Our team collaborates multiple times per week. We examine and discuss results from reading and math assessments, and we share strategies for helping our students grow. We feel that this data is some of the strongest evidence we have of student achievement, which is why we give common assessments across the grade level.

During these meetings, we also plan for the weeks and months ahead. Having a common scope and sequence - knowing that we may deliver lessons differently as individual teachers - makes our conversations about student growth more meaningful. We know that we are delivering a consistent experience to each child in the fourth grade.

Though our individual classes have students with a diverse academic background, we group our students according to their needs across the grade level so that we can target their needs most effectively. Currently, students are grouped in this way for a daily spelling and phonics lesson. We have also grouped students with similar reading levels and abilities across the grade level for book clubs in our unit on historical fiction. Finally, students are grouped three times per week in various subjects for a remediation and extension block. We feel that grouping students according to their needs and directly targeting these needs is a powerful way to help students grow.

Expectations

Math

- I can use multiplication facts to solve problems.

- I can multiply two digit numbers by other two digit numbers

- I can order fractions on a number line

- I can decide which shapes are polygons

- I can understand and explain the addition and subtraction algorithm

Reading

- I can read at a level S with fluency and comprehension.

- I can read 115 words in a minute on a 4th grade leveled text.

- I can read a variety of texts: informational, historical fiction, realistic fiction, fantasy, poetry, legends, myth

- I can demonstrate my understanding through writing

- I can use graphic organizers to track my thinking in different genres

- I can work independently, with a partner, small guided group or in a book club

Writing

- I can organize my writing into paragraphs.

- I can write to teach

- I can write to persuade

- I can write to entertain

- I can use proper grammar and conventions as I write during any subject.

Science

- I can use the scientific method to answer questions and solve problems.

- I can explain how various forces affect the motion of an object.

- I can recognize that energy takes various forms.

- I can explain the causes of day and night and phases of the moon.

- I can understand the effects of environmental changes, adaptations and behaviors that

enable animals (including humans) to survive in changing habitats.

- I can understand food and the benefits of vitamins, minerals and exercise.

Social Studies

- I can understand the five key strands of social studies:History, Geography and Environmental Literacy, Economics and Financial Literacy, Civics and Government, and Culture

- I can understand these strands relationship to North Carolina’s past, present and future.