Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System Reading Grade 4

The art cart at a Worcester school held four wide brushes and a cup of narrow ones. Ms. Okonkwo asked the class to paint a long river on a paper mural. Lila took a wide brush for the water. Chris reached for the last wide brush to paint the thin ropes on a boat.

Lila told him to use a narrow one. Chris held the brush against his sleeve. “I can choose my own tool,” he said. He dipped it in gray paint and began the rope. The mark was much wider than his pencil line.

He tried to cover its edges with blue. The gray mixed into the water. Lila moved her own brush farther away, annoyed that the river was changing color. Ms. Okonkwo brought a scrap of paper. She asked Chris to make one mark with each kind of brush before adding more to the mural.

Chris’s narrow brush made a thin line. His wide brush made a broad patch. He used a narrow brush for the next rope and asked Lila whether the gray-blue patch could become the boat’s shadow. Lila looked at it from the other end of the table. She added a darker shape beneath the boat.

At cleanup, Chris washed both brushes. He placed a card beside the cup with a broad mark and a thin one. There were no names on the card. The next class would still choose its own tools, but it would have something to look at first.

Ashmont School's fourth grade was already downtown for a library workshop near Ruggles. The class waited on the platform at Downtown Crossing. Ms. Chen held the permission list. "We need the subway train whose sign says Forest Hills," she said. "That direction goes toward Ruggles."

A train rolled in first. Its sign said Oak Grove. Dante stepped toward the doors because it was the first train to arrive. Ms. Chen caught his sleeve. "Oak Grove is the other direction," she said. "Our sign is Forest Hills. The first train is not our train."

They stayed on the platform. The Oak Grove train closed its doors and left the other way. The next train said Forest Hills. The class boarded that one.

Dante watched the platform slide back. "Being first did not make it the right direction," he said. Ms. Chen nodded. "Read the sign, then move. A train can arrive first and still be going away from the workshop."

A Northampton school received a wooden bench from a retiring teacher. The class could choose where to put it in the courtyard. Aisha wanted it beside the bean garden, where visitors could watch plants grow. Ben wanted it under a tree near the door.

The class drew the two places on a map. From the classroom window, the garden corner looked bright and inviting. Aisha sketched flowers along the bench. Ben drew a large patch of shade around his tree.

Their teacher asked them to visit both places at three times during the day. In the morning, the tree’s shade fell across the path rather than the proposed bench spot. At lunchtime, the tree shaded that spot, but a delivery cart used the narrow route beside it. The garden corner had room for a cart to pass, though afternoon sunlight made the seat warm.

Neither child’s first drawing showed all those details. They added times and notes to the map. Aisha suggested shifting the bench away from the garden gate so it would not block people carrying watering cans. Ben suggested asking the custodian whether the cart could use a different route.

At the next meeting, they did not hold up the flower drawing or the cloud of shade. They set the marked map where everyone could read it. Another student noticed a third place along the wall, and the class agreed to observe that spot too.

The donated bench stayed in the hallway for one more week. Beside it hung the map, with spaces left for new notes. The retiring teacher visited and read every note before asking where she should sit.

After a heavy coastal storm, Cove School in New Bedford posted a whiteboard by the office. The first line said, "Two-hour delay. Doors open at 10:00." The second line said, "No outside recess. Lunch is inside."

Rafi read only the first line. He told his brother they could sleep until 10:00 and should bring a soccer ball. Their mother read both lines. "The ball stays home," she said. "Recess is inside. The delay changes the start time. It does not change the recess rule."

At 10:00 they entered. The gym was open for indoor games. The doors to the playground stayed locked. Rafi looked at the second line again and left the idea of the soccer ball at home.

The chorus at Chestnut School in Springfield was learning a song about a river. After the words "river, river," the music showed a rest, and then the word "run." Mr. Duarte said the rest meant silence for one beat.

Lena kept singing through that mark. She thought a rest was a place to breathe without stopping the word. Mr. Duarte tapped the stand. "A rest is a stop in the sound," he said. "Breathing can happen there, but the word does not continue."

They tried the line again. The room went quiet for one beat. Then they sang "run." Lena heard the space and grinned. She had been filling a hole the song had asked them to leave open. The quiet was part of the music.

Nora slipped a letter into the suggestion box at Spicket School in Lawrence. It said, "Please move the last five minutes of lunch to recess. I am not asking you to cancel lunch. The four-square line on the blacktop is long, and some students who wait get no turn. Most of us finish eating before the bell."

Principal Ibarra wrote back. She would try the change for two weeks in May. She would not try it in winter, because coats take time. She also asked Nora to count, for three lunches, how many students were still eating when the lunch bell rang. If many were still eating, the five minutes would stay with lunch.

Nora's clipboard showed Monday 4, Tuesday 3, and Wednesday 6. The class had twenty-four students, and most had finished before the bell. She took the counts to the office. Principal Ibarra read them and told Nora the two-week try in May was set.

Winter Island School in Salem took a field trip to a rocky beach in Marblehead. Each student got a card. It said to look, but not to take animals. If you lift a rock, put it back. Step on rock, not on weed.

Jules found a small green crab in a pool and wanted to carry it to the classroom tank. The guide, Ms. Ferro, shook her head. "That tank is fresh water from the tap. This crab lives in salt water. Taking it would not be a rescue."

Jules drew the crab instead. He labeled the claws, the shell, and the eyes on stalks. The drawing went on the bus. The crab stayed in the pool. When he lifted one rock to look underneath, he set it back in the same wet spot.

The cafeteria at Willow Avenue School in Somerville had three bins and three signs. The green bin took apple cores, banana peels, and leftover rice. The blue bin took clean paper trays and milk cartons that were empty and dry. The trash took plastic forks, chip bags, and anything that mixed food with plastic.

Eli scraped his rice into the green bin. Rice still stuck to his plastic fork. He almost dropped the fork in with the rice. The monitor, Ms. Cruz, stopped him. "Food can go in the green bin. Plastic cannot. A fork with rice on it is not a food scrap. Rinsing is not allowed at this bin. The fork goes in the trash."

Eli put the fork in the trash. He put his empty, dry milk carton in the blue bin. His banana peel went in the green bin. Three bins had three jobs, and he used each one for its own list.

This poem was written by a fourth grader at East Street School in Pittsfield. It tells about walking to school with a younger brother.

I count the porch steps through the snow: one, two, three, and then the gate. My brother hides his gloves again, so we start late.

The hill on Maple Street is quiet. Plows have left a shiny lane. I walk the dull snow on the side and hold the strap of his backpack.

We pass the bakery's warm door. We do not stop, though the bread smells sweet. The yellow school is two blocks on, and the bells do not wait.

At the crosswalk, Mr. Keene lifts his sign and nods us through. My brother finds one glove inside his sleeve and laughs. I laugh too, but I keep his strap. A late start can still be a safe walk. The shiny lane is for the cars. The dull snow is our road.

At a Brookline school, Rio helped arrange props for a class play about a pretend shop. He had asked for the role of the shopkeeper. Instead, he was assigned to ring a bell when the door opened. His only line was, “A customer.”

At the first rehearsal, he rang the bell as loudly as he could. Nia, playing the customer, stopped speaking. The shopkeeper waited. Rio rang again, pleased that everyone was looking toward him.

Their teacher asked the actors to try the scene with no bell at all. Nia entered and began asking about a pencil. The audience group did not notice her until she had finished the question. Rio sat a little straighter.

Next they tried a single quiet ring as the door moved. Nia paused, the shopkeeper turned, and Rio said his line. The question followed. For the first time, the whole conversation could be heard.

Rio marked the door movement in his script. On show night, a cardboard shelf slipped just before Nia’s entrance. Rio’s hand was already on the bell, but he waited while she steadied it. When she opened the door, he rang once.

After the applause, a parent told Rio that the shop had felt busy and real. He almost explained how few words he had spoken. Instead, he put the bell carefully into the prop box. Nia asked whether he would help check the door hinge before their next performance. He took out his marked script.

Crystal Lake School in Newton kept two maps of the yard. The old map, from last year, showed the garden on the east side and the bike rack by the front door. It had no dotted line. The new map still showed the garden on the east side, but the bike rack had moved behind the gym. A dotted line on the new map showed a temporary walkway around the front steps, which were being repaired.

Sam followed the old map and tried to lock his bike at the front door. There was no rack. A sign said, "Bike rack behind the gym." He walked the bike there. He was not late, because he had arrived early.

His class still met at the east garden. Both maps agreed about that spot. Until the steps opened again, students were told to follow the dotted line on the new map.

Mr. Almeida, the custodian at Anawan School in Fall River, carried two key rings. The blue ring opened inside doors: classroom 12, the art closet, and the gym supply cage. The red ring opened outside doors: the kitchen delivery door and the back gate.

Ms. Bloom, a new teacher, asked for "the key" so she could prop the kitchen door, which means wedge it open. Mr. Almeida did not hand her the blue ring. The kitchen delivery door was on the red ring, and it was not allowed to be propped. When a delivery person rang, he opened the door himself and stayed until it locked again.

Later Ms. Bloom needed colored paper from the art closet. That key was on the blue ring. He opened the closet, and he put the key back on the ring before he left. "The rings stay with me," he said. "A door key is not a spare to carry home." Ms. Bloom thanked him and carried the paper, not a key.

At Moody Street School in Lowell, Ms. Nguyen's class built model bridges between two desks. The bridge had to hold a stack of classroom books across the gap.

Team A laid one long piece of cardboard flat and taped it down. It sagged and dropped the books. Team B folded the cardboard into a ridge, like a roof seen from the end, and taped the edges to both desks. That ridge held three books. Team C copied the flat piece and added more tape. It still sagged.

Ms. Nguyen said, "The fold changed the shape. The extra tape did not." Team A folded a second piece. That bridge held two books. The class wrote one line in the project notes: "Shape mattered more than more tape."

The library at Dana Court School in Cambridge had two places for books. The hold shelf was for books with a name tag. Those copies were waiting for the student who had asked for them. The open shelf in front was for anyone to borrow that day.

Wes wanted a book about owls. One owl book sat on the hold shelf with a tag that said Camila. Mr. Goldstein, the librarian, said Wes could not take that copy. A second owl book was on the open shelf. It had no tag, so Wes could borrow it.

Holds last until Friday. Today was Wednesday, so Camila still had time. Her hold counted even if she was absent. Wes checked out the untagged owl book. He wrote Camila's name on a note so he would remember why he left the other copy. He did not put his own name on her tag.

The lost-and-found bin at Shade Street School in Lexington held two blue mittens. Both were size small. One had a hole in the thumb. The other had a white star sewn on the cuff.

Greta described her mitten before she looked in the bin. It was blue, small, and had a white star on the cuff. It had no hole. The aide, Mr. Park, asked her not to grab. She pointed to the star mitten, and he checked her description against it. The description matched.

The mitten with the hole belonged to a kindergartner who had not come yet. Color and size were not enough to choose, because both mittens shared those. The star decided it. Greta took only the star mitten and left the one with the hole in the bin.

The school paper at Little River School in Haverhill said the soccer game ended 2-5 and that Little River had lost. The reporter, Luis, meant to list Little River first, but copied the visitors' 2 goals into that position and Little River's 5 into the second position. The coach's notebook told a different story. Little River scored 5, and the visitors scored 2. Little River won.

Luis felt embarrassed and asked the editor, Amina, to fix the line. Amina would not change the story just because he was embarrassed. She opened the coach's notebook and checked the goals. Then she printed a correction: "Little River won, 5-2. The earlier score was reversed."

She left Luis's name on the first article and put his name on the correction too. "A correction tells the truth," she said. "It does not hide who wrote the first line."

Luis's next article was about the band concert. He read the program twice and wrote the names in the order they appeared. He asked Amina to check the first sentence before it was posted.

Two signs stood at the corner by Pine Hill School in Lynn. The yellow sign showed children walking. It was a warning that children might be crossing, and the warning stayed up all day. The white sign under it was a rule: "No right turn 7:30-8:30 a.m. on school days."

At 8:05 a.m. on Tuesday, a school day, a driver started to turn right. The crossing guard, Ms. Doyle, held her stop sign toward the car and waved the students to wait. The driver said, "The yellow sign only tells me children might be here." Ms. Doyle pointed to the white sign. "That one is a rule. It is 8:05, and today is a school day. No right turn." The driver went straight. Then the students crossed.

At 8:40, after the time on the white sign, a different car turned right. No one was in the crosswalk. Ms. Doyle did not stop that car. The time was part of the rule. The yellow sign was a warning, not the same thing as a ban.

Hugo, a fourth grader, told his uncle later, "The warning stays all day. The no-turn rule is only until 8:30 on school days."