United States · Common Core State Standards
3rd Grade English Language Arts
This curriculum develops foundational literacy skills through deep engagement with diverse texts and creative expression. Students transition from learning to read to reading to learn while building a sophisticated toolkit for narrative and informational writing.
01Storytellers and Truth Seekers
Students explore the structure of fictional narratives and learn to identify central messages and character motivations.
Analysis of how character traits and motivations drive the plot of a story through their actions and dialogue.
Students track how characters change throughout a narrative, noting key events that prompt transformation.
Identifying the theme or lesson of fables and folktales from diverse cultures, focusing on explicit morals.
Students infer the central message or theme in more complex folktales and myths where the moral is not explicitly stated.
Exploring how the narrator's perspective shapes the reader's understanding of events and characters.
Students compare and contrast how different characters perceive and react to events within the same story.
Students learn to identify and sequence the main events of a story, including beginning, middle, and end.
Students explore how authors use descriptive language to establish the setting and its influence on the story.
Students practice writing satisfying conclusions that resolve conflicts and provide closure for the reader.
Students learn to incorporate dialogue effectively to advance the plot and reveal character traits.
02Architects of Information
Focusing on informational texts to build research skills and understand how non-fiction is organized.
Using captions, headers, and sidebars to locate and synthesize information efficiently in informational texts.
Students identify cause and effect relationships within informational texts to understand how events are connected.
Students identify problems and their corresponding solutions presented in informational texts.
Distinguishing between the overarching concept of a text and the specific facts that support it.
Students practice summarizing key information from non-fiction texts in their own words.
Analyzing how two different authors approach the same subject matter, noting similarities and differences.
Students determine why an author wrote a particular informational text (to inform, persuade, or entertain).
Students learn to make logical inferences about a text and support them with explicit evidence.
Students gather information from various sources to answer a research question.
Students organize and present information from their research in a clear and coherent manner.
03The Art of the Argument
Students learn to form opinions, support them with reasons, and communicate persuasively.
Developing a clear point of view and linking it to logical reasons using linking words.
Students learn to use facts, examples, and personal experiences as evidence to support their opinions.
Students practice writing compelling introductions that clearly state their opinion and hook the reader.
Students learn to write conclusions that summarize their opinion and reasons, providing a sense of closure.
Adapting language and tone to suit the intended reader of a persuasive piece, considering their background and interests.
Students learn to plan their opinion pieces using graphic organizers to structure their arguments logically.
Learning to strengthen arguments through peer feedback and self-editing, focusing on clear connections between ideas.
Students practice editing their own and peers' writing for common grammatical errors and spelling mistakes.
Students prepare their revised and edited opinion pieces for sharing with a wider audience.
Students learn to respectfully respond to the opinions of others, identifying strengths and areas for improvement.
04Word Wealth and Language Logic
Building a robust vocabulary and mastering the conventions of standard English.
Using surrounding text to determine the meaning of unknown words, focusing on definitions and examples.
Students break down words into prefixes, suffixes, and root words to understand their meanings.
Students investigate words with multiple meanings and how context clarifies their intended use.
Exploring non-literal meanings, focusing on similes and metaphors to create vivid imagery.
Students identify and analyze personification and hyperbole in texts, understanding their effect on meaning.
Students differentiate between words with similar meanings (synonyms) but different connotations or intensities.
Applying the rules of subject-verb agreement to produce grammatically correct sentences.
Students learn to correctly use commas and quotation marks to punctuate dialogue in narratives.
Students identify and use nouns and verbs correctly in sentences, understanding their function.
Students identify and use adjectives and adverbs to add detail and precision to their writing.