Concepts and Skills: What Students Need to Know and Be able to Do
Reading
Ask and answer questions referring explicitly to the text.
Describe characters in a story and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.
Explain how illustrations contribute to the meaning of a text.
Compare and contrast themes, settings, plots of stories written by the same author (series of books).
Recount stories and determine the central message.
Describe characters (traits, motivations, feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.
Refer to parts of poems using the term stanza.
Distinguish their own point of view from narrator or character.
Describe the logical connections between sentences and paragraphs in a text (e.g. comparison, cause/effect, first/second/ third in a sequence.
Writing
Write opinion pieces
Support a point of view with reasons
Speaking/Listening
Report on a topic, or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace.
Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (come prepared, follow agreed upon rules, ask questions, explain thinking)
Determine the main ideas and supporting details of a text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, includes visually, quantitatively and orally
Speak in complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation in order to provide requested detail and clarification
Language
Form and use comparative and superlative adjectives and adverbs, and choose between them depending on what is to be modified
Use coordinating and subordinating conjunctions
Produce simple, compound and complex sentences
Use commas and quotation marks in dialogs
Use conventional spelling for high frequency and other studied words for adding suffixes to base words
Ensure subject-verb and pronoun- antecedent agreement
Distinguish the literal and nonliteral meanings of words and phrases in context
Identify real life connections between words and their use
Distinguish shades of meaning among related words that describe states of mind or degrees of certainty
Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate conversational, general academic, and domain specific words and phrases, including those that signal spatial and temporal relationships.
Foundational Skills
Vowel team dipthongs
Common suffixes
Four silent spellings -vce, -ge, -ce, -cle
Doubling the final consonant of a one syllable word
Adding suffixes to words ending with a silent /e/
Recognize and read grade appropriate words
Read on-level text with purpose and understanding
Read on-level text with accuracy and fluency
Humanities 1. Use technology to communicate with their pen pal on an ongoing basis and become comfortable doing so even though they haven’t seen or met their pen pals in person. 2. Share details of their own culture and contrast it with the cultures of their pen pals. 3. Describe daily lifestyles of other children in different parts of the world. 4. Appreciate literature from different parts of the world. 5. Reflect on their own practices and readily express their apprehensions and excitement about communicating with people from different parts of the world.
Pedagogical Considerations: Learning Progressions
Cluster Reading Before (3rd Grade): Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text. Describe how words and phrases (e.g., regular beats, alliteration, rhymes, repeated lines)supply rhythm and meaning in a story, poem, or song. Acknowledge differences in the points of view of characters, including by speaking in a different voice for each character when reading dialogue aloud. Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot. Compare and contrast two or more versions of the same story(e.g., Cinderella stories) by different authors or from different cultures. During (3rd Grade): Ask and answer questions by referring explicitly to the text. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, distinguishing literal from nonliteral language. Distinguish their own point of view from that of the narrator or those of the characters. Explain how specific aspects of a text’s illustrations contribute to what is conveyed by the words in a story (e.g., create mood, emphasize aspects of a character or setting). Compare and contrast the themes, settings, and plots of stories written by the same author about the same or similar characters (e.g., in books from a series). After (3rd Grade): Refer explicitly to text when drawing inferences. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including those that allude to significant characters found in mythology (e.g., Herculean). Compare and contrast the point of view from which different stories are narrated, including the difference between first- and third-person narrations. Make connections between the text of a story or drama and a visual or oral presentation of the text, identifying where each version reflects specific descriptions and directions in the text. Compare and contrast the treatment of similar themes and topics (e.g., opposition of good and evil) and patterns of events(e.g., the quest) in stories, myths, and traditional literature from different cultures.
Writing Before (3rd Grade):Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply reasons that support the opinion, use linking words (e.g., because, and, also) to connect opinion and reasons, and provide a concluding statement or section. During (3rd Grade): Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons.
Introduce the topic or text they are writing about, state an opinion,and create an organizational structure that lists reasons.
Provide reasons that support the opinion.
Use linking words andphrases (e.g., because, therefore, since, for example) to connect opinion and reasons.
Provide a concluding statement or section.
After (3rd Grade): Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information.
Introduce a topic or text clearly, state an opinion, and create an organizational structure in which related ideas are grouped to support the writer’s purpose.
Provide reasons that are supported by facts and details.
Link opinion and reasons using words and phrases (e.g., for instance, in order to, in addition).
Provide a concluding statement or section related to the opinion presented.
Speaking/Listening Before (3rd Grade): Ask and answer questions to clarify comprehension or deepen understanding. Speaking audibly, in coherent sentences. During (3rd Grade): Ask and answer questions to offer appropriate elaboration and details. Speaking clearly, at an understandable pace. After (3rd Grade): Identify the reasons and evidence a speaker provides to support particular points. Speaking in an organized manner to support main ideas and themes.
Language Before (3rd Grade): Use Collective nouns and forms Irregular verbs. Capitalize holidays, product names, and geographic names. During (3rd Grade): Produce, expand, and rearrange complete simple sentences. Explain the function of nouns, verbs, and adjectives in general and their functions in particular sentences. Capitalize appropriate words in titles. Produce simple sentences. After (3rd Grade): Form and use the progressive verb tenses. Order adjectives within sentences according to conventional patterns. Produce complete sentences, recognizing and correcting inappropriate fragments and run ons.
Foundational Skills Before (3rd Grade): Recognize and read grade appropriate irregularly spelled words. Read on level text orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive readings. During (3rd Grade): Read grade appropriate irregularly spelled words. Read on level text with purpose and understanding. After (3rd Grade): Use combined knowledge of all letter sound correspondences, syllabication patterns, and morphology to read accurately, unfamiliar, multisyllabic words in context and out of context. Read on level text with purpose and understanding.