Grade 4 Reading Comprehension

Home > Resources & Worksheets > Reading Comprehension > Grade 4

Grade 4 is when children start learning to notice how texts are organized. Understanding text structure helps students follow ideas, comprehend complex writing, and extract important information. Typical reading comprehension skills covered in Grade 4 include:

Text Structure - Recognizing organization patterns such as cause/effect, problem/solution, and compare/contrast

Signal Words - Identifying words that indicate relationships between ideas

Connecting Ideas - Understanding how paragraphs and sections work together

Summarizing Structured Texts - Organizing information logically

One of the key comprehension skills Grade 4 students learn is understanding text structure. This skill helps children organize information mentally and understand how authors present ideas. For young readers, mastering this skill is essential for tackling nonfiction and complex texts.

Understanding text structure

Text structure is most useful in these situations:

Identifying cause and effect relationships

Recognizing problem and solution patterns

Comparing and contrasting ideas or events

Understanding text structure is simple once you know what to look for, and understand why it is important. Let’s look at some examples:

• Cause and Effect:

Example: “Because the river flooded, the bridge collapsed” → Cause: river flooded; Effect: bridge collapsed

• Problem and Solution:

Example: A story where a village faces a fire → Solution: villagers work together to put it out

• Compare and Contrast:

Example: A passage comparing cats and dogs → Children identify similarities and differences

Understanding text structure strengthens comprehension and helps children organize information. Without this skill, students may struggle with complex nonfiction and multi-step narratives.

Tips for parents

1. Look for signal words such as however, because, as a result
2. Discuss how paragraphs are connected and ideas progress
3. Encourage children to outline or diagram the text’s structure
4. Practice with nonfiction texts like articles or reports
5. Ask children to summarize the text based on its structure

Grade 4 Reading Comprehension worksheet

You can practice text structure your child by downloading this fun activity pack: