ONOFRE, GAMELA F.

ECE 10

WRITTEN REPORT
CHAPTER 12
Transitioning to Fourth Grade Reading and Writing to Learn

This chapter focuses on fourth grade. While most states and the National
Association for the Education of Young Children define early childhood in
terms of infancy through third grade, it was decided to include the fourth
grade as part of their early childhood teaching certification.
The content of this chapter is presented in three major sections. The first
section provides an overview of literacy transactions in fourth grade,
highlighting the three components of literacy transactions: the learner, the
context, and the text. This is followed by a section that describes strategies for
enhancing literacy development in fourth grade. The final section of the
chapter focuses on ways to provide extra support for struggling readers and
writers.

Literacy Transactions in Fourth Grade

Student’s literacy transactions in fourth grade are characterized by increasing
complexity. This is particularly evident in the contexts in which they read and
write, as well as in the texts that they encounter. Another aspect of this
complexity is each learner’s prior experiences and knowledge as well as their
orientation to learning and school.
Learner
When students arrive in fourth grade, they bring with them their
experiences and knowledge from their prior years of interaction in home,
school, and community settings. Academic development does not occur
apart from the other facets of development. Social, emotional, and cultural
experiences also contribute to each student’s self-concept as a learner
(Erikson, 1963, 1972; McDevitt & Ormond, 2004).
Context
Fourth grade is a year of transition between the elementary and middle
school. It is time when students are expected to have mastered basic skills
associated with decoding, word recognition, text comprehension, and fluency
(Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998). Fourth grade is also a time when students are
expected to further develop a wide range of reading and writing strategies
that will be used as they interact with more complex narrative and
informational texts (Blaken 1990). The instructional materials in these disciplines
include both textbooks and trade books. Assessments of student learning often
involve students responding in writing in chapter and end-of-unit test items. For
example this figure below shows a fourth grade student’s essay response on a
science test about plants. Her response focuses on the way poisonous roots
protect some plants.

Text
When fourth graders engage in using reading and writing as tools for learning,
they will be interacting with a wide range of different text types and other
instructional materials. The range of different text types is evident in literacy
curriculum as well as the disciplines (science, social studies, mathematics, and
health).

Characteristics of Texts Used in the Literacy Curriculum

In a commercial literacy curriculum, there are typically a variety of text,
including leveled readers and anthologies. Different types of narrative texts
such as historical fiction, realistic fiction, informational texts and poetry are
often included. Commercial literacy materials developed for fourth grade
have a greater variety of new vocabulary and more complex sentence
structures. Grade-level trade books also show more complexity. The narratives
are longer and divided into chapters. These text characteristics require
students to remember the story from chapter to chapter and integrate the new
events with what happened previously in the book.
Characteristics of Texts Used in the Disciplines
Books in the disciplines of science, social studies, health and math are
characterized by text that are dramatically different from the texts
encountered in literacy curricula. These difference include:
1. Concept density. Because the purpose of informational texts is to explain
concepts, ideas, and phenomena, informational texts have a greater
density of concepts. This means that throughout the text, new concepts
are introduced. Math textbooks have been found to have the greatest
concept density (Barton, Heidema, & Jordan, 2002).
2. New vocabulary. The vocabulary in these text centers on new
vocabulary that may be unfamiliar to students, for example, solar
radiation, atmosphere, and ozone layer (Chall & Jacobs, 2003; Picot,
2017).
3. Specialized vocabulary. Each discipline has a specialized vocabulary.
This vocabulary is interconnected. For example, in math, the terms
numerator and denominator refer to the two parts of fractions. In
science, mineral, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic each refer to
a type of rock an also relate to each other in specific ways.
4. Different text structures. The most common types of informational text
structures include: cause-effect, descriptive (concepts and definitions),
procedural, compare-contrast, and problem-solution (Frey & Fisher,
2007). For example, in texts that focus on cause-effect, signal words are often found, such
as because, if.. . then, as a result.
5. Specific text features. Informational texts are characterized by specific
organizational features such as paragraph headings, photo captions,
margin notes, table of contents, glossary, index, and graphic aids, Such
as charts, diagrams, and illustrations (Frey & FIisher, 2007).
Strategies for Enhancing Literacy Development in Fourth Grade
In this section, specific strategies for enhancing literacy
development for all students in fourth grade are describes. Some strategies
focus on providing specific types of texts, and still other strategies focus on
the ways in which students interact with text and context.
 Create a literacy-rich environment.
 Encourage reading for personal purposes.
 Encourage students to become strategic writers.
 Encourage students to become strategic readers.
 Focus on strategies for comprehending informational text.
Create a literacy-rich environment
The classroom learning environment sets the stage for student’s engagement
in learning activities.
 Multitext Classroom
Teachers are encouraged to develop a collection of “real” books
and content-rich materials. When a wide range of materials is provided,
such as trade books (fiction and nonfiction), newspapers, children’s
magazines, poetry, photo essays, historical fiction, and journals/diaries,
the curricular focus becomes concept-centered rather than centered
on just what is provided in one textbook.
 Active Learning Environment
Interdisciplinary Units
Another way of creating an active learning environment is
through integrated or interdisciplinary units of study. Integrated,
curricular units if study combine reading and writing with one or more
content areas, such as social studies, science, health, and/or math
(Anders & Pritchard, 1993; Karnes & Collins, 1997; Muth, 1997; Nesbit &
Rogers, 1997). Within each unit there is a combination of fiction and
informational text. For exampple, a unit on pioneer life could integrate
social studies and science with reading and writing.
Cooperative Learning
Opportunities for cooperative learning also contribute to
students’ active engagement in the content areas. There are different
forms of cooperative learning and all of the forms involve small groups
of students working together to learn and complete tasks (Slavin, 1991).
The groups are usually heterogeneous. Key aspects of cooperative
learning include: (a) a clear and attainable group goal or task, (b) each
member is responsible for his part as well as contributing to the group’s
success, and (c) members self-evaluate their effective participation in
the group (Marr, 1997).

MASTERY OF TOPIC (40%) _________

DELIVERY OF THE PRESENATION (30%) _________
COMMUNICATION SKILLS (20%) _________
ACTIVITIES (10%) _________