In Year 4 children learn to:

• apply a growing knowledge of root words, prefixes and suffixes (etymology and morphology) - as listed in English appendix 1 of the national curriculum document - both to read aloud and to understand the meaning of new words that are met;
• listen to and discuss a wide range of fiction, poetry, plays, non-fiction and reference books or textbooks;
• use dictionaries to check the meaning of words that have been read;
• identify themes and conventions in a wide range of books;
• read further exception words, noting the unusual correspondences between spelling and sound and where these occur in the word;
• check that the text makes sense to the individual, discussing their understanding and explaining the meaning of words in context;
• draw inferences such as inferring characters' feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions and justifying inferences with evidence;
• predict what might happen from details stated and implied;
• identify main ideas drawn from more than one paragraph and summarise these;
• retrieve and record information from non-fiction.