Standards of Learning in a Fourth Grade Classroom

In my service learning I have actually had the opportunity to spend some time with the teacher of the class i'm observing as well as other fourth grade teachers at Forbes. While I have talked with them I have been able to hear them planning which standards they are supposed to teach. In the classroom I am in Math standards are really stressed. If a student is not meeting the required Math standard then they are given extra time to meet with an aid to help them meet that standard. The social studies standard is also stressed and is being met, most of the students in the classroom I am observing understand social studies fairly well. 
Science is also a very important standard for fourth graders, however part of the curriculum that is supposed to be taught is ways to classify rocks. For some reason it has been very hard for all of the fourth grade teachers to find a way to teach this to their students so this has not been taught. All of the teachers are working hard to include everything in their curriculum so that their students will do well on the Sage test. However, as I am observing I am learning that are some concepts that are just hard to find a way to teach them so that the students will actually understand. Overall though, the  majority of fourth grade standards are being taught and met. s

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