4th Grade Reading Assessments: Prep and Practice

How Can I Help My Child Prepare for Reading Assessments?

Reading comprehension is critical for young students because it ties in to every other subject in school and in life. However, many students struggle with reading and don't feel comfortable doing it in the classroom. Help your child overcome his or her fears and prepare for reading tests by encouraging family reading sessions at home. You, your child and any other family member should schedule a weekly time to sit down and read out loud together. This will give your child more practice in a comfortable environment and give you the opportunity to assess any problem areas.

4th Grade Reading Practice Exercises

Multiple-Choice Questions

The most common way reading skills are evaluated is through multiple-choice questions. To provide realistic practice, you can print short passages from the Internet for your child to read. Many websites offer texts and printable worksheets for free, so your main focus should be selecting a topic your son or daughter will enjoy. When your 4th grader finishes reading, he or she will answer questions about character traits, overall theme and plot.

Short Responses

Short response questions promote active reading and test students' understanding of a text. Start by using the same or similar passages from the multiple-choice exercise. Then, you can print another worksheet or even create your own short answer questions to evaluate your child's understanding. For example, you might ask your 4th grader to describe what lesson the story taught or summarize something from the text, citing specific examples.

Vocabulary Matching

In 4th grade, students are still in the early stages of reading and, as a result, are learning new vocabulary words. Because the two go hand-in-hand, incorporating vocabulary assessment into reading comprehension exams is a great way to help your child advance. Instead of selecting vocabulary words from a text and creating a simple matching worksheet, allow your child to figure out the meaning of tough words while reading using context clues.