3rd grade lit vs 4th grade lit

[Jessica Louise]

How is the literature in 4th grade more difficult than the literature in 3rd grade? Are there any additional skills developed in fourth grade lit? Does 4th grade simply allow more time for children to keep working at the same level as third grade, so that the children have more time to develop all the skills targeted in third grade?

[tanya]

Hello.

The Lexile is a little higher in 4th grade, but not so that you would notice. The books are pretty comparable to 3rd. And the questions will still be more concrete also. It's not until 6th grade that we begin dealing with more complicated themes. The big difference in our classrooms is that we begin transitioning from completing all the comprehension questions with students as a group effort. In the 3rd trimester of 4th grade, we still get the oral answers from the students so we continue the oral discussion, but then the teacher just writes a few key words on the board, and students begin forming their own sentences in their study guides. We begin 5th grade like this and then transition in that year to students independently answering some of the questions. And then we check them. So by 6th grade, our discussion comes as we talk about the questions students have already answered independently. It is a gradual transition from grade to grade, with a lot of modeling before turning them loose!

So, yes, we give the students a lot of time to develop the skills targeted in 3rd grade, and we always begin a new school year with the notion that we need to back up for a couple of weeks and remind students of our standards. So in 5th grade, even though we have transitioned to students writing their own answers from key words in 4th grade, we will begin the 5th grade year by doing a couple of lessons where we put the entire answer on the board - the message being: This is our expectation. Then, we quickly transition that to key words again, and finally to independent answers. They just need lots of practice and reminders that our expectations don't change with each step. We just expect them to have the ability to meet our expectations with less hand-holding since we have been very clear about what we are looking for. It's like a dance!

Tanya

[Jessica Louise]

tanya Thank you. That is quite helpful! Tanya, please forgive me, but is there a guide somewhere, beyond the MP Scope & Sequence, that spells out which skills are being targeted in which grade (or quarter, or whatever)? I am just wanting to make sure that I am reading and watching everything that you have. Tanya, I LOVE the progression of skill development and study skills that you have laid out. I just feel like I am sometimes finding out what I should have done. I would like to be a little more on top of my game. If there isn't anything else, that is quite fine. Perhaps I need to just read through more of what is on the forum. Tanya, thank you for what you do!