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Grade 3,
Overview of the Year
Overview
By the end of third
grade, students will be fluent readers with a full range of reading
strategies to apply when reading a wide variety of increasingly difficult
narrative and expository grade level texts. In addition to
the comprehension skills developed in prior years, students will be able to
understand literary elements, compare texts, and summarize text passages.
Students will be able to demonstrate inferential thinking with more
challenging texts. They will develop more advanced phonics skills and apply knowledge of letter-sound relationships and of syllable spelling
patterns to decode words in order to comprehend connected text. To develop vocabulary, students will use a range of strategies
and resources, and will recognize common prefixes, suffixes, and roots in
multi-syllabic words. Students
will be able to read 526 of District 11 sight words. Other words will be learned
from phonics, spelling, and vocabulary programs to total the expected 1000+
words. Students will also write a variety of pieces, varying in length, in a variety of modes: narrative, summary,
and expository. |
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Enduring Understandings
- important ideas that students should carry with them years beyond the
instruction received this year.
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Different strategies and skills are required to
understand a variety of materials.
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People apply critical thinking skills when reading, writing,
speaking, listening, and viewing.
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Throughout history, humans have used literature as a record of their
experiences.
Essential Questions
- most important “big picture” questions students should be able to answer
after completing learning activities.
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Why do we need to understand what we read or hear?
How do we use strategies and skills to understand a variety of
materials?
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What is critical thinking? Why is critical thinking important? How
do we apply critical thinking skills?
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How and why do humans use literature to record their experiences?
How has history influenced literature and vice versa?
CSAP
Tested Standards
Highest Frequency
 High
Frequency
 Other
Standards & E-skills
Phonemic Awareness: Should be established by grade 3.
Phonics:
Apply knowledge of letter-sound relationships and syllable spelling
patterns to decode words in order to comprehend connected text. (Level
M-N)
Fluency:
Read grade level
materials attending to phrasing, intonation, and punctuation. (Level M-N)
Adjust reading pace to accommodate purpose, style, and difficulty of
text. (Level M-N)
Vocabulary:
Understand and use
vocabulary essential to text. (Level M-N)
Use a range of vocabulary strategies-context clues.
Students will use a range of resources to build oral and reading
vocabulary to include sight words and multi-syllabic words (125 sight
words from 3rd Grade Common Word List).
Comprehension:
Preview text to
establish prior knowledge using pre-reading strategies. Apply
background knowledge, experience to make connections. Read and
understand a wide range of genres including directions and narrative
writing. Identify
and use literary terminology such as setting, plot, character, problem,
and solution. Read, respond to, and discuss a variety of
literature (e.g.. fiction, non-fiction, and rhymes)
Use a range of strategies efficiently when constructing meaning from
text being listened to or read-predict, use picture clues (Level M-N)
1.b Summarize text passages
1.c Identify main idea, and find information to support particular
ideas
1.d Draw inferences using contextual clues
1.g Use word recognition skills and resources (for example, phonics,
context clues, picture clues, reference guides, roots, prefixes and suffixes
of words) for comprehension
Thinking Skills:
Follow graphic, oral, and
written directions. Retell,
summarize, and/or synthesize important information. (Level M-N)
Research Skills:
Know areas of library and
uses reference materials.
Use a variety of graphic organizers.
Standard 1: Students read, listen to, and understands a variety of
materials.
Standard 5: Students read to locate, select, and make use of relevant
information from a variety of media, reference, and technological sources.
Standard 6: Students read and recognize literature as a record of
human experience.
Grade 3 Essential
Vocabulary
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Use the
Visual Thesaurus and
use the approved user name and password to the right. |
User Name:
es35@d11.org
Password: d112009 |
Research confirms that students need at least 6
opportunities through varied activities to experience new vocabulary in
order to acquire a conceptual understanding.
The following activities are endorsed by the
Mid-Continental Research in Education Laboratory (MCREL) Six Step Strategy
to Improving Vocabulary. Instead of looking at a dictionary first, follow
the 6 steps to insure students have a full understanding. Read more about
Research on Teaching
Vocabulary.
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Step 1: Teacher
provides a description, explanation, or example of the term
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Step 2: Student
restates the description, explanation, or example in his/her own words
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Step 3: Student
designs a visual representation
Use the suggested
Vocabulary
Activities for Steps 4-6.
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Step 4: Student
completes activities that provide practice for using terms in writing
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Step 5: Students
review and discuss word meanings
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Step 6: Students
practice words with games
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Parents
You can encourage your child to read and increase his or her fluency and
comprehension by providing quality books such as those listed on the
sidebar. Other titles appropriate for third graders include; Aldo
Applesauce, by Johanna Hurwitz, Amber Brown is Not a Crayon,
by Paula Danzieger, any title from the American Girl series,
any title from the Magic School Bus, series by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degan, any title from the Magic Tree House,
series by Mary Pope
Osborne, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl,
Child’s Garden of Verses, poetry by Robert Louis Stevenson,
Comets, Asteroids, and Meteors, by Dennis Fradin, Dancing with
the Indians, by Angela Medeari, James and the Giant Peach, by Roald Dahl, The Fantastic Mr.
Fox, by Roald Dahl, The Hickory Chair, by Lisa Rowe
Fraustino, The Kids of the Polk Street School, by Patricia Reilly Giff, The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, by Jon Scieszka,
and The Sword in the Stone, by Hudson Talbott.
Trips to the school or public library can be special times for primary
students. There are many interesting book series available to children of
this age, some of which are listed above and on the sidebar. Story hour at
the public library, children's theater productions of familiar fairy tales,
and summer reading programs at the public library give wonderful
opportunities to surround your child with reading. Renaissance Learning
supports an hour of reading a day! That hour can be cumulative including
school time reading and home time reading. It is a lofty goal that will
definitely bring results in fluency and comprehension. After all, we learn
to read by reading. |
