing and the audience are a good fit.
• Drafting: The writer then develops a topic on paper or using a computer. At this stage, the focus is on the content of the writing, not the mechanics. Writers should begin to organize their thoughts and develop the structure of the paper, beginning to think about the "hook" that will engage the reader. Lastly they develop a conclusion that ties everything together.
• Revising: Next the writer makes changes to the draft to improve the writing and make it clear. This may include additions or deletions, or changes in the sentence structure or organization. At this stage, a friend’s or teacher’s input can be especially helpful.
• Editing: In the editing stage, the writer pays careful attention to mechanics, including spelling, punctuation, grammar, and handwriting. It’s helpful to have a peer or teacher edit the work.
• Publishing: The final draft is then shared with the desired audience, which might include classmates or parents. Miller sees the finished product as a crucial step in the process because of its psychological rewards. “Publishing helps the writer interact with the reader through a finished document,” she says. "[When] students understand that this is ‘my writing at its best,’ it helps them transform from writer to author.”

Fourth-grade teachers use many techniques to reinforce lessons about writing.

Writers' workshop

Writers’ workshop is a technique that uses story planning, peer conferencing, revision, and teacher editing to help students become more comfortable with the writing process. Ideally, students learn about the conventions and mechanics of writing, while becoming better writers’ themselves.

Six-trait writing model

The “six-trait writing model” is used to teach writing and is often used in conjunction with workshop. The six-trait model breaks down writing into a manageable group of teachable and measurable skills. It focuses on six traits considered essential to good writing: ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and mechanics (grammar, sentence structure, capitalization, punctuation, etc.).

For more on the six-trait model, this website from Minnesota’s Edina Public Schools includes rubrics as well as a description of each trait.

Portfolio

Many fourth graders keep a portfolio of their writing, a collection of written work selected from the year’s assignments. A portfolio can be used to assess a student’s progress in writing. Pieces students select to include show good use of planning, drafting, revising, and editing.

Journals

Daily journal writing is common in many fourth-grade classrooms. Writing in a journal allows students to write and not worry about grammar and mechanics. Teachers can use writing prompts to help students get started or ask students to do stream-of-consciousness writing in which they write a continuous flow of their ideas without punctuation or grammar. Journals can be used in subjects as diverse as social studies (notes) and science (a lab write-up).

Writing mechanics

Mechanics, which includes the use of grammar, sentence structure, capitalization, and punctuation is taught both in the context of student’s own writing and in individual lessons. Throughout the year, fourth-graders work on learning about sentence, paragraph, and story structure. Your child should learn how to write a five paragraph essay and paragraphs that have topic and concluding sentences. Students learn how to identify and use several different types of sentences — declarative, imperative, exclamatory, and interrogative.

Spelling words

In final drafts, students should spell words correctly. It’s common to have weekly spelling lists that students will be tested on. The lists often consist of frequently used words or words with similar spelling rules or patterns. Teachers also include words commonly misspelled in student work. By fourth grade, your child should have moved from invented spelling to conventional spelling.

When children don't know the correct spelling of a particular word, they should be able to look it up using a dictionary, word wall, electronic spell checker, or online dictionary.

Testing

Many states have standardized writing tests in fourth grade. The tests typically consist of questions about writing mechanics, such as capitalization, punctuation, and grammar, and a timed exercise in which students write an essay responding to a writing prompt. Students may also be asked to write summary statements about passages.

Here are examples of writing prompts and writing questions from the 2005 Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System. Included are scoring guides and student writing samples. To see if your state releases their test questions, search your state Department of Education online.

By the end of fourth grade, students should be able to:

• Write a summary that contains the main idea and supporting details
• Write clearly and effectively on a theme, using transitional sentences
• Write a structured paragraph with a topic sentence, three supporting details, and a closing sentence that wraps up the main idea of the paragraph.
• Write a five paragraph paper
• Use pronouns to refer to proper nouns
• Use apostrophes in contractions
• Spell words with suffixes, like words with endings -ed, -ing and -tion
• Spell words with prefixes such as ex-, in- and un-
• Spell homonyms within the context of sentences, like bank (an embankment or a place where money is kept)
• Spell homophones like sea and see, one and won, or blew and blue
• Spell common classroom vocabulary words such as microscope
• Write legibly in cursive
• Use a computer as a writing tool

Updated May 2010