FSA Grade 4 cheat sheet

Main idea: the most important point a passage makes about its topic; supporting details are facts, examples, or reasons that explain or prove it.

Theme: the lesson or message about life in a story (for example, honesty matters), stated in a full sentence rather than one word.

Summary rule: state the main idea in your own words and include only key details; leave out minor examples, dialogue, and personal opinions.

Text structure clues: cause-and-effect uses because, so, as a result; compare-contrast uses both, unlike, however; sequence uses first, next, finally.

Firsthand account is told by a participant using I or we; secondhand account is told by someone not present and usually reports facts without personal involvement.

Inference: a conclusion drawn from text evidence plus what you already know; it must be supported by details actually in the passage.

Figurative language: simile compares using like or as; metaphor states one thing is another; personification gives human traits to nonhuman things; idiom means something different from its literal words.

Context clues for an unknown word: definition restated nearby, example given, synonym or antonym in the sentence, or the overall sentence meaning.

Conventions check: subject-verb agreement, correct verb tense, commas after introductory phrases and in a series, and quotation marks around a speaker's exact words.

Place value: in a multi-digit number each place is 10 times the place to its right; 10 times as many, or one-tenth as many, describes the shift between adjacent places.

Multi-digit multiplication: 2,345 × 6 can be done by place value - 2,000×6 + 300×6 + 40×6 + 5×6 = 12,000 + 1,800 + 240 + 30 = 14,070.

Division with remainders: 47 ÷ 5 = 9 remainder 2, because 9 × 5 = 45 and 47 − 45 = 2; the remainder is always less than the divisor.

Equivalent fractions: multiply or divide numerator and denominator by the same nonzero number; 3/4 = 9/12 because both parts are multiplied by 3.

Comparing fractions: same denominator, compare numerators; same numerator, the smaller denominator is the larger fraction (1/3 > 1/5).

Adding and subtracting fractions with like denominators: combine numerators and keep the denominator; 3/8 + 2/8 = 5/8; simplify when possible.

Decimal link: 0.7 = 7/10 and 0.35 = 35/100; compare decimals place by place from the left, so 0.7 > 0.35.

Area and perimeter: rectangle area = length × width; perimeter = 2 × (length + width); area is measured in square units, perimeter in linear units.

Angle measure: a right angle is 90°, a straight angle is 180°; adjacent angles that form a straight line add to 180°.