Master's Specialist IV - 4th Grade

The Specialist IV (Fourth Grade) Program expounds and extends the Specialist III (third grade) Program in addition to preparing students for the Doctorate I (Fifth Grade) Program. In the Specialist IV Program language arts will be integrated with all other subjects. Components utilized in language arts include trade books from all disciplines; textbooks in reading, Florida history and science; large classroom libraries; a variety of resource and research materials accessed online; and the school library. The language arts program will be comprised of four subsets at this grade level: English (grammar and writing), reading (vocabulary, comprehension, and language skills), spelling (spelling words and dictionary skills), and handwriting (cursive).

The main objectives of the language arts program for fourth grade are: to develop competent writing skills through understanding and correctly applying the rules of grammar and spelling; to exhibit comprehension of reading material through summarizing; to explore and appreciate literature from various genres; to ably express ideas orally; to legibly write in both cursive and print; and to locate and process information from textbooks. Daily activities include silent reading, group and individual instruction, literature discussions and writing. Students will often participate in reading teacher-chosen class novels upon which class-wide and small group activities are based. These activities integrate the whole curriculum and help build an appreciation for different types of literature. In addition to the language arts instructional time spent in the classroom, the students will have weekly scheduled library visits and may utilize the library on other occasions, as necessary.

The math program will be integrated with all other subject areas to the greatest extent possible. The objectives of the fourth grade math program include: mastering all basic math facts including addition, subtraction, multiplication and division; understanding the value of money; adding, subtracting and making equivalent fractions; finding the perimeter, area and volume of figures, regions and solids; identifying plane and solid geometric figures; determining congruent figures and lines of symmetry; adding and subtracting decimals; and problem solving. In addition to learning new concepts, students maintain skills through weekly practice activities. Frequently, students will work individually or in pairs to explore math concepts and solve real-life problems. Students work with textbooks, manipulatives, computer math games, word problems and daily drills.