4th grade fluency passages with word counts

Grade 4 · printable

Four original passages for one-minute oral reading checks in 4th grade: two stories and two informational texts. Each one shows its word count and Flesch-Kincaid grade, and every passage is longer than the 4th grade spring 90th-percentile score (184 WCPM, Hasbrouck & Tindal 2017), so even a strong reader is still reading when the minute ends.

These are original practice passages, not passages from a published screener, so treat a score as a check-in rather than a diagnosis.

• 4 passages
• 206–215 words each
• Flesch-Kincaid grade 4.3–4.8

The student copy is the passage alone, in large type with no numbers. The examiner copy adds a running word count at the end of each line, the 4th grade Hasbrouck & Tindal (2017) benchmarks, and a words-read-minus-errors scoring box.

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• Narrative
• 206 words
• Flesch-Kincaid grade 4.8

Focus: Character perspective and a change of opinion

The first photograph showed the whole family looking neat and serious beneath the picnic shelter. The second showed a blur of elbows, an empty plate, and half of a dog. When she saw it, Ava reached for the delete button. Her uncle asked her to wait. He had been outside the picture, carrying drinks. He wanted to know what had happened. So she explained how a gust of wind had lifted the paper plates. Her cousin had reached for one just as the dog leaped after another. That was why nobody was looking at the camera. Her uncle made the picture larger on the screen. In the corner, her grandma was laughing so hard that her eyes were almost closed. Behind her, a paper plate seemed to float above the table like a tiny moon. Soon the whole family crowded around to look. Each person spotted something different. Someone noticed a sandwich still held neatly among all those flying elbows. Ava saved both pictures and printed them to hang on the fridge. The serious one went on top, where each face was easy to find. The blurry one went underneath. By the end of the week, that was the picture with fingerprints all around its edges.

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• Narrative
• 207 words
• Flesch-Kincaid grade 4.4

Focus: Reasons, competing ideas, and character choices

The class had to choose what to grow in the garden bed beside the school. There was space for beans or tall flowers, but not both plans. For a week, Jude worked on a poster covered with bright sunflowers. He imagined their yellow heads standing above the fence. His friend wanted beans that the class could pick and taste. When the votes were counted, the beans won by a single hand. Afterward, Jude rolled up his poster without showing it to anyone. On planting day, he almost stayed inside to finish a drawing. Then his friend appeared at the door with two pairs of muddy gloves. There were seeds to plant. Someone needed to measure the spaces between them. Outside, Jude discovered that making straight rows was harder than it looked. By lunchtime, soil covered his knees and the first row was finished. As they put away the tools, his teacher asked to borrow the sunflower poster. She knew a blank wall near the garden where it could stay dry. A month later, small white blossoms opened among the bean leaves. Jude crouched beside them to draw their curling shapes. He had been waiting for beans to appear, and had nearly missed the flowers growing there already.

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• Informational
• 206 words
• Flesch-Kincaid grade 4.3

Focus: Explaining a system with precise vocabulary

Run a fingertip across a page of braille, and you will feel rows of small raised dots. For people who read braille, those patterns carry words, numbers, and marks such as commas. The dots form small groups called cells. In the basic cell, there are six places for dots, with three on each side. Raising different dots makes different patterns. One pattern can stand for a letter. Others can stand for whole words. These shortcuts help keep books from growing even larger than they need to be. Braille takes more room than print. The dots must be large enough and far enough apart for fingers to feel. Some books fill several thick volumes. But paper is not the only way to read braille. A special display can raise and lower tiny pins, forming a line of dots beneath the fingers. As the reader moves through a book, the pins change to show the next line. The same display can be used to read many books. Learning braille takes practice, just as learning to read print does. Readers learn the patterns and then build speed as they recognize them more easily. The story still has characters, surprises, and an ending. The words reach the reader through touch.

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• Informational
• 215 words
• Flesch-Kincaid grade 4.4

Focus: Mechanical vocabulary and spatial relationships

Closing a jacket can take one quick pull, but many tiny parts must work together to make that happen. Look closely at a zipper with separate teeth. Each side has a row of teeth held on a strip of fabric. The teeth are shaped to fit between those on the opposite side. On their own, though, the rows do not line up and join. A small moving piece called the slider guides them into place. Inside it, two narrow paths come together into one. As you pull it upward, the rows enter from different sides. The paths guide the teeth toward each other until their shapes fit together. Behind the slider, the zipper stays closed. Pulling the other way opens it. The joined row enters the narrow end. A small divider inside guides the two sides apart. Stops near the ends keep the slider from slipping off. All these parts must fit closely. A bent tooth or a damaged slider can keep a zipper from closing. Fabric caught inside can stop it from moving, too. The next time you close a bag, watch the spot just behind the pull. You can see a row of separate pieces becoming one connected line. Nothing is glued or tied, so the same parts can open and close again.

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Words correct per minute (WCPM) is the number of words a student reads in 60 seconds, minus errors. A typical 4th grade reader, the 50th percentile in Hasbrouck & Tindal (2017), scores about 94 WCPM in fall, 120 in winter, and 133 in spring.

• See the full 4th grade benchmark table
• How WCPM is scored

Students read a passage aloud on any device, the WCPM is scored for you, and every error is reviewable. Free for your whole class: up to 25 students and unlimited assessments, no credit card.

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• 1st grade fluency passages
• 2nd grade fluency passages
• 3rd grade fluency passages
• 5th grade fluency passages
• All grades on one page

Hasbrouck & Tindal (2017) WCPM norms start in 1st grade, so kindergarten has no timed passages. Kindergarten reading level