Kentucky Reading and Writing L.4.4.d

ELA4th GradeLanguage

The Standard

L.4.4: Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 4 reading and content, choosing flexibly from an array of strategies.

Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, including those that signal precise actions and that are basic to a particular topic.

Kentucky Academic Standards for Reading and Writing (2025) · Vocabulary Acquisition and Use

Teacher's field guide

What This Standard Means

What Students Need to Do: Students read about rain moving soil and work out what erode and deposit mean. They use predict and compare to explain what happens on two different hillsides.
What Mastery Looks Like: A student can explain that rain erodes soil from a bare slope and deposits it at the bottom. They can compare a bare slope with a grassy one and predict where more soil will move.
Common Misconceptions: Students may think erode means soil gets wet, or that deposit means soil washes away. They may use predict for a guess without pointing to a clue.
How to Assess It: Show photos of a bare slope and a grassy slope. Ask, 'Predict which slope will erode faster in rain, and explain what you see that supports your answer.'

Lesson moves

Ways to Teach It

Pour water down two tilted trays, one with bare soil and one covered in leaves; have students label where soil erodes and deposits.
Ask, 'How do the two trays compare, and where did soil erode? What did you see?'
Read 'soil washes away,' 'mud settles,' 'say what may happen,' and 'tell how two slopes are alike and different'; students raise matching word cards.
Show a photo of a muddy stream after rain; ask students to predict where its soil might deposit downstream.

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