Southern Lehigh School District

Grade Level Benchmarks for Writing

Grade 4

Types of Writing

Narrative (stories, poems)

Expository/Informational (letters, reports, instructions, descriptions)

Persuasive

Quality of Writing

Ideas and Content

Uses text to express a clear message focused on a specific event or topic

             Uses multiple sentences to add details connected to the topic

Organization

Writes narrative in a logical/sequential order, including a recognizable beginning, middle and end

Writes expository/informational piece with main idea, supporting details, and conclusion

Writes persuasive piece with a topic sentence (position statement), supporting details, and conclusion

Writes a topic/main idea sentence that restates the prompt and/or grabs the reader’s attention

Writes a closing sentence that restates the topic sentence in a new way

Writes multiple supporting detail sentences related to the topic

Uses appropriate connecting words and transitions to link ideas, help the story flow, and keep the reader interested

Conventions

            Uses capital and lower case letters accurately

Uses periods, exclamation points, and question marks accurately

Uses commas in dates and addresses

Spells First and Second Grade “No Excuse Words” correctly

Spells most words correctly

Uses complete sentences, which include simple subject and simple predicate, to convey thoughts

Uses quotation marks in dialogue

Experiments with difficult conventions (e.g. ellipses, dashes, parentheses)

Uses paragraphs correctly to convey message

Voice

            Reflects the personality of the author

            Narrative is entertaining and fun to read aloud

Expository/Informational/Persuasive conveys an appropriate purpose for writing

Southern Lehigh School District

Grade Level Benchmarks for Writing

Grade 4

Word Choice

Uses precise, interesting and natural words and/or phrases to create a picture in reader’s mind

Uses synonyms to replace repetitive words

Sentence Fluency

Uses complex sentences (experiments with a variety of introductory phrases)

Uses compound sentences

Attempts to construct sentences with varied length and structure

Writing Process

Pre-write

Draft

Revise

Edit

Publish

*Items bolded are new benchmarks for this grade level.